Pros
Great place to gain work experience Good workers often recognized and rewarded Flexible scheduling Laid back place to work when you're not up to your eyeballs in angry customers
Cons
Sketchy hiring -- Some of the people I've seen hired look as if they were picked up off the streets. Naturally, there's a high turn over rate. Few Hours for New Hires -- Enjoy your $52 paycheck, newbie. Part-time managers loaded down with full-time hours -- 40+ hour work weeks are to be expected. My record was 57 hours. Benefits are a total joke -- Health and dental packages are expensive and bottom of the barrel. 401k only offered to store managers and up. Training sucks -- Orientation consists of watching a cheaply produced series of training videos and being to told memorize a booklet full of rules and regulations. Cliquishness - It's crew members vs. management, crew member vs. crew member, and assistant managers vs co-managers vs. store managers vs. area supervisors. You have to watch your back and be very selective about who you buddy up with, because it's a given that *someone* is going to get *someone* fired. Customers are in on the game as well -- depending on the reputation of the store you work at, the customers are more than willing to have you canned for the slightest of perceived slights. Every store has a customer hotline displayed that goes directly to the area supervisor for the express purpose of narcing on "bad" employees. One customer complaint will have him breathing down your neck in a flash.