A New Jersey influencer has come underfire for job shaming and insulting workers after referring to working as a cashier as “doing nothing.” The influencer runs a popular TikTok channel, ingridexplainsitall, where she provides dating, beauty, and life advice. However, many retail workers are insulted by the way she shrugs off their jobs as being unimportant. One comment even went as far as calling her “so irrelevant.”
One of these videos provides a list of things “to always lie to a man about.” These include how much money you make and what your job is, with the latter she shrugs off as meaningless. On the list is number three, “what your job is,” which she says as far as the man is concerned, “you’re a cashier, you scan things, [or] you tie shoes for a living.” She insists that it’s best if “you do something that’s nothing.” She goes on to describe these jobs as “the smallest of things.”
However, these comments came under fire from numerous former retail workers. One posted a video stating that she doesn’t “think being a cashier is nothing.” She says she worked as a cashier for years and that she “loved that job.” The woman continues, “If Bed, Bad, & Beyond still existed, I would love to do that on the weekends.” She calls the New Jersey influencer out by saying, “I think customer service jobs are important.” She adds, “I don’t think there’s a reason to demean being a cashier.”
Retail Workers Blast New Jersey Influencer
Many retail workers, current and former, quickly agreed with the former retail worker. One says that they’re “so sick of job shaming.” They add, “We need to stop looking down on people making an honest living.” A second comment says, “The ‘get a real job’ people. All the jobs are real jobs.” Another says that the only reason high earners, like the New Jersey influencer, have money worth anything is because of minimum wage workers. They say, “These are literally the people who keep the world running!” Another agrees, “The world runs on minimum wage jobs.” One argues that, “people who job disrespect retail workers, food service workers, or janitors don’t deserve to go out.”
Others defend the skill it takes to be cashiers, with one saying, “You have to have a certain degree of patience and emotional regulation to deal with the public.” Another suggests, “genuinely believe everyone needs to work retail at least once in their life.” The former retail worker agrees, “[cashiers are] a really important role to have in people’s lives. You might be the one bright spot in their day.” One comment calls out the irony of how important restaurant workers, cashiers, etc., were during the pandemic and have now gone back to being “nobodies.” Another wants to know, “Who do they think sets the store up? A fairy with a magic wand?”
