Pros
-For the most part, the job isn't stressful. If you're comfortable chatting with a stranger, you'll do well. -Scheduling is relatively flexible. -Discounts are amazing. -Celebrities will come in every now and then (if you're at the Chicago location). -Most of the sales associates are fun, kind people.
Cons
-The store is currently sorely lacking in leadership and morale, which starts at the top. The store manager is consistently several hours late to work, leaves several hours early, spends uncountable hours in the office on Facebook, reading Chicago Breaking News, making personal phone calls, or talking to policemen and firefighters who visit the store on their breaks. All employees are constantly made aware of how difficult life is, how horrible it is to run a Columbia store, and how awful corporate is, making it extremely difficult for us to enjoy our jobs. If concerns are expressed, sales associates and lower level managers are shouted at and labeled as "complainers" and "gossipers" who "should be thankful to have any job at all". All blame is directed towards corporate management, sometimes dishonestly. Outright lies are not uncommon in attempted saves of face. Calls and emails to corporate HR concerning all of the above concerns have either been completely ignored or ineffectively followed up on, as the behavior continues to this day. -There is absolutely zero oversight of the stock team, who as a result spend most of their time listening to music and playing on their phones, leaving sales associates and floor supervisors to do their jobs for them. When a member of our visual team asked for a raise for doing the stock team's job, they were told "that's just called helping out." -Regardless of your sales numbers, work ethic, or loyalty, don't expect a promotion. During interviews, management will promise the possibility of upward mobility. However, since opening in February 2010, precisely one employee has gotten a promotion. All other management opportunities have gone to outside hires, even when multiple internal candidates were qualified. -The same goes for raises. Upon hiring, associates are told they will be up for raises yearly. However, this only means a 10 to 20 cent/per hour increase (cent, as in pennies, not percent). And this has only happened once in the 2.5 years since opening (raises were all postponed indefinitely in January of 2012). -There are no full-time jobs available except for management. -New hires are mostly trained by other sales associates. No selling techniques or insightful product knowledge come from management. -Corporate management visits can be troublesome. Aggressive sales tactics are encouraged and modeled, which often result in annoyed customers. I have apologized to many customers who were badgered by a corporate manager trying to display an overaggressive style of "customer service". -Corporate directives are sometimes questionable. When informed that a particular shoe model had a tendency to quickly grow mold, stores were told by corporate to simply wipe the mold out of the shoes and then place them back on the sales floor.
