merchandiser

retail merchandiser

retail assistant manager

field supervisor

retail sales associate

Hallmark

It's not the worse job ever. It's not the best job ever. Its a part-time retail merchandising job. The hours suck! They want you to put out a lot of work in such a short amount of time. Most stores have to be visited 2-3 times a week. AND, a smaller chain store would be visited once every two weeks. Total of ~10 - 18 hrs a week. 18hrs is holiday season, haha!

The boxes can be heavy especially around holiday time Oct-Feb. Sorting the cards can be a hassle and take some time getting used to/finding a method but its easy to learn and really quick. People on the job can be intimidating about the holiday season when you're first signing on. Especially when the managers complain about the company and their UNREASONABLE allotted times/budget hours.

During the holidays, not only do you have to set up and make sure the seasonal cards are neat, you still have to make sure the everyday (regular birthday, sympathy, wedding, etc.) cards are neat and out too. So yes, they are sending multiple types of boxes: seasonal and everyday at the same time all needs to be completed by the end of each week. Each week new things come up that need to get done. My manager is usually patient about it. EXCEPT when it comes to putting up cards and taking them down!

I actually like Hallmark, in general. It's very laid back.But I really despise the communication between my manager and the district manager. It's terrible! I always feel intimidated to ask for reassurance. I also am left feeling belittle for asking questions via email. And reminded that "its my responsibility" to do what I already know to do for the most part. I try to stay off my phone and document everything via email because you never know if someone is going to twist your words. My manager has constantly misinterpreted my words and in person will apologize for not reading what I wrote thoroughly or what I meant. AFTER she has already CC'd and BCC'd the district manager on the emails that could easily be solved between the two of us. Thus creating resentment build up on my end. You do have to communicate on devices that the company provides, which have trackers in them to make sure you at the store. I think that's the hardest part is tone and this will happen often because you don't work side by side with your manager. Your manager has about 10-20 other stores to be concerned about.

You will have to see other "co-workers" during installations and other work related meetings (which are rare). This can be okay. I find the co-workers to be a little "ageist." They make jokes about being 'young' etc. Most of the people who work for the Hallmark cards in my area are older, are retired, had many jobs previously, or attempt to make this part-time job a full-time career. There's some favoritism, but I haven't witnessed it.

It's important to maintain a good relationship with the workers who actually are employed by the stores/departments that you visit. The better the relationship the more product you can put out. 

The good thing about working alone is you learn a lot about time management and how to execute things in a timely manner without supervision. 

You cannot live off of this job! So you do have to have another job, but its very hard to find another job because you never know how much work/time your store needs for THAT week!!! It's ridiculous! The amount of lifting and unpacking does not equate the pay grade either.

The casualty of Hallmark makes it a great place but.. take it with a grain of salt.

Hallmark is a pretty nice company to work for - you set your own schedule but there is a lot of driving involved as you have a large territory to cover.  They give you an average of only two stores in your area and you cover several other stores in remote areas within 60 miles of your town/city - I had 9 accounts with varying coverage days - some once or twice a week, others every other week and USPS's are once a month.  You don't get to choose what stores/areas, your route is assigned to you.  The job is mostly replacing inventory but for holidays you put together various displays in each store.   Pretty easy merchandising work and training largely depends on your supervisor - mine could have been better but I've seen others that were pretty thorough.   They are safety oriented and do not require you to travel in snow or dangerous weather. You are basically on your own and they are pretty responsive to questions, etc. for the most part. The most enjoyable part of the job is being able to set your own schedule - as long as your work gets done they don't care when you do it, except for certain stores that want you there certain days and for any holiday time period as they have specific days they want you at each location prior to and after each holiday.  The least enjoyable part of the job is that for every holiday your work load is very heavy, and for major holidays your work load is basically doubled for 2 to 4 weeks prior to and at least one week after each holiday...which can be challenging, especially in inclement weather as there is little flexibility during that time period.  The constant driving to different areas is the biggest deterrent especially when gas prices are high as there is a lot of driving with this job with wear & tear on your car.  If you prefer to work with a group you can sign up for assisting with installations (completely optional) and is good for extra hours/money but again, lots of driving for this as these are typically not local.  There is some room for advancement (management) if that is your goal, but this is pretty much a typical merchandising gig.  It was interesting to learn their process and once you get the hang of it, it's an easy job.  The pay is fairly decent with small raises periodically, however you don't receive reviews so unless your supervisor is verbal it's difficult to measure if you are doing a good job or not which was frustrating for me as I like to receive feedback about my performance.  I questioned this often with very little response, but kept getting raises and was told if I was doing something wrong I would be alerted and I wasn't - so I guess I did well.  Keep in mind they advertise these positions as part time jobs but the travel time eats up a lot of hours.  They reimburse time & mileage after the first and last 30 miles/minutes of the day so you have to figure out how to work that to your best advantage when you can.  They are a reliable company, friendly folks/management and overall a decent gig if you want a flexible work schedule and don't mind a lot of driving.  

