Flexible and rewarding but highly demanding
Pros
Completely flexible schedules and most stores are open 24/7/365 for people that need nights. Networking can be done with coworkers and customers, as you meet many people in a day. Benefits are ABUNDANT. Health, dental, vision, 401k, and many more as well as company provided phones for assistant managers and company provided CARS for market managers. It's crazy really. If it's a kind of insurance or benefit you might want, they offer it, and they have options. Massive discounts with perkspot for things like travel, luxury brands, and normal stores and services. They also offer tuition discounts and aid with multiple colleges. They'll reimburse you for tuition paid towards a business management degree if you're taking the classes while working there as well. All in all, the pros are pretty outstanding. The problem is that some of the cons make even those not worth it, depending on the circumstances.
Cons
A lot. Customers are awful, generally abusive both verbally and physically. Almost every employee I know has a story or 10. Pay is low for the labor required. We prepare hot food in house under essentially the limited version of a restaraunt license. With that comes the matching training and food safety requirements and procedures. We also sell alcohol and other regulated substances like cigarettes, kratom, and cbd. Worst case scenario you can go to jail for a very VERY long time for making the wrong sale. You are also required to refuse sale if someone is too drunk/UTI. If they leave with a mind altering substance you've sold them and go on to drive a car into a house, you're legally liable. This job can quite literally destroy your life if you aren't careful and don't follow the rules. You are on camera 24/7 in the workplace and recorded. This can be viewed remotely anytime by your store manager, his boss, and his boss. And they do sometimes just decide to randomly start watching store tapes. You aren't allowed to sit. Need I say more on that? Your manager has to be cool with it. Company wide that's a BIG nono. The amount of office politics is INSANE. be aware. High turnover rates mean that it's hard to find reliable employees and coworkers. This issue can snowball rapidly as well. Callouts, no shows, walkouts, and late arrivals are a DAILY problem. Don't expect to get off work on time. !SAFETY ISSUES! As someone who works the night shift, this job changes at night. It's quite dangerous and all of the normal risks you encounter become even more dangerous. Not only do you have to worry about the overly drunk and hostile people, but a lot of the time you're by yourself and there's no help if anything happens. You just have to call the cops and pray they get there in time. You also have to worry about violating your local alcohol sales hours regulations. I've been chased around my own store by a drunk guy who was trying to attack me, and people just watched, used the self checkout, and left. You are ON. YOUR. OWN. So I can't feel okay at work without at least mace on me.