retail sales associate

gérant de commerce de détail

Wicker Emporium

I worked here for a number of years and at first I loved it! You get to connect with many different people and help with their design challenges. Nothing feels better than finding the perfect piece for Someone. They always had the most unique items and it was actually fun working here. Then they decided to switch to mostly furniture and everything changed. The customers hated it and the employees were left to bare the brunt of the dissatisfaction. With no help from head office we were given unrealistic sales goals month after month. The staff in my employ worked so hard to try and meet these goals but to no avail. The prices of products increased to a ridiculous amount and customers hated it. The products everyone loved were gone and replaced with high end furniture which most people didn't want or need OR could afford! I personally did not buy a single piece of furniture from here but my home is filled with decor pieces. Most customers shared in this as well. Then comes the job itself. They expect you to do a ridiculous amount of heavy lifting and moving. Wayyyy more than 50 lbs. One table weighs 450 lbs!! You have to unload 40 ft trailers yourself it's insane. And they expect you to be serving customers at the same time. Covered in dirt and sweaty!! Then after working so hard to keep a business afloat they will up and decide to close you and put you out of a job. The problem with this company is not the staff at store level it is 100 percent upper management whom have no idea what they are doing, what their customers Want, or how to run a successful business.

wicker emporium was at one time a great place to work, but all that changed when they changed the overall concept of the store, moving from household decorative merchandise to extremely expensive very large furniture items. 
they no longer cared about their employee's and were blaming them( us) for sales being down, when we tried our best. Our customers hated the idea that we were no longer the store they knew and loved, they completely  drove their loyal customer out the door. the staff was continually being belittled in emails ( being sent out to the entire company ) even at times asking if and I quote ' were the doors even open? " 
I can handle a lot of things when it comes to work, but what I can't handle is a store changing and then blaming us when it doesn't work. 
our store was always out of stock and our orders were never in in  a timely manner ( which to an extent I understood ) 
a company should never leave their staff to take the brunt of everything, the higher up management was horrible at best, and the owners never took responsibly for their change in concept ruining the brand and blamed the staff instead. 
I could day a lot more, but the fact that I had to step down from the job due to severe anxiety and depression ( from a furniture store ) shows how bad it truly was.

The Wicker Emporium stores were once a fun, enjoyable place  to work, but in recent years due to poor decisions from restructuring the company to a "high end" furniture store and lack of appreciation from the owners, it has turned into a disorganized, hard to sell anything, negative atmosphere store for both the customers and employees.  As soon as customers walk into the showroom, they are immediately disappointed by the lack of home decor and accessories that they have been accustomed to for many years, making it extremely difficult to approach and present any furniture that may be in stock at the moment. Not to mention, every customer that walks in asks when the store is closing due to the lack of product and continuous clearance sales the store has to put on to make a quick buck from poor sales.
After being employed at Wicker Emporium for 7 years, I have never felt more unappreciated for my hard work, and I have worked in many call centers prior where I was treated better!
Avoid this place for employment, they will use you until they are done with you and move onto the next!
I wish I could rate 0 stars.

This was a great place to work. Always something to do. The staff is required to be well rounded in all areas of the store. Cash, customer service, sales, cleaning, and paperwork was all equally important. It is a physically demanding job. Lots of moving furniture, unpacking, setting furniture up and cleaning. Would not recommend for someone with any health or physical conditions. It was a great place to learn to be more responsible since you were held accountable for many different jobs within the store. My co-workers were friendly and helpful in all aspects of the job. Salary offer when hired was quite high for a retail position. The hardest part of this job was dealing with the management at this particular location. The manager that was hired while I was working was in my opinion not fit for the position. She was disrespectful towards her employees and customers on numerous occasions, manipulative, vindictive, dishonest and incompetent at completing tasks that should have been easy for a manager. This ultimately led me to seek new employment. Many employees quit, or were fired under her supervision. 

It started off as a nice place to work, the co workers were very friendly and helpful. The owners act like there your friend but as soon as something goes wrong, you are to blame. They use to treat people like family but now you are just a number and they treat there warehouse staff like they are not important, when they have there Christmas party at there home they do not invite the boys from the warehouse as they are not worthy., they also pat them next to nothing for all the work they do. 
These people only care about the money and there lifestyle not how there employees have to live. They are very disrespectful.

Performed all necessary managerial skills including:
Opening/closing of the store
Cash Handling including cash balancing and performing cash deposits.
Customer service / sales at all levels
Lost prevention, adhering to company policy and procedures
Training / coaching and development of teams.
Stock incoming and outgoing including assembling the product and transportation to the floor.
Visual merchandising, including all marketing components
Conducting cycle accounts when necessary.
Establishing and setting up new accounts for customers.
Working with E- Commerce on a daily basis.
Scheduling and daily/ weekly payroll through payworks systems.

Enjoyed it only because it was in my career feild as a Decorator. Head Office is always changing something... almost feels like commision. Co-workers steal your sales because you are pressured to make your goal for the day. Not a lot of customers unless its around a holiday or the weekends. Which makes it hard to make a sale. Lots of gossip goes on between stores and staff. Stayed as it looked good on my resume, however i thought i was getting full time when i was hired but it was only part time. Didnt like the feel and pressure of it being like commision mainly.

Wicker Emporium has been the perfect job to coincide with my schooling over the past two years. I have been able to enhance my interpersonal, time management, organizational and creative skills through working at Wicker. Everyone from store level to head office are fantastic to work with and for. It can get physically demanding with a lot of heavy lifting and moving of furniture for merchandising changes, but it is always fun to have the opportunity to either create or re-create a merchandising plan for the store.

Management and head office is so unorganized . Expectations are way to high for very little pay . 
Head office cares very little about it's employees.  Working alone for 7+ hours with no breaks . 
Expected to climb 17 feet up a ladder with no help carrying heavy chairs . 
Moving heavy furniture alone .
Scheduling is never done right and hours are cut out of no where. 
Promised raised but never given them . 
No consideration of staff and store issues. 
 The list goes on but I dont have all day .

Good learning experience but terrible wage. They expect us to work like slaves and the pay is garbage. Lots of false promises, no commission or incentives. All they care about is sales and don’t Care about you or your personal life. Higher management gives lots of false promises to employees and customer. They pretend to be “professional” but they are not! 
We are nothing but slaves to them while the company is the one making the money ripping customers off always changing the MSRP.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Retail sales associate 2 salaries reported	$17.50 per hour
Gérant de commerce de détail 2 salaries reported	$17.75 per hour

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