Working In Retail

[FearoftheNight]

I'm curious about this. Any know know about it? Why people go into it? What is life like? Career advancement?

I'm not looking for a job just curious after reading an article about Apple Store and Chase Personal Banking Employees.

 

[mnewsham]

It is fairly simple work, doesnt require much training, and it pays minimum wage or slightly over.

 

[Saint Nick]

There is an epic retail story thread around here...lemme find it...

Found it. Great thread.

 

[YoungGun21]

I worked in retail for 3 years. There will always be a mix of good customers and bad customers. Got paid slightly above min wage. Worked with a bunch of other younger guys and girls (college age), so we had fun.

I hated standing on my feet for 8 hours though. I'm athletic and active, but wow that was the worst part.

I hope I never go back.

 

[sunzt]

Never worked in retail, but everyone I talked to who has ever worked in it said it sucked.

 

[randomrogue]

Two types of retail.

Hourly/Salary retail is the worst kind of job you can get. You get paid nearly nothing and have to deal with terrible scheduling, terrible customers, and terrible managers for virtually no reward whatsoever.

Commission retail on the other hand is pretty good. Learn how to sell shit and you make bank. I made 6 figures selling a certain widget. Was really fun and a rush since the harder you work the more money you make. My only gripe was that I had to work 11 hour days.

 

[brblx]

commission/bonus/ect based retail is about as relevant anymore as lawyers paid in candy corn.

edit- basically, you will earn 7-8 bucks an hour, and if they realize that you do as much work as five other employees combined, you might get pout into junior management and have your responsibilities tripled in exchange for maybe 12 bucks an hour.

america fuck yeah

 

[FearoftheNight]

what about nice places? like retail banking or apple store retail? are they decent jobs?

 

[Saint Nick]

Apple will pay well if you are a genius. A buddy of mine is a genius and he is making a lot of money working for an Apple store inside of another retailer (NFM)

 

[Josh123]

I hated working at Fry's Electronics when I did. Dress shirt, pants, shoes, and tie all day and on your feet.......F that. I worked in sales and you could definitely bring in some money but I hate sales. I remember selling a bunch of networking equipment one week, mainly switches, and it brought in a nice paycheck that week.

 

[randomrogue]

Once again. Any retail job which is hourly/salary is not going to be defined as a decent job. The guy above put it nicely when he said you're paid 7 bucks an hour and then if you do the job of 5 people you might be able to make 12 bucks an hour if you can do the work of 15 people. It's a slight exaggeration but basically how it works.

 

[Numenorean]

Apple will pay well if you are a genius. A buddy of mine is a genius and he is making a lot of money working for an Apple store inside of another retailer (NFM)

Yeah, like a genius is going to say "Hey, I know I'll go work for an Apple store!" ROTFLMAO

 

[rakzum]

I'd jump off a bridge rather than working in retail. Use google map to find the nearest bridge.

 

[Saint Nick]

Yeah, like a genius is going to say "Hey, I know I'll go work for an Apple store!" ROTFLMAO

Its a job title at Apple, not the same sense you're thinking. In that case, yeah no shit.

 

[SlitheryDee]

After working in retail for most of my life, I'm convinced that the only way to really get ahead in retail is to own the business or be very high up in the management of the business. The selling end is pretty cutthroat, especially if you're on commission, and retail bosses seem to universally think that the best way to manage their employees is to treat them like shit. They squeeze every ounce of work out of them that they can and begrudge every dollar they have to pay them for it.

It's better the way I'm doing it now. I own one very small store with one employee besides myself. I do essentially everything that needs doing myself. I could get bigger than I am now, but I would have to become one of the asshole managers I've worked under for so long to do it. I'm not sure I'm capable of that, honestly.

 

[Macamus Prime]

I would do retail - but only if I owned the store.

Like a video game or comic book shop. I would have to be interested in what I am selling.

 

[FearoftheNight]

After working in retail for most of my life, I'm convinced that the only way to really get ahead in retail is to own the business or be very high up in the management of the business. The selling end is pretty cutthroat, especially if you're on commission, and retail bosses seem to universally think that the best way to manage their employees is to treat them like shit. They squeeze every ounce of work out of them that they can and begrudge every dollar they have to pay them for it.

