When I was 17 and hard up for tuition money, I took the only full-time job that I could find - working at a brand name lingerie company in a big box store plaza. I think I can safely say that working at a lingerie store was the low-point in my working career, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, you can imagine how 17 year old boys reacted when they found out I worked at a lingerie store. While it was likely one of the least sexy jobs in the world (e.g. many of my daytime co-workers were 50+ and looked it), boys seemed to think this meant that I pranced around in lace teddies during my shift. This was incorrect, as instead I was forced into wearing a hideous uniform that I think strived to resemble lingerie, but more closely approximated a silk baby bib. 

Besides having to keep my job a secret, the clients at the lingerie store were as sketchy as possible. In addition to the normal issues (breaking up couples having sex in the changerooms, pre-teens stuffing thongs into their purses), the lingerie store provided some unique sales experiences. For example, there was one older man who liked to buy women's underwear for himself. Not a problem, except for when he engaged you in lengthy conversations about the fit, quality, etc. of the thongs we had in stock. Once I caught a teenage boy holding up bras to himself while checking out his image in a full length mirror, which was a little awkward for the both of us.

Another memorable time was when a man came in looking to buy lingerie for his fiancee (for their wedding night, which, according to the best man, was in a week's time). Although he didn't know her sizes, he figured that I was a close match, so I should model his purchases "just to be sure." After we kicked him out, he lingered around the store entrance for another 2 hours or so, to ask me to dinner, since technically he was still single. Still another customer came in with his, er, "ladies" and passed on his business card for an adult website, in case I was looking for work when I turned 18.

My favourite customer though was a grandmother who came in with her pre-teen grand daughter. Initially I was thinking how nice it was to see a little cross-generational bonding. Then the grandmother asked me if I had any "sexy cowgirl" costumes. I was a little scared to see grandma in the mesh number we had but as it turns out, it was a birthday gift for the grand daughter. Classy!

Although the lingerie store was an interesting place to work, I was definitely not sad to leave when they let me go a few months after I started there....