Love the people, hate the company.
Pros
You really get to know your customers, and everyone you meet becomes a regular. It's nice to serve a really diverse group of people, all specialized to service and good care. This is the only thing I really loved about this job.
Cons
Corporate is a mess. They really don't have a clue what goes on in the stores, and what a struggle it is sometimes to get things done. Some stores have terribly small backrooms, unable to hold much of anything. One of the stores in our district had black mold, and nobody higher up did anything for the three years I worked there. I felt terrible for the employees that had to work around it. Corporate pushes credit cards onto both employees and customers. It's really sad, because you get to know these people and their struggles. It's a financially vulnerable community that they seek to take advantage of just because they can. They come up with these numbers that say 'oh, people buy more products when they have a credit card' which may be true, however, do we really know how many people are paying them off on time? Not to mention, they will punish their employees for not selling enough of them. A store like mine simply didn't have the customer-base to be selling credit cards left and right. This is Kansas, not California or Arizona. I saw the same 40-50 people every week, how dare I ask them multiple times a week (or even a day) to buy something I don't personally believe in. This also goes for Hair Show tickets. Hair shows used to be cool. You used to be able to go to them in person, see demonstrations and artsy styles in person. That was the pleasure of going to them. But now? Everything is online, and they still want you to pay 25$ to go to something you can only access for two weeks. Then, if the employees don't sell enough tickets or credit cards - BOOM! No raise and poor review. And you get blamed for corporates misdeeds. The hours and pay here are also terrible. They want cosmetologists to work here, which great for newbies in the industry. It's a great way for them to network and build clientele and trust within the business - as well as having a consistent paycheck on the side. But the statistics show it doesn't work. The managers who are pulled in from the outside always do better than those in the industry. If you're a manager, it's a required 40 hours a week, and what cosmetologist wants to do hair on top of that?