retail sales associate

inside sales

warehouse assistant manager

warehouse worker

retail store manager

E.C. BARTON & COMPANY

Store Managers have limited authority for decision making, and most often must defer decisions to an absentee District Manager. District Managers will fire Partners after TWO complaints from customers without speaking to the Partners regarding the issue/incident that caused the customer to complain, even when the Partner is complying with the CorpoPolicy - that would be strike one! The Corporation feels that the customer is "always right" even when the policy contradicts with what the customer demands. Furthermore, this practice of dismissing a Partner after two complaints by District Managers is not even covered in the Partner (Employee) Handbook. Also, to avoid paying Unemployment Benefits, those in charge have no qualms about lying about the incident/issue regarding the reason for the discharge. They claim that they have respect for all Partners, but then their behavior contradicts the Corporate Policy about respect for all. You would think that once they have invested time and energy in training and educating a Partner that they would spend some time with the Partner to have a discussion about what caused the customer complaint, and then make an unbiased decision after hearing all sides of the parties involved, rather than take only the word of the angry, disappointed customer when a corporate policy prevents the Partner from giving the customer what they want.

Corporate offices are in Ohio, as well asDistrict Manager offices, therefore District Managers are mostly absent, rarely visit, and never get to know the calibeer of those Partners at the store level making sales and creating a salary for the District Managers. Newer product is of a lower quality and therefore harder to sell. All technology is outdated by about 15 years because the Executives would rather award themselves with hefty annual bonuses rather than invest in necessary capital improvements which would help store level Partners be more productive and maintain customer records in a more orderly manner.

Everyone knows everyone and many people in the company are related ... sometimes surprisingly so. Was about to write up a store manager until I learned he was the CEO's 2nd cousin and I was told to NOT do that. Surprise!
It will, in all honesty, take about 10 years for anyone to be accepted into the clique that is ECB. Many people have been there 20 years or more and know everything there is to know about the company and its culture.
Expectations for a DM changed constantly -- one year I was an auditor chasing down returns from customers, another year I was a physical inventory specialist, another year a sales trainer, another year an IT guy, another year a merchandiser, another year a safety inspector, another year a customer service liaison. That all occured after the VP of Ops change. There's a new CEO starting Jan 2, 2018 so who knows what direction the company will take? Note that the current CEO gets to take 100% of his retirement in a single check but when/if YOU move on, you get it over 4 years ... favoritism abounds here.

My typical day started at work around 1:00 PM. I was only part time. I would put away products that were delivered to us through out the day. I would greet and assist the customers as they came in to shop with us. I learned a great deal in how to install carpet, cabinets (drawing a kitchen layout), installing ceramic/porcelain flooring, among MANY other things. 
Management, well that changed about a year ago. The original manager I had is still a dear friend of mine, In fact he is a reference for me. The current manager I can't say too much about. He worked kindly with me as I was working on school and was lenient with me on time. The assistant manager is a dear friend who is exemplary at his job. 
The hardest part of my job would be that there was no air conditioning or heat for the different times of the year. Summer is dreadfully hot and winter was blistering cold. 
The most enjoyable part of work was my regular customers and my co-workers. We became a family. I will miss that dearly.

Typical day at work consist of unloading trucks, running register, driving forklift, figuring up how much flooring customers needed for their project, designing kitchen layouts and loading customers. Small company that only employees 4-5 people per location so everyone does some of everything. The hardest thing would have to be havng such a small staff on extremely busy days.Also not having heat or ac. Have days were the inside temperature is 100 degrees with 100% humidity. The heat and humidity will wear you out fast. Thing i enjoyed the most would have too be designing kitchen layouts for customers. Helping them to decide on what would work out best and be the most function layout.

In my daily activities I would participated in the unloading of all truckloads that consisted of heavy packaging to be further processed in the store. I had also assisted in compiling and maintaining the record of quantity, type, material and specifications of all merchandise that was held in the establishment and warehouse.On occasion I also operated company vehicles and equipment including a forklift to assist in stocking and moving of materials to and from the warehouse.One of the more enjoyable aspects of working here was developing and designing kitchen layouts for customers and then building the necessary cabinets for mentioned kitchens.

Every morning starts off the same. Undo the alarm and start printing reports. Usually takes me about an hour to review and file then away. Once he other co-workers arrive its time to assign duties like trash, clean up or restocking. I mostly keep to the front to greet customer, answer phones, enter special orders and help customers with any issues they may have. There is really nothing to difficult about working at Surplus Warehouse. What I do like the most is talking to customers an helping them either complete a project or help them design their dream kitchen. I really like working with customers. I enjoy resolving issues and making the customer feel like I will make all of their problems disappear.

A typical work day consists on interacting with walks-ins, phone calls, and delivery extractions. Everyday is a learning experience, and they are there to assist in learning. Management experience varies, as with most workplaces. The workplace culture varies, too, but what do you expect when combine personalities from various walks in life. Honestly, pleasant overall. Toughest variable of the job? Teamwork, or lack of, in my opinion. Most enjoyable variable? The customers! The joy it brings when their dreams are brought to life, for you and them alike. Made it worth it every time. 

Scheduling is disorganized and spotty. There were no printed schedule so confusion was inevitable. The store manager was on vacation and his assistant was compelled to write out a weekly schedule. This schedule only listed days of the week ( Monday -Saturday) no dates. I took the day that was written and received a call that I was supposed to be there that day. The confusion came from the claim that the written schedule was for the following week. With no dates and no clear explanation I was accused for a no call no show. In my 38 years of work history I had never had a no call no show. They fired me the next day.  I got another job soon enough and hold no grudge but this was  poor management.

Training is lacking both for entry as well as what little advancement there is. Upper management just gripes and complain and contributes little to the overall success of each store. The sake of preserving a "family" work environment (i.e. the store employees are a family unit) leads to making incompatible workers, working with high achieving ones. This leads to the high achievers picking up the slack, and stresses them. Communication is severely lacking, and quickly leads to a toxic work environment.

There was ALWAYS something to do at this job! I enjoyed the fact that when you were doing something, you'd be doing that the rest of the day, but it got really repetitive, real fast. The co-workers were awesome to work with, there were your basic disagreements or misunderstandings but overall they were fun to be around. It could get stressful at times like any other job, yet it quickly wore off eventually! Nothing really hard about this job except all you had to do was stay busy, which did not take much. Downside however was no advancement opportunities within this job.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 61 salaries reported	$18.29 per hour
Inside sales 25 salaries reported	$18.20 per hour
Warehouse assistant manager 14 salaries reported	$53,393 per year
Warehouse worker 12 salaries reported	$16.25 per hour
Retail store manager 15 salaries reported	$61,167 per year

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