seasonal associate

commissioner

specialist

sales associate

sales

Bloomingdales

Very Energetic in the Support Area at least. 
 Sometimes it depends on certain individuals to make it an energetic environment.  Great Company, however,  it's the leadership of the Store and other leadership on other department that needs to change.  That doesn't mean get rid of, that means change how they actually treat people. Toxicity starts at the top leadership level.  I've been there for many years.  This is not coming from someone that worked just a year.  This specific location advertises flexibility.  You tell them that your flexible, leadership will definitely take advantage over that.  It will get to a point where your singled out.  Everyone's situation is diff.  Just expressing my experience.  I expressed that more people will leave,  that's exactly happening.  It has become toxic behind the scenes.  Corporate/District Leaders aren't really aware despite people going to them.   It's sad as I have a lot of respect for them.   Change doesn't happen overnight, everyone's aware of that.  People are afraid to talk as they want to keep their jobs and avoid leadership retaliating against them.  Retail is a revolving door.  With all of that being said.  As a part time job, for any new hire that doesn't mind working anytime in the day despite being part time, you will work full time hours when it gets busy.  Its not a bad thing.  It can be good and bad depending on your personal needs and life situation. 1 Person cannot be in charge of a large amount of tasks vs. another person being in charge of a few tasks and gets to go home early while huge workloads are on 1 person.   The leadership delegating won't ever do half of those tasks on they're own.  Cannot become a Leader that people will look up to that way.  Leadership needs to move on from the past and stop relying on friendship and former associates.  That alone should give anyone reading this a fair reminder of what you may deal with in Orlando at least especially on the support departments.  I have witness all of this as I worked there for many years, nothing here is made up.  Half of the leadership don't know or became complacent on what it takes to get certain tasks done.  I hate to say it, more good people are going to leave.  I haven't been wrong so far since I left there recently.  Too much personal friends within all leadership positions and associates around the store - This can be a good thing only if you know how to separate once your at the job.  Unfortunately this equates to favoritism.  I hate to say it, No one knows how to separate within leadership.  This also causes a risk in Security and theft from within.  Jealous Leadership, very jealous when they see an individual that can take certain individuals or a whole team, and just make them smile and actually understands the job, what it takes to get it done.  That's a serious problem within certain leaders, they feel threatened very quick.  Instead of feeling that way, they can learn from it, no one ever tried to step on leadership toes.  When a team starts to look up to you as a leader and follows you without a complaint or request, apparently something was done right.  Leadership is EARNED with anything in life.  A title is just title if you can't back up the meaning of it.  Certain Leaders aren't a good judge of character at all. 
That's why people aren't that happy anymore, they will continue leaving.  There's more to express but, I will end it here.

Unless you are a student who is doing this as some part time gig for pocket change, do not work here if you are looking for a steady income. For a high-end department store, when you train they promise you so much making it seem like you are going to be making so much money and working in this fantasy land. Reality is, you barely make above minimum wage because they take so much out of your paycheck for taxes and the union, on top of that if you have their healthcare plan, that comes out of your check as well. You also are on draw vs. commission which means your checks are going to be super small. Checks are always fluctuating and inconsistent. The return policy is a year so they have a huge fraud issue with returns but the customer is always right and the managers never have your back which messes up people's commission. You basically are paying Bloomingdales to work and that is the mentality they have: that you OWE them. The management is not only racist and majority of the managers are white (lack of diversity) but the floor managers micro-manage to the max. There is no positive reinforcement and all they tell you is to make more money and to open up new accounts. The managers are the real-life version of mean girls and will smile in your face, and say the most horrible things about you to higher management . behind your back but will never say it to your face; leaving you completely unaware of the list of accusations they have against you. There was clear favorites on the floor and the associates who have been there for a while would try to get the new associates in trouble all the time and would snitch to management for the smallest mistakes. The rules only applied to certain associates. I have seen three associates leave work crying because of workplace bullying. You always feel like you are walking on eggshells and everyday I went to work I had so much anxiety. Nobody there is happy. Do not be fooled by the beautiful building and loud music, the employees here are underpaid, tired, micromanaged, and overall was a toxic working environment. The customers are entitled and literally could spit in your face and management would try to justify why the customer was right to do that. I never felt like my managers had my back. In fact, I felt like my managers and coworkers were out to get me. Because of the commission issue, it makes for a sharky sales floor and fights breakout all the time on the sales for which makes for a chaotic, tense working enviornment. Everyday there was drama and I never left work in a good mood; the work environment has very negative energy. The place is filled with false promises and I have seen some things in management that are just downright bullying the way they talk about some associates. The managers also act like they are walking jesus christ and talk down to you like you are a nobody. People here let titles get to their head and are territorial of their sections so you cant even "cross-sell" like they encourage you to but they will get mad if you just stay in your area. Bottom line is, it is never enough. You will always be doing something wrong and you will leave with nothing. They set you up to fail

