working in retail?

i work in retail right now, but this is the only retail job i've had so i have nothing really to compare it to. In my experience, pay sucks, but that could also be the company i work for. I think pay depends on if you are working for a big company or not. I work for the biggest salon company in america. So if i want a raise, i have to ask my bosses bosses bosses bosses boss. Seriously. They dont give a crap about me at all. So its tough to get a raise. But if you are working for a small mom and pop store, i can imagine that if you are doing a good job, and making money for them, you will be able to get a raise relatively easily. I personally enjoy working in retail, but i wouldnt want to do it for the rest of my life, because unless you have a lot of formal education in business and want to work for the company one day, there is little to no room for advance. But it is a fun job and you learn a lot. Also if you work in retail once, it qualifies you to work in many more kinds of retail like commision based retail. Good luck!

i totally forgot to write about hours. I think it depends on the person doing the scheduling, and the # of employees. My store only has 3 beauty advisors and the manager (beauty advisors work in the store and so does the manager, and the stylists work in the salon obviously) and one of the b.a.'s can only work weekends. So if i am sick or eric is sick, if that one girl wont work for me i am screwed. But if there is a bigger employee list, then it will probably be easier. Also, expect to work nights and weekends (if they are open then).

i just statred working in retail, and i like it a lot. i am not sure how the pay negoations go because they offered me what i was paid in my last job (which was over min wage) and they r all pretty appericative and really inviting!! sorry i couldn't be more help!

I worked in retail, but it was a chain store. The pay sucked, but if it's a mom and pop type of store it might be different. I liked most of the people I worked with and the bosses weren't to bad. Like another poster said, if the store is open nights and weekends, be prepared to work them. If I couldn't work a certain day and I told the person who did the scheduleing ahead of time, it wasn't usually a problem. Also, because quite a few people worked there, if I needed a day off last minute, I could usually find someone to switch with. I did enjoy it most of the time while I worked there, but like Skykid said, I wouldn't have wanted to do it the rest of my life. I hope this made sense.... I'm like half asleep right now.

I worked in retail. It is flexiblin that you don't have to work Mon-Fri 9-5, but you may have to work nights and weekends. Where I worked, you were required to find someone to cover your shift if you needed to call in, which was a huge problem for me, as my son attends a daycare center and I didn't always have a backup babysitter if he was sick.

i worked at starbucks, which is a great company for parents to work in if they need a retail job. You get benefits if you work part-time and the insurance is very good and affordable. I also got a paid maternity leave. At the other retail jobs I've had (I've had many), I was underpaid and recieved no benefits.

Oh... I forgot to add.... The only thing I really didn't like was that if someone called off at my store, they didn't have anyone replace them, so sometimes you got stuck working by yourself when their should have been 3 people there.

I worked for Publix Supermarkets in FL about two years ago and I can tell you that retail is not the best job in the world. You have to put in long hours on your feet and if you get sick and there's no one to cover for you you have to work your shift. I injured my knee while I was working and had a knee brace put on it and had to use crutches for six weeks. Well to make a long story short, I went straight from the hospital to the store on crutches and showed the store manager the dr's note stating I couldn't work on my feet for about three weeks. You know what the bastard told me? He said if I couldn't stand I couldn't work but that he would make arrangements for me and give me a stool to sit on and that I would always have a bagger to help me. Can you imagine scanning groceries while sitting on a stool? It was sooo uncomfortable. The customers would look at me and feel so sorry for me that they would go and ask him to let me go home. Finally I just left because I couldn't take the pain anymore. Anyway what I am trying to say is to try to find something else you can do. How about finding a work from home job since you've already done that?

"Extraordinary people"? heh.

Is the store you're thinking of a local store or a chain?

I've worked in retail (at the same job) for almost 5 years now. My experience may be a bit different, because I work for a small, independently owned business. My boss is great about allowing us to dictate our own schedules and have flexible hours, and the pay is above what I'd probably be making in any other entry-level job. On the downside, because we're a small business, the employees don't get health insurance or anything like that, and there have been times when I've been sick or had to scramble for childcare because I was the only one scheduled to work at that time. Also, for better or worse, we are all on the same level; no one is above anyone else (except the boss, of course), so that cuts down on any weird hierarchies at work, because we are all equal.

Retail isn't bad, but after 5 years, I am incredibly burnt out on customer service, and sometimes I feel like I'd rather jump off a cliff than spend another 30 minutes answering dumb questions. Some customers are great; others are demanding, rude, and/or snotty. Sometimes when I work by myself, I don't get to eat or even use the bathroom until the store is closed. There's good and bad, just like any job, and I guess it really depends on who you work for and with, and how things are run. Overall, my experience has been positive.

Sorry if I rambled too much! Good luck.

I spent 6 years working in retail before I got my current job, and I will never, ever go back. In my experience, the people who enjoy working on a shop floor are people who have the patience of saints. If you get easily frustrated and irritated, retail is not for you. Like Jen said, it is very easy to get burnt out on customer service and dealing with rude customers.

The hours are generally flexible, and the pay will probably vary depending on who you work for. On one hand, it may be better working at a small independent shop. On the other, they may not be able to afford to pay you much.

Sorry to be so negative, but this is my experience of working in retail. It was the pitts for me.

I worked in retail for awhile and it was kind of fun. I worked in a women's clothing store and almost everyone who worked there was female. It was a good way to make friends. I eventually had to quit because of the hours. They were very sporadic. When I took on a second job they suddenly started scheduling me for a ton of hours even though I had told them I had a second job. Another problem is being in a store all day made me want to buy things. Also, the pay often isn't very good. If you can ever get on at a place that offers comission though you will have an opportunity to make a lot of money.

I worked retail many times. Once at a No Fear store (circa 1994, when it was HUGE), a Cub Foods, and a Home Depot. I can say that I had a lot of fun at these jobs...the only shitty part was having to work every holiday, not ever having weekends off, and the pay wasn't all that great. But it WAS fun.