shift leader

retail store manager

sales associate

store manager

retail assistant manager

Miniso

Working at MINISO Canada was the MOST unorganized and stressful time in my career to this date. I came in looking to make a positive impact, yet management saw me was a disposable employee. Whether you work in head office or in the store, your position is not secure. 

Management here has unethical standards and expectations in the pursuit to “somehow” succeed in the Canadian retail market. All they care about is making a quick dollar. Upper management lacks patience, proper communication skills and fail to value all employee efforts. Employees (head office and store) work long hours for no overtime pay and VERY last-minute sales campaigns left departments scrambling to put together materials required for stores. 

There is no respect for employees. If you don’t speak Mandarin, I can assure that if you’re not performing, you become trash talked. If you complete a project/task, upper management likely changes course of action and blames you for putting everyone behind based on the original task you were assigned to do. I don’t know if it’s the language barrier that hinders them from communicating what they mean to say, but it doesn’t compensate for their lack of empathy and decision making. 

There were occasions MINISO has worked with agencies and printing companies to have PR events and marketing materials completed for promotions. If you’re an agency or printing company, beware of the large amount of changes and subsequent frustration that will come. Upper Management (i.e. the National Representative) will trash talk behind your if you don’t perform up to their unreasonable expectations. The work I have seen these agencies do is quite excellent, however it’s disappointing that management’s expectations are unrealistic. 

Commitment to providing customer service with their exchange is a joke. When dealing with product and customer issues, I had to turn away several customers with legitimate reasons (i.e. Deficiencies, injury, expiration) for a return/exchange that they would normally be granted at other retailers. However, at MINISO, the exchange policy is only 7 days which gives customers not a lot of time to even find any deficiencies in their purchases. 

Overall, I had some good time working with select head office employees. Unfortunately, my job was ruined with the lack of training and consideration towards my colleagues and me. One girl who is literally the heart and soul of the company, is treated so poorly with the extra hours and work they expect her to do for no overtime which breaks my heart. 

If you’re a marketing agency/printing company contacted by MINISO, you have better places to work your amazing magic with. 

If you’re someone looking for part time work, your fellow sales associates will be great……….to have to share your DISTRUST for upper management’s expectation for daily profit. 

If you’re someone looking for full time work at the head office, APPLY ELSEWHERE. Don’t bother wasting your time editing your resume and cover letter unless you want a job that involves lack of professionalism, mistreatment/mistrust towards employees and working with some individuals who clearly do not have the experience to be a business professional.

I worked at Miniso for 4 years. I would've made it to 5-6 os a stay as i loved my staff and the ability to work with them in a fun environment. I worked as team lead to Manager for the most part of my stay.

However the 'fun' environment would only be because of my staff, no one else. Lets say like a bad classroom and your desk partner is what makes it somewhat enjoyable and bearable.

The foundation of the company would always fall through, upper management didnt care, gave tasks not included in your contract (deconstructing shelving and metal that was done by construction teams at the store opening). You'd go home with muscle aches, sometimes 12 hour shifts and with contract, no overtime pay. Appreciation lasts for the moment until they find something to pin on you, which nullifies your previous accomplishments. Allocation is horrible, they fire staff and increase shipments and/or expect your small qty of staff to go through a huge store of shipments, while maintaining a neat store and cutting hours all in one. The expectations are horrible. 

I was given 2 awards after 4 years of work, a ceremony only brought up 4-5 years from its official canadian launch, so i cant say it was 'annual', but even so, the awards meant nothing to upper management and the treatment of you. They also dont care for customers, made us install foam boards at 10-15ft+ height, ripped it out, stuck it back horribly and it was falling off and could injure customers. 

Overall, the company is probably calmer now that all our dirty work is done, but while i was there, i saw the horrid management for staff. Area managers could talk about your store and you infront of others without professionalism, these are the same area managers that would call to vent to you about stress and I as well offered help to them to reduce their stress. Obviously, loyalty is obsolete and basic humanity as my giving nature was soon disregarded. If it werent for the upper management, micromanagment and horrible HR that do nothing about your complaints, I wouldve stayed longer. The turnover rates and through the roof here. Ive worked with 6-7 managers, 4-5 area managers, 30 associates all quit in a span of 2.5-3years. You are constantly checking your phone, constantly problem solving due to IT screwing up promotions, fixing machines, fixing programs (miniprogram always not working), last minute updates on promos, sometimes many promotions in ONE GO.

FYI, the customers give you a hard time too. But that is with most retail work. 

My Manager and team were amazing, but many things outside of that were confusing and frustrating.

Interviews were disorganized, my name wasn't on the list.

District manager taught us the wrong way to merchandise, and when another from head office told us we were doing it wrong they blamed us.

During that time when a rep from head was reviewing our store, they offered no constructive criticism, only stated our mistakes. Stating things that they didn't like and we should do differently(but not actually telling us HOW to do it differently).

We either had not enough stock or too much of something that wasn't selling at the time, my manager would ask for specific items and they wouldn't arrive.

It took months (maybe 4) to get fixtures that we needed to put more stuff out, since the back room had started to get packed with goods that didn't sell well.

Our store got closed, we were told a day before the sales started. During this part, we were told to pack up certain items to send back and not sell. This took about a week or more since it all had to be entered manually in an app that didn't function all the time. We packed over 100 small boxes. Eventually, we got to a point where we didn't have enough merch to get to the last day, so we weren't sent "leftovers" that other stores didn't want. Half the stuff they sent was items that they asked us to pack up in the beginning.

After during the cleaning process, the supervisor reps wanted us to handle supervising their workers cleaning up and making sure things were done/the garbage container closed etc. They were disrespectful to ourselves and the metal scrappers(freelance, do not work for miniso), telling myself and my coworkers not to help the scrappers. We were only responsible for the state of the store floor and backroom, not the temp workers and their responsibilities.

Overall, the company doesn't hold employees beneath them or outside of their company with high regard. The reps after cleaning didn't even wish us luck or any condolences with us losing our jobs, simply told us to soak in the last few moments being in miniso and that they would be back.

 The job itself was a normal retail job. With the variety of items, you get a large variety of people, most if not all packaging will be opened, as most of the time, it is not clear what the item/how it works/what it looks like.

Upper management is the absolute worst. They don’t understand how to make realistic goals nor do they try to understand what the store staff go through trying to fulfill their unrealistic demands. 

Upper management expects you to be able to mark down thousands of items within a few hours notice, but you can only do so within your scheduled hours due to the fact that Miniso doesn’t like to pay overtime. Being asked to mark down/up items with a smal time frame means that you either have to work overtime, or face the consequences, which consists of angry customers yelling at you for the wrong prices. 

The main problem is that they do not understand that it’s impossible to do all this while the store is understaffed, especially when the request via email came hours before when it should have been emailed ahead of time. 

In store managers face the same stuff that store associates face, but maybe on a more intense level due to the fact that they get more requests from upper management. The store that I currently work for has a great manager, but I can only speak for this store. I have heard of other store managers quitting due to the fact that they no longer can tolerate the way they’re treated from upper management as well. 

HR also sends out unscheduled price change lists that must be completed in unreasonable time frames unless you’re able to tolerate a customer’s fury over a $1.00 increase. 

There was recently another meeting regarding employee code, and it mentioned that if you’re allowing returns for products that aren’t covered in the return policy, you could get in trouble. The return policy is the second biggest issue with this company. Working a 5 hour shift, I would at least get 10-15 customers grumbling about the return policy. Based on the return policy and the fact that so many people have voiced their dissatisfaction with this to HR, it is clear that Miniso only cares about money and not the consumers or the quality of their business. 

The only good thing I can say about this job is the friends that I have made here and my great manager.

Worst company to work for, but if you're good at tuning yourself out while on the job, it's not as bad. 

Upper management is absolute garbage. They don't care about any concerns you have and only care about making their money. 

No benefits whatsoever, so you're slaving yourself away at reorganizing whatever the regional manager doesn't like, even if it costs you to work overtime. Speaking of working overtime, you do not get compensated, and if you work overtime it actually upsets upper management because they're too cheap to pay you the time that you work. 

Be prepared to face angry customers that are too cheap to pay an extra dollar for whatever they're trying to purchase. Where did that extra dollar come from you ask? It comes from the price updates that are unscheduled and unexpected. Upper management is supposed to send a list of the products whose prices have been updated, but 90% of the time they will not until you ask for it. 

If you were the consumer, you would expect a price match to the original price or what it was advertised as, but since Miniso is such a cheap company they insist that you don't honor these prices. What happens when you don't honor these prices? You get a long rant from the customer and how you're incompetent if you don't honor this or that. The main problem is that the wrong pricing is not the employee or the store's fault, it's upper management's fault because they fail to provide an updated list or system which tells staff what items have had an increase in price. Aside from this, stubborn customers will also come to you and chew you out about the return policy when they realize they didn't like the item they purchased. 


The people you work with are very friendly and laid back, as they're understanding of the things that the company will put you through. 

Ultimately, don't work for Miniso if you're not good at turning on autopilot.

Miniso is cute and fun as a consumer but as a worker you are treated like nothing. Higher up management gives insane amounts of large tasks with 1 day deadlines, only 1-2 people staffed in a store, and will treat you terribly if you express any form of concern or fatigue over the workload, including yelling and berating, and given ultimatums. Arbitrary tasks are prioritized poorly and above customer experience. Accessibility and visual of the store is forgone for receiving more and more shipment items, putting boxes all over the sales floor with no staff to put it away, and other tasks being pushed. 

