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Ocean State Job Lot

Engaged Employer

Ocean State Job Lot reviews

3.0

38% would recommend to a friend

(930 total reviews)
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Marc Perlman

34% approve of CEO

35% positive business outlook

Ocean State Job Lot has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 930 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Ocean State Job Lot employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

930 reviews
3.0
Jul 31, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

OSJL is a really fun place to work because as a deep discount store the shoppers are generally in a good mood. The store attracts workers who are intelligent and friendly and just happen to be caught up in the recession when jobs are scarce. OSJL offers a higher starting salary than most places and a 20% discount.

Cons

The company works on a "points system," meaning that you receive points for any infraction. Some are silly, but if you get too many points you are fired. They don't tell you about the point system til after you've started working there.

2.0
Jul 22, 2013

Chain Possibly on the Verge of Losing It's Identity

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Excellent employee discount (20% standard on 95% of items), occasional 30% or 40% employee shopping nights. * Management has some good benefits including quarterly 3 day weekends, paid family medical and performance based bonus program * 100+ locations, constantly growing, company gives solid appearance * Paid health insurance (single) at associate level for full-timers * If you're a good merchandiser and a fast learner, putting out product can be fun * Very fast paced, no two days are the same * Some product is a genuine, unbridled bargain. Sometimes you have employees scrambling to see new product and all you hear are "oohs" and "ahh"s. THAT'S the kind of stuff that's fun to put on the floor. When WE can be excited about it, we can get our customer base excited about it * Company is extremely passionate about donating to charity (which can eventually be a con because our customer base is beginning to grow tired of being constantly accosted at POS to donate to charities they may not be familiar with or care about).

Cons

* Poorly implemented new freight program that rewards speed over quality, presentation and correct adjacencies and categorization of product * Limited amount of internal promotion, very limited success in training associates to be management, limited success with management turnover overall. * No formal merchandising training or standard, giving a terribly uneven look to the stores * Bloated upper management that seems to exists solely to usurp direction from other upper management * Rapidly shrinking work-force due to reduced hours which equals recovery standards that suffer more and more every day * Issues with merchandise variety: Sharp decline in "exciting closeouts" or "awesome deals" the company was founded on. Too many purchases from buyers are total "dogs" that haunt the shelves for years and permanently monopolize valuable space as they gradually slide to "obsolete". Too many high ticket items that do not sell when our customer base was trained to shop us for basic items at good prices, which we occasionally fall short on now.

4.0
Jun 20, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company offers pretty decent benefits to full-time/salaried employees. You're never bored as the merchandise itself and the way it is presented is always changing.

Cons

Privately held company, so profits, losses, margins, etc are not shared at the store level. If they were the store could react to improve results.

Viewing 907 - 909 of 930 Reviews

Glassdoor has 958 Ocean State Job Lot reviews submitted anonymously by Ocean State Job Lot employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Ocean State Job Lot is right for you.