sales associate

associé aux ventes

superviseur

assistant de gestion

retail sales associate

Bath & Body Works

This company has a nice facade but its not authentic.  At first you may think this is a fun company to work for thats accommodating to your schedules and allows advancement.  But as you work you will begin seeing the cracks.

Once you're hired you will learn about the company and its policies.  They are well organized and all set in place by the company that actually owns Bath and Body Works.  These policies are all about the numbers and not about the staff or customers.  

A few that stuck out to me is that there is a counter by the doors.  They count the people who enter and based on that number your sale expectations are partially set.  If too many people come into the store and the sales don't reflect enough sales then this will be a strike against your store and the sales staff. 

 This counter doesn't consider groups of shoppers, people browsing, or people/children leaving and entering the store repeatedly.  I watched my manager become very distressed by a child wandering back and forth across the sensor and then worried about being reprimanded by head office/district manager.

Additionally they track their sales numbers from the year before and use them to predict that years -to the day and dollar.  This means that if November 1st the year before you had a daily sale of $20,000 your store is expected to meet and exceed this amount the next November 1st.  The company breaks this total up to hourly expectations and if the numbers fall below the managers receive a call from head office.  You will often hear the manager frantically communicating the goal as the hour approaches.  Failure to meet this number does have consequences.

You will also learn that your name tag is very important.  If you help a customer on the sales floor at the till they will be asked who helped them.  If this customer does not say your name the sale won't be contributed to you.  This will affect your performance review because you 'failed to make an impact'.  However you are not allowed to say you name, gesture to your tag, or otherwise introduce yourself to the customer.  If enough customers don't give an associate's name then the store will be reprimanded for not assisting customers.  It is the same will collecting customers information and emails - if the customer doesn't provide it then the store/staff have consequences.

The goal is to have each customer make a purchase.  However you have to pretend you do not care if the customer buys anything.  At no point can you make the customer feel pressured and you are also not allowed to talk about any coupons or deals aside from that days store posted promotions.  This means that if there was a email coupon available you can not tell the customer about it.

Bath and Body Works also favours hands on service. (during my employment - this may have changed after COVID)  This means they want you to apply creams to customers hands or even wash the customers hands at the sink to encourage sales.  

Other lesser known policies include:
 -Greeting all customer within 15 seconds of entering the store.  
-The phone can't ring more than three times (Saw my manager making a panicked dash to get the phone for fear of it notifying HO)
-Mandatory bag checks when leaving the store for your breaks or end of your shift
- Shifts will be scheduled in 4.5 hour sections so that the company doesn't have to give you breaks or lunch breaks.  Only certain staff such as some key holders, assistant managers, and managers, are allowed to work over 4.5 hours.

Your advancement in this company will be determined by your ability to assimilate with the policies and your sales ability and numbers.  If you don't do these things you will not succeed.  It is very clear you are not valued and can and will be replaced before you even leave the building.

Ths company is a huge profesional level pyramid scheme.  It's all about peddling their poor quality products at the highest price possible.  The sales are designed to make customers think they are saving money because the products are marked up.   Most products return value is between $8 - $12 while being sold for $30 - $40.

Sales associates answer to key holder.  Key holders answer to assistant managers and assistant managers to managers.  Managers answer to the district manager who answers to HO and so forth.  Managers are often stressed and anxious as the company holds them accountable for perceived poor sales.  Managers are also susceptible to customers.  If a customer makes a complaint to head office a manager can stop at nothing until that customer is satisfied.  

Overall I did not enjoy my time with his company.  



Bath&Body Works used to be a great company that, although asked a lot from their associates, always showed appreciation for their hard work. They used to set realistic sales and merchandising goals,  as well as manage the staff in a fair and positive way.

Ever since the change in management at the Fairview Pointe-Claire store about a year ago, the environment has completely changed. More than 20 core associates(this does not include seasonal associates) quit during the months following the management change. 

The new manager would:
- not praise the associates for any of their hard work
- speak poorly about associates to other associates (and sometimes in front of them)
- not guarantee a break for associates during long floor set shifts
- post the schedule extremely last minute
- force associates to stay late at work against their will, even when they have school early the next morning
- schedule "good" associates way over their maximum hours, and give the associates she doesn't like close to no hours at all
- show up late (sometimes hours late) to nearly every shift, and give verbal warnings when associates were minutes late without giving notice
- pick favourites and treat each associate differently, very unequal
- micromanage the other management members(assistant managers, key holders) and hold them accountable when they simply would not have enough time to complete tasks that are outside of their job title
- find something "wrong" with every associate and focus just on that one negative thing instead of letting them shine through the positives. Turned "coaching" into a nightmare

Things got so bad that even customers noticed a change in environment. We actually lost a few of our greatest regular customers once the majority of the staff left. If only it could go back to the amazing place it used to be!! Too bad even the Head Office is a little corrupt and allows this to go on, solely because the new manager is a friend of the District Manager.

So... Bath & Body Works itself is a great company... this is not a hit on BBW at all. Just that one location. I know that working in any other location, associates are much happier and things are ran much more smoothly.

I would say that this job and work environment calls for a very particular kind of person. Unless you're an extremely cheery person all the time that's laid back and fine with being walked all over, by all means go ahead. But even that has its stipulations. The management is passive aggressive and makes you feel like you're always walking on eggshells. They're always on you and waiting for a chance to scold you. They expect commission performance on a minimum wage salary. 

There is a REASON why they mostly pick people with little to no prior work experience, and there's also a reason why it seems like they're always hiring. They are desperate for a reason, most new associates don't even make it to the end of the season. 

You would need to do a lot more than you would at any other minimum wage sales associate job because BBW expects a level of quality from the employees but has no desire to actually pay for it. They'll give you a gratis every two months or so to make you put up with it more but the benefits are not that great compared to literally any other job I've worked prior. Like many others have said, there are high expectations with little reward. Some of the happiest and laidback people I've seen have quit due to the management at this workplace.

Some of the managers are genuinely kind and make you happy to work there but most make the space feel so suffocating. They give you a fake smile while saying some of the harshest things. They will say some genuinely rude things but pretend like it's okay because they said it with a smile. You always will like you're being talked down to. If you're fine with toxic positivity and an uptight work environment that'll make you scared to breath wrong, this is your perfect job!

I should have listened to the people who warned me but I really needed a job, I will be quitting soon. Please listen to my warnings and apply elsewhere before resorting here. ESPECIALLY if you're young and inexperienced, they will pounce on you like wolves. I will be quitting as soon as I secure another job.

A fun and fast paced work environment. Very easy to make friends and everyone is very welcoming and supportive. The company is very generous with wages/salary and is a very inclusive work culture. My experience allowed me to learn so much and deepen my understanding of retail management and recruiting which is invaluable. They strongly support learning and upward movement within the company at every opportunity. However, at times this can be a detriment, especially for any members of the management team. In my experience, I've known a few employees to receive a lot of pressure to move up into another role and remain with the company, despite vocalizing differing desires/plans in their life or their future career prospects. If you have a strong desire to become a key holder, supervisor, assistant manager or store manager and you have the skills and knowledge to get there, they will support and encourage you all the way. But be aware that if you decide you want to remain in your role/job title and not advance upward, you may find yourself be in a position where you'll need to move up or move on.

Working on the sales floor for 90% of my time at B&BW was very intense, but I honestly enjoyed most of it. During peak times, you should expect having to run around, being asked to take a cash or get on the sales floor as needed, being asked 5 questions at once, having to refill a table and tend to a customer while holding a heavy box of soap all at once... but once you get in the groove of it all, are confident, and know what you're doing, it's fun. It can get stressful at times but time passes quickly during the holidays and you're supported by an awesome team (imo! the best part of my experience there was the people I was working with!)
The company is big on the customer being the priority which is understandable but is often times draining due to occasional disrespect from customers (people get irritable when Christmas shopping). Management will always gladly step in if needed, though, which is great -- I felt supported in that domain. 
It is also important to mention that if you get hired as a seasonal employee and end up being asked to stick around, hours after Christmas time will be scarce. If you're working as a Sales Associate, hours aren't guaranteed and you will have to be okay with not working as much during certain times of the year.
The company offers free products anytime there's a new collection. 
Depending on the type of person you are, certain things will be easier or harder (for example, you might excel at stocking but may strongly dislike selling - while you'll likely be tasked to do the things you're good at, you will always have to do a little bit of everything). It could totally take a toll on your social battery at the end of a shift.
All in all, I enjoyed my time there, but it IS a hard job. 

I loved working here and I think I learned a LOT of skills about customer satisfaction and being able to tailor assistance to varying customers needs. The free stuff was GREAT (and I miss it) and the discount was good; for every new product release we would get a baggy with a full size hand soap, full size lotion, and some other small sized products. The dress code wasn’t bad (dark blue non-ripped pants and a white top). However, a growing issue for me was the pressure of sales from management. I started working full time on my gap year and I got hired in October. So Oct-Jan is the busiest time and meeting daily sales goals and hourly goals was a breeze. After that however, management started pushing sales HARD. They train you to not turn away from customers. If you approach a customer and they walk away they do role plays to show you exactly how to continue engaging in conversation (which is SO annoying for both the employees and the customer, and the customers get annoying, rightfully so). It’s not like you can walk away from them and say let me know if you need anything because management has an SLT on the floor to watch for that stuff. I, on several occasions where I chose to ignore this procedure and let the customer move on, would have the SLT come up to me and say “you just lost that sale” and they would re explain how to not leave them alone. I did love this job but it got wayyyy too much for my comfort level at some points. Also they had way too many on-call shifts. You would be scheduled for example 11am-4pm with an on call til 8pm and you wouldn’t know if you were leaving at 4 or 8 until 4pm. That made the work/life balance hard to plan around scheduling. 

When I first got hired at Bath & Body Works, the energy and pace of a typical day was exciting, and the management seemed to have a full handle of things. However, this RAPIDLY deteriorated. Soon, I was getting fewer and fewer shifts, and all of my shifts I were getting were 3 hours, once a week. This slightly gets better when during our busiest times of years, aka our Semi-Annual sales, but if you weren't the favourite associate of the week, then you wouldn't get a shift. Couple that with the  fact that we were CONSTANTLY hiring, makes the few hours they have to give being split up between 40 + employees. Management was also particularly bad in my location, as I routinely encountered management refusing to accept being sick as a valid excuse to miss out on work, during the highest points of the COVID-19 pandemic. Management also particularly liked to bad-mouth associates who called in sick, as I personally witnessed both managers complain loudly (and very publicly) about a coworker who had a stomach flu. I believe the words "If you wouldn't drink so much, maybe you could show up to work" were used. They would also give you 3 hour shifts, then complain when people would prioritize other jobs rather than Bath and Body. Pay is pretty good for sale associates; they start you off a dollar above minimum wage, then give you a $.30 or so increase each year you work following a performance review. $1 raise around the Winter months, which sometimes they keep permanently. I understand that this is different for shipment people, who last time I checked, were paid a dollar less than sales associates. My advice, take this job if you want a couple hours a week to buy superficial stuff. If you have bills, avoid it like the plague. 

During a typical day of work, I would enter the back room of the store and get dressed in my apron, nametag, and two-way portable radio transceiver (walkie-talkie). I would then clock in for my shift through the store's main computer system and meet with my supervisor before beginning to work on the sales floor. While working on the sales floor, I would greet customers who had just walked in to the store and showcasing the latest products coming in for the season and ask if there is a particular scent they are looking for. I would help them experiment with different scents of soaps and lotions before making a final sale. I would never be given shifts longer than 5 hours, therefore breaks were never required. I was, however given breaks during floor set shifts where I would come to the workplace, clean off the sales stands and prepare the stands with the new scents.
I enjoyed working on the sales floor, sharing my knowledge of the product, and working both individually and as an active team member.
I learned that becoming a part of the workplace requires a great deal of professionalism when approaching both customers and company management. 
The management was very friendly but were very firm with informing us how determined we must be on identifying and satisfying any customers' preferences or needs. 
The most difficult part of the job was being able to learn how to approach customers the way the company trained the workers to and understanding how to promote the product while respecting a customer's personal boundaries.

Overall I would never recommend this job to anyone. The turnover for managers at all locations is extremely high, as they are all not great at their jobs. The workplace seems okay at first and then it just gradually becomes more and more toxic and eventually becomes unbearable. The favouritism from managers basically determines if you get hours that week. I would have 30 hours one week and 3 the next. It’s extremely inconsistent in all aspects. If you want to be pushed around and yelled at for not constantly harassing customers then this job is perfect for you. If you can’t force someone to buy something, it’s entirely your fault and they make sure you know that. This job is literally retail and they treat it like the olympics and it’s so exhausting working with managers that cause this much stress and worry. I used to like this job, then the management changed, and now I dread going to work each and every time i’m scheduled. The managers are not flexible with scheduling whatsoever as they scheduled me all 3 days I had finals because they needed me there specifically, although I gave advance that I needed them off. They care about their conversion more than their staffs well-being.  So basically do not work here it’s extremely detrimental to your mental health, and the discount is nowhere near worth it. Most of the daily sales are better than the 30% off discount so it’s a waste of time working for this cheap company.

Every shift would start off with an assistant manager or store manager filling me in on the sales, deals, and goals of the day. When specific tasks needed to be done, I was informed early on, and given a time frame to which was preferred I would get it done. All the while assisting customers, and backing up on cash and selling on sales floor. I did most of the back room, stock, and merchandising as I enjoyed and quickly grew familiar with organizing the products and displaying them following plans accordingly. The co-workers were the highlight of my experience, everyone was friendly and the managers were understanding and pointed out what could be done better or what you have been doing greatly in efficiently. The most enjoyable part of the job for me were the floor sets. I'm more on the detail-oriented side when it comes to projects, and during floorsets when the store would change for sales, seasons, or just for a fresh new look, I got to practice that and it gave me some room to be creative as well. The job got me to always be busy, and I prefer it that way as I like fast-paced environments, working with my hands, and helping customers. As much as I learned a lot from the job, the people and the environment helped me nurture my skills more and to practice them which I appreciated.

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