Lowest of the Low - Retail Associate Ross Stores Employee Review

Just about everything is a downside, working at Ross. The lines are hideously long day in and day out, and usually only two people are ever at a register at once handling it. The people who shop at Ross disrespect the store more than any department store I've been to. I believe it's because our prices are so much lower than other stores that we appeal to the lowest common denominator of humans, which are predominantly disrespectful, messy, and uncivilized. Whereas in other stores buying 5 items of clothing can have you approaching a $100 bill, at Ross you can buy 20 items of clothing and only then nearly approach a $100 sale, so basically employees must handle 5 times the workload per customer. The children's section is a nightmare. Parents routinely abandon their children in the kids section while they shop, which leads the kids to open all the packages they can get their hands on and make a mess of the entire area, and of course the parents entitle us to find their children at the end of the day, despite the fact that we prohibit leaving children unattended. But of course if we were to reprimand one of these parents we would get a nice big angry complaint call filed to our headquarters. Oh and who do you think has to clean up the child's mess? Certainly not the parents! Other than that, people who shop at Ross must think we have magic elves locked in the warehouse because they routinely fill up entire shopping carts, proceed to make the line and buy MAYBE 2 items, and then leave us to have to place all the items in the cart back on the salesfloor ourselves. Oh, and they don't even have the common courtesy to move the cart out from the front of the register area, leaving the cashier to have to get out of his box and do it themselves, which wouldn't be so bad if it didnt happen about 140 times a day, when you're trying to actually get the line moving. Ross only gives employees 30 minutes for a lunch break. It takes me 15 minutes to get to the nearest fast food restaurant, leaving me to have to eat my lunch IN THE STORE WHEN I CLOCK BACK IN. Not to mention you're only allowed a lunch break if you work a minimum of 5 hours. But here's the worst part of working at Ross. You'd think they'd have specific people allocated to do all the merchandise stocking, but no, the cashiers themselves are the ones who have that responsibility. So, at the end of a long hard day working with unruly customers, the cashiers themselves are responsible for putting all the merchandise in it's place. And if your schedule says you leave at 9:30, it really means you leave when you're done making the store meticulous, because the management staff LOCKS THE DOORS AT 9:00. It's basically voluntary slavery. Where is the reward for your hard work? Don't ask me, I haven't found it. I've worked for 1 year and am still making minimum wage. I've never even been entertained the possibility of a 6 month review. And it's not because of the economy either; at least one new Ross has opened within 20 miles of my area since the time I've worked there. The management staff will take great pleasure in belittling you for every tiny mistake you make, but when they see you working hard they'll just avoid you. "Leave them to their devices" I assume they think. Not even management is immune to this treatment, as Ross commissions quality inspectors to come once a month and scrutinize every tiny infraction, every aisle that is stocked incorrectly or not "sized perfectly up to standard". Yeah buddy, instead of telling us how to do it why don't you hire some more people so that we'll have the time and manpower to get it done. Better yet, why don't you help us yourself? Oh that's right, to "motivate" us. Well motivate this: ROSS IS BY FAR THE WORST RETAIL CHAIN IN AMERICA