Pros
- The front line merchants and managers. Generally speaking, the people you work with in store, on a day-to-day basis at Wine Rack will make your experience worth while. It's important to note, also, that these people are what make Wine Rack worth visiting for customers, but they are not paid an industry-standard wage. - Relaxed environment At the end of the day, you're selling a luxury and frivolous product making the interactions with customers generally good to great. - Good for part time retirement or school work. If you're not in the following two categories - look elsewhere for employment.
Cons
- Minimum wage Wine Rack employees are paid minimum wage with very little chance for increase (you get the bare-minimum wage increase yearly). Occasionally they will set sales targets on specific products which, when sold, act as commission bonuses, which only serves to belittle any commitment to ensuring high-level customer service since it is now merely pushing someone to a wine or product they initially had no interest in. (Consistently see people lying to customers, hyping up products or saying they possess qualities that do not fit what is being requested by customers during these 'SPIFF' periods. I don't blame the employees for doing what they can to raise an otherwise stagnant wage, I blame management for not paying employees a living wage.) - Complete apathy from higher ups. Upper management and executives of Wine Rack luckily wont overburden you, because they take no interest whatsoever in their lower-level employees. The expectation seems to be you won't be around long anyway, so may as well work to keep the revolving door well-lubricated instead of attempting to keep good employees around. I have (reluctantly) worked at Wine Rack for 5 years, and with the exception of a single holiday store visit, have had no communication with the management team above my store managers. - Very little room for growth. Not too long ago, members of the executive and higher management positions were filled by people who were formerly employed at the front-end store level. Those days are now gone and the most an employee can hope for is that their store manager quits or passes away so they can vie to take their position. Also not uncommon for 'Assistant Managers' to possess the title and responsibilities of co-managing a store with no pay increase whatsoever (paper work is stalled or never filed at all so the pay increase promised is never registered). I could go on, but it ends up at the same recommendations as the pros: If you're not a student or a retiree looking for very casual work, then this is not the place for you. If you are one of those two things, don't take it too seriously (because management don't take you seriously) and enjoy your time with customers.