History YMMV / Retail

** Cooper. His father ran out on the family when he was young, and when he was in high school his mother fell ill, forcing him to enter the workforce at a young age (and not go to college) just to provide. He spends a good portion of the series teetering on the edge of poverty, at one point having to work two jobs to make ends meet, and would have been forced to file for medical bankruptcy after contracting appendicitis had a DeusExMachina not intervened. Just when he decides he needs to improve his life and starts looking to go to community college, his [[TheAllegedCar car]] breaks down for good and his scooter gets stolen the same day. Things only really start looking up for him when he gets promoted to stockroom supervisor and moves in with Val. Notably, when he tells Lunker about the first sentence, Lunker tears up.

** As of late 2013, this trend has diminished somewhat, with Cooper's promotion to stockroom supervisor and the introduction of the Delman's managers, the sympathetic Greg and the manipulative backstabber, Mina. Additionally, in 2014, the Grumbel's got a competent, non-prickish male assistant manager in Arthur (in an early interaction with Marla, Marla realizes that Arthur basically is what she was as AM). The arrival of Arthur's replacement Brice also coincided with what some felt is Marla slipping into a more negative portrayal, what with her skipping a mandatory meeting and her petty attitude toward Brice after he left for Delmans. His eventual replacement Crystal is also more of a CloudCuckoolander than anything, and as a plot device is mainly used to show Marla JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope as she starts doing the things ''Stuart'' used to do to ''her'', such as pawn off employee reviews on her.

** As of late 2013, this trend has diminished somewhat, with Cooper's promotion to stockroom supervisor and the introduction of the Delman's managers, the sympathetic Greg and the manipulative backstabber, Mina. Additionally, in 2014, the Grumbel's got a competent, non-prickish male assistant manager in Arthur (in an early interaction with Marla, Marla realizes that Arthur basically is what she was as AM). The arrival of Arthur's replacement Brice also coincided with what some felt is Marla slipping into a more negative portrayal, what with her skipping a mandatory meeting and her petty attitude toward Brice after he left for Delmans. His eventual replacement Crystal is also more of a CloudCuckoolander than anything.

** ''Retail'' actually ended up ending ''right at the beginning'' of the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic, so Grumbel's would have likely been doomed anyway. This may cross over a bit with HilariousInHindsight, though, depending on which specific characters are involved: many of the later comics (particularly those involving Val deciding 2020 is when she'll write a book) note the irony of the situation.

** ''Retail'' actually ended up ending ''right before'' the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic hit, so Grumbel's would have likely been doomed anyway. This may cross over a bit with HilariousInHindsight, though, depending on which specific characters are involved: many of the later comics (particularly those involving Val deciding 2020 is when she'll write a book) note the irony of the situation.

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down--controversially, some without warning. And with the final story arc revealing that Grumbel's files for bankruptcy, this becomes even more harsh.

* EndingAversion: While some people liked the [[NoEnding lack of a true ending]] because of how [[RealityEnsues true to life it is for most retail stores and employees]], others were disappointed because they were hoping for a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to bring closure on the characters. Some of the comments on the final strip had people making up their own endings.

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down-controversially, some without warning. And with the final story arc revealing that Grumbel's files for bankruptcy, this becomes even more harsh.

* EndingAversion: While some people liked the NoEnding because of how true to life it is, others were disappointed because they were hoping for a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue to bring closure on the characters. Some of the comments on the final strip had people making up their own endings.

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down-controversially, some without warning. And with the final story arc hinting that Grumbel's will go under entirely, this becomes even more harsh.

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down-controversially, some without warning.

