sales associate

beauty advisor

business manager

beauty specialist

Saks Fifth Avenue Stores (SFA)

-fake people: every associate will be nice to you and smile at you BUT they will steal your sales or twist your words about your sale so that your manager gives you trouble and will believe them instead of you. also, if another associate has an issue with you they will go behind your back and tell a manager instead of confronting you instead. there are so many fake people at this location and it is not fun to work at.

-territorial about customers/clients: the company really emphasizes on clientelling and cross-selling (selling from all different departments) and this is not necessarily bad but it can get competitive when associates from other departments are in your department selling your merchandise. 

-rich clients/customers: when you meet a rich customer who has not shopped here before, your first instinct is to give them exceptional customer service so that they'll come back to shop from you. and you are motivated because you want their sales so that you can make money. but this can sometimes backfire. everyone is different so some customers are not the type to ask you to be their personal shopper or necessarily contact you to let you know that they're coming and they want to buy something from you so it can hurt when you see that they've bought stuff from another associate. also, some customers will be rude to you because they're rich and they think that they can get whatever they want. this will hurt you. sadly, there are some customers out there that think that the amount of money that they have entitles them to be rude to you or expect a godly level of customer service from you and if they don't receive this godly level of customer service, they WILL complain about you which can create so many issues for you (stress, anger, management pressure, etc.). some customers will even go as far as to complain about you in order for management to give them a discount and this WILL happen to you eventually.

-POOR COMMISSION STRUCTURE: some departments are on a different commission structure. this means that some people will literally HAVE to sell or else they will owe the company money that will be taken out of their paycheck (it is not wage + commission, it will be wage vs. commission). some departments are set up this way and there is nothing you can do about it. so make sure you read your contract before accepting this job. there is absolutely no way for you to renegotiate or ask for a different commission structure than those other associates in your department. the only way for this commission structure to be good is if they give you the merchandise that people want to buy, instead of giving you bad product. they have to work on that.

-usually slow: working on a weekday can be extremely boring and slow means no sales. so why would you show up to work when you know you'll be bored and LOSE money by standing there doing nothing?

-returns/not being able to sell: if you're on a wage vs. commission structure like mentioned above, it will stress you out if you don't sell much or if you get a big return. being on this structure means that you have to sell in order to make money so when you can't, it makes you feel terrible and it makes work not fun. for a part-timer, you should not be stressed about a PART TIME JOB but sadly this environment will cause stress.

-bad merchandise: as mentioned above, there is bad merchandise at this Saks location which makes it hard to sell. how do they expect me to sell when they are not giving us the brands that people want to buy??? makes no sense.

-managers don't care about you: this depends on which manager you work for. some managers care more than others, while others will not say a word to you if you say that you have a medical emergency and you can't work for a week. also mentioned above, they will sometimes not believe your side of a story or won't even let you tell them your side. there can be a lot of manager favourites.

-clientelling: there is a big emphasis on on the clientelling service with this company and it's understand that they want employees to reach out to their top clients but there is a limit to how much that associate can email the client or send them offers before they get annoyed. it's a "luxury" store but going out of your way to "invite them back" to shop with you each week will make you feel annoying. 

-weekly promotions: lately there has been a promotion every single week and this is poorly thought out because it conditions the clients/customers to only shop when there is a promotion going on. having a promotion once every week is too much and yes, it DOES brings customers into the store and makes them shop but it's annoying to have to keep updated and learn the new exceptions/rules with each new promotion.

-unhelpful managers/management structure: basically how it works is that there's a store manager and a department manager for each department. this can be unhelpful because if you need help then the department managers are the only ones that can help you which can be stressful for you and for them because there are very few and they are hard to find. it would be so much more helpful if there were assistant managers for each department so that they can update you on new promotions/rules and help you when you can't find a manager.

-hard to stay up to date: basically if you don't work for a day you can miss a lot. sometimes coming into work after having 2 days off only to find out halfway through the shift that there's a new promotion going on or a new rule has been set in place is really frustrating. literally NO ONE TELLS YOU ANYTHING. even if you read their emails you still might not know everything. also, THERE ARE A LOT OF EMAILS TO READ.