It's perfect for someone who is going to school. I worked here as a part time employee while in college, you have flexibility with your schedule and when you are a part timer most of the time you will be scheduled to close. Good thing is that you can always set preferences in advanced with your days so the system won't schedule you on days you are not able to work. It is a high end luxury store which handles lots of designers, you do get 20% employee discounts and there are some days where you get an extra 20% on some designers which was good.

The pay was draw vs commission which means that for every thing that you sell, you have to cover your draw first in order to make your commission, and that was really hard because it depends on which department you are and how many coworkers you have to compete with, you do have to sell constantly and pretty much follow people around. If you don't do that, someone will and that person will take the sale from you since most customers do not really care even if you speak to them first. They changed the attendance policy at the beginning of the year and now you have to keep your attendance percentage above 97% to be in the green zone and consider yourself reliable. Anything bellow that could place you on red zone and you are at risk of losing your employment. That attendance policy is so unfair because basically you have to be on time 97% of the time you are schedule and if you miss one day the reliability percentage is affected drastically.

If you are not selling enough, you might fall into deficit which means you won't see any commission until you are out of deficit. Your coworkers sometimes steal sales from you, especially when it comes to exchanges  and the days you are not scheduled so next day when you check your numbers you notice you are on negative numbers and only a manager can check whether it was an even exchanged or it someone took it from you, the return policy is way too generous so you might think you made a good sale but it will be a return later on, sometimes on the same day and you might leave with negative numbers for the day even if you made a good sale. You might also spend a long time with a customer and sometimes they don't buy anything and even if they do, they return it and you won't get any credit for any returns, once you get a return, your numbers go down automatically until you sell again. It is a dog eat dog environment and management is consonantly pressuring you with opening new credit cards weekly. It's retail so it's always open and the hours can be long which can make it stressful since you are on your feet all day.

Also depending on your manager, and the department you are scheduled, they make you come early before the store opens so you can  do extra assignments which might require you to do online orders known as picks, or placing the merchandise that's being delivered for the day where it belongs, doing floor samples, or opening boxes to put everything away, and you have to do this even if you are a part timer. I tried my best to be as bias as possible and summarize my experience while I worked as a part timer at Bloomingdale's.

Unfortunately, I had to endure this place for years. 

"Executive management" non existence, diversity on the selling floor yet, not diverse for promotion. Security is racist and profiles as well. Culture you ask? there is absolutely no culture. The culture or a day in the life would be shaking off the bad morale set by management in the morning, fighting traffic to which you have no idea why it is there, 'oh yeah it's Santa Monica' a store to which you are NOT allowed to transfer to a closer location near your home because that would be far to much paper work for the Human Resource department and 'they can't let another number - [they meant person] leave' the revolving door they call a store. 

When you get to work you must shake all the complaints of your co-workers off in the break room after quickly putting your lunch in the little super cramped frig. Complaints and concerns that you agree with but cannot bare to hear another day, for if you did... you would for sure go crazy. Go onto the sales floor, have a random manager verbally attack you for no reason and another walk over your new black shoes without making a sigh (a hello to peasants would be way too much to ask for). Oh yeah... did I forget. You must wear BLACK every single time, everyday like a funeral. Navy, Dark Brown, and Dark Gray are supposedly permitted but beware the dress code of those colors and Black changes depending on who has it on and what time of the day it is, or even which manager you encounter.

At work you must wear many hats like become a SECRETARY: B-Connected book (build client book ASAP), MATHEMATICIAN: convey Loyalist points to customers (a point system created by out of touch corporate people to further capture peoples data for marketing purposes), BARTENDER: overhead music that is louder than a club, (young customers have even complained, security and managers just say, "really" then go back into there offices. Train yourself by listening to the french 'Dominique' Nique Nique American Horror asylum song by The SInging Nuns. Or just listen to the same CD (not ipod) for thirty-six hours in a row. 
Also, a SALESMAN: after all of that, you are still suppose to sell to an empty store that pretends to be a Neiman Marcus competitor, when you just like your fellow co-workers have told your immediate manager every single week through email and in person what your customers are asking for, yet the 'buyers' still have NOT gotten. 

