retail sales associate

customer service representative

sales associate

manager in training

warehouse associate

Ashley Furniture HomeStore

What is the best part of working at the company?
The company was surprisingly active in regard to making sure their associates felt valued; especially when considering the size of the company! Most companies that grow to the capacity as Ashley Furniture, inevitably seem to  change the way that they view their active  associates to a more generalized manor and lose touch with actual value that every member of the team has to offer, and what each individual contributes toward the overall growth and success of the company. Ashley has proven to me on a highly consistent basis that they value every associate’s contributions toward their overall growth and success, regardless of department and/or position in the company. On a regular basis they coordinate events with extremely valuable prizes, compliment associates to free dinners at reputable restaurants or interactive and fun places of entertainment etc…. But most importantly they would constantly incentivize and reward every associate to grow and reach their potential through an extremely lucrative pay; monthly bonuses with no cap to the potential you could earn; temporary side promotions that paid additional bonuses, and many other separate ways to also increase their income through all the different employee promotions and bonuses they run! 
This company has still not lost sight in prioritizing top level leadership, which in turns holds high priority in personally investing time and energy toward knowing every individual associate on a store by store level, despite being the largest manufacturer and distributer of furniture in the world.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
As successful as this company has become, it is all due to the level of research they have performed on what are the most effective behaviors to be performed by each associate in regard to reaching the best results (regardless of position or responsibilities). These behaviors can seem to be an inconvenience at times, or even excessive to those who aren’t willing to make an honest attempt at growing and reaching higher levels of success with their profession. These same behaviors that can seem to be overwhelming to some; however, the truth is they are actually developed and studied extensively, and have all been proven to be effective at the highest capacity… the downside is that they are all expected to be learned and practiced in order to effectively perform them, which requires discipline, practice, and a willingness to learn and grow.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Extremely encouraged to be a complete unit that operates fluidly and efficiently together as a team. Highly paid, highly motivated and incentivized for performance, but above all else I have only experienced a culture/environment centered on the belief that everyone will be more successful if all associates did their part and contributed equally and honestly toward the goal. They have an entire book of “Core Values” that they pride themselves on constantly seeking to prioritize in every corner of the company, and all of which promote top quality & wholesome values that actually apply to your day to day life as well as in the workplace.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
My day typically begins with my anticipation of what opportunities may come to achieve my goals, and a complete absence of a single thought of dreading my upcoming shift. I look forward to going in to work every day as being my place to escape from my personal life and do what I actually love to do every day, which is to go into my most natural environment - coaching my team of Sales Associates, and being able to interact with new people throughout the day while being able to just “chop it up” with different guests and helping them find solutions for their needs… all of which I can genuinely say I believe in as being high quality, highly effective, and highly cost effective products that I am presenting. I love the interaction with guests, but even more than that I look forward to coaching my associates and helping them grow to achieve higher levels of success both financially and professionally.

I was the warehouse foreman, a position that no longer exists in the company. My typical day would consist of showing up early, making sure that my drivers and their helpers had everything they needed to deliver or to make the delivery, and solve the issues accordingly. After making sure they got loaded and on the road 100% we would start our daily 'picks', what we called a pick list of items to be delivered the next day or for pick-up later in the day. This would include pulling furniture items from the warehouse putting them into lanes according to truck and in the proper order.  I would then double check my employees work and catch any issues or potential issues with the order, how it was layed out, order issues, damaged/ missing items, etc. Then I would delegate which workers would stay to open select pieces of merchandise to be built and who would work with me on the showroom floor with the Floor Coordinator and store manager who I worked with. I would then walk the floor with the FC and we would decide what moves would be made that day and how, and who we needed doing what. After that we would pull another list items of pieces either coming off the floor or from the warehouse to be built and go to the floor. I would coordinate the floor moves with the employees and leave them to finish. I would them do a check of inventory for the warehouse, making sure we had merchandise for future deliveries and checking that inventory is correct and change what need to be changed. Another task that would pop up throughout the days are delivery trucks which I would either assist in unloading or I would tag the merchandise as it comes out of the truck so it can be located in the warehouse. After depending on the schedule we were working on that day we usually would locate it that day towards the end of the day unless we had time. I would run the scanner gun and hand locate with the gun every item and delegate which piece would go where, I always had a running knowledge of where we had space and where most everything was. I also throughout the day would help the shop hand that did repairs go through  returns and repaired merchandise to be located or get prepped for delivery, or to the floor. I would also periodicly run items and tools out to the delivery crews so they could finish the delivery or assist them with a special case or show them how something could work with a judgement call. I would run hotshot deliveries as well either in my personal truck or in the 30' box truck.

