A leader in spite of one-dimensional marketing - Assistant Store Manager Sur La Table Employee Review

4.0
Mar 5, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Employee discount of 40% Excellent product selection Still focused on providing good support to existing customers A chance for California employees to earn extra $$$ through class action settlements

Cons

Hours are managed so tightly and poorly in many locations that legally required breaks are not always provided, so if you work in California you may receive hundreds of dollars in legal settlements if you stick around long enough. Stores are super-full of merchandise for 90% of the year, making it very difficult to setup according to the instructions from marketing (and when you don't comply, upper management is very unkind with their feedback). This is worse as special seasons approach as the warehouse will send you all of your season's merchandise in a single shipment. Upper management is very numbers focused, so District Managers who lack people skills can still get rewarded as long as their stores make their numbers. Their singular focus on marketing through catalogs makes "attaching the sale" to a customer in their database vitally important; however, if an existing customer is not in your store's local database the process takes way too long. The busiest stores shift their receiving to overnight shifts for the holidays - this is exceptionally hard on year-round associates.

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5.0
Mar 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This is a good job for benefits and teaching experience

Cons

Don’t have autonomy over cancelling classes

1.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I gained lots of knowledge & was inspired to cook.

Cons

What was once a fun job, became chaotic & sad!

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