A great community, but you'll work hard! - Retail Sales Associate Altar'd State Employee Review

-This is a really sweet company to work for. The management at my store is focused on making everyone feel included and appreciated. I think that this extends to the corporate culture--we have paid time to complete weekly e-classes on merchandising and there are various personal growth activities (typically involving setting goals for ourselves, etc). One day, our regional manager came in to visit us and I was so worried that I would miss a point on greeting, but instead she texted our manager asking what drinks everyone would like from Starbucks and showed up really cheerful and interested to get to know us. -We have pretty flexible scheduling and the Store Leader is good about scheduling you within the times that you set in your availability. I've been allowed time off for holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) even though I'm relatively new. -We have a really positive community. I don't think I've ever heard one employee bad-mouthing another employee and I think this is a really important part of work-place happiness. We also have little note pockets with each employe's name on them in our backroom and you can put thank you notes/hellos in there, which people actually do a lot. -The store participates in give-backs to the local community so we get to learn about charities in Portland. We are also encouraged to participate in paid volunteer hours through the store, which is a perk I haven't seen anywhere else. We have group volunteer organized by one of the store managers. -And finally, we have a generous discount (30-50%) on store merchandise.