I've learn a lot of time management skills here as well as how important delegating is. Inventory and warehouse management skills were learned as well as showroom presentation, merchandising items appropriately and how to cross-merchandise a whole sale. In running deliveries I learned that presentation and taking care of a customer you are the last line of defense to turn a bad sale around as well as making the shopping experience memorable to achieve lifetime customers.

The hardest part of my job was finding new ways to work with co-workers that refused to cooperate with you, I found doing what you can and what needs to be done while abiding by the rules is always the best way.
I enjoyed my scheduale I worked as well as how 'layed back' of an environment I was able to create while i was there, all a workplace of any kind needs a knowledgeable person on how the entire system of the bussiness runs and to create a good working system on how things should be done and constantly try to improve on it. Finding smarter ways to take the work load and disperse it evenly as well and making everyones job easier. taking care of your employees is essential to a great working environment. My most enjoyable part of the job was taking a slow moving enefficiant warehouse and turn it completely around and create a better inventory system, more accurate deliveries and creating a more enjoyable work environment, while also completely refreshing the entire 40k sqft showroom and get everything to where it just needed to be maintained.

I initially began the job with recruitment from a third party temp agency, hired into their “customer service corporate headquarters.” Finishing my temp contract, I was brought on full-time.
The position itself is simple. Typical Customer service call center. (No quotas was nice tho) company itself promoting their great quality products, its “work culture” and position in the industry.

However after my time spent there, I feel this couldn’t be further from the truth.  The company provided little to no training( all be it, not an issue with my prior experience.) so be ready for sink or swim.
The corporate call center, is filled with upper management that is out of touch, the company itself unable to keep employees, or a budget for various departments. Majority of stressors coming from the internal employees, processes and management; not the work. Constant internal conflicts and information will be different between nearly every employee. Wrong information provided by employees to customers and supervisors to agents. (Majority of people training/ managing have never worked a day in the job)

Health benefits mediocre, pay is “ok”

Typical corporate facade, and revealed itself to be toxic positivity. With the promise of a great workplace and “opportunity.” 

Sadly, The job quickly became more and more tedious and stressful as the days passed.
I started as a inbound call agent with high spirits and a great attitude.  was able to make a few lateral moves to various teams and tasks. Additionally a promotion to an escalated department.

That said, the company has a Lack of respect for the health, safety, and time of the  employees,
When trying to seek the opportunity they so frequently touted. I was ghosted on Multiple internal interviews for new departments and positions to “move up.” To which the positions were then outsourced or the company pulled employees/supervisors that did not apply for the position. 

The only raise or evaluation that was provided, to myself or any other employee during my year and a half with the company was recently provided due to rent/economic and ironically after losing a large % of its staff. 
“Merit/ inflation raises” they said.

The company began to double down on remaining staff, expecting more productive work with half the staff, disbanding entire teams/ departments and put in place more and more micro management.
Looking around the offices before leaving revealed even less staff than previous weeks.

“It’s just business” but  I personally saw and experienced various shady business practice.

Note: the company is privately owned, and broken into various subsidiaries/ LLCs “markets” with little to no oversight or compliance.

 I have never seen “corporate”company so useless in showing respect to its employees and customers. (Ex: internal survey/ focus groups where rather than addressing pain points, some figurehead from headquarters got defensive and blamed the employees)
 
(Only a handful of good supervisors)

The company force its employees and management into complacency, and shuns any progress towards providing development or improving itself

Furniture quality sucks and so does the upper management.


If you're  patient and willing to put in the work it pays off. I left and regret it. Has the best benefits around. 1-4 weeks PTO. 2 weeks sickness time, birthday pay, medical and dental are lost cost, discount on items, 401k, life insurance, and more. 