This is just a little of what you might encounter at Bloomingdale's Santa Monica Place, California. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!

It's perfect for someone who is going to school. I worked here as a part time employee while in college, you have flexibility with your schedule and when you are a part timer most of the time you will be scheduled to close. Good thing is that you can always set preferences in advanced with your days so the system won't schedule you on days you are not able to work. It is a high end luxury store which handles lots of designers, you do get 20% employee discounts and there are some days where you get an extra 20%.

The pay was draw vs commission which means that for every thing that you sell, you have to cover your draw first in order to make your commission, and that was really hard because it depends on which department you are and how many coworkers you have to compete with, you do have to sell constantly and pretty much follow people around. If you don't do that, someone will and that person will take the sale from you since most customers do not really care even if you speak to them first.

If you are not selling enough, you might fall into deficit which means you won't see any commission until you are out of deficit. Your coworkers sometimes steal sales from you, especially when it comes to exchanges and the return policy is generous so you might think you made a good sale but it will be a return later on, sometimes on the same day and you might leave with negative numbers for the day. You might spend a long time with a customer and sometimes they don't buy anything and if they do they return it and you won't get any credit for any returns and bring your numbers down automatically. It is a dog eat dog environment and management is consonantly pressuring you with opening credit cards weekly. It's retail so it's always open and the hours can be long.

Also depending on your manager, and the department you are scheduled, they make you do extra assignments which might require you to do online orders known as picks, or placing the merchandise that's being delivered for the day where it belongs, doing floor samples, or opening boxes to put everything away, and you have to do this even if you are a part timer. I tried my best to be bias and summarize my experience while working at Bloomingdale's.

For Bloomingdales i worked as a freelancer and still do just that there are no hours available for me. The month i was there was pretty easy with the store being in a busy community and being busy itself with customers. I can say i have improved my customer service experience, having to attend multiple customers at a time and not having a problem with any of them. Bloomingdales is all about fashion so appearance meant a lot when showing up to work. A typical work day i would stand next to the colon or perfume i was selling or representing and luring clients into buying them or sort of persuade them to buy the colon/perfume i was selling. Of course to complete this kind of job i would be talking the whole day in a suit but having the chance to meet a different variety of people you would not see in any other store. Bloomingdales i can say gave me a lot of tips on customer service and experience in working with customers especially those who are not having a pleasant day overall. Decency and respect was never a failed option for me or being late either. Co-Workers in Bloomingdales treated me like family me being the new guy and it was great. They made my station comfortable so i would not have any issues during my work time frame. I learned a lot from this job being a high class work satisfaction and believe because of Bloomingdales my customer service experience has greatly improved, of course still room for improvement. Always keeping a smile on your face and keeping mood swings away is very important for any job as well as being talkative, friendly, not flirtatious, fast paced, organized, good appearance, and especially energetic. I have learned a little from all these qualities that i possess from Bloomingdales and that is why i am a better person and/or candidate in the customer experience world. I would say the hardest part of the job which never really represented to me was standing a 10 hour shift monday-friday. The most enjoyable part wad definitely meeting all kinds of different people and being able to be a part of the Bloomingdales team.

A typical day at work usually involves opening the store, which includes opening the registers and making sure all of the product is displayed neatly and with the proper sensors. Through out the day I help customers find apparel that satisflies their needs and wants. This process includes going around the store, to help them find the right items, hold items as they find other merchandise, assist with fitting room needs and finalize their purchase at the register. Along with helping the customer, each employee is responsible for putting away a customers unwanted items after they are finsihed in the fitting room. There can be some down time in between customers. During this time it is key to reach out to your previous customers, which building a connection, stronger relationship and drive for them to come back. At the end of the day, making sure the floor is clean and neatly merchandised is the priority before closing the registers. 

Through out my time at Bloomingdale's I have learned about the Helmut Lang product I sell, and a variety of other brands carried in the store. The more knowledge you have about the product, the more comfortable a customer becomes, resulting in more sales. I have a great team within the Helmut Lang section and the rest of the Elements sections. The hardest part of the job is balancing that teamwork with your personal goals and sales. Since we are Draw Commissioned based, sometimes co-workers with fight over sales and customers. It is important to stand your ground with your customers, but know when to back off when you see your fellow co-worker has been working with a client. The most enjoyable part of the job is interacting with all kinds of customers and learning how to cater to their needs in the right manner. Not every customer is the same, thus they should not be treated the same. Having a strong and positive experience with a customer will result in them coming back to shop with you and to continue shopping at Bloomingdale's.

