If you know how to skate, there are a few retail job opportunities that actually allow you to skate while you work - or at least work around skating equipment and do an occasional demo. These jobs usually also require cashier, waitstaff or sales related skills as well as good people skills for customer contact.
The retail jobs that let you wear skates are hard to find. The Sonic Drive-In Restaurants use a staff of skating waiters or waitresses, called carhops, at all of their facilities around the United States. Rock n' Roll Runza's is a sit down restaurant that uses skaters for their waitstaff. At one time, Walmart stores hired employees with skating skills to skate through their bigger stores to move products quickly, service customers and stock shelves. There are more, but you will need to do your homework to find them.
Responsibilities for Waitstaff and Carhops
These jobs require you to skate well enough to take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishments or outdoor drive-ins. Here are some examples of the tasks required (beyond skating) for a waiter, waitress or carhop position:
Greet and escort customers to their tables.
Present menus to patrons and answer questions about menu items, make menu recommendations on request.
Serve food and beverages to patrons, and prepare and serve specialty dishes at tables if required.
Check with customers to make sure that they are enjoying their meals, and correct any problems, if necessary.
Prepare checks that itemize and total meal costs and sales taxes.
Remove dishes and glasses from tables or counters.
Stock service areas with supplies like coffee, food and tableware.
You can also check out your local inline skating pro shops and sporting goods stores that sell inline and roller skates to see if they'll take advantage of your skating knowledge and hire you for equipment sales. Visit individual inline or roller skating corporate websites to see if they are hiring. If skating is your passion, retail skate sales jobs can be fun and provide employee discounts on skates and safety gear, too.
Job Tasks and Responsibilities for Retail Sales
Help customers find and purchase inline or roller skates in a retail environment. Usually other sales duties will be included such as:
Greet and direct customers.
Describe or demonstrate skating equipment features and benefits.
Answer questions about the store and other store merchandise.
Provide information about warranties, care and maintenance or delivery options.
Receive and process cash, check and charge payments.
Place special skate orders.
Arrange display merchandise and keep merchandise area clean.
Good communication skills are always important.
In any retail or sales related job, you must remember that each customer is very valuable. Your food service or retail employer will appreciate the customers you will build and keep with this treatment.
Share Your Roller Sports Career Experience
Have you ever worked in an inline skating or roller sports related business? Share your skating employment story and tell us about the job you found, how you found it, what your job responsibilities were and whether you would recommend this type of employment to another skater.
