Employees are nothing but numbers to this company, it's a dead-end job.
Pros
The only good thing about working here was that if you were lucky, you could work around a school schedule. And if you were REALLY lucky and had cool co-workers, you were able to hide shoes in the stock room. The shoe dept offers associate's a 10% discount and keyholders a 20% discount on full-price merchandise only, but if you just wait a few weeks, they mark things down frequently and you end up saving more.
Cons
First, my store had frequent sewage leaks from the floor above us, and whenever it would happen, we had to remove the merchandise (yes, you must walk under dripping, untreated sewage) block the aisles off and if the customer wants something in the aisle you will have to walk through the leak and retrieve the item. If any merchandise was wet from the sewage leak, we were instructed to put it on a shelf in the backroom for a few days to let it dry out before putting it back on the floor for sale. No holiday pay. The company refuses to pay for pest control, so get used to mice and roaches. Associate's will NEVER be eligible for raises unless they get promoted to keyholder, in which case you'll only start with a 25 or 50 cent raise and then get reviewed annually to decide if you deserve to get another 25 to 50 cent raise. The payroll is by individual stores, so the more the associates are paid, the less money the manager will make in bonuses (which aren't much and don't occur often anyways) and it works up the line where the more managers get paid, the higher the payroll percentage, and then less of a bonus for district managers. You're encouraged to pretty much follow customers around the store. They use dial up modems and most stores only have 1 or 2 registers, so just picture having to wait for the modem to dial up everytime someone uses a credit card (if someone is trying to call the store, forget it, you'll get booted out and have to restart everytime). Now with only 2 registers, think about how long the lines get when the store is busy, that's when customers and their kids moving things around, stealing candy, getting aggitated. Also the computers are black/green screens and the printers are extremely slow as well. They lose so many customers because it takes so long to ring someone out. You'll be written up if you get sick or have a death in the family and need a day off during back-to-school period, winter-holiday period, and any other holidays the store is open. The higher minimum wage, the more difficult it is to qualify for commission as it is based on sales percentage divided by hours worked. If you don't commission for 6 weeks you get written up for having low sales. This company pretty much encourages high turnover. Then, if a payroll percentage is high, they have an excuse for corporate: training new employees. I always said I wish Robert Tucker would do that show, "Undercover Boss" and see what it's really like to work in the store and try to help all of the customers, watch out for shoplifters, stock the shelves, open shipment, level out the handbags, keep the displays filled with only product on the memos, and only small sizes, make sure all buckles are buckled and shoes are unlaced. However, he would probably turn it around and use his experience in the store to find reasons to fire the whole staff. and they WILL fight unemployment if they fire you, you'll have to go to court.
