Retail work is a taxing job; it requires employees to be able to resolve conflicts, appeal to customers, and endure long hours of work. Not only is the job demanding, but employees must also negotiate their future will look like—will they pursue a career or continue climbing the ranks of a job that they likely are not passionate about? Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt explores the long-term effects and struggles caused by a job in the retail industry. Using bleak and dreary descriptions of employees’ experiences at Frankenberg’s, Highsmith not only portrays the harsh demands of day-to-day retail work, but also demonstrates that the job is highly detrimental to employees’ life fulfillment and self-worth.

The Frankenberg employees are not shown the same respect and priority that is given to the customers, furthering the notion that they are less valuable than others. At the start of the novel, Therese, a new shopgirl at the store Frankenberg’s, skims a pamphlet for new employees that poses the challenge: “Are you Frankenberg material?” (1). The pamphlet’s tagline is designed to motivate employees to stay with the company and feel as though they are accomplishing a great task by working there. It provides a heightened sense of loyalty to the company, while Highsmith shows the company as having little loyalty to its employees; it boasts that twenty-five-year employees only receive four weeks of vacation (1). Wanting to increase efficiency and appeal to customers, Frankenberg’s pushes its employees to work under dangerous conditions. Therese is stuck in the leg by a shopping cart and returns to work shortly after treating the wound with a sanitary napkin (27). The incident is not treated as a medical emergency. The employees are conditioned to accept this type of lowly treatment. On a separate occasion, the meat that Therese purchases is stolen, and her boss dismisses the problem by telling her to look in the lost-and-found (18). The rough conditions of the fast-paced work environment reinforce the idea that retail workers are not as important as the customers.

Highsmith shows that employees’ spirits are crushed. Early on in the novel, Therese is enamored with the idea of becoming a stage designer. While on her lunch break, Therese thinks of set designs before snapping back into reality (2). Despite her interest in the theatre industry, working a few days at Frankenberg’s is enough to make her dreams “[seem] less real” (2). The bleak environment of her job makes Therese reconsider her standards for herself. Therese still believes she has no chance at a job, even though she “had taken two courses in scenic design in New York, and she had read a lot of books” (15). She lowers her expectations and doubts her abilities. Therese is not the only employee who has to give up on dreams: Mrs. Robichek, a long-term employee, explains to Therese that she owned a dress shop in the past (9). She explains her history in order to prove that she is more than just a shopgirl. Mrs. Robichek’s self-worth is broken down by her current job, and she feels the need to justify herself. The environment of the workplace puts a damper on employees’ dreams and aspirations.

Patricia Highsmith’s portrayal of demoralizing behavior from employers and soul-crushing ambiance of the workplace emphasizes the harsh toll on employees’ perceptions of themselves within society. The harmful conditions portrayed by Highsmith’s novel remain present today. The COVID-19 pandemic has especially displayed this. Retail workers are crucial in society, yet they continue to be taken for granted, despite the job’s demands.

Works Cited

Highsmith, Patricia. The Price of Salt. 1952. Dover, 2015.