This differs with each store you work in, but I will sum up my experience as follows:
Management is a joke, really petty, selfish and authoritarian. If you act friendly and pretend to be their friends you can get anything, weekends off, pay rises etc. Asking for holidays is like pulling teeth, so difficult to get a straight answer out of management even though the manager has his holidays pre-booked at all times during school holidays. Many people have children, don't they deserve to spend time with their kids? The attitude is sometimes extremely old school, the days of salesmen are gone really, my manager constantly hammers me if a customer walks out because they were just browsing. I always strive to provide good customer service but that is never appreciated.
The quality of products has also decreased over time, using low wool blends and low quality wools. Their own suit brand, Charlton Gray, is atrocious! Rips really easily at the seams, many customers have complained about other brands as well.
I am a part time member of staff and the pay is quite poor, especially given the fact that sales are increasing each year and we have to beat targets all the time. I feel Head Office could pay more competitively, I only receive minimum wage.
There is not store wide system to order customer items and handle wedding parties, causes real confusion and makes us look unprofessional. Many times, items we have on the website we don't have in store, this needs to change.
A lot of the product range feels wrong, the suits aimed at young people are not "young" enough and our high quality suit range is quite poor these days.
There is also no proper training curriculum in place, you learn how to do suit alterations just by watching others and bad habits are passed around all the time.