Typical day:
Write name on list for the one up. ( position  one is where you sit and great whoever walks in and that is your guest. Then whoever is next on the list goes. If you're not  in position 2-4 or in the area then you will be skipped. 
Morning meeting 15 mins
Check showroom floor "fluff and stuff" everything. 
When you get a guest make sure to inform them of our current promotions for both furniture and financing. 
If interested take them  to the "waterfall kiosk" which a computer for them to Apply for financing and it will show them what they are able to get  creating a waterfall effect. Meaning if not approved for synchrony then they bump the guest to the next option and so on. Sometimes they get denied.
 Either give a tour, or take guest to the area that has the products they are looking for.
Make sure to make a "cart" with their name and you listed as sales person if they aren't ready to buy that day. This way if they come back to buy those items you get 50%. 
Also make sure they don't have a cart already opened. If they do make sure to let the front desk know to split commission with the other sales person. 
Know your terms and conditions. Go over them at the Signing process and when entering orders into the P.O S. ( POSITION OF SALE) There is about 4 in the store. Always check that it is going to the correct printer.
Explain delivery.
Bring copy over to front desk after customer has signed their sales order and has been  given their copy. 

NEVER SAY THE DELIVERY DATE IS T HE DATE IT ESTIMATES IT TO BE. ALWAYS SET IT FOR A WEEK OR TWO LATER AND LET THE CUSTOMER KNOW THE TWO WEEK DATE. THIS WAY IT WILL BE LESS LIKELY TO BE PUSHED BACK AND MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A CHANCE TO COME EARLIER. THUS MAKING A HAPPY CUSTOMER. 

Also look at how many deliveries will be going out for those days. 

Clean the store and learn the store layout and products. Make sure to use the iPad to watch training videos even if it isn't required during that time. 

You will have to complete on going training though. 

Before leaving check with front desk to ensure all paperwork is done correctly, and have manager check your "specific" area to clean.  Honestly it is just easier to do the whole store throughout  the day or do more than just your designated spot. Being a good coworker and person is the way to succeed. 



Ashley Homestore is not for the faint of heart to say the least. I left after 4 and a half years and made some good friends.The pay and benefit plan is good. The sales floor traffic is fair to good but has steadily declined.There are strict performance standards and a heavy micromanaging hand to enforce them. I understand that you have to believe in and execute proven selling methods to succeed. A good portion of their processes helped build me up to be a better professional. However, the new executive leadership (which has changed 3 times in the last 18 months!) has gone overboard with performance demands. One example is a newly enforced policy that requires 3 confirmed buyer appointments a day! The regional executive implementing this requires managers to reprimand and stay on top of sales people who don't meet that standard. When you are only getting 4 to 6 ups a day and converting 2 or 3 into sales, how is that possible? The sales floor is a bit sharky but if you know how to sell, you can make money They have a great looking showroom and plenty of tools to close deals.You will work evenings, weekends, and most holidays. However, you will not work more than 40 hours a week unless they are short staffed on a major holiday weekend sale.They HATE paying overtime! You will have a customer service staff to handle angry customers over botched deliveries (which there is a good handful of). The time frames between sale date to delivery date are within 1-2 weeks typically so you don't have to wait long to get paid. Many items on the sales floor are overpriced and even with the offered discount incentives, the internet pricing is way cheaper! However, there are many items on the floor that are fairly priced. Overall if you want to give this job a try, I recommend that you keep your head down and just sell.You can make $45,000 to $60,000 a year and that's not a bad living. If you are one of the greats, you can make $80,000 or more. I made $80,000 in 2015 but saw a decline over the last 2 years. The reasons were constant turnover in management & executive leadership, internet sales taking profits away, and some personal stuff.They are very quick to offer sales & store management positions to anyone who shows the ability and willingness..The compensation plan for management isn't any better than what a higher performing sales person makes and the hours and demands are way more difficult! .Most that try that game leave angry, bitter, and burned out.  If you try to move up the retail ladder and play the politics game, you probably won't win There are way too many other factors other than honesty, hard work, and professionalism involved that just aren't fair.