* InternetBackdraft:
** In August 2016, there was a storyline where Marla missed a company meeting because her car broke down. Stuart believed she was lying, while Brice gave her the benefit of the doubt. Turns out [[spoiler: that Stuart was right, and Marla did skip the meeting because she's become that jaded about her professional life. Many readers were upset because it was so uncharacteristic of Marla, and that Stuart's jerkass attitude was actually justified for a change.]]
*** There was a lot of backlash too about Brice's final storyline, in which he tried to make amends to Marla, only for her to act really petty about it. Again, the comments about her becoming jaded popped up, with one commenter flat out say this was something ''Stuart'' would do, not Marla. Other readers, however, didn't blame her, saying she didn't even have to help Brice [[spoiler:get the New Hampshire store]] after how he treated her, and given how often he got AesopAmnesia, they're cynical it'll stick, especially since [[spoiler:now he's in charge]]. That she only helped Brice out to get back at Mina doesn't help matters.
** Readers were also unhappy with the storyline where Scott is intending to propose to Marla, or more precisely, Val's role in it. The Grumbel's staff ends up finding out about the upcoming proposal before Marla does, and when she catches wind of a rumour flying around, Val quickly lies and says that the rumour is about Stuart quitting, and Marla getting his old job. When everything comes out into the open, Val blames Cooper for ''everything'' when his only crime was telling Val when he found out about the proposal from Scott. Val was the one who told everyone else, and Val was the one that came up with the lie about Stuart, despite knowing that Marla has wanted that Manager's position for years.
** A storyline dealt with Val finally admitting to her father that she's been lying about being a professional writer and that she really works at Grumbel's. She tells Cooper that she's going to tell her father over dinner that night, and oh by the way, Cooper ''has'' to be there for back-up, despite the fact he's never met her father before. When Cooper expresses concern that maybe it wouldn't help matters if he was there, Val gets all passive aggressive on him and walks out. Readers were outraged by her attitude, especially since she gave Cooper literally ''no warning'' that they were having dinner with her father that very night, and were even more put out when Val was never called out on how badly she had acted. She then ditches him at an awkward moment during the dinner, leaving Cooper to fend himself against her annoyed father. Granted it's sweet that Cooper defends Val despite it all, but not once does Val get called out on how badly she's treated him.
*** Although that one lead to an AuthorsSavingThrow, where Val realize eventually that she might have been out of order [[http://retailcomic.com/comics/november-21-2012/ further down the line]] and Marla is quick to agree.
** Some of the readers were also unhappy about a 2017 story where Cooper suspects that his arch-nemesis Keith Sanzen has been manipulating the inventory results. Not because of the contents within the story, but because of the ArcFatigue, as the story ran for several weeks with lots of padding. Not helping is that this started right after Brice's final storyline (see above), which lasted several ''months''.

** As of late 2013, this trend has diminished somewhat, with Cooper's promotion to stockroom supervisor and the introduction of the Delman's managers, the sympathetic Greg and the manipulative backstabber, Mina. Additionally, in 2014, the Grumbel's got a competent, non-prickish male assistant manager in Arthur (in an early interaction with Marla, Marla realizes that Arthur basically is what she was as AM). His eventual replacement Crystal is also more of a CloudCuckoolander than anything.

** As of late 2013, this trend has diminished somewhat, with Cooper's promotion to stockroom supervisor and the introduction of the Delman's managers, the sympathetic Greg and the manipulative backstabber, Mina. Additionally, in 2014, the Grumbel's got a competent, non-prickish male assistant manager in Arthur (in an early interaction with Marla, Marla realizes that Arthur basically is what she was as AM).

* MilestoneCelebration: [[http://retailcomic.com/comics/december-27-2015/ This Sunday strip]], published on the week of the strip's 10th anniversary.
** [[http://retailcomic.com/comics/january-2-2016/ Also this strip]], which is a remake of [[http://retailcomic.com/comics/january-2-2006/ the second strip published.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down-some without warning.

* HarsherInHindsight: A story arc about rumors of Grumbel's shutting down some stores just so happened to post the same week a bunch of Sam's Club stores shut down-some without warning.

*** There was a lot of backlash too about Brice's final storyline, in which he tried to make amends to Marla, only for her to act really petty about it. Again, the comments about her becoming jaded popped up, with one commenter flat out say this was something ''Stuart'' would do, not Marla. Current and former retail workers, though, can't blame her, saying she didn't even have to help Brice [[spoiler:get the New Hampshire store]] after how he treated her, and given how often he got AesopAmnesia, they're cynical it'll stick, especially since [[spoiler:now he's in charge]]. That she only helped Brice out to get back at Mina doesn't help matters.

*** There was a lot of backlash too about Brice's final storyline, in which he tried to make amends to Marla, only for her to act really petty about it. Again, the comments about her becoming jaded popped up, with one commenter flat out say this was something ''Stuart'' would do, not Marla. Current and former retail workers, though, can't blame her, saying she didn't even have to help Brice [[spoiler:get the New Hampshire store]] after how he treated her, and given how often he got AesopAmnesia, they're cynical it'll stick, especially since [[spoiler:now he's in charge]].

*** There was a lot of backlash too about Brice's final storyline, in which he tried to make amends to Marla, only for her to act really petty about it. Again, the comments about her becoming jaded popped up, with one commenter flat out say this was something ''Stuart'' would do, not Marla. Current and former retail workers, though, can't blame her, saying she didn't even have to help Brice get the New Hampshire store after how he treated her.

*** There was a lot of backlash too about Brice's final storyline, in which he tried to make amends to Marla, only for her to act really petty about it. Again, the comments about her becoming jaded popped up, with one commenter flat out say this was something ''Stuart'' would do, not Marla. Current and former retail workers, though, can't blame her.

* JerkassWoobie: Marla's third assistant, Brice Tanner, tends to micromanage everyone and be a thorn on their sides, but he is portrayed more sympathetically than Josh ever was, especially when he is on the receiving end of Stuart's idiotic policy.