Pros
I was mostly a retail virgin, and I was surprised how much better the pay turned out to be compared to other 'mall' stores. It was draw+commission, I made an average of $20 a hour during the holidays. I was in a good area of the store, and regular associates in my area made more since their commission rates are higher than seasonal staff and they are generally better sellers. I also really like that you pick your own schedule at Macy's. The shifts are usually 7 - 9 hours long, and sometimes a manager would ask people to stay later if it was very busy still. Many retailers schedule people in 3 hour shifts now a days, so I saw this as a big plus. I liked the incentives in opening credit cards. You receive 3 dollars of Macy's money for each card you open and sometimes there are other treats as well.
Cons
The orientation process took up a week's worth of time ( a week where you couldn't pick up shifts thereby delaying your actualy start date by 2 wks) and a waste of time for temporary staff if you ask me. One time they called me to come in for one hr of orientation. I couldn't go onto the next part of orientation, because each had its 'own day'. I personally never shopped at a Macy's before working there, because they are so overcrowded with junk. But when the going gets rough... Anyways it was annoying working around broken pieces of displays and trash, because there was nowhere to put stuff. The people are mostly nice, but there are some strange and seemingly katty characters. Don't expect people to go out of their way to help you. After the holidays is inventory and they added inventory shifts onto my schedule without asking me. There is no commission obviously with working these shifts which meant minimum wage for me, and you leave the store at 3 am to walk to your car alone which you must park very far away : ( Alot of people return things after the holidays and the commission gets deducted from your pay check so I jumped ship pretty soon after. Can't deduct from a pay check that you are giving. This was not too bad of an experience. Luckily I don't need to work anymore; not sure I would have wanted to at a Macy's.
