Why no half stars ugh you guys get a 1.5 but okay job but its just to much
Pros
I work at Shoe Dept. Encore so my review may be a tad bit different from other branches of the companies. I worked as a sales associate and as a key-holder so I will give my reviews well pros/cons on both. I actually like working at Shoe Dept. Encore (for the most part). My store manager is very nice. My Coworkers are good very diverse group of people. They are typical coworkers. My review will be very detailed I will try to give a one word topic on each con but there was not really that many positive notes. Okay now to the actual review 1) One thing I do not understand is when employees say they are being underpaid. This is a minimum wage job. I do not know how much employees expect to be paid at a mall job, but it's the typical minimum wage mall job. We are selling shoes not doing surgery. This job does allow employees to make commission which is a plus and a drawl back (look at con #1). The commission rate I think is .7% and then employees are also able to get 9% on children if you take a test. It is kind of confusing just wait until you get to the actual position to figure it out. The commission is just a confusing math problem. The good thing is that Shoe Dept. commission is higher than other companies that sale shoes. 2) I had to really think about a number two Pro, and that is really bad :(. But I thought of one (TIME OFF). I was able to get whatever days I want off well all of my coworkers were able too also (this will depend on your Store Manager and maybe Key holders). My manager was able to work around my school schedule (yay!!) and my manager was able to keep my job when I broke my leg so my manager was very understanding 3) have people you like working with. Very diverse group of people you are working with.
Cons
1)-Pay The pay sucks in my interview I was told I would the pay would be competitive (who are they fooling and my typical pay is 10 but I got paid minuim wage when I started as a sales associate but now I get paid more since I am a key holder 2) - District Manager (and the person above him/ or her) Relax I know you guys have a job to do but you guys are just rude for no reason. If you do not like something simply state it there is no reason for all the additional comments that have nothing to do with a reason you do not like something. And do not try forces sales associate to sale a certain way. I can see if their way isn't working but it is so why fix what isn't broken. 3) - These things called BENEFITS?? I read these reviews and all I see stuff about benefits. Well there is no benefits here. Sales associate will get 10% off and that isn't anything but once you include tax it really isn't anything. Key Holders and Managers both get 20% which is better but not much compare to most shoe stores who get 35%. 4) - Discount Like I said before the discount is not much but also it has to be on items that are not on sale or on clearance. But it is hard to even use the discount because everything is like four dollars off the regular priced item and they expect that to be something (But it is better than nothing) 5) - POS System- Dial up so it is slow. It is so unappealing. Black White Grey (sometimes blue green and red) half of the choices you will not ever use, There is no way to look up shoes and see if other surrounding stores have them you have to actually call every single one of them. No way to communicate with stores that are not in the "List" that they gave you. You have to look the store numbers up by your phone (shh if you are caught with your phone it is an automatically fire unless you have kids). The system is really old school accepting a gift card and when people are buying a gift card is too much work. And at least be able to tell us what we are getting on our truck and simple stuff like that make everyone life a tad bit easier. 6) - No raise.....Ever (Unless you make commission or change positions). I thought most people who review this company was wrong about the raise. But no they are right (unfortunately) there is no way to every get a raise unless you move from a sales associate to a key holder and I think it is typically about a two dollar difference. And my store manager did not know they didn’t even give out raises he was ready to give me one but my DM said no because there is an "opportunity" to make commission and that rarely happens. You should not base a raise off the commission point because it is hard to make commission and it happens like six times out of a year. What happens the other forty weeks? (2 weeks is for each time commission is made and subtract that from the number of weeks in a year... But my DM said just think of the minimum wage going up every year that can be your raise. Are you serious you cannot even say that because it is not like you want to give it to the employees it is only because of federal law? 7) - Home Office- Every day or every other day multiple times of day home office will call looking for a key holder who will do a transfer the thing is they call to much. And they call when you are busy and do not expect to wait. You’re with a customer home office calls you have to drop whatever you are doing and deal with them because they are so important. And do not ever tell home office you do not have a shoe because that is when stuff hits the fan. The convo usually goes like Key Holder (KH) " I'm sorry sir it seems I do not have this shoe." Home Office (H.O) "Well your inventory says you have that shoe in stock so you need to go find it" K.H -"I’m looking for it sir but I really cannot find it at a;” H.O "Well you need to update your inventory sheet right now because it is all wrong. How can you not have a shoe that is not on your inventory sheet? What is happening to all the shoes? K.H Well there is theft, mismates, customer holds and damages I do not check inventory every day sir. Be a little nicer home office I have no clue what you guys do besides calls us all the time but it is okay if we do not have the shoe do not snap our necks if it is not there. And do not tell us to take a customer hold and put it in a transfer that is unacceptable. 8)-Transfers stop sending transfers in bulk. You can send one everyday its okay but do not have like twenty transfers every other day. We have other things to do besides do transfers and only managers and key holders can do them? I can see why but that is so much work I think sales associate should be able to grab and do the inventory sheet for transfers. 9)-It is actually BORING here once the store has everything done there is nothing to do a lot of customers will not come in and only through November-February is when people actually come in. Buy some bouncy balls and bounce them around the store or throw them up and catch them but do not hit customers because they do not like that (sorry it was really an accident but did I learn my lesson [nope]) 10)-Returns Is there a reason why sales associate cannot do returns? Because I would love to know. My SM said because we get to see their driver's license but that does not make sense because when we get checks we need to see driver's license. It just makes things tough when a key holder is busy with another customer and I have to stop because of a stupid return 11) Payroll omg determines everything: This is completely understandable be if you can’t sale $xxxx.xx then you cannot pay your employees but this is ridiculous. I work in a big store and so on an average shift I need three people (2 sale associate and me) for my shift to run smoothly. So since it’s the fall right now and so it is a dead season (a lot of people are not buying). It will be me for a while only and then I will have another person come in around a couple of hours, During my time by myself it is really hard trying to talk to all customers, do returns, clean up the mess customers make and also grab shoes from the back room.
