It all sounds great Nat, so many perks! You are definitely a people person with a great personality so I reckon anything customer focussed will definitely play to your talents. You're right that it's good to have that type of experience too, it always pays off to have office type experience on your CV.
But poor you Jo. sounds nightmarish, you poor honey...You are right to give it some time. With your retail experience you will find another job no problem so don't fret about it. Nat's right agencies can find great stuff, I'd aim for jobs that are not selling though if you can, more customer service that type of thing, the telesales can be very tough, my friend used to do it when we were in college selling a gym machine and she never sold ANY and was on a very basic pay and was supposed to earn commission.