Pros
1. The generous discount...30%, 40% if you've been around full time for 5 years or more. 2. Lots of friendly people (mostly at the sales level, it gets harder in management). 3. A beautiful environment to work in. The ever-changing product assortment and the great store design sure beat a cubicle any day.
Cons
1. The growth structure is extremely flawed. You start from the bottom no matter how much outside experience you have. All that is valued is your Crate experience and it can take years to get anywhere, with many false promises alon the way. This is actually a beast with two heads because it leads to two very grave problems. First, it leads many talented people to make an early exit since it is so demoralizing to have what in many cases is years of previous experience and knowlede un-valued. Second, it means that all those that do make it into upper management develop the same mentality and ways of doing things, be it good or bad, and creativity/new ways of thinking are almost non-existant. 2. Though you'd think all those years of proving yourself to get to the managerial levels would produce great well-trained managers, this isn't the case. Upper management is often incompetent in the interpersonal skills department. Many are lacking some VERY basic communication and management skills. Because of this morale problems are rampant...people not getting the praise they deserve for a job well done, people not being constructively given feedback, not enough goal-setting and attention given to associates to assist in their growth, etc.