I filled out my application in the store and about 3-5 days later the store manager called me to come in for an interview. *The interviews are between the times of 10:30am and 11:45am.* My interview was done by the store manager and one of the store owners. They asked questions about prior work experience(mostly dealing with retail experience), schedule availability, was I firmilar with the company or had ever shopped there before, they also asked questions about basic customer service things like "what does customer service mean to you?" "How would you deal with an upset customer?" and "How would you deal with a suspected shoplifter?" They did do a role play type thing where they gave me a situation where a customer came in and said it was "there sisters birthday and they didnt know what to get her." So they made me tell them things I might ask the customer to get to know more about the person the gift was for so I could make it more personalized to the persons interests. All I said was I would first ask the age of the gift reciver, ask if they have any specific hobbies or interests, and are they more of a serious or humorous person(that was because they have a few sections that have humorous type gifts). The whole interview lasted about 20-30 minutes at the most. The store manager did call me back the next day to offer me the job and I excepted the offer and worked there for 4 years after that.
I witnessed alot of interviews being held in that time and some advice I can offer for anyone who is interested in working there is: 1. Do not be even 1 minute late for the interview. 2. Don't be intemidated if you don't have any previous retail experience. 3. If they ask if you are good on the computer, that does not mean you have to know any of the microsoft programs, because the only computer you will operate is the cash register that is a step by step program that is very detailed and hard to even mess up. 4. If they ask if you are allergic to dust or any kind of smells it is because the job does require the sales associates to clean the product displays and sometimes they can be some what dusty.Smells is refering to the yankee candle display on the other side of the store. You barley smell it from the registers. 5. They will ask if you have an issue standing for up to 8 hours,after about 3 weeks you get used to it and 8 hour shifts arnt common,they are either 4hrs, 5hrs, or 7hrs. Pretty much when you go to the interview just be confident that you can do what they need done as far as your job position goes, and dont be nervous, just sound like you know what your talking about in your answers to there questions and you will do great.
If the interview results in a job offer that you accept, I will say that due to the store being a smaller retail store there is only about between 9-15 (15 being the very most) employees that work there at once, and for whatever reason they rarely hire men (none were hired when I was working there for 4 years) so the 9=15 employees are all females ranging in age from (based on when I was there) 22-81 years of age. Because of this it can get a bit catty at times due to female gossip, clashing of personalitys, moods, and age differences.