Except for the really bad days, as a general thing… yeah.
I worked retail or food service a lot (I started out helping with bingo’s as a girl, then concessions, Tim Horton’s, Sears).
Most days I really did enjoy it. Helping customers get what they want, interacting with them. It’s the bad customers or when I’m already in a bad mood that things get rough. I completely agree with kiz.
Of course, even when I was having a bad day I did my best to not take it out on the customer.
I liked working with customers when I worked in retail. It wasn’t the customers that were ever a problem in those jobs.
I had a gas station for a while, worked at several others for far longer and (just pulling numbers out of nowhere) I’d say 25% were fun and/or interesting, half were just faceless masses, and the remainder were mobile packets of hate. Guess which group got talked about and remembered? No one wants to hear a story about how the FBI guy that does background checks for the DoD spent 20 minutes in his car doing paperwork, came in and chatted for a while, went back out to his car and halfway there realized he still hadn’t got any coffee.
Selling computers at a local electronics store? I hated them all. Partially because management required pushing crap that I knew they didn’t need, partially because I was hired to fix the things, not sell them, and partially because while the preceding ratio probably was still true, my attitude had shifted.
If I could find decent employees, I wouldn’t mind running a gas station again (and if the money was better than I was making back then), but I sincerely hope that I never have to go back to a sales job.
Wait, what was the question?
If I have to deal with customers at my job, it is either because I’m giving a brewery tour or at a beer festival. People tend to be in a pretty good mood at either of those events, so I definitely enjoy it .
I was a barista (coffee jerk? 
) at a locally owned coffeehouse for a while; it was great fun, there was only one regular customer who drove me nuts, but that was primarily because she was way TMI about her personal life and lactose intolerance (I know you need soy milk… I don’t need graphic descriptions of what happens when you get regular milk instead, especially not every. single. time. you come in). Other than that customer, I enjoyed the interaction; people came in because they wanted a treat or a quick pick-me-up, so they were generally friendly and chatty. It was less like a job and more like hanging out, making coffee for friends. I miss working there sometimes. Remembrance of the 5:30a openings usually cures that right quick.
I really enjoyed my job working at the box office for the major performance arts hall at my university. Because the clientele was inherently people who were interested in the arts, and the majority were people who were eager to see a show, I got a lot of happy and entertaining customers. Sure, there were the folks with an overburdened sense of entitlement and some other nasty pieces of work, but by and large I loved talking to my customers.
In the past, I have worked in three book stores. One was a used book store, and the other two were small, locally-owned shops. The pay wasn’t very good, but I loved these jobs. There were very few "difficult "customers. The majority of the customers were interesting, intelligent, pleasant people, and it was fun to discuss the merchandise with them.
I’d be SOL if I didn’t want to deal with the public as part of my career; becoming a librarian means that you’ll more than likely have to deal with the public at some point, and most likely often. If you want to last long while working with the public, you need to make sure you’ve got a thick skin and that your ability to deal with difficult people is up to par. However, the bar changes depending upon the difficult person. Some are beyond “fixing.”
That said, I’ve had ups and downs in my customer service past. Some jobs were great customer-wise and some were less than satisfactory. I liked working the box office at the movie theater, but was less fond of being in concessions. My stint as a sandwich maker at Quizno’s while in college was pretty good compared to the rest of the experience working under Aramark on campus. My first job at Kmart was actually pretty good, despite that being the source of my worst customer story. The worst overall retail job that I have had was at Victoria’s Secret in a ritzy mall (also in a town that is filled with wealthy entitlement whores). The ratio was skewed more heavily toward people with no patience or understanding for the fact that everyone is just as important as everyone else. (At least five people per week of shifts who’d get offended that they’d have to wait in line or couldn’t interrupt the services I was providing for another customer so they could have me wander behind them for two hours. This job also included some of the worst cases of TMI that I’ve ever encountered from customers.)
I must admit, though, that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my volunteering/internship experiences more than the ones where I was paid. 1. Museums and libraries seem to hold a slightly higher regard to many patrons, and thus they and their children are more likely to be well-behaved. 2. I’m doing something that I enjoy already instead of something that’s supposed to pay the bills. 3. It’s exceedingly rare that you run into people that are going to go out of their way to be a complicated asshole in these settings in the same way as with retail. Out of my year and a half of doing volunteering/intern positions, I only have ONE story of someone who was a little annoying in a “bad customer” sense. The issue was mainly that she wanted something that she very clearly was not asking for and blaming the miscommunication on everyone else around her. [sub]Heh.[/sub] Luckily enough, the retail trained me a bit better in mind reading, so I was able to figure out what she wanted with a few external cues.
I worked retail all through college, and for a couple years in HS as well. For the most part I liked dealing with the customers. For one thing, we were expected to keep busy dusting, setting up displays, re-pricing (inflation was pretty high in the early 80’s) and like such if there were no customers to help. Dealing with the customers was far more interesting and fun. There were always a few PITA customers, but they tended to be the exception. The two weeks following christmas were hell though. Our store had a long form to be filled out for returns, and we’d have to page managment for approval, so by the time they got to the front of the line, pretty much everyone was bitchy.
