I work in a gift shop in my dad’s store at NoHo Market located on Broadway between Great Jones St. and East 4th St. My dad takes care of his own job in a hotel so I help him with the store. My dad is from Nepal. There isn’t much hope in Nepal so most people travel abroad to earn money and help their families. My dad is one of them. I was also born and raised in Nepal. He believes that opportunities are everywhere in the U.S. so life is much better in the U.S. than in Nepal. He worked really hard to save up some extra money to open up the store while still being able to support the family. SoHo is a couple of blocks away from the market. It is an outdoor market and has many different types of merchandise inside. Many people visit this market to shop for cell phone accessories, leather goods, dresses, etc. When you walk inside the market, you will see small stalls attached to each other with different products. All the way at the end, you will see a big banner on top of the green roof saying “I LOVE NY TSHIRTS AND SOUVENIRS.” This is very helpful because it attracts the customers that walk in the front of it and they find what they are looking for. I love working in this souvenir shop because I get a chance to meet people from all around the world and I love to communicate with them.

The market opens at 10 am during the summer and 11 am during the winter. It gets very cold during the winter so people do not shop much and we open up our store quite late. Our store isn’t connected to any other booth. The size of our stall is barely about 300 square feet. We’ve got a bright green roof with wooden doors and every single door is locked with heavy locks. In this shop, we have everything that a tourist needs to take home gifts of presents to their loved ones. The most popular ones are I LOVE NY t-shirts and sweatshirts. Half of our store is filled with all different types of colors of t-shirts and sweatshirts. It looks very good because the colors of rainbow are in it and sometime the tourist takes a snap of it with their digital camera. We have tote bags that are hanging from the ceiling with New York written all over them and in the middle of the store, we have a long wide wooden rack for all the New York souvenirs. There are mugs, shot glasses, ashtrays, frames, pens, statues, paperweights, etc. on top of the rack. We keep our stock below the wooden rack. There is enough room for most of it. If anything is sold, then we restock it. I have memorized all the prices for each item. We always play the radio station 92.3 NOW to keep our customers energized. This specific station plays good music and there are fewer commercials. We think that good music entertains the customers and they buy many souvenirs in a good mood.

On a regular day, there are very few people walking on Broadway so we do not have much traffic during the morning. After lunchtime, people start to walk inside the market and shop. It gets very busy sometimes so my brother comes to give me a hand. When it is very busy, it is very difficult to keep an eye on customers. I have to handle customers one by one. One time I was helping one of my French customers to get t-shirts for her cousins and nieces and one of the thieves was trying to steal an expensive lighter. I kept my eye on him but he didn’t realize that I was watching him. I caught him on the spot and told him to leave before I called the cops. He left the market full of embarrassment in his face. There are times when we don’t even know when the item goes missing. There is this one specific New York tote bag that always goes missing and we know that it is the same person that is stealing it. We haven’t caught him yet. Other stores in the market have the same story about theft. There was a time when one customer took all the statues of liberty and I didn’t have anything to put there, so I refilled that spot with NYC soup mugs.

When I have nothing to do, I read books or browse the internet to check the news and social media on my phone just to kill the time. When there aren’t any customers inside our store, I manage to clean the floor and restock what we sold so the next customer can get the same item. Other times, I go up to my neighbor’s booth and talk about how business went that day and the type of people that shopped. The shop workers are very friendly and helpful. On my right is a Turkish guy named Ahmet and he is the best of all. He understands me and he knows where I am coming from. We have plenty of similarities and we order food together. He is a down to earth person. He tells me to teach him English because his sole purpose to be in New York City is to learn English so he can have a better job back home in Turkey. On my left is a Chinese woman named Ann. She is just like my mom. She gives me advice all the time. She brings food for me sometime. She is also very outgoing. Most of the time, Ann reads her holy book. Both Ann and Ahmet take care of our store while I go to the restroom. I also watch their booth when they need to go. Not only we watch the booth, we also help each other to make a sale for them. We have been working together for a while so we know each other’s price of most things in the store. When we make a sale for each other, we keep the cash until one of us comes back and we hand it to whomever it belongs to. They are very trustworthy.

One of the things I hate about the market is the rats. Since the train station is a block away, the rats manage to travel inside the market. We had couple of issues such as rats damaging the clothes and destroying merchandise while we weren’t around during the night. One time there was this horrible smell coming out of Ann’s booth and we discovered that a dead rat was behind her booth. We cleaned that area very well and everything went well after that. Another reason why I hate working in this shop is the cold temperature during the winter. It gets very cold. We open our store during the winter but we close it earlier than usual. In order to stay warm, a heater helps us a lot. One of the things I love the most is to interact with the customers while they are shopping. I ask where they are from and talk about how good and beautiful their place is. I tend to find the similarities between me and the customer so the conversations get longer. Most of the tourists are from France, Italy, and Spain. I have learned their languages so I greet them in their language. They feel very welcome and they shop a lot in the store. In addition, I give them free key chains and post cards for shopping in our store. I always give them a good farewell. I have connections with them through emails and Facebook. There is one customer from Italy who always comes to see me every time he visits New York. I keep a good relation with every one of my customers.

In the course of my work, I have had customers who put many items to buy on the side from our store and they say they will come back with cash but they never return to purchase them. They give me hope and I wait for them. I have learned not to expect those customers who tell me that they will be back for the items they were going to purchase. This has occurred many times through the course of my work. Sometimes there are very cheap customers and they bargain a lot even though the prices for the souvenirs are very cheap. Overall, I love my work and I love being a salesperson because I meet wonderful people from all around the world. I have learned how to communicate with all types of people. We share our stories and it never ends.