No work life balance. The management is awful, never give seasonal reviews then finds a way to dock you on your annual review. Extremely wishy washy, one day they want to do their job, the next day they care less.
-Will never back you up in the return policy with difficult customers-what’s the point of having a return policy when they take back used items?!  Such a LAX return policy. They allow people to return more than they buy. Keeping all the gifts with purchases and samples 
-Always nagging for people to open a 24.99% store credit card 
-Always wheeling and dealing with the customers. They always want more gifts when they’re getting a lot. Very greedy 

Company always find a way for you to donate or ask for money to charities. 

Lack of stock. They want you to do outrageous numbers but won’t give you stock. They get stock, it sells out, you have to wait 3 weeks to get key items back in. Eventually this store will be a show room 

Lack of technology. Computers always freeze. Not able to order items because system is down. Lots of hoops to jump through to do a simple task
Business managers can’t even pull numbers for daily business if the department manager isn’t around 

Customers return and it comes off of your business because you took the return 

Horrible work life balance. A computer generated schedule that will have you open 945-630 with an hour lunch, next day have you close 12:30-915 next day open at 945-630. Mandatory one hour lunch, always short staffed at night so you end up staying until 715, get over time, then they have a fit that you worked over time! 

Only time you’ll get time off is if you submit it 36 days in advanced!!! 

Only pro is that it’s stable- they won’t fire you if you don’t make your goals, if you brown nose, they’ll give you an award! 

You will get an annual raise if you have a good review in May 1-4% of your current rate

When I first got hired at Bloomingdales I was very excited. Everyone seemed so nice and they seemed to care about your success within the company. They placed me in the fashion accessories department where I worked with the jewelry and watches. I really enjoyed my first few months there and I grew to love my co-workers. When I graduated college my manager came to me and asked me if I was interested in the Sales Manager in Training (SMT) position. I was very interested and I applied. I was interviewed twice and I felt very confident about the interviews. Unfortunately I did not receive the position, which was alright but I feel that the management could have handled the situation better. They really made me feel like I got the position when I really didn't. They offered me a position as the Coach Specialist in handbags and I accepted it.
After I applied for the SMT position and was rejected I started to feel very insecure about this job. I knew that I could be fired for anything and I was very cautious about everything I did. They began putting pressure on me to perform high sales numbers for our sales events. I felt that the goals that I was personally given were unattainable because my clients were not clients that purchased handbags, they often purchased jewelry and watches. Of course I did not make my sales goals for the events and I felt like I didn't accomplish anything.
This job is perfect for people who like to be challenged with unattainable sales goals, calling clients for every sale event, very strict rules, and no real employee recognition.

Working at Bloomingdales was a very enjoyable experience due to the fact that I enjoy interaction with people and the scenery in the store intrigued me so much. I enjoyed helping each and every customer who talked thru the doors because it gave me an opportunity to become acquainted with the products itself and learn more about the services and products /goods Bloomingdales offered in my department or in another. I enjoyed working at my department because we weren’t confined to our department if our client felt comfortable enough to ask us to continue our assistance in another department. Working at Bloomingdales I learned how to communicate and interact with customers on many socio economic levels. My co-works were truly a partial component of why I also looked forward to coming to work. We all enjoyed another and we worked very well with one another and were of assistance to any one who needed help at the cash register, with a difficulty customer, shift change or exchange, products, or we were just having a bad day we would at the end of the day lift each theirs sprits. Our customers each were very unique in their own way, however we always managed to encounter a very difficult customer who would make their shopping experience a bad one No matter what. All in all there really wasn’t a part of the job that difficult. The most enjoyable part of my job was assisting each customer that came in because we were bound to run into a celebrity, Musician, or a high profile business tycoon. Closing was smoother fun aspect of the day because in-between helping clients we also maintained the floors such as the displays and counters so that we would not have much to do at the end of the night. I loved my experience at Bloomindales.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Seasonal associate 74 salaries reported	$18.91 per hour
Commissioner 156 salaries reported	$19.91 per hour
Specialist 24 salaries reported	$19.03 per hour
Sales associate 53 salaries reported	$19.18 per hour
Sales 42 salaries reported	$19.11 per hour

Working at Bloomingdale's: Company Overview and Reviews

Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's Ratings

Popular jobs at Bloomingdale's

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected