National Sports

Worked here for 3 years as a cashier and retail associate towards the end.  Management was flexible and accommodating with changes in employee availability as most of them are high school/post-secondary students.  Salary is low (minimum wage, with potential for a small pay increase depending on performance evaluations). Experience in retail is a plus, but not necessary - they train you right from the start on product knowledge and store policies/procedures and you shadow an experienced employee for a few shifts.  

 No opportunities to advance into upper management or head office positions, even for employees who have worked 5+years with the company.  Management style differs between stores (I worked at Scarborough), but all friendly and welcoming, cared about their workers and addressed their needs.  Also liked to plan staff events to foster team work and friendships.  Always open lines of communication between management staff and sales associates.  Head office is also quite friendly and competent.  

Job culture is great! You're surrounded by lots of young, friendly workers with various personalities and it's quite easy to get along with everyone.  It's a cliche, but they welcome you all into their big family.  Very little drama (if any!).  Overall great place to work at if you're looking to gain retail experience/skills to make you employable for another job in the future.

National Sports hires a lot of younger employees, mostly students. Unfortunately the management also carries themselves like high school students. By this I mean choosing favourites within the company and showing priority to those employees. They also don't give much direction in terms of what they are exactly looking for but expect employees to instinctively meet management's expectations. Other employees will likely complain to management about their colleagues rather than talk through a conflict with them. Management also avoids confrontation but will have a predisposed idea of some of their employees based on what others have mentioned about them. It's like high school. Very catty. There is also a lot of gossip and disgruntled employees. There is a lack of essential communication which can at times create chaos.

Worked here for 5 years throughout the end of high school and through college. Management changes very often, and not always the best either. I stayed because I knew I was one of the strongest employees and knew I was valued... however the pay didnt show it. It was also a good job to have in the background. Was a very laidback environment (with fun co-workers) which was appreciated and was good with working around your schedule ( depending on the manager at least). Not always given the best hours, and was really hard to move up in positions. Discount isn't the best and don't get discounts at the other FGL stores i.e sport chek, atmosphere, marks...Unless you are a manager. Definitely not a forever job, but good to start off.

National Sports in Pickering was an extremely enjoyable place to work. A lot of my coworkers were around my age and easy to get along/work with. I worked in multiple different departments, so the typical day of work would be different depending on the department. Most of the time it involved product placement and customer service. I learned about the product, the different types of footwear and when the appropriate time to wear it would be, as well as the proper usage and care for sportswear/outerwear. The management was informative and thorough so there were no tasks that were particularly difficult for me. The best part of the job was the atmosphere - it felt like one big family, where everyone worked together to ensure the store would be successful.

I worked at National Sports Oakville for two years and absolutely loved it. While I was working there the managers trained me in three different departments, which allowed me to learn new skills. When I voiced my feelings about wanting to switch to cash from sportswear, they moved me without hesitation. The managers were very nice, encouraging and flexible with availability. They also got to know all of us and weren’t too hard on the employees (They expected us to get our jobs done and help customers but weren’t overly demanding of us). The community at National Sports was amazing, I made some long-lasting friendships and really liked working there. Sadly, I had to leave for school and they are now closing. But overall couldn’t recommend it enough!!

Primary objective is customer service and I feel that for the most part that objective is met. The Store itself is very dirty and NOT well maintained by workers and management. Boxes are scattered everywhere throughout the backroom with very limited organization.
The co-workers were good and pretty easy to work with for the most part. The biggest reward personally is sending a customer home or off to the rink happy and satisfied with the experience at national sports and that we provided a easy and enjoyable buying process.

A typical day at National Sports in the hardgoods department was get in and do  the team meeting for around 15 minutes at the start of the shift. They call it a 'huddle', and essentially the manager that night will take you through their expectations and events that happened at work that week. After the huddle you hit the floor and sell product, keep your section organized and sharpen skates. At the end of the day you clean your section and the proshop and then you're good to go home. Overall, I loved working at National Sports.

The work place is terrible, the management is not any better. They make you so much extra work and don't show you any apparition. Some of the managers bully you into doing their work for them. They are short staffed almost all the time for you need to pick up other people slack. They randomly stop giving you shifts. I've worked there for over 3 years and its the worst job i've ever had. I would not recommend it, its not a reliable job, I've seen some people leave or just get there shift cuts. most people don't stay for longer than a year.

I have done a good overall experienced in National sports and K&D Landscaping. The most enjoyable part of the job, was helping Co-workers, taking orders from my manager, cleaning and organizing of the store, helping customer's, positive attitude towards others and good communication skills. I have learned that I would be more Respectful towards other customer's and co-workers, help them out with anything they need, be a very pollinate.

I learned how to sharpen, and gained customer service skills that are valuable in other areas of my life.
A typical shift was 8 hours long, and was usually very busy because I sharpened. Skate line ups would sometimes reach 2 hours in length!
I loved the perks of working in the hockey section, learning about the cool specs of the equipment , and getting to demo the gear as well!

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