introduction to a retail hell

Walking through the huge double doors of the mall Mike could not help but feel underwhelmed like a man who was doing something not because he wanted to but because he had to. Walking around any worker at the mall would have figured him to be a pretty average guy, with the full bookbag around his back and goatee and the scent of a recently put out cigarette on his baggy jeans and university sweatshirt, he looked like a college kid which is just what he was.As with so many college kids he had just taken a part time job to earn extra money for serious incedentals that arise when a young man lives in a dorm such as alcohol, pot and pizza. Given his pretty heavy courseload in journalism and his love of music Mike figured the easiest job to have while he was in school was at a cd store. He interviewed and being a sharp, witty kid got hired pretty quickly. After a nervous week waiting on the results of a drug test he was not fully sure he would pass after having smoked at a recent frat party Mike was hired by cd world and was awaiting his first day of work to start.
Upon walking in Mike was greeted by the man who hired him a short balding man named Jorge.Jorge was a nice man and a cd world lifer who had rose from stock boy to store manager in 7 years with the company. He was paunchy and always looked tired and irritated in other words he looked like someone who had worked in retail for far too long.After going through the obligatory practice of entering new hire's information into the computer Jorge just looked at Mike. "So are you ready for this"
Mike looked at his new boss and thought "Is that a serious question this is a cd store how hard can it be" "Sure, as long as it's not too hard I should be able to manage" he said with a slight touch of sarcasm in his voice. Jorge looked at Mike with a grin on his face and just sighed "naw it's not a hard job but well" he stopped looked around the front of the store and just laughed at no one in particular "you'll see but for now walk around the store and get accostmed to where everything is and if any customers ask you for help just get another associate to help you ok"
The actual size of the store was impressive to Mike as he walked around, it seemed about the size of his dining hall at school. All the cds organized within the particular genres. Mike found the rap section first, as that was his favorite music, he walked the aisles and noticed a few boys hanging around it looking very much like gang members that he had known growing up in the city. He was not afraid of their presence but a little amused as they imitated the street language and gestures he knew so well from having grown up in a inner city housing project and found it especially funny when he heard one of them call the other "my nigga" seeing as they were both blond haired, blue eyed white boys. Mike casually thought to himself "man, I like eminem but this is his fault" The fact that he listened to and enjoyed the vulgar and mygonistic words of many of his favorite rappers was the source of many conflicted feelings for Mike. On the one hand he loved the music and had grown up on it and reveled in the playful nature of it and the ability of the music to raise social awareness of problems in the inner cities and apparently by the looks of the two hardcore white boys it could bridge the gap between asphault sidewalks and suburban driveways. However there was also the problem of his own conscience and convictions that he had to deal with. He was a strict vegetarian and believed it was a sin to kill for fun and hated when his guy friends bragged about their sexual conquests and treated their girlfriends like trophies. Mike was raised in the all too common single parent household where his mother was head of everything. He had used the word bitch one time when he was 12 and when a teacher heard him she asked him "How would you like someone to talk about your mother that way?" he immedialtly relented and never said the word again and hated when others did. His roomates at school would jokingly call him a feminist and hippie for his views on the world and life. The only thing about him that was normal everyone agreed was he loved Tupac.