| SALES MANAGEMENT and RETAIL |
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| BACK |
| I found that I could sell a lot better at Best Buy than ever when I was employed at Radioshack. By selling better I mean that I could provide my customers with everything they needed as well as satisfying the items that we need to sell as defined by management. I sold the service plans (high-margin for the store) with ease once I told the customer that I did not work on commission. This sets up the customer TRUST, which cannot exist when the customer knows that the salesperson is getting rewarded for every sale they make. I could understand the principle behind the Best Buy sales philosophy. |
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| Inside a Typical Best Buy - Large-Scale Retail |
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| A Typical Radioshack - Convenience Retail |
| I also have found it easier to sell at Best Buy because they acutally have a very good selection of electronics (best in the industry that I have seen), which Radioshack has always lacked. Rather than having a half a dozen TV's, all made by RCA (the situation at Radioshack), Best Buy had over 160 (I counted them once) to let the customer choose from, and available from every major name brand and some less-known names as well (such as Apex and Daewoo). The greater selection combined with the relaxed sales atmosphere and customer trust results in HUGE sales, of which I see no percentage of. But there is a lot of back-patting, and promotions are fairly quick. However, in the end, the income I earned at Best Buy was not worth the effort. I don't mind working hard at all. Rather, I would prefer a difficult job rather than an easy one. But the strange work ethic Best Buy expects of their underpaid non-commissioned sales staff is very hard to live with. |
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| BACK to MAIN |
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| History: I started working Radioshack right out of the Army. I started at the lowest position, the Sales Associate and became manager of my own store very quickly. Then, having lost interest in the business, I went on to retail security. Upon moving to NY, however, I was forced back into retail, working again for Radioshack. Finding that the management in the district I was placed was very corrupt, I quickly quit, and got a better-paying job at Best Buy. I was hired in at a dollar-per-hour that more closely resembled what I would make if I had REALLY good sales at Radioshack. |
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| Thus I quickly realized it was time to see just how poorly we were indeed getting paid relative to other retailers. That is when I found out about Pearl Paint, New York City's #1 art supply retailer, and supposedly "the world's largest discount art supplier". I am now employed with Pearl Paint. I make almost exactly what Best Buy was paying me per hour. Now I am in a union, however, and am guaranteed 40 hours a week. At Best Buy, the hours would fluctuate depending on the whims of the management and sometimes on simply the arithmetic of the scheduling computer. I would go from 32 hours (the maximum weekly hours I ever got) to as little as 15 hours! ...and for no apparent reason! At Pearl Paint I enjoy the benefits of union labor, and have the hours I need to at least pay down my credit debt. However, I am a bit bored, as I am nothing more than a clerk. My daily duties consist of sitting behind a really old counter and waiting for a customer to come up to it with product for me to ring up. I do over-exert myself; I cannot help it that sometimes I get so bored that I turn into a 'super-clerk' and run around the sales floor answering questions, recommending products, and directing people to where certain hard-to-find items are. And since I don't get paid commission, I enjoy showing people the best deals like what is on sale. |
| I can't help it I guess. I just cannot stand being idle. But I can't complain. I get paid more weekly than I ever made at Best Buy and even Radio Shack (except that 3 week period of decent money in December). And the union benefits make it even nicer. It is good to NOT be an 'at-will' employee that could get fired at any time and wouldn't even be entitled to an explanation. Though I have never been fired, laid off, or suspended from any employer, I still get this nice feeling of security. But in the end, Pearl Paint is only a minor fix to a much bigger problem. I still need to double my sallary, challenge my brain, and excell in a career for once. I can only make myself look good for now. If anyone would ask any of my past managers of any of my previous jobs, they would confirm that I am over-quallified mentally for the work they required, which I did beyond their expectations. I know this would be their opinion of me because my strong work ethic has made me confident of my reputation. |
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| Outside Pearl Paint, Canal St, New York City - private-gone-corporate nationwide-chain retail |
| What am I looking for now? |
| I want to work hard for a corporation. I want to do something with computers, be it data entry (I can type better than 60 words per minute), research (I know the internet very well), website development, or even new programs. Since I am a very quick and precise learner, I am confident that I could learn any program presented to me in a week's time. And I need to make some decent money, in the area of 40K per year, while doing it. |