It's better the way I'm doing it now. I own one very small store with one employee besides myself. I do essentially everything that needs doing myself. I could get bigger than I am now, but I would have to become one of the asshole managers I've worked under for so long to do it. I'm not sure I'm capable of that, honestly.

without details...are you able to comfortably support yourself like this?

 

[CPA]

It is fairly simple work, doesnt require much training, and it pays minimum wage or slightly over.

Not entirely true.

My wife has been in retail for 25+ years. Most retail will pay more than minimum wage and managers can make $50K+, while District or Regional Managers can make well past $100K.

Hours can be long, especially for managers and forget about getting time off from beginning of November through second week of January.

Part-time employees are usually on their feet all day and have to listen to complaints all day. On top of that, most retail companies now have customer information lines which do nothing but provide another means for customers to complain. These setups usually impact bonus and compensation.

Additionally, audits are frequent, including inventory audits, loss prevention audits and secret shoppers. All employees are impacted by these audits.

Training is company dependent, but most of the companies my wife has worked at, most of the major retailers you all know, have extensive training, including week-long jaunts to some location, as well as periodic in-store training. In-store meetings are not held during the regular work-day, but usually on Sunday mornings or evening for 2-3 hours.

Now that I've written this and thought about it, you are way off.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I would have thought most people would have worked in some retail at some point in high school or college.

 

[highland145]

After working in retail for most of my life, I'm convinced that the only way to really get ahead in retail is to own the business or be very high up in the management of the business. The selling end is pretty cutthroat, especially if you're on commission, and retail bosses seem to universally think that the best way to manage their employees is to treat them like shit. They squeeze every ounce of work out of them that they can and begrudge every dollar they have to pay them for it.

It's better the way I'm doing it now. I own one very small store with one employee besides myself. I do essentially everything that needs doing myself. I could get bigger than I am now, but I would have to become one of the asshole managers I've worked under for so long to do it. I'm not sure I'm capable of that, honestly.

This.
Sounds like consumer finance. Sucks balls unless you're up the food chain or the owner. I've always said it's retail, selling and collecting $$, open a lot (like the day after Thanksgiving, 1/2 day on Christmas Eve, etc)
<-----owner. 6 years in and life is good.

without details...are you able to comfortably support yourself like this?

Yep. Which is good because I don't know anything else that I can make $$ at.

 

[FearoftheNight]

This.
Sounds like consumer finance. Sucks balls unless you're up the food chain or the owner. I've always said it's retail, selling and collecting $$, open a lot (like the day after Thanksgiving, 1/2 day on Christmas Eve, etc)
<-----owner. 6 years in and life is good.

Yep. Which is good because I don't know anything else that I can make $$ at.

Nice. Glad to hear small mom/dad style stores can still make it in this day and age.

 

[SlitheryDee]

without details...are you able to comfortably support yourself like this?

Yes. I pay myself a small salary and put the lions share of the money back into the business, but I own my home and am very close to paying it off. I can also afford pretty much anything I want within limits. A lot of people are far more high maintenance than I am so YMMV. I certainly satisfied with my standard of living though.

 

[evident]

i worked in retail at target in high school when i was 16 all the way up to college, and during the freshman year / sophmore year summer and christmas breaks.

i had no desire to "advance" at target, just collect a paycheck to pay for things that a typical H.S. student would spend money on. most of my coworkers were pretty miserable and it was a pretty catty environment. it was a pretty mixed race environment too. alot of people from the city bussed in to work there so it was an interesting mix of suburban and urban people. of course i was the only asian dude that worked there for the 3 or so years that i noticed.

Out of all of the positions i had, "cart attendant", cashier, and sales floor associate in electronics, i thought being the cart dude was my favorite position. basically walk the parking lot for 8 hours and get exercise, don't need to be inside dealing with managers except for when a customer needs help putting stuff in their car. you would get tips sometimes too. not a bad high school job, but i dont know why anyone would want to advance and be on the management team. it seems like they all worked like 80 hours a week, and very very bad shifts.

every time i come back to the store now, i notice alot of handicapped people doing my job, and the cart wells are always empty.

 

[ShawnD1]

Commission retail on the other hand is pretty good. Learn how to sell shit and you make bank. I made 6 figures selling a certain widget. Was really fun and a rush since the harder you work the more money you make. My only gripe was that I had to work 11 hour days.

This is true. I knew a guy who worked in a store similar to Best Buy and he made about 70k selling stereos.

 

[FoBoT]

not me, too many people