Pros
Beautifully designed stores Excited & affluent customers High quality product Abundant stock Individual work stations Aggressive "Mystery Shop" program Personal time off 30-40% Employee discount Cameras throughout the store Employee manual is well-defined Upper Management in Kerrville swiftly researches and remedies issues employees have with local Management
Cons
30min lunch No health insurance for Sales Associates No college degree required for Managers Working for a company that touts Christianity but is open on Sunday. Chik-fil-a, for example, is a Christian-based company that knows to not open on Sunday. Required to stay in the store until after 10pm some nights for miscellaneous chores Managers (Mgr., Asst. Mgr.) earn $12.-14./hr. + store performance bonus Sales Associates earn $8.-9.75/hr., no commission, no bonus The pay is not enough to buy gas, wardrobe & dry cleaning to do a good job at work much less pay mortgage, utilities, day care, car maintenance, groceries, health insurance, tithe, etc. The Avery pay scale is suitable for non-primary breadwinners including housewives, students, pensioners & non-degreed . The primary qualification to become an Avery Mgr. is to have been there longer than the next employee. Mgrs. are unschooled in how to effectively deal with people, both customers and employees. I witnessed consistent unprofessional behavior from Mgrs., including fraternization, favoritism, undermining employees, false accusations, jealousy, gossiping, being unaccomodating to customers, pettiness, power mongering, etc. It was astonishing to me how these Mgrs. could make selling adorable charms to happy customers such a demoralizing and miserable experience. The Mgrs. I witnessed as an employee came across like a bunch of power-starved old bitties who didn't qualify to work anywhere else. At $14./hr., you get what you pay for. During my employee review my Mgr. would not give me 100% on my review in spite of my documented stellar performance, stating with a chuckle, "There has to be something bad in there!" I insisted she provide documentation for the "bad" she was referring to; she gave me a blank stare and never did. I resigned shortly thereafter knowing I could not afford to put my career in the hands of James Avery Craftsman, Inc.; although when I was hired, I did my very best in the hopes of having a career there. The extremely high employee turnover speaks for itself.
