When I saw that I was an associate at sales I really liked the title. It sounds as if you are involved in it. Then I thought why am I an associate? It leaves something to be desired. I am sure it is to make them feel they are part of the company and to work harder. It can also be a sort of protection for them as if they are not just lowly clerks.

It's in lieu of giving them a raise.

"Associates Only" looks and sounds so much better than "Employees Only". Along the very same lines, if you're an employee at a bookstore, you can now tell people that you're a "bookseller" -a title you can be proud of as opposed to "I work in a book store" or  "I'm a shelf stocker".  I've seen people on game shows proudly state "I'm a bookseller from Chicago, Alex!" If you didn't know any better, you might think they were some kind of executive in charge of sales at a publishing firm. At the very least you have to admit that it sounds a lot better than "I'm a cashier from Chicago, Bob."

Because it ain't PC to call them wage slaves.

Because sales clerks are often called something beginning with the same three letters.

So people making minimum wage feel more important?

ATTENTION! ASSOCIATE MICHAEL HOLLY TO IRISHGIT'S WEBLIST...ASSOCIATE MICHAEL HOLLY TO IRISHGIT'S WEBLIST...

Because every once in awhile the ruling elite like to change the title of "slave" to keep the serfs on their (bare) heels.

It looks better on the resume.

To stroke their ego.

The top brass decided it has a nicer ring than "schmuck".

it seems like in the last couple of decades we need to use big important sounding titles to make an employee sound more important than they are. all apart of being part of the team. i am sure they know better. just like I am not a "stay at home mom", I am a domestic engineer. { yeah right}

To get some real hard work out of the fools who think they might just get someplace if they work hard.

The answer is obvious. It's a psychological thing - making them feel like part of the team, on a par with the big shots who run the place. I doubt that any of the employees are buying into it though.

so they can feel important and not have their dignity totally stripped by all of the digusting people that come into stores and treat them badly.

Because they're big fans of euphinasims.

To give them a nice warm fuzzy so they don't realize that they are being systematically bent over by The Man.

To make everyone feel as if they are not a lowly slave of some large company; that they have a legitimate stake in decision making. More than likely sales associates don't have anything to do with corporate decision making, but it raises morale among clerks.

For the same reason that the Garbage Man is called a Sanitation Engineer.

Sales clerks are usually paid very low wages and often receive very few benefits aside from a highly touted associate discount, which entices them to spend their meager earnings at their place of employment. Calling them associates is a way of making them feel a little better, but most associates would be OK with being called just plain sales clerks as long as they were paid more.

Since some of them may give you incredibly careless customer service, this allows you to abbreviate their title in a meaningful way: sales a$$.

Oh I can answer this, slave and servitude are illegal and associate sounds so nicer. It is to associate with the customer and provide better service Yeah that's a load of crap. Luckily I mostly work in the office so I associate with other associates

I believe that associates is the word that is used during the indoctrination period meant to subconsciously trigger a sense of well-being, fair wages, career prestige and social significance in sales clerks. However, only the executives actually believe that this is an effective form of mind control.

Because it looks much better on a resume'.

So if they screw up the boss can say he's not really with us. He's just an associate.

To convince a minimum wage barista that he's a decision-maker for Starbucks.