Honestly not even sure where to begin. Been here for a decent amount of time and company has progressively gotten worse. Your daily activities as a delivery driver/ helper will consist of constantly apologizing to customers due to lack of communication between customer care/sales and the customer, constantly breaking company policy due to sales and management over promising things we do not do or are even supposed to do  . This is the only furniture company I am aware of that’s prep process is to simply do quite literally nothing. That means product in cardboard boxes and styrofoam. The styrofoam cardboard and other shipping trash will at some point become far too much and it will be all over the streets , customers homes. This has been reported multiple times over multiple years. Management doesn’t care.   This company also expects you do do this very difficult job regardless of the weather(very very few times have we been called off for weather maybe 3 times within 3 years and that number should be far higher with what we’ve been put through) Company is either negligent or simply doesn’t care that this job is extremely physical and 5 days straight in a row of it is quite literally horrible for your body. The pay here is beyond a joke. Some people have been here for multiple years and make .10-.20 more per hour then someone brand new with no experience. On top of that they pay $17 for drivers and $14.50 which for this type of extreme physical work is so very unacceptable. A real slap in the face by our own company. You can go deliver small packages with a company that actually communicates between its departments at fed ex or ups for $20+ an hour. If you enjoy Working 10-12 hour days of delivering heavy furniture (a bit different then sitting in an office for 10-12 hours) , delivering in the dark in the winter, constantly apologizing to customers, years of the same problems with no solution , chasing trash down the streets, never getting tipped because the company doesn’t mention it to customers at all, hauling away old disgusting furniture, constantly having new furniture not fit because sales promises everything will fit and does absolutely nothing to see what a customers home might be like and not getting paid nearly what this kind of work is actually worth then hey perhaps this is the job for you! If not you can go to other delivery jobs that are far less physically difficult and pay far more . Or even go to sales here and make 20 an hour to do a fraction of what delivery does. I pray to any innocent soul reading this and even partially considering joining this delivery job , that you steer clear. For your own sanity I strongly urge STAY AWAY.

The Wellsville Group (dba Ashley Furniture Home Store) is a TERRIBLE company to work for. Firstly, they do not generate enough business or have enough sales volume to justify how many salespeople they put on their sales floor. Therefore, no one makes a living wage. Even if you are the best salesperson in the world, you would be lucky to make $25,000/year. I was hired as a salesperson in a brand new store that was about to have its "Grand Opening". The "Grand Opening" was a joke.......very few customers showed up......and even less actually bought any furniture. The store manager even admitted to me that the company "dropped the ball" when it came to advertising the new store, but he encouraged me to stick with the company and things would get better. They didn't get better. They got worse. When I finally left the company a couple of months later, most of the salespeople who had been hired with me had already left the company.

And here's the best part. When I left the company (on good terms), I asked the store manager if I could wait to clean out my locker until I came in to pick up my last paycheck a week later. He assured me that would be fine and my belongings would be safe. When I came into the store a week later to pick up my check, I found out that all of my personal belongings that were in my locker had been THROWN IN THE TRASH a couple of days earlier! One of the employees verified that he had seen my work shoes and my ties in a garbage receptacle along with other personal belongings of mine and paperwork that I had in my locker (including the original copy of my birth certificate). This locker was in a break room at the store where only employees are allowed, so it was apparent that it had to have been a Wellsville Group (Ashley) employee who threw my personal belongings in the trash. I was shocked that they would do something like that...especially since the store manager assured me that it would be okay to leave my belongings in the locker until I picked up my final paycheck. When I told store management that I would like to be reimbursed for the cost of at least some of the personal belongings that they carelessly threw away, they referred me to "Human Resources". After several phone calls to "Human Resources", I was informed that they would NOT reimburse me for the personal belongings that I had lost due to their carelessness and it was NOT their responsibility.

This is not a company that I would want to work for. This is a company that has no idea how to treat their employees. Please, do yourself a favor and pursue a position with a company that actually cares about the people who work for them. The Wellsville Group (dba Ashley Furniture Home Store) is definitely NOT that company.

As a visual designer, you are responsible for the look of your showroom. A normal day would consist of helping your warehouse associate build furniture, move, stage, and tag it. You are also responsible for receiving trucks, hanging art work, assisting in inventory, and maintaining an in-store warehouse, amongst tons of other things. Now, being a visual designer isn't so bad, but, NO CREATIVITY IS ALLOWED. Every lamp, rug, table set, accessory set, dish set, canvas, framed art, plant, etc. etc. etc. has a designated area in the store. So, you will get ripped a new one for not following this sort of "guide/map." That'd be easily dismissible though, if EVERYONE was on the same page. Management and Sales teams do not care for your visual standards, but YOU will be held accountable for another persons actions. As a visual designer YOU are responsible for making sure your store looks 100% ALWAYS. Which, also wouldn't be so bad, IF even your management team was on the same page with Corporate. No corrective action is ever taken against a sales team member, especially someone who can write large sales tickets, but doesn't do their fair share of maintaining the showroom. But the sales team sure does get all those sweet bonuses! Your managers buy THEM lunch, THEY get nice incentives, THEY get the boat parties/dinners, and THEY get ALL the thanks all the time! It's so wonderful for them. What bugs me more than anything though, is that no one seems to read anyone's emails either. So everyone is constantly cancelling eachother out when barking orders. And if you have questions for the big wigs, they most likely won't get back to you. Regional sales managers do not follow what your corporate visual team advises, Store managers do not follow what your regional visual managers directs, it's very unprofessional. Every position within the store is a revolving door. Nobody really stays longer than a few months, if you're lucky. I see new sales people almost weekly and new managers every few months. I remember being so excited to work here but now, I cannot wait to leave. In recent events, they got rid of one of the three positions in the visual department. So now you get to do two jobs for the same exact rate of pay! And no OT!  I've asked if we will ever be compensated for our new duties but I just get a big fat NO from everyone anyway. So, if you'd like to make a dollar or two over minimum wage for a literal back breaking job that will bring nothing but stress, no appreciation, has impossible standards, and tight deadlines do apply within!