I personally love this job and am so happy doing it!  I thrive working alone and I don't necessarily need constant interaction with colleagues or management to get my job done.  Therefore, this is a great job for me because that's basically been my experience from Day 1.  

I feel kind of like I am my own boss, like being an Independent Contractor, although I am a Hallmark employee.  I like setting my own rules and getting the job done my way, and so far it is going good.  They do give us a "schedule" that suggests days we should visit our stores and how many hours to spend there.  I have looked at that schedule maybe twice, but don't go by it because it doesn't suit me too well.  They don't schedule enough hours per store to get done what needs to get done, so I just go whichever days I want and spend as much time as I need to at each store.  I have never kept track of hours worked each week and sometimes stay up to 6 hours in a store if need be!  I might get in trouble for that one of these days, but so far nobody has said anything to me regarding this, or any other matter.  So I am going to keep doing it my way until someone says I can't.

I get along with my supervisor so well and we see the same things eye to eye!  She always tells me how great I am doing and is available to help me out anytime I need it.  That goes the same for all my Hallmark colleagues around my area.  Every merchandiser I have met has been super nice and offered their help if ever needed.

This job is not for the faint of heart though! 
First, you will be on your feet the majority of the time.  No getting around that.  Secondly, occasional heavy lifting is required depending on what stores you get.  Also, store resets and occasional Iinstall and revisions do occur and can be very stressful.  Seasonal changeovers can be stressful as well, and a lot tougher to get through than you might think.  And lastly, like many before me has said and I will say it too, compensation should be a little higher than what it is.  For the amount of quality work they are asking for, we should get paid what we are worth.









I went through 4 Crown Connects mentioned to a trainer that I may quit because of syncing issues and not getting paid and was told that I had to call a number and punch in ever minute and mile for a total of 2 weeks was RIDICULOUS ( I was accused of not even trying to call and another trainer was responsible for hung me VRU info about my time because she knew my CC wasn't working nor syncing but her response was wait and see of you get paid which I didnt but apparently she never relayed to the supervisor that I was having multiple issues with my device) she went behind my back and called Supervisor and told him I wanted to quit he called me and demanded I stay at the store until he got there, I passed words with the trainer and told her I would not keep holding any conversation in the store because it wasnt right, went outside Supervisor showed up and proceeded to get me to go back in store I told him no , that the store was not ours and nor was it a place to hold any conversation or arguments , he told me my attitude was poor , I am too blunt , I am not a polite person and I told him I was frustrated because I hadn't been paid and I was sick but yet I still came to the store and worked , he said I was the only person out of the whole Hallmark Corp in the whole world who had a syncing issue, I asked was he calling me a liar because I called Stratix and they had a whole message on their system about syncing issues and how they were trying to fix it ( but this shows you how involved with the employees and things that are going on this supervisor was) I was also accused of having 2 arguments with Wal Mart employees ( wasn't me it was the RM before me that did that) after all this I told him he was a horrible supervisor and he also wanted me to sign a write up ( I refused) but I told him no I was quitting and not signing anything he also accused me of calling him and telling him that I WAS NOT going to go to a store to do an RM service before an installation ,( it was an optional service ) I told him that I said I may not have time to go by I never commanded that wasn't going by ( when you do an installation you move everything and throw away all items not needed so the visit wasnt necessary on the once a month store) but guess what I went anyways and he thought I didnt go ( shows how much he knows) so again by this time I was through with him , the trainer and Hallmark as a whole and fyi if you accuse someone of being blunt then the one thing you should know is blunt people do not lie we tell the truth whether you like it or not so with that