Company held back by micromanaging owner and poor business practices.
Pros
The majority of employees are kind and willing to help. They were all very knowledgeable about the products and for the most part excellent workers. There is a concerted effort made to hire employees who have a good working knowledge of their products and services. Most employees are willing and ready to help customers with problems, attempting to offer a quick solution if applicable rather than waste time and money just to get that extra service check in. There is the occasional chance get handed down unused stuff from around the office, which can be a nice perk. They offer health insurance for all full time employees, and even help cover the cost of this insurance. If you are required to work Saturdays, in compensation for not getting any time to clock out for lunch, the company pays for lunch for all employees and lets them have it delivered to the store. I did have a good time working here from day to day, due to the attitude and respectfulness of the other employees.
Cons
My main complaints about this business stem from the owner, and his business practices. With no formal education in business or desire to further that education this company is run based on the most basic of understanding about business. He bases all decisions on what makes the most money and shows constant disregard for the customer and other employees. First was the owner's inability to let employees, including management, do the job for which they were hired without running nearly every decision past him. If a decision was made without consulting him he would become incredibly angry and insist on putting some new arbitrary policy into place ensuring that he would be notified in the future. With this came the inability for any employee in nearly every department to do their job efficiently, an issue that he would then blame on the incompetence of the employee sometimes going as far as to fire them. I personally had to go to the owner with an issue regarding an item being priced incorrectly (lower than rang up at the register) on our website. When I asked him how to handle the issue he told me promptly that it didn't matter if the customer was upset, and I was to sell the item at the price in the register. I showed him the error on the webpage and he informed me that it didn't matter, and I was always to do this in the future. Less than a month later a customer came to me with nearly the same exact problem; I informed them of our policy and he agreed to pay the higher price. This particular customer was a good personal friend of the owner and went directly to him following being rung out. I was called over, in front of the customer while the owner (the same person who had instructed me to follow this policy) scolded me on the sales floor. When I told him that I was only doing as I was told when I encountered this type of problem his response was,"Well, I would like to know who told you that. We always do right by the customer." As I was there a little longer I slowly came to see just how unpredictable his moods and decisions could be. One day he would be in a fine mood, talking with other employees and generally easy to get along with, the next (sometimes later the same day) his mood could change completely so that the smallest thing would set him off into a temper tantrum. He would yell at employees at the top of his lungs, slam doors, throw things, and slam his fists on his desk out of sheer anger. This constant uncertainty creates a workplace where employees are in fear of speaking up when they feel something isn't right and even those going above and beyond at work are in constant fear of their jobs. You will constantly be monitored on camera by video and audio. No one will tell you this when you are hired, but I have seen it be used to fire multiple people over little things. Be careful.