As a Customer Service Representative you are forced to do too much and are compensated and respected very little for it, if at all. Despite having to finish your own office paperwork which has multiple steps in itself, you are also forced to do the job of other positions as well. This includes writing sales that is supposed to be done by RSA (Sales Associates) and even sometimes expected to save a sale from an upset customer who wants to cancel their purchase. Customer Service is the only role that doesn't get commission pay for anything they do despite having the hardest job and doing more than the rest of the positions. 

On top of that, Customer Service also deals with multiple upset customers that get in the way of other office work we are also expected to finish. There's too much of a hybrid design in the CSR position and it makes very little sense how the company expects it to be productive with everything that's expected to be done. This is not to mention the goals of your store manager or sales manager do not match what your corporate office supervisors tell you to do, and their policies don't match because one side wants to only push sales and the other side wants to keep order and balance in the office. You also get written up for making a mistake trying to fix a sales associate's mistake????? So you're basically the center of blame for everything if you do even the slightest thing wrong, while being given more to do than even the Managers have to account for. Managers aren't even trained to know how to operate the CSR position, making training there VERY limited.

Not only all of the above is wrong with the position, but your working a so-called customer service role when the company doesn't give you any authority to serve the customer. Mass majority of issues have to be sent over to Corporate for them to decide the outcome of the issue. This gives customers the run around. CSR is also the first to take the heat of ALL issues and mass majority of issues happen from outside the store from third party companies or delivery teams. The amount of pay for the job is not worth all the stress, and it is the most dysfunctional position with the lowest compensation in the entire company.

The only good part of the job is the amount of experience you might gain from having to deal with all of this, assuming you work here long enough. 

Other than it taking a long time to earn trust or any respect from the older and more experienced workers, it was a pretty homey place. People were  pretty friendly and accepting. Some were sneaky and you couldn't trust them, but some just minded their own business. There were some who may have felt left out often, which is never fair. But everyone brought something to the table.
Overall, if you did your job well, it was usually recognized and it felt good to be appreciated by the team in those good times.
The only real toxic thing were the owners. A set of brothers. One was fine, the other was one of the most toxic people I've ever met. A micro managing and paranoid organism that would fester about the store all too frequently. He was cheap and arrogant and was so holy in his eyes as to even rudely cut in and interrupt when you were talking to a customer. His ideas were ridiculous and as if he didn't even know how the business operated. All he cared about was making money to pocket himself.
Definately some shady business moves on the owners end. It was so bad that we were always nervous and stressed out when he was around regardless of level of experience.  
Word is there's new ownership now. So that's the one thing I'd check on when you pursue this job. Make sure the old owners are truly gone.
Hopefully that means the environment is a little less toxic now.
Otherwise, money was a little less than adequate unless you were working overtime or making really good sales.
It definately takes alot of traffic and people skills to make sales, and trust in back end work and possibly becoming customer service manager to be more stable in customer service.
There really is no room for job advancement though. There were only like 6 jobs in the whole company other than ownership. And half are management and require typical experience which is a long term achievement. 
This isn't a career unless you're management or a high selling sales person. 
The pay may have gone up thanks to the pandemic though so not sure on the current rate.
Benefits are pretty good, rarely had an issue getting assistance I needed.
Upon hire you get drug tested and they're very strict on that. 
Family like atmosphere. Dysfunctional,  but close.
Work hard here an it will pay off okay.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 94 salaries reported	$73,957 per year
Customer service representative 147 salaries reported	$15.46 per hour
Sales associate 86 salaries reported	$69,163 per year
Manager in training 1 salary reported	$90,000 per year
Warehouse associate 51 salaries reported	$15.96 per hour

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