Low pay
No benefits for part-timer workers - Hallmark offers Voluntary benefits for part-time workers, so why can't American Greetings?
Rare raises and no holiday or year-end bonuses - even though they mandate you to work holidays like Christmas Eve, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day - sometimes requiring TWO visits to the store on the same day.
Some weeks you will have 20+ hours of work, while others they will give you 3 hours of work. If you need income, this is NOT the job for you. You are at their beck and call and have zero ability to anticipate or control your weekly hours and pay.
The company has gone downhill quickly ever since a private equity firm took over about 18 months ago. It's profit over people now. They are cutting Retail Merchandiser hours drastically and this shows at the a store level. Messy stores or leaving new merchandise in the back rooms (because we weren't given enough hours to put it out) does ZERO good for profits, customer selection and shopability, perception by the store management or our shareholders. Still... they continue to undercut our hours even though the field managers have complained. If the merchandise is in a box in the back room it CAN'T sell and you can't increase profits! Why can't you see this?
There has also been a tremendous increase in mistakes made: Packaging the cards with the wrong locations codes, sending too many of certain card designs and then none of what is needed, signage errors. technology failures, sending merchandise (like wrapping paper) with no location code, and the waste is tremendous. SO much product simply gets thrown away at the end of a holiday season or when a store revision is done, No wonder profits have tanked!
Forcing Retail Merchandisers to work with too few hours causes diligent employees to rush and that increases injuries and stress. We don't deserve that.
