Pros
Summary... -Fun Environment -Coworkers are overall pleasant to work with -Value customer service, especially creating a fun environment for children -Flexible Schedule -10% Employee Discount In detail... This is a very fun work environment. It's neat/nostalgic being around all those new (and old-school!) toys and seeing kids come in with so much joy. I was positioned as the GPS one season where I stood in front of the entrance to greet guests and offer my assistance, however what really made this position fun was that I got to demo a couple toys, such as an interactive R2D2 bot, a Little Live Pets Clever Keet, a Wild Pets Electronic Spider, a Star Wars Loopin' Chewie game, and a few others, which engaged many little kids and their parents as well as drove sales. I thought it was a very effective way to increase sales for the company as well as creating a very fun and engaging work environment for employees! Coworkers were overall pleasant to work with. As with any job, here and there you have a few in the bunch with the not-so-pleasant attitudes. It comes with the work force. Toys R Us isn't the company to hire an entirely rotten batch of employees, as that would be bad for a business primarily aimed for children- most of my coworkers sought to deliver quality customer service and were cooperative as a team. The managers made sure the employees they hired were overall friendly, attentive, and helpful. As most retail companies do, Toys R Us really, and I emphasize the really, encourages their workers to get as many guests as they can to apply for an R Us credit card. The benefit is that they do get the 10% of their purchase if approved, and they also get 10% off every Thursday they shop at Toys. And if they weren't approved, they were guaranteed to receive more information in the mail as well as a 10% coupon (either if it was at the same time they received the additional info or after their response to the additional info, I wasn't sure.) I also worked at guest service, along with a couple other people who, in my eyes, all delivered superior customer service. The work schedule was flexible. I started working at this job during a summer when I had a full-time job with my school. I also kept this job while I was still (a senior) in high school. I was able to maintain a pretty decent work/school/social life, during my employment with my school as well as when school began. Getting time off wasn't a hassle- however it's up to the worker to stay on track with requesting off, as they do expect workers to request off at least 2 weeks in advanced, at the latest. Seemed pretty fair to me.
Cons
Summary... -Business was slow (*location dependent, but very important*) -Heavy workload/low pay, not enough opportunities for pay raise -One break wasn't always enough, especially during season -Poor security In detail... The Toys R Us in my town is absurdly slow. Once the season came around, it became a madhouse, which made work really feel like work. I wasn't going there to just stand around anymore, there were actually customers for me to assist and tasks for me to do while I was there. However, once the season was over and Post-Season Return Period ended, the store was dead again. If the Toys R Us, or really any company, lacks in business, do not expect to land a job there that gives you a substantial amount of hours (unless you get a top position, such as a manager or in HR). The amount of hours a company is able to give to their workers depends on their sales: if they're getting business, their workers will get more hours, hence why so many people are hired during seasonal periods and why there's so many hours to give out. If the store is not getting business, they literally will not be able to give you hours. Since this Toys got little-no business, I wasn't able to score more than 15 hours a week that often, although my availability was open to at least 30 hours. I couldn't blame the managers though, that's just how the business works. If the Toys R Us around you is practically busy all around, you can expect a good amount of hours. Or, if it's not busy, yet receiving minimal hours fits perfectly in your schedule (I knew people who were only working a couple days a week, 8-10 hours at minimum), this could be the job for you. At times, the workload could be really heavy. My personal experience: I stocked shelves, I worked guest service taking phone calls and doing returns/exchanges/AND most often checkouts (I was usually the only register open, we were THAT slow), I was GPS (assisting guests in locating items), I had to demo merchandise and try to drive sales, I trained a few team members (especially during season), I did ship to home, and on top of everything just trying to offer assistance to every customer on the floor. Shifts were very tiresome at times, and I can't stress enough how brutal the season can be with the workload. For my entire year of working at Toys I was only getting paid minimum wage (in my state), $8.38 an hour. Technically, I was promoted to a Buddy Trainer as I was training guests as well as listed on a poster that said "Meet your buddy trainers", however my pay never reflected that. However, a higher pay wasn't what drove me away from the job- I really did love the job, but the high workload yet low pay was a huge con. When the workload was high (again, referencing to the season) and you were working long, 8 hour shifts on your feet (I usually worked 9am-5pm), only getting one 30 minute break usually wouldn't cut it. The place I now work is a high-volume store, receiving dozens of customers daily. We receive 2 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute meal, which I feel is essential and fair in consideration to the workload (similar to that of Toy's season). With my Toys R Us being as slow as it was, we lacked security. This was a major problem with Toys R Us having as much valuable merchandise as they do, and my particular store was hit the most. While most stores experience theft, we experienced it in the most absurd ways that could only happen due to lack of security. Here's a few of the most absurd instances: -This one lady went to check out at guest service. When the cashier rang her up and told her the total, she placed the bag on the counter as she waited for the lady to pay. The lady snatched the bag off the counter and ran out through the entrance. Just like that. She ran out the store with merchandise on another occasion as well- she simply walked in, took merchandise and walked out. That simple. -We had 10-15 iPod touches stolen from us at once OUT THE CASE, on two separate occasions (25-30 iPods in total), within the span of 3 months. -We had a regular customer who would come in and purchase an item and always ask for an extra bag once the transaction was done. He would proceed to go to the action figure section and place merchandise off the shelves into the extra bag, then walk out of the store. He did this on a few occasions until we remembered his face and began to keep a closer eye on him. -A little girl came up and asked for three big bags. She took them to her mom and they filled the bags with toys, put the bags in shopping carts and walked out. -We had a customer walk out the store with a bike they didn't pay for. As the customer and his accomplices were struggling to get the bike in the car, another customer frantically screamed in the parking lot, soon running into the store screaming "Hey!! I think you guys just got robbed! They just stole a bike!" The customers got away before we could do or say anything. -A customer ran out of the store with an empty merchandise box that was filled with other expensive merchandise throughout the store. One of my managers actually ran after the customer, which prompted the customer to throw the box at her and speed off in their car. When my manager came back in she said there was about $500 worth of merchandise inside the box.