I once sold ice cream from a cart on the street. In some ways it was the best job I ever had. Ice cream makes everyone happy. Customers would arrive at my cart happy because they were getting ice cream and they would leave even happier because they were eating ice cream. I don’t remember ever having a disgruntled or dissatisfied customer.
I work p/t (about 5 hours/week) at a specialty wine/beer/cheese/chocolate/fancy napkin/tasty sauce and jam store. Everybody loves to shop there, and helping people find the right gift, or pairing their menu with the right bottle is great fun.
I have a rather unique job that requires me to deal with 10 customers at a time. I’m a poker dealer. Did I mention they are all about arms reach away and you are taking money away from them? 
About 99% of our customers are absolute gems. By this I mean they allow us to run the game and do our job with minimal bitching/moaning. If they are pleasant and tip well also, well that is fantastic. Then there is the other 1%. Ignorant, drunk, obnoxious, offensive, whatever. I’ve never worked in an environment where people feel like the have the right to treat ME like shit because of a choice THEY made. You see, it’s pretty common to blame the dealer when you aren’t getting cards. Some folks take this way, way too far.
I absolutely adore my job. I love that for the most part, I’m smiling and laughing as I work. I love sitting down to a table and hearing “Oh goody, it’s my favorite dealer.” I love that we have a great repeat business and most of our folks are regulars.
I’m also thrilled to death at our “Wall of Shame” of people that have been trespassed and the people that I have put up there. It is a very good example of bad apples. (My favorite is the guy who threatened to beat the hell out of me so bad I’d never be able to walk again, who’s picture is blurry because he was shooting a bird to the photographer, from the back of a police car.)
I probably deal to thousands of people a week and 99% of the time, I absolutely love my interaction with them.
It think it’s not so much the job but what the job represents that sours people on these kinds of positions. Most people don’t want to envision themselves working at Walmart or McDonalds or any of those gigs past a certain age. They’re reserved for the very young or the very old.
The very first job I ever had was working at a Miniature Golf, Go-Cart, Bumper Boat, Batting Cage type place. It was the first and last time I’d ever work with the public. I would have to remind people in the batting cages to wear a helmet, and the most common responce I’d get back was, “Do I have to wear a dress too?” And if the pitching machines would get jammed up, I’d have to run down into the pit while everyone is taking shots at. I worked there for two seasons and was one of the few lucky ones to never get hit in the head with a baseball, but I often got hit.
Sometimes when the time was up on the Go-Carts some people would ignore me and keep going round and round the track giving me the finger.
Never, ever again will I work with the public.
When I was working in a bookstore. Not all the time. Some of the time was shite. But sometimes, when them were really enthusiastic in books. Sometimes when they were looking something they couldn’t name (but were pleasent about it!!!) and beamed at you when you found it. Sometimes when you can reccommend something.
Yeah it was good at times.
I know that’s not meant to be funny but it’s kind of making me snicker anyway. Sorry! 
I am also lucky in my job in that the pay is decent. So I have decent pay, mostly lovely customers, and I am surrounded by books I can read and borrow. It’s a good job.
I’ve had days when I went in to work in a bad mood and actually felt better after a little while, from dealing with the customers. Nearly all of our people are friendly and patient, and the job itself gives me a chance to chat with them. Not to mention working on finding them what they need, usually when they don’t really know what that is. And there is a seemingly unending list of what people can think of to make from fabric, most of which I’d never think of myself, but it’s fun to try to help figure out how they can do it. Usually there’s at least one, “Oh, you’ve been so helpful,” or, “Thank you for all your help,” every day. More than makes up for the occasional sullen one. In two and a half years I’ve really only run across two problem customers, one who was trying to put something over on me about a refund (and I think some of that was embarrassment and frustration over her own mistake), and one who jumped right to making racial accusations.
I’ve realized I really like working with people.
I work part time (about 2 days a month) as a cosmetician and I really like it. Occassionally I’ll get a crank, but that’s mostly funny. I have a lot of regular customers that I see every time I work who come in just to see me, so that’s sort of nice. Also, I like playing with makeup - I particularly like helping younger girls pick out stuff for grad - they’re so excited - it’s great.
However, I’m sure if I had to do it as my full time job I would begin to hate it - there’s a certain comfort that comes from knowing that you can leave somewhere at anytime and nothing will happen.
Loved it. My first real job was a receptionist job at a car dealership. Some people would come in just fuming because of car troubles. Early on, I decided nobody was going to leave that place in a bad mood if I could help it so I was always friendly and helpful and it worked; I got them calmed down and, more often than not, smiling - the ol’ flies with honey thing.
I’ve also worked in libraries and enjoyed that as well; it’s very gratifying help people find information they need