Hardcore sales job - except you don't get paid like a real salesperson - Store Manager GNC Employee Review

Sales goals that are often unobtainable and are the same for everyone, regardless of market. Job is threatened when sales goals are not met, even if you are very close. Business statistics are not readily available to managers. They provide plenty of information about the percentages of certain items you sell, but then will yell at you for doing poorly on some report that you have never even seen before. When you ask for a copy of that report they don't oblige. These reports are for senior managers, and not to be used by store managers. Information about the profitability of your store is never provided - in 5 years of managing GNC stores I never knew if what I was doing was actually helping our bottom line. Despite very strict sales goals, we are told to "sell the customer what they want." But in the next breath we are told that "every customer wants a vitapak." It is difficult to actually help people with their health goals when we are forced to push certain products. Associates are paid minimum wage, but are expected to be just as good as full time managers. Finding good associates is difficult; the people willing to work for minimum wage usually do so because of the promise of commission on sales, but they are frequently punished and fired for not selling enough non-commission items. Ambiguous directions from leadership. One moment you are being praised for doing a great job, the next you are being chewed out by the same boss for doing such a terrible job (on the very same thing he was just heaping praise!). Multiple bosses, all telling you the same thing: "get your numbers up." They will sometimes offer extra training, but the training is the same thing every time. They offer nothing new, but expect dramatic changes. If things don't change you get fired. You are paid salary, but you have to clock in and out, and you will be chewed out if you work any more or less than 40 hours on the dot. (Even for being just 15 minutes over or under). Mandatory conference calls - which can hardly be called a 'conference', they are more just the Regional Sales Director yelling at you for not being the #1 sales region every single week - and you aren't allowed to call in from a cell phone, you must be on a store phone. Corporate leadership will put certain items on sale, but sales goals are not adjusted accordingly. You will be chewed out for selling fewer items that weren't included in the sale. Wage budgets are set centrally - and managers must adhere to them. If more help is needed, it must be requested from your senior manager. Wage budget cuts are made seemingly at random, with no input from the managers.