Pros
While the stores are open 7 days a week, the hours are during the day. Management was always accommodating to requests for time off if given in advance. Store staff usually consists of less than ten people, which led to a high level of team work and camaraderie. While there are some difficult and shady contractors to work with, most are very kind and good to work with. Health benefits and vacation time are nice.
Cons
After four years of service and positive yearly reviews, my hourly salary increased only $1.50. The compliments are few and far between when times are good. The negative feedback comes quickly at the first sign of low sales. Increases in responsibility (promotion to 3rd key) only led to more work with no increased compensation. Everything seems to be based solely on quarterly performance, which leads to a constant one year up, one year down, one year up, etc. All positive results seem to be forgotten when sales go down. Judgment is often based on the numbers and not the potential causes for the numbers. Benefits gradually decreased over the course of my tenure. The matching 401k contribution was lowered when the economy started to falter. The full-time associate bonus was eliminated at the beginning of the year. Official company training consists almost solely on watching CDs that often contain out-of-date information. There is limited literature on product information outside of data sheets. Most of my practical product knowledge came from the contractors themselves and their personal experience. Little information is given on competitor products or promotions. We were constantly told to promote our products as being better than the competitors but given no resources to use to back up that claim. Occasionally, we would be sent a short fax on responses to give over a consumer product rating. This made it hard to honestly answer questions customers would ask about how our products compared to other companies. When selling a product that is more expensive than almost all other competitors, employees need to be given specifics on why the product is better. Store management appeared to have little real control over the operation of the store. All major decisions (staffing, customer pricing, complaint resolution) had to be approved by the District Manager. There was often an adversarial relationship between stores and the sales rep. Rather than reaching equitable solutions, more emphasis was placed on who was to blame for the situation. The hiring process for part-time help is incredibly slow, which made it hard to quickly fill in staffing holes during busy times. Upper management is constantly trying to push the competition with big box stores, which has led to an increase in store hours and operating days. While this does benefit stores that are in immediate proximity to big box stores, it lead to spreading out the same business over the increased hours in other stores. While there are opportunities to advance, at least to the store manager level, you must be willing to relocate wherever they need you to go. Outside of that, most movement in the company appears to be lateral.