Pros
TSC customers and coworkers are friendly and usually fun to work with. Great benefits for Store Managers (achievable sales bonuses), Good benefits for Assistant Managers, and OK benefits for the few full timers in the store. Opportunities to be promoted and move up into Team Lead, Assistant Manager, and Store Manager positions mostly due to the turnover in those positions but also the company is still growing and opening new stores.
Cons
Store Managers: Scheduled 52 hrs on paper, you may get 4-6 weeks out of the year you actually work only 52 hrs - otherwise you can expect 60 hrs on average and 70+ during the stores Spring season (March to until after Memorial Day) and then again during the Holiday season (beginning of November until Christmas). During these two seasons you can expect mandatory corporate management schedules, especially during the Holiday season, plus also vacation blackouts during these two periods. Managers are expected to work full shifts on holidays that the store is open. Stores used to close at 3pm on holidays and you could be home by 4pm to enjoy at least part of the holiday with your family, but the last few years the stores holiday closing times has slowly moved up to 4pm, then 5pm and 6pm - meaning closer's don't get home until 7pm and the holiday is mostly over and wrapping up. Assistant Managers: You're an hourly employee scheduled 45 hrs, 40 hrs straight time and 5 hrs overtime - don't get those overtime hrs and there goes a good chunk of your salary. Since payroll is at a premium you're mostly held to that 45 hrs no matter what your work load maybe for the week. If promoted from within you'll likely be making less than outside hires, and both inside and outside hires will be making less than they could at many other retailers in the Assistant Manager position. As an ASM you are responsible for the faster freight process (mostly disliked within the stores but championed by corporate, can we say "disconnect"), you will be scheduled to work almost every freight night, think about working every Monday, or Friday, or Sunday if any of those days happen to be your stores Freight Night. That doesn't allow for many if any three day weekends. Also you and your "freight team" work until it's all worked out even if that's 1am-2am (realistic finishing times) or even 3am/4am during heavy freight times. Hourly Associates: You'll only find 3-4 full time positions in many stores and out of those the Assistant Manager, Team Lead, and Receiver fills 3 of them the rest are all part-time positions 20-24hrs during season and as low as 8-12 hrs during slower months (January/February and July/August). Also in the lower volume stores (which are the majority) other than Saturday, Sunday, and freight night you can expect there to be only 3 employees in the store (manager/team lead, cashier, and receiver or sales associate). Also see the note under Assistant Manager about working every freight night and until it's all worked out - you can be scheduled until midnight but will not be dismissed until freight is done, which can regularly be 1am-2am-3am. You'll also be doing some of the hardest work (think moving 30-40 50lb bags of feed and pet food by hand each day) for one of the lower pay scales in retail. As with any retail you can expect to be scheduled most weekends and holidays (see note about holiday hours under Store Manager above).