DAVIDsTEA Reviews

Cons

Company becoming too sales focused

Cons

management switched 5 times in my 3 years at one location, stock room in basement had no actual floor just dirt,sampling

Cons

passive aggressive higher up management, does not value it's employees, awful work life balance, terrible benefits, does not promote within the company

Cons

High energy required at all times

Cons

Very small raises, In-store politics

Cons

Bullied by upper management, rude manager, unsafe work place

Cons

Not enough hours, little room to advance with company

Cons

- salary sucks
- no good benefits
- the company treats employees horribly

Cons

Now that the very few pros of working at DT are out of the way, let’s talk about the MANY cons and why I can only recommend staying AWAY from this company. You will like it at first and very quickly realize that you’ve made a horrible mistake.

DAVIDsTEA is a failing company. They do not understand their customer base in the slightest. They try very different things every time to try and keep it ‘fresh’ (soup tea? Really?!) but they fail 70% of the time. They expanded far too quickly and the company is dying as a result.

Stores almost never make their goals or their comp (how much they made last year). The company has a lot of potential that they’re throwing away due to focus on the wrong things.

A big mistake is their focus on ‘sampling’. If you got hired, especially as a Tea Guide, be ready to hear that word a LOT. It basically means standing outside the front of your store, whether on the street or inside your mall, for HOURS (2-6+) at a time with little breaks asking every single person if they want a sample. If they accept, you have to give them a huge spiel on the teas their trying and basically force them into the store. The sales tactic of davidstea is very forced, using something called a ‘flowchart’ to try and assess what a customer needs, but it comes off very harassing and forced. If you don’t do these steps, upper management will get after you.

Speaking of management, DT has a terrible team. District Managers are extremely intimidating and stressful, where as Store Managers ‘coach’ everything you do, even if you did well. They will always find something you couldn’t of done better. You will NEVER get a ‘good job!’ from anyone in upper management.

DT also expects their company to be your life. Say goodbye to any work/life balance you had because you will be expected to know all current promotions before you come into store via a new letter sent out every week. They say you don’t have to read it on your time off but become very annoyed if you choose not to.

Expect a lot of shift changes and cuts. As a result of lower budgeting due to the company failing, hours are constantly being cut. In my personal experience, I’ve seen multiple tea guides only get one 3 hour shift a week for multiple weeks in a row. Even if they had a 4-6 hour shift, it wasn’t uncommon for them to get sent home early to ‘save labor’. As a result, don’t even think of trying to get full time.

The last big issue with DT is how much upper management will pick favourites. Whoever these favourites are will get more hours and better shifts (10-4 instead of 6-9, for example). If you aren’t the favourite, expect to be constantly compared to other people and asked to ‘Be like them’. This happens in multiple stores within the company.

The will constantly wave the few cents extra you make (for tea guides it’s usually 10-30 cents over minimum wage, for key holders it’s usually 50-80 cents) as if you make dollars more an hour and that’s why you’re “paid more to work hard”. You could easily make the same amount of money at another job while giving less effort.

I could keep going on. This list is virtually endless. I can’t stress how much I advise not working for this company. With the way it’s going I don’t see the company being open within the next five years.

DO NOT WORK FOR DAVIDSTEA.

Cons

The company treats employees terribly. If problems arise and you bring them to your superiors they pull the "I hear you, we'll see if it gets better.". That's it. I've talked to my ASM, SM, and DM about certain concerns, and as soon as you try and address problems, you can see their eyes glaze over until you give up.

The company doesn't understand their customers, and as a result, has implemented a warped strategy of interacting with customers. There's a rigid flowchart they want you to follow with each customer. If you let a customer "breath" for a minute after talking to the sampler (more on that below) before approaching them management is instantly on you about why you haven't given them the same long pitch they just heard. And if you aren't trying to up-sell them at every opportunity, management is once again on you. Ridiculous.

Absurd focus on sampling. It's meaningless. It doesn't attract people into the store, it repels them. Nobody wants to be harassed and given a long-winded sales pitch about something they don't care about. Lately there has been an even bigger focus on this, and management has said they need 100% up-time from their employees to be sampling. I've been working at the company for a couple of years now, have had to sample regularly, and have never once been convinced of its effectiveness.

Endless coaching. Normally a plus in my eyes, knowing what you could do better is extremely valuable. Not here. It's not only the quantity, but the quality as well. None of it is constructive, and it only makes you feel terrible, angry, or bitter.

The only reason I'm still there is because I'm almost done school, and at this point it's just easier to stay than it is to find something new.