Pros
If you can hire your own staff you might get a half capable co worker who you get along with. Friendliness between stores was always a plus, easy to call and ask for a stock check, help out a customer etc If you want shorter hours then that’s a plus too since casual/part timer shifts are 3 hours each. Fun job in the actual store, but the second you’re more than a casual or have incompetent staff or have to deal with management it goes down from there. Managers and Assistant managers get a quarterly bonus when targets are met.
Cons
Where to begin For starters the constant staff turnover and fact that they’re understaffed everywhere because they don’t hire suitable people or treat them like crap so people are constantly leaving. Stores being constantly left with inadequate staff so you get asked multiple times a day if you’re available to work at other stores or if you can sacrifice a member of your team to go somewhere else. They then manipulate you and say well if you cared about your job etc you would want to help out at other stores. When job titles change they will also manipulate people into switching stores/positions, force people to step down to make room for someone else. An unbelievable amount of theft from staff probably more than customers because they refuse to put CCTV in any stores, including back rooms. Don’t repair/replace safes when the break then grill all members of the team and accuse and threaten them with 0 evidence to no avail or outcome after thousands of dollars get stolen, then you’re stuck working in a team where you know someone has stolen but you can’t do anything about it so the trust is ruined and it makes work uncomfortable. All the support officers, regionals etc higher management care about is making money and the store being opened, I personally have had countless occasions where co workers have told me “they weren’t allowed to go home when sick, or get in trouble for closing the store when they were busting to go to the bathroom” (because there’s usually no staff to cover you or no one with you for a bathroom break because lunch covers are 3 hours each then you’re alone for the rest of the day) I had one casual vomiting in the back room and the support officer said “you’re welcome to sit down behind the counter”, it’s absolutely disgusting and they should be ashamed of themselves. The expectations for KPIs/budget expectations etc are the same for all stores, whether you’re an A,B or C graded store which isn’t fair. Your numbers are then sent out weekly with a big green tick or a big red X next to your location to let the whole state/country know how well you’re doing. Budget cuts constantly, only hiring part timers as they couldn’t afford full timers which I struggled to understand how a store was supposed to run competently without a full timer there. Overall poor support from any upper management, you would tell them about your issues and cry to them in person and nothing else would happen, but the second you say or do something “wrong” you are blasted, a recorded meeting is scheduled and there are phone calls and emails sent to the regionals. Products are cheap and honestly not great quality, uncomfortable and break super easily. You lose money on the amount of refunds and exchanges you do because the refund policy is lax, but rightfully so because most shoes will break within 3 months. It became tiring just apologising to customer after customer for one reason or another. Felt like the company was going into the ground when I left. I’m glad I got out. Ultimately fine for an easy casual job, but wouldn’t go for anything managerial.