Pros
The way that my store works with employees' personal lives is most important. And everyone really cares; it is easy to forge friendships. Managers do not suffer from inferiority problems. They recognize team members as intelligent people. There is opportunity to learn and advance if one is willing to work hard and do a good job. This may be specific to my store. Most team members have been there over 5 years, many for more than 20 years. They're doing something right. New managers sent from outside do not last long if they try to lord it over employees or do not pitch in with the hard work.
Cons
The pay is miserable. No one should be at any job for 10 years and still be making one dollar over minimum wage, even if it is part time. It can't be that these are such incompetent people that they don't deserve more, or they would have been let go long ago, or driven out. There aren't that many full time positions available. I sometimes don't feel motivated to work because it occurs to me that it isn't necessarily worth it. When the managers ask us to push something to make them look good, we balk at the impertinance of it because we are already undercompensated. Yet no one quits because of the nice atmosphere that can't be found elsewhere. Backstabbing and gossiping, considered typical of retail, stems from the necessity to claw your way up instead of relying on recognition. When corporate heard the complaints, they instituted a "peer recognition" process wherein team members and members of management write little messages on tiny pieces of paper to tape to a bulletin board. So we now have proof who the favorites are, and who stays out of the fray, The latter are usually the awesome employees who still have not received official recognition or advancement because they are too proud and dignified to care about those little pieces of paper. The only pieces of paper many of us would like to see are green and have pictures of presidents on them. There are those who have the manager's ear who, out of competitiveness, knock down other capable employees. That shouldn't be allowed to happen.