Pluspunten
• Good salary for sales and customer service reps ($36K annual; $17/hr) • Good benefits for all employees (100% coverage) • HQ has a light touch on retail operations, which means each store can do what works best for its particular situation • Generally positive work environment and culture
Minpunten
• Salaries for sales, customer service, and other retail staff have been frozen since 2010 or earlier • Mediocre salary for retail managers and HQ employees ($40-55K) • Company has a base+bonus salary scheme designed for sales reps and tries to apply it to all types of employees. Customer service reps and HQ employees are under compensated as a result. • Company continually promises salary increases to individual managers and HQ staff but doesn't follow through • Stores operations across the country are inconsistent • Company promotes managers and specialists from within, rather than bringing in external hires with professional experience. This means the company doesn't follow best practices for decision-making process, meeting management, goal-setting, budgeting, etc. As a result, company initiatives and directions are reactionary and improvised, and projects can be cancelled or changed at a moments notice. Morale and productivity suffer as a result. • Dominant company owner can't trust anyone else to run the operation, but is too focused on his other investment projects to run the operation himself. As a result, he parachutes in on occasion, makes major changes (cancels or starts projects, fires someone, or changes a policy) then disappears again. • One company owner is very progressive when it comes to trying new technologies, techniques, business models, etc. The dominant owner is very conservative, and often kills projects that the other owner has invested time and effort in.