Pros
There are definitely some pros to working for this company. Sears is the first business I've worked for, and it's given me experience. I'd definitely pick working at Sears over fast food. I've learned several business concepts I would have never learned much about. Working the registers has taught me how to type on the number pad, when I previously could only type on the keypad. The shop your way program can be very lucrative at times, which often gave me points to get free candy and good deals, especially with the associate discount. The associate discount can even get you prices cheaper than sears actually bought the item for, especially with TVs. If you are at the right store, your coworkers can be great. Managers can be very friendly if you're in the right place. Customers in the commission sales departments seem to be easier to deal with than in the clothing departments. You can make great money in commission sales during busy days, and the holiday season. Management definitely pushes you, but this can be beneficial to you, as well, increasing your sales. There's occasional parties with food, albeit seldom.
Cons
There's a lot of cons working at Sears. Sears is dying. Not many people shop here anymore, unless there's no other stores nearby. The metrics you're expected to reach are oftentimes without a point. For example, associates are needed to run a certain amount of credit applications every month as one of their metrics. Credit cards are indeed profitable for sears because sears cards users spend more and the Sears cards charges sears less of a transaction fee than other cards, but many people have bad, little, or no credit, don't like credit cards, or just don't really shop at Sears. Associates, especially cashiers, shouldn't be reprimanded for things the customer doesn't want or need. Another metric that is tough to hit is shop your way. A lot of people don't want to join this email-spamming program, which shouldn't be the employees problem. Another issue is that most stores haven't been updated since the 20th century. A lack of updates to the store drives customers away. Why would they wanna go into old, dingy stores? A big problem for commission associates is the commission rate system as a whole. The items you'd think you'd get good money from can be the worst, with some as small as a 0.5% commission rate. If these big ticket items aren't very expensive or don't have a spiff, you're probably not gonna make much money off of it. Attachments and protection agreements have the best commission rates, but these have really high markups and can be hard to sell. The most upper management, like Eddie, is running the company into the ground and making every store compete with each other. I don't feel hopeful in this business with Eddie running it. With quarter losses for about seven straight years or so, I wonder if a recovery will ever be possible.