Things Remembered

Amazing work place, amazing staff and fantastic managers. While working at things remembered I was a sales lead, so my responsibilities consisted of, greeting customers when they came into the store, and helping them find the perfect item that need for what ever special occasion they came in for as well as aid them with any personalizations they may want on in store or brought in items. Our work days varied from either very dead or extremely busy. On the very dead days we would spend our time cleaning the store. (Wiping down glass shelves and dusting products) although on the very busy days you wouldn't may not of had time to take your break and had to work through your entire shift without stopping. Everyone that I worked with was amazing, very friendly and easy to get along with kind of  people. Personally I found the hardest part of the job was how emotional the job was as people would come in to get Urns engraved or people finding creative ways to propose to their significant other. Altghough I do have to say that the emotional aspect of the job may also be my favourite part of the job because you create something for someone that is very special to them and the reactions that you receive after showing them the product just warms my heart.

I worked here for a seasonal sales position and overall it was an alright experience. A lot of items are extremely overpriced for where its made/quality. The main reason why I rate 2 stars, is because of company/management expectations. Management judges you if you don't speak to customers **a certain way** that is up to their criteria. My manager was suggesting i forcibly compliment EACH customer that walks in, even if that is not true to my opinion. (E.g. "I love your hair, or purse.. Nice watch you got there...") Why do companies/management force this tactic on employees as it simply cannot always be the truth, and its just a sales tactic to get customers happy for that 1 second in your store... Theres a difference between being genuine as a person living in this world VS. doing something just so your company can attain higher sales. 

I made sure NEVER to lie to customers JUST to forcibly "compliment" them, JUST so I can abide into this company standard to meet the sales goals or expectations of my manager. 

Lesson learned: be in a job where I can truly be myself and don't have to be fake to customers!

Typical Day at work:
Dealing with various customers 

What I Learned at work:
Manager Skills
Engraving products (metal to glass)

Management:
Regional/District only cares about well-being of themselves and the company (which is understandable on a company basis)
Does not care about well-being of staff or management team
Makes empty promises; don't expect a lot or change
Dishonest with contract raises (even though their is cyber contract made and signed by employee)
Makes you over work and also not being able to get paid for the time
Some managers are just blatantly rude and unprofessional (curses in front of customers and at employees)

Co-workers:
Very energetic and pleasant

Hardest Part of the job:
Is saying no to persistent customers

Enjoyable part of the job:
Customer satisfaction

After a few months. As PT associate and a few as a seasonal, there is varying success in management. Most don't lead and focus solely on making money and cutting corners. I think I got lucky with the unicorn of management where compassion for employee welfare. Stores vary but from one of the smaller outlets, product knowledge was fairly easy to learn. Engraving was easy to grasp. The training material on joining is tedious and should be mixed with knowledge and hands on to cement the learning process.

Overall would work there again if it wasn't going bankrupt in Canada. Having managers who can balance bookkeeping and leadership skills would highly benefit the company.

At the store I work at the managers are always willing to go out of their way to make sure each staff member feels comfortable. The company itself is fairly decent, but my SM and ASM really make me love working here. They’re both kind, caring, and compassionate. The general idea at the store is to make the daily sales goal and get as much Engraving as possible, my bosses have really shown me how to get more info from customers to help further their Personalization. Not even as a business tactic; but even trying to get a truly personal item that the customers will remember.

It was a great experience working at Things Remembered. It was really fun and a different retail experience because you have to make sure every customer that walks out the store is happy with their purchase since it would be most likely personalized. The store is unique because of the fact that every item in the store can be personalized. The hardest task would probably be learning different ways to engrave and pleasing every customer with engraving. It is extremely fun engraving and providing customers with ideas. In terms of how busy the store is, it is extremely busy during Christmas and wedding seasons because that's when people would be shopping for gifts. In general, the store is amazing and a very enjoyable workplace.

I'd come into work clock in with my ID number and start my shift if I was going to be late coming from school I'd text my manager and let her know she understood, I learned to give the customer their space when looking around as well as if they are in a specific section to help assist them to find the item and I also learned how to write up for the customer to get their item engraved. The workplace is very diverse and open to giving opportunities; there really wasn't a hard part to the job and I enjoyed everything about it as I love to make long lasting connections with customers and make sure they enjoy their time in the store. As they make you feel like family so you don't feel out of place.

Company expects outrageous selling results with little or no compensation. No incentives.
Highly stressful job.
Too much emphasis on recording numbers and stats instead of customer satisfaction.
Not enough time given to new associates to learn to engrave.
If upper management has issues with one store - everyone gets blamed on weekly conference calls.
If mall traffic is light and daily sales quotas are not met - associates made to feel inferior and that they are not doing their jobs.

Company cannot keep good people on board - too stressful and too much pressure.

I loved this job. The employees were all amazing, very wild and out going crews. The merchandise was fun to engrave and experiment with and I liked all the things we sell. I went out of my way to make sure my store was perfect. I learned a lot about managing a store first hand since I was sent to a location with no management team at all temporarily. Unfortunately it was made obvious that there was no room for advancement in the company and since I was looking for something reliable for many years to come I made the decision to find something new.

My time at this company was very short (2 months) and this was the shortest time I've ever worked before, not including seasonal positions. The store manager treated everyone poorly before finally getting fired for the unprofessional attitude towards customers and employees. After they left, the assistant manager showed favoritism to other employees because they were able to meet their target than those who were still learning the ropes in selling. I never learnt how to engrave during my time there and I found it to be a sign since I left not too long after. The place overall made me feel miserable. But it was fun to learn how to sell and interact with customers

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