Anybody here ever climb the career ranks through a department store?

We've all worked in department stores/ retail as teens. Stores like Ross, Target, K Mart, Toys R Us, SEARS, TJ Max, Radio Shack etc etc. Basically shit jobs for shit pay

But has anyone here manage to climb the ranks and reach say, Area Manager, or Regional Manager? Has anyone here started out as a cashier or something as a teen, and then reached a top position?

Anyone you know?


Discuss.

 

idve probably shot myself before i ever got that far. I do know someone who worked in radio shack and moved up to manager or some shit.

 

I climbed the Department Store Racks as a kid.

 

I've worked in just about all the stores listed in the OP. Never got to the next level. Even the managers looked miserable and run down.

Im sure Area Managers make pretty good money though.

 

I have never worked at a department store. I worked at a pizza place when I was 17 and made it to assistant manager. That job was awesome.

 

Same, but McDonalds. Age 18-19. My friends worked at Pizza joints, and other fast foods.

We would call once a week and trade food via their delivery guys because everyone gets sick of eating at their own restaurant.

My friend used to deal pot as a manager from the Wendy's drive thru lol. If someone came through asking for an 18 pack of Timbits or two, it was code for a gram or two. He always had the headset on. Nobody ever ratted him out

 

Nah, not poor and have an education

 

At Mc Donald's, me and this ex con who worked their used to load up on burgers at the end of the night shift, and sell them to the college kids at the near by campus. The burgers were going to get discarded anyway.

 

Assistant to the regional manager.

 

I worked at Michaels arts and crafts when I was young, I was in school at the time and just needed some pocket cash to get by. I also love painting, so it was great to have all that stuff so close to me and to be able to get a discount.

The managers there acted like we were curing cancer, they were so serious about their jobs, and I can't knock that... Its always good to be serious about your job, they just made the place horrible sometimes and I could never take something like working at an art store so friggin serious.

 

people in here acting like it takes anything more than showing up for a couple months to be a manager at the places listed. Notice, I didn't even say, on time.

 

It went a little something like this.

 

Worked part-time at Sam's Club for 5 years while in university. Feel like it would have been pretty easy to move up the line of management if I wanted to do it as a career, judging by the level of intellect workers had there. One of my friends there did decide to make it a career after getting his worthless theology degree - he became a team lead for a few months, showed himself to have some aptitude, then proceeded to join the manager-in-training program in CA. Never heard from him again, but a minimum of intelligence and a good attitude should be enough in that line of business.

 

lol. That seems like too much work. T-red's were the popular method of ripping off a store back in the day that as manager we were told to watch for, but without Camera's? Good luck catching someone as they knew when and where it was safe. I never did it as I was pretty straitlaced at age 18, but I suspected a few who did and years later, they boasted they did over drinks. Christ another manager knew haha. Technically we are supposed to write someone up for too many t-reds coming up(Zeroing an order off after imputting) but it is not logically possible since people change their minds all the time and you are removing orders left right and center and re-inputting them.

T-Red was a simple process back in the day. They probably have better ways of catching it now, but we are talking the late 90's here. Know the price of a combo in drive thru by heart(Say back in the day, a Big mac Combo was $5.20), ring it in, kitchen makes it, then zero it off on the screen and charge for a 0.10 packet of McChicken sauce or something, hand them their meal, pocket $5. Twice an hour and you are making minimum wage + $10.

When Managers are counting food wondering why the fuck so much food is missing since it is not in the waste bucket, it is because staff are eating it and T-reds. Also because the previous manager fudged their counts because they did not want to spend time looking for it.

During Rush hour, you can get away with it more, depending on which managers are watching the screens(They employ a lot of dipshits in fast food management), and when the managers are in the office counting floats or the fridge, it is open season, especially on a 3-11:30 shift.

So yeah, some drive thru workers made a lot more than minimum wage.

Some were also the kind of assholes who played floor hockey with McChicken patties and then served them. The fun jokes were putting a Hotcake instead of a quarter pounder patty on another employees double QP. Or cutting their pizza into 30 slices instead of 4

 

I climbed through a rank department store before. Moss growing on the aquariums, Crisco smeared on the female mannequin's netherlips, and seamonkeys growing out of a spill in aisle 8.

 

Why am I just now hearing about T Reds?

But yeah a lot of theft went down at those places. I used to work the graveyard shift at K Mart. I hated that shit, because clothes would be thrown all over the floor. Anyway, we used to walk right out of the door at the end of our shift to the parking lot. Our pockets would be filled with CDs, DVDs, action figures, candy etc. It was a joke. Even the shift manager would walk out of the store with his pockets stuffed with goods. Some guys used to steal clothes by wearing them underneath their uniforms. Guys would walk out to the parking lot in the morning wearing 3 pairs of pants lol. I gave my little brother action figures and comic books. I finally got fired for some unrealated shit like slacking on the job ROFL

 

I don't know if this is true but....

Someone once told me that McDonald's only hires from within. To climb the ranks you had to start at some point flipping burgers or taking orders. I did meet someone that worked at my regional headquarters once and she said she started working for McDonald's as a teen. She had been with McDonald's for over 30 years when I met her.

 

I started in women's shoes at age 14 and now I'm CEO.

 

Used to work at a department store, won't say which one, but depending on where you work you can climb the ranks pretty fast, especially if you have a manager who likes you. I got to manager and probably could have made it to Store Manager in a couple of years. Not too bad starting as a seasonal employee.

The thing about retail is the more people who know and like you the better, it also depends on WHO is the manager at your store at the time. If you manager doesn't like you or maybe even worse just not running their store properly it might take a while to work your way up the ranks at that store. Honestly, there's so many factors that play into it.

As far as becoming an area/district manager that's a highly coveted position and at any store it's going to be a difficult job to get. Store managers as far as I know can make up to 6 figures (this varies widely based on a lot of factors) but all the store managers I've had work ridiculous hours. I'm guessing a district manger is definitely in the 6 figure range.

 

Its true.

All the managers have flipped burgers