We ALL have to start somewhere... as a teen, I worked in various retail establishments... and it so happens that a 7-Eleven store was one of those places. I shudder when I think about it... anyhow, at the start of each month, there were new specials announced, and the staff were supposed to make sure the customers knew what they were... for example, one brand of snack was on 2 for $1.99... if someone came to the counter with the competing brand which was regularly priced, at $1.49 for one, we were supposed to let the customers know that the special was available, and we were told to keep track of these types of special purchases.
Well, it so happened that the big boss was watching me one day (he was in the store doing some bookkeeping or whatever) and was impressed by my skill and pointing these specials out to the customers. He called Mr. Merchandise from that point, and it kind of stuck. It's just the nature of my personality to let people know they can save money by buying what's on special... I didn't do it to impress the local 7-Eleven mucky-mucks.
This same man would later appropriate one of my ideas as his own and take it chainwide without giving me credit at all. Hmmmph. I had to quit that job because my boss-hole wouldn't give me the week off to go visit my grandmother in the states for her 80th birthday. I think he was just having staffing trouble, and was cranky; not intentionally trying to prevent me from going to my grandmother's, but the speech he gave me about "dedication to the job" was kind of silly, seeing as I hadn't missed a scheduled day of work in the year I worked there. So ended my illustrious career in the convenience store industry.
I would be working for retail again in about 5 years as the manager of a local computer store. The name came into play again as I increased software sales by something like 300 percent. But that is a story for another page... are you asleep yet? :-)