-inability to contact higher ups: some higher ups don't have a phone for you to contact them which can be extremely frustrating if you are having a client issue or would like to talk to them about work related things. what's the point of a higher up person if they can't be reached and you're forced to contact other managers? you will literally not be able to talk one-on-one with higher ups. 

-higher-ups are now wanting to only hire/replace former employees with people with commission experience (Holt Renfrew or Nordstrom) but no one is going to ditch their job to come work at Saks... especially with the poor merchandise, poor commission structure, and slow traffic.

-no work/life balance: this company may say that they understand that university students need certain days off or need less hours or what not but they are not compliant with what they say at all. the minimum hours is 25 a week, and if you're a university student and you want to keep your AMAZING discount at Saks then good luck asking for less hours...

Working at Saks started out to be a fun experience with lots of mentioned room for growth and opportunity as I was part of the team that opened the first store in the city. However, after a few months I noticed how incredibly dishonest the management was in terms of the sales structure and overall culture of the store. The management made empty promises and created an extremely toxic environment with my coworkers resulting in 8 of the original associates quitting within months. I was called just hours before my shift to hear that it was cancelled on many occasions, despite being a full-time employee, and began to feel uncertain about the future of the store. The most enjoyable part of the job was the discount.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The discount was probably the only decent thing about working for Saks.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Saks Fifth Avenue,  Eaton Centre location specifically is a horrible place to work & would not recommend it. Due to poor management & sales many brands have exited the store & have refused to renew their contracts. I am not a political person nor do I care about politics but there are many extreme leftists that are employed within the company, a very hive mind like place & just an overall stressful environment  especially for Sales associates. I would  treat it as if it were the hub for covid-19.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fake wokeness all around they do not care.

Tailors  had the opportunity to learn and practice on the garments and get more experience and benefits out of it. Good customers and tailors relation

I worked for Saks for 3 years. I was not supported due to the operations of ordering bags. My clients were frustrated by the time it took to receive the product customer’s complaint about the quality of the product and  the inconsistency of gift card offering for YSL . 

These complaints were not my fault but come down to operations, quality control and too many caveats to promotions. 

Associates are coached by management to attend walk-in clients, I did that and clients complained about too much attention. 

I did everything I could for clients and Saks to make everyone happy with in the constants. 



After one day of company orientation I was put to work without any further instruction thr next day. I hadn't been shown how or where to clock in, which is an issue but I made sure that was rectified at the end of my shift. It was a little disorienting to be sure, but I felt more comfortable the second shift. Expect to work hard no matter what department you're in, but I have to say the team I'm working with are friendly, helpful and made me feel welcomed and at home.

It is unbelievable how a large corporation can be managed so poorly. Store managers are very into micro-management, eg. high performing associates are watched by asset protection constantly, and poorly performed associates are nailed heavily by selling managers. Over the course of this year HBC was going through restructuring, where they let go of some really nice managers and kept the sit-all-day ones.

It was fun working here. I genuinely had fun. Enjoyed work culture. Enjoyed it. Management went through a lot of changes. The manager who hired me was amazing. Then we had none. Then the next one who came was a bit nuts. Control freak. No fun was had. She had never been a manager either. I think she was trying to prove a lot to people because the power trip was very REAL! Then all upper management was fired. I left to pursue an office job as the pay was better. Work place culture was the best I have had in my career though, I love fashion people :)

Desperate Managers with no high end retail experience that will do anything to keep their jobs. If you are not Chinese and on WeChat this is not the place for you. How can you compete against sales to China. Impossible. This Calgary location is fronting as a retail store in a mall when in actuality it is wear housing merchandise to be shipped to China. This atore should be in a totally different tax bracket but no one in the company will say anything. As long as the money from WeChat keeps the doors open that is ALL they care about.

We were sold a dream that this brand would be something great for Toronto. In reality, it's a shadow of what the states has to offer and HBC has only tarnished the name. Between bad management, an inadequate supply chain and a broken inventory system they really don'y have much to offer. Hours are crazy because they don't balance schedules, often departments are left understaffed or completely overstaffed. All the employees are miserable and it makes the culture very toxic.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales associate 3 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Beauty advisor 2 salaries reported	$20.17 per hour
Business manager 1 salary reported	$50,000 per year
Beauty specialist 1 salary reported	$72,648 per year

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