Pros
First access to marked down products with additional employee discount and goodies sent from vendors. Easy job for associate. I like the feel of small stores with high quality customer service (usually, not always).
Cons
Vendors treat the employees better than the actual company. Upper company managers nit picks and is demeaning to store managers and their staff. They don’t support the store like they are suppose to. Employees keep leaving due to treatment and unrealistic expectations that is impossible if a store has a small staff. Unless you kiss butt, you will be treated poorly. They keep complaining about inventory increases despite all the stores getting $1000 worth of promotional products coming in every month that no one sells and eventually expires losing us money. Upper management also thinks they shouldn’t follow rules they hold their underlings to. It’s like high school with lots of gossiping and backstabbing. The whole company will learn about everything private because no one knows how to keep their mouth shut which makes their open door policy useless because there will be retaliation. Also the amount of hours given are pathetic. Unless you’re a manager, good luck getting even 25 hours a week and that’s being generous. Benefits also suck for full time employees.