GNC Reviews

3.3

45% would recommend to a friend

(4,947 total reviews)

Michael Costello

51% approve of CEO

34% positive business outlook

GNC has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 4,947 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The GNC employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

5K reviews
1.0
29 May 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Used to be the commissions but they constantly lower them unless they have a high school breakup with one of the vendors like Performix which entirely quit giving commissions. I guess I've been motivated to learn more about my health and fitness though through a lot of that I've learned we sell snake oil and promises to naive people who don't know any better. Slimvance actually works if you put in the work, that was a nice bonus. Are you still reading? You could have spent this time applying to any other job.

Cons

Constantly raising expectations, be it selling the Pro account which, if you don't work for us already, you'll become familiar with IN THE INTERVIEW PROCESS. This is the company's biggest attempt to get out of bankruptcy and you're going to have to sell a lot of them. Average sale is a big one, especially if your store is in a bad neighborhood and people have a taste for buying a single Bang a day. I tried to hide them in the back but people ended up opening up cases to get to them. Those will kill your average sale, especially if half of your transactions are single Bang sales. They'll expect you to sell every one of those big spenders a Pro membership. Did you sell enough GNC brand today? They barely pay commissions on them but you better be at 50% or you're "not doing your job". You will constantly get vulgar customers who come in for sexual health products. It's the sort of conversation you only expect at the family table during one of those Thanksgivings everyone drank too much before 1pm. Do you like conference calls? I should have put this in the Pros but I'm now entirely averse to that word. But if you do, boy you're in luck especially if you like them to be about the same thing and you like them to happen 3-4 times a week! They will go to any length not to pay you what you deserve.

1.0
10 Aug 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Exposure to education about nutrition, some fun people to work with, the strength gained from working for a disorganized, excessively demanding, punitive, idiotic company and surviving without getting fired.

Cons

Ridiculous and totally illogical approach to reaching sales percentage metrics combined with corporate memos that demean you for trying to make those metrics. Utterly disorganized corporate management, constantly sending updates to make corrections upon corrections until you have no idea what they actually want. Constant threat of being fired for sales percentages, ringing errors, etc., when they can't seem to get their act together. Very punitive environment that is more focused on punishment than rewards. Ridiculously low pay for the amount of stress and workload. Contradictory directions from upper management. For example, if you fail a secret shop for not offering the six specific items corporate chose to each customer you can get fired, but then they send a memo to sell the customer what they want and never come across as a salesperson. People get fired for abusing coupon numbers just so that they can make a sale, not because they want commission, but just to keep their job. I concluded after working for a manager for this company for over a year that they believe their employees will be more productive if they live in fear and stress about keeping their job. They expect managers to increase customer volume but provide no hours, resources, or any good advice. No additional hours provided to train part time employees and the small stores have very few hours available, making it virtually impossible to train new employees effectively. This company is abusive toward their employees and operates practically as a police state with secret shops, loss prevention spying on people from parking lots, etc. Their corporate management training states that they 44% "don't make it" past 90 days of employment. I hated hiring young people who were just looking for a part time minimum wage job because I knew that this company would just break their spirit. Most of my employees were fired or were forced out due to threats about sales numbers or accusations of wrongdoing. Worst company I have ever worked for in my life.

2.0
7 May 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexibility, benefits, working with customers.

Cons

No work life balance, work 24-7, contradicting sales goals, the store staff make next to nothing with little to give for raises. Very difficult to recruit and retain when employees making minimum wage and they have to work in a low volume location, much less have them perform sales wise. Outdated registers and inventory practices. Issues every week with employees not getting paid on time or at all. HR is a joke and unavailable. Corporate management not only promotes but directs fear-based leadership practices, creating a hostile environment.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 4,947 Reviews

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