Managers are often not given the manager title and are just “assistant manager” to an area manager who likely does not live in the area and does not visit the store except once a month. Managers are included in the only 1-2 employees staffed at a store, are expected to work 6-7 days a week, and be available outside of work hours as well, with barely above minimum wage salary. 

They will do their best to keep you minimum wage or as low as possible while stacking more and more responsibilities on you, especially with low staff. 

If you are part time you are also expected to have completely full availability, including short notice call ins, despite being part time. You will be punished if you do not meet this expectation. 

Promotions do not happen unless you fight for months or everyone else quits around you. 

Bonuses are advertised as fun incentive to hit sales goals, but are never given. 

“Benefits” are available but the bare minimum, and vacation is impossible due to keeping the staff low as possible. 

There is no employee discount. 

Normal day at work: 
You open the store, receive about 100 msgs in the group chat including opening photos which you have to take and send to group chat as well, and commands from your AM. Then because you are alone in the store, you have to go back and forth between cash, the backroom and sections you need to merchandise until the afternoon when your college arrives. Then there will be tasks popping up in the group chat from your AM that you need to complete before the day ends, interrupting your plan for the store. If you are at an afternoon shift, they will mention you in the group chat for the task they put out in the morning and ask you to complete them before your shift even begins. Then most likely you will have to close alone as well, which means you have to facing the store, sweep, mop and doing closing duties within 30mins after the store hours or they will question you why you take longer than planned time to finish your tasks. 
Upper management is chaotic and will never be satisfied. Good luck getting any sense of plan from them including how your target came to be, what and when your shipment will come, when and how they will do a promotion, or getting any store or office supplies. And they will add duties that's not on your contract when they feels like it with no compensation nor the possibility of a raise. 
Dealing with upper management IS the hardest part. 
The most enjoyable part is when you see the smile on customers' face when they find the products that they like:). 


The company is more concerned with profits than the well-being of its employees. Little wiggle room for scheduling, with either too few hours, or too many for one person to handle. 9.5 hour shifts are common. You only one 30 minute break the entire day unless you have a sympathetic manager.

As a result, stores are understaffed and employees are stressed. Burn-out happens over and over. Contacting corporate management is useless, and any questions you have will be answered differently depending on who you're talking to. Expect to solve a lot of problems yourself, and then be scolded for not following standards that were never made available to you.

Stock comes twice a week, and is often sent with disregard to what was actually ordered. Warehouse issues are common, and communication is poor, especially when it comes to requesting to send back or transfer excess product. 

Use-and-abuse defines the practices of Miniso Canada. You'll work inane hours, be given a workload you can't complete within it, and wade through ever-changing policies. Burn-out is high, and staff is constantly revolving.
Overall, not worth the wage (which will be laughable and firmly non-negotiable, since anything higher would cut in to their strict payroll budgets).

The thing about Miniso Canada as a branding, they sell cheap items from different countries in Asia, but with that they also give cheap cheap hours that most of the time the Manager wants to take. One bad manager can absolutely ruin a workplace but because Miniso is a cheap company, they don't have an Assistant Manager even though it is a part of the roles that some employees can get promoted from. They want to have multiple Key holders so that they can save money instead of having fair required roles that can contribute in increasing the quality of this working environment. 

They give extremely short hours to sales associates. This depends on which Miniso you work at but in most cases most Miniso stores aren't packed, which leads to less hours. You can expect one shift per week during slow season and maybe two or three day shifts on holiday season.

The expectations from the management is quite unrealistic since Miniso disregards basic employee rights but remain faithful in hopes that every single employee working under their name are to follow all the rules they have enforced.

I started as a part-time sales associate, and on my first day of work, I received no proper training on workplace safety until after I started working. The training was a complete mess; they told the new hires how to do something and then left us on our own. They put two new employees on cash during peak hours on the busiest day, and it was a mess. When I did closing for the first time, I had only been shown to do it once, and although there were other employees in the store, I was basically expected to do it on my own, and they provided little help or guidance at all. Worst of all, I received a phone call on my first day at work where my shift lead was verbally bullying me into working a Sunday I had previously stated and confirmed with my manager I could not work. They train the new employees poorly, then get mad at us when we make mistakes on the tasks we don't know how to properly do. Everything was a complete mess and disorganized; there were always extra things to do after work. All this for minimum wage and to be talked down to? Save your time by applying to anywhere else. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Shift leader 1 salary reported	$19.95 per hour
Retail store manager 1 salary reported	$41,500 per year
Sales associate 2 salaries reported	$17.20 per hour
Store manager 10 salaries reported	$40,600 per year
Retail assistant manager 9 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour

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