sales associate

store manager

customer service representative

acheteur

seasonal associate

House of Knives

I was hired with a lot of previous management experience. I found managing 3 employees was not challenging compared to what I was used to. The days can be very quiet. The payroll is quite lean so I spent a good 5-6 hours by myself every day. In a 40 hour work week, I saw another associate for maybe 17 hours a week (Less if you count break overlap). If you like to be alone and work independantly, this job is for you. 

The challenging part of the job is learning all of the product in the store. Most of the items are locked behind glass cabinets so you have to have 1 on 1 conversations with customers. You really need to know what you are selling and be good at it. Knives are a niche market so if a chef or a hunter walks in they will know right away if you don't know your stuff. 

The days can be extremely slow. Sometimes an hour would pass without a customer walking in. There is an expectation to make your sales target so it all comes down to your drive, attitude, and product knowledge. You can easily make your sales target in 1 or 2 transactions if you really take the time to help each customer. The product itself is very high quality which means a higher price point. It felt rewarding selling high quality knives to customers because I felt like I was helping them improve their lives.

The owner of the company is very passionate and has a high reputation amongst the people in the knife community. The office team is super friendly and very helpful. They are always there to help out and to offer advice. The reason I stayed as long as I did was I felt like I was part of a family. The district manager was caring, patient, and very understanding of our problems at store level. The store managers were helpful and made me feel welcome from day 1. I didn't feel like just a number in a big corporate company. 

I would recommend this job for newer store managers or for anyone who is looking to become a retail manager for the first time. The slow days and laid back atmosphere will help you develop your leadership skills and the help and support from the district manager will allow you to grow. 

I would recommend this job for any part timer who wants to do more than just fold t-shirts all day. If you enjoy learning and selling high quality items and spending the majority of your shift interacting with customers, you'll love House of Knives. 

House of knives is a solid company to work for, they are a smaller company that is growing. They have the hope to become a national brand. 

Before working here, I never really understood what past employers would say "work hard and play hard". I finally understood what that really meant. When you work here, you will work really hard. But you will get rewarded with amazing opportunities and they love to have fun.

House of knives rewards hard work, passion and great ideas. They love to have fun, educate and develop their people into experts. The president/owner is a man of great passion, heart and energy. I have never met someone so passionate, and truly enjoys connecting with employees and with customers.

Education is something they take to heart. Teaching employees more then just product knowledge. They teach knife skills, sharpening skills, and so much more. But they teach you that educating the customer is the companies primary mission. 

We carry amazing products that are both amazing quality but are of great value and priced competitively. They also love to hear feed back from anyone about products. From what isn't working to what is the best products. Their customer service and passion for providing the best customer service is world class. 

The people that work at head office, the stores, or on their web store. All have passion, personality, and work hard to make the customer experience and product selection the best in the country.

I put in years with HOK and for the majority of it, it was incredible but as the retail landscape changed, so too did the company - in a bad way.  It used to be that you could work hard and get rewarded with promotions and great prizes from contests.  That was all stripped away as were the hours.  

Staff were expected to work upwards of 8 hours or more by themselves with no coverage.  Stores had microwaves at one time but those were removed so during those long days there was no chance to even bring a decent meal to eat.

Wages got worse and worse for anyone newly hired and I genuinely felt bad for those people I worked with who were getting minimum wage while they were expected to work their butts off.  Loyalty used to be rewarded but ownership now prefers to rotate managers in and out "to keep things fresh".

There is so much product knowledge that staff expected to know but no time to learn it all.  I used to say to new hires that it will take a year to learn everything you need to know but now no one lasts nearly long enough to get to know it all and the customer now learns nothing when they enter the store.  

Do yourself a favour and ignore this company.  Save some money and buy the same products online for far less.  Lord knows the internet knows more than any staff does now.  Unless they change their culture to what it was like years ago, House of Knives will not last much longer.

a lot of retail turns there staff into mouth pieces just rattling off the companies talking points, ideas, point of view. at House of Knives were trusted to become the experts in our own way, so we can speak relatively freely with customers. 
id say for anyone looking into getting a job with HOK, be prepared to do some of your own research, not everything is going to be bottle fed to you. we get a fair bit of free time to do some good old fashioned googling, and take advantage of those true knife nerds that come into peek at new goods. our regulars are better then google so take a minute and have a conversation! (which thankfully is one of the best things about HOK, they, we! really believe in the power of a conversation, make a friend, make a lifelong customer, learn together!)

absolutely the best job anyone could ever ask for. Honestly I love it here, and am more and more thrilled every day that I get to come into work. Everyone is so positive and welcoming when you first get hired, and upper management is more than willing to help when you need. I got three weeks of training with 3 different managers and MY GOSH what an amazing group of people we have here at HOK. I got trained by 2 of the upper management, and then one of the other store managers based in BC. They were all equally amazing, but had different personality's which I love. No one has the typical retail 'im better than you' mentality and it really does feel like a family here.

This was one of the worst job experiences I’ve had. The manager was ok but the upper management and owner were horrendous. 
The district manager was over barring and bullyish, the owner was less concerned about staff knowing the product and more concerned that staff knew how to chop produce like chefs. 
The hours were bad even worse if you had to close as you could hear crickets and then would be penalized for low sales. This is not a place to work period your mental health will suffer and you won’t make any money here as the pay is terrible. You will be denied bathroom breaks and forced to work during your lunch break. If you want a place that cares about their staff or if you care about your basic human rights stay away from house of knives.

Your experience really relies on the manager you work for and the employees you work with, but all the managers and employees I've worked with are super supportive of my growth as an employee and are super happy to teach. All you have to do is ask! Whether it's new product knowledge or a new (or at least new to me) function on the point of sale system, I'm always learning. This job does not get stale and it rewards it's employees that work hard! Each individual store is like a little family and the company altogether is like one big extended family. The staff are friendly and always have your back. This is a great place to work!

The company as a whole definitely has room to grow, and luckily they are aware of it. In the last couple years especially they've had a massive growth in support from management, and are more focused on our teams, opinions, and opening more communication between head office and store staff. 
I've been apart of this team 4 years and I can say with certainty that the people here genuinely care about each other and do our best to look out for one another.

I have worked at House of Knives for almost a year now and it has truly been my best work experience so far in a retail setup. There's always new things to learn there and meeting customers from a diverse range of occupations looking for a quality knife/knives. 
Work is fun, co workers are great, management is awesome! There is freedom to take the initiative and not gain extensive product knowledge and use it for the rest fo your life. 
Not to forget that there is tremendous opportunity to gain commissions based on your sales apart from other incentives. 
Would definitely recommend working there!

House of Knives is a fantastic company to work for.  They are extremely flexible and considerate of the needs of their employees, and the people there are an absolute delight to be around.  My time at House of Knives has equipped me with a vast product knowledge of knives and kitchen gadgets, and has introduced me to a new standard of quality to appreciate.  House of Knives is my first experience of a sales-oriented job, and thus far it has been a very rewarding and challenging experience, one that I would recommend to anyone with a passion for knives and steel craft.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales associate 5 salaries reported	$17.93 per hour
Store manager 5 salaries reported	$54,600 per year
Customer service representative 4 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour
Acheteur 2 salaries reported	$26.44 per hour
Seasonal associate 2 salaries reported	$17.96 per hour

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