Pros
PROS - great 1st job - great 1st time management postion - laid back environment (for employees) - fun interaction w/ customers - management has the opportunity to bonus/"win" contests during back times such as BTS(back to school), Christmas or when it comes to selling contests to a particular item. Journeys was my first job at 17, was promoted to an Assistant Manager at 19, and became a store manager at 20. With no children, Journeys was a great experience. I was able to become familiar with operations, such as how to make schedules, maintain shipments, contact merchandisers, familiar with sales terms such as ADS,UPT etc, and other "critical skills" when managing a team. As a store manager, there were times when the store manager would receive free shoes and participate in contests. I won a $500 gift card during a Timberland Sale Contest, and multiple BTS contest when comping to the stores sales. Best part, because I had worked for the company for some time, I was on short term disablilty for about 5 months, and was paid on a weekly basis. Store managers can pretty much do whatever.
Cons
CONS - Management is required (or in CO) to work 8 hr days 6 days a week (which somehow during my experience, I would work 50-54 hour weeks) - DM's & RVP's dont consider furthering education as a priority (in other words, my DM use to try to convince me that education was unnecessary) - There is little to none structure for management ( I switched from Journeys to another company, and the upper level management is WAY more structured in operations, visuals, tools to succeed, and Loss Prevention) - Pay is AWFUL when you are able to compare to else where. Unless you're in a high volume store, considering that your commision is 4% personal and 1% store. - Favortism is displayed at its finest Pay is terrible to start with as a store manager. Management is required to work 40-80 hrs a week (if your assitant is on vacation, as a store manager, you will be working 12 hour shifts, open to close) with a $200/$250 weekly base pay and a 4% commision and 1% of store. So bi-weekly, you will recieve $400-$500 if you were to not sell a single item. Stores will probably have, during a non peak time an average of $9000 weeks ($6 during weekend and more/less $1000 during weekdays), --IM GIVING A BREAK DOWN OF YOUR PAY--, so of a $9000 week, a SM weekly sales goal will probably be $3500, ASM $3500 (Unless you work for a d*** a** manager who hates that their ASM and sales associates sale more than them b/c they are never in the store, so their goal is lower) & $2000 to split amongst 3-4 pts. On a $3500 commision bi weekly is $280, NOW YOUR TWO WEEK PAY CHECK IS AT $780 then a 1% of the $18,000 is $180... Your 80-160 hour two week period check is a total of $960... BEFORE TAXES. However, there are opportunities to bonus if you fall within your payroll hours. Obviously, the more hours you work, the more you should be able to sell so checks may vary but this is typical. Managers are expected to hit sales & SOPS. That is what should be expected. However, depending on your DM, they will be more worried about you selling a pack of socks/hitting a 1.5 ratio or selling accessories, a 11% ratio or selling multiples (which i never found an issue) than comping over sales. Its understood that all companies have a way of doing things and having some type of way to evaluate how well you doing something, but the troubling part is that you will have Area Sales Managers (a store manager who has "authority"...) or a District Manager in Training (DMIT) try and micromanage you & your team, though they are not hitting the standards either. Micromanage rather than discussing ideas on how to improve or come with a reason on why SOPS are not being met. Which brings me to my next con DRAMA. If you have ever worked for journeys, there is ALWAYS drama. Lastly, although when your young with no kids, being a store manager at journeys may seem like "heaven" considering, there are rarely ever floor changes, no one is looking down your back, customers are fun, music is fun, and paperwork is not hard to manage at all... The little to none structure is detrimental when going to other retail jobs. Managers that I seen who were fairly successful when going to other jobs were successful managers at journeys because they knew how to MANAGE a team, though they were lazy. Its a wonderful job to give you an idea of management skills and how to think, but terrible when it comes to time management, meeting deadlines and keeping within payroll.
