Pros
They give relative flexible hours for those who need it, such as students, using this as a second job, or just have other commitments. Get to learn how ridiculous customers can be in a retail setting, teaching you how not to act at other retail stores and to be more sympathetic and compassionate for other retail workers.
Cons
It can be difficult to move up or get promotions. Starting pay is minimum wage for most workers and can be difficult to get a reasonable raise (yearly raise is only $0.25 an hour). Most full time/department managers do not want associates to be cross trained, which is very strange considering they are always looking for help and/or pull cross trained workers from their current department to another in need. A lot of people are not trained as long as they should be or the quality of training is lacking (some stores are much better than others).