Pros
I get to talk to like minded individuals about our mutual passion. I enjoy the excitement of looking forward to a new game, and the successful feeling of genuinely helping someone get everything they need. The benefits include an employee discount which helps if you spend a lot there. Once a year managers are sent to a conference to get sneak peeks and inside information on new games and hardware coming out later. You tend to get quite a few free gifts during conference, attend a closed game expo specifically for management and of course, training classes. This is an excellent time to network with peers and share best practices. Most days I really do enjoy this job.
Cons
Unrealistic expectations for achieving an ever expanding sales plan. Before you think ill of me, yes I know, the whole point of a business is to grow and become more profitable than it was the year before. However, in my experience at multiple locations, outside factors that affect sales are not taken into consideration. When the sole factor to determining whether or not you get a raise depends on your store achieving a plan set by some guy at corporate who probably has never actually worked retail on the ground level, it can be disheartening when you sincerely give 150% and your store still does not perform up to expectations. Businesses particularly dealing with electronics and entertainment are constantly evolving, but the amount of change expected of the workforce is astronomical. We went from a "checklist" mentality to "natural and authentic" engagement of our customers while still covering everything expected from the checklist. I personally saw the importance of an authentic, personalized experience and how it helps our customer base, but we were still held accountable for not forcing every single item expected down our customers throats. You must be authentic and offer personalized service, BUT you HAVE to get the customer to 1) Buy more than they planned when they walked in 2) Sign up for our membership card 3) Get a warranty on all applicable items in said transaction 4) sign up for our credit card if they are pre approved 5) buy pre-owned merchandise over the new items THEY WANT, in order to help push the membership card 6) pre-order a couple titles 7) leave their current phone service provider to sign on with Cricket and 8) do a survey to help me keep my job. All this while we are supposed to deliver A1 customer service, get all shipment received, and all random tasks that get assigned via corporate and other levels of management such as district and regional leaders. Oh and you have to use the store tablet with each customer so the company doesn't feel like they wasted so much money buying Ipads for each store. I have seen all of these individual actions prove beneficial to customers but very rarely does a customer do all this at once. Most people don't like having all this shoved down their throat when they just want to go grab a game real quick. If it was truly about making each transaction individualized and personal, they would do away with these metrics. Upper management claims these metrics are not being measured, but when comes time for a monthly performance review, you sure do hear how bad you are doing if you are behind the district, region , or company average in any of these areas. There is not enough hour support for staff to deliver on all these areas. There should be at least two people on staff at all times. It seems like the corporate office want the store managers to spend all their time at the store in order to be successful, all the while preaching a "protect the family" mantra. It just seems like they want to have their cake, eat it too, and then take yours.