Friday Black

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2018

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“In Retail”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“In Retail” Summary

Content Warning: This story references suicide.

This story is narrated by Florence, a secondary character from “How to Sell a Jacket as Told by IceKing.” She begins by suggesting that retail workers need to “find ways to make the bleak a little better” (159). She alludes to a girl named Lucy, who has become well-known among retail workers at the Prominent Mall for dying by suicide on her lunch break. Lucy’s name has since been turned into a euphemism for bleakness (i.e., “[Y]ou could end up a Lucy” [163]). Florence clarifies that she doesn’t use the name herself and goes on to advise retail workers to find happiness themselves.

Florence is approached by an old Spanish-speaking woman with whom she tries to establish common ground through the little they speak of each other’s languages. The customer is seeking a red shirt for a young girl, so Florence leads her to the women’s side of the store, listening as the customer speaks pleasantly in words she cannot understand.

Florence then thinks about her Spanish Regents teacher, Ms. Ramirez, who gave her high marks. She suspects that this was because she was the only student who obliged her teacher’s off-beat anecdotes. During Florence’s oral exam, she merely gave convincing, positive responses to her teacher’s monologues, a skill she continues to deploy in retail.

Florence and her customer come across the red shirt they are looking for, prompting the customer to react with joy. Florence then parts with the customer, offering to help with any further needs before proceeding to count their inventory of jeans. She shares her motivation to continue in retail despite the tedium of her work: her little daughter, Nalia. She hones in on the joy her customer feels from getting the exact shirt that will make her own little girl happy. Florence indicates that this thought prevents her from internalizing the bleakness of her work.

Florence recalls when a coworker told her that Lucy was only the latest in a long series of worker suicides. Lucy died on the day of a massive sale, just before Florence finished her shift at work. The way onlookers and other workers made a spectacle of Lucy’s death deeply upset Florence.

Florence continues counting jeans, dispelling all other bleak thoughts. The customer returns to thank her for her assistance. Replying, “De nada”—“thank you” in Spanish—Florence observes the irony of the statement because it technically means “it’s nothing.” By contrast, Florence reflects that these types of interactions are “everything” because she relies on gratitude to carry her through her work.

“In Retail” Analysis

Florence’s internal monologue is distinguished from the previous title characters’ by way of her need for distraction. While Florence’s personal work mantra is to get joy wherever she can find it, her mind is also plagued with obsessive, morbid thoughts. Several times throughout the story, her mind finds its way back into thinking about Lucy and the ways her suicide was diminished in the Mall’s collective memory. Although Florence never claims to have had a personal relationship with Lucy, her constant digressions to the topic of her death imply that Florence worries about cultivating similar feelings about her life and work.

Through Florence’s circular thought patterns, Adjei-Brenyah shows how retail affects its workers on a deep emotional level, stressing that The Plight of Retail Workers extends to mental health. Though Florence is actively helping the Spanish-speaking customer in this story, she uses compound verb constructions with the word “will” to create a sense of habit or repetition: “‘Speak Spanish?’ the lady will begin. She’ll say that much in English” (160). This reflects the repetitive nature of retail work as the same experiences occur again and again. This rhetorical strategy also emphasizes Florence’s determination to find positive moments in her day job, as well as her need to actively seek out these moments rather than succumb to negative thinking.

Florence’s digressive thinking doesn’t just extend to thoughts of Lucy but also a lengthy discussion of her Spanish Regents teacher. This occurs while she is trying to make sense of what her Spanish-speaking customer is telling her. This digression is a way of dealing with her insecurity about her poor Spanish proficiency. If IceKing, from the previous story, has to make up stories about wearing jackets to Albany to close a sale, Florence similarly finds herself performing comprehension to do the same. This reflection also reflects lost potential, as Florence repeats that she used to understand more than she does now.

What ultimately separates Florence from IceKing are her motivations for pursuing a career in retail. IceKing only has himself to look out for, and without a real plan to break out of retail, his concerns are dominated by his need for validation and attention. Florence, on the other hand, is working to support her daughter, Nalia, which means breaking out of the industry is impossible unless she can find a similarly stable line of work. Their differing circumstances show how characters become ensnared in jobs that are mentally taxing with few growth opportunities.