Pros
I liked my co-workers and had a friendly manager (although I believe that I may have been a "favorite"). The doctors that I worked with were very cool as well. That made this place tolerable-I definitely wouldn't have stayed as long as I did without that. We were a good team and could vent to each other. Sometimes I had nice customers that were really fun to work with (obviously, the best ones were super nice people who didn't mind investing in a higher quality product and had a sense of humor). I did gain a lot of skills that will transfer well into other non-retail jobs.
Cons
You have to learn a LOT in a very short amount of time. For all the knowledge you're expected to have, and the insane stress level that comes with the job, you are not paid nearly enough. Expect to deal with a lot of customers who range from a little dense to downright mean and hostile. You will be yelled at because the "value" frames advertised on TV are ugly and cheap. You will spend a great deal of time helping people buy said ugly, cheap frames and not see a dime of those sales due to the odd and stingy incentive system. You will deal with exasperating people who hate everything you hand them to try on, finally make a decision, and then return to restyle their frames two days later. You will encounter people who whip out their insurance cards at checkout like they are coupons. You will have people who yell at you because they were too irresponsible to fill their prescriptions before the expiration date. You will be expected to keep the store open past closing time if someone wandered in at the last minute and "just wanted to look around". Those are just a few of the things that will slowly chip away at your sanity and make you feel like punching people. Plus, the company does not value its employees. Upper management doesn't like it when people work there for too long-they like high turnover so they don't have to give people raises. They also would prefer to cut back on payroll instead of having their stores adequately staffed, increasing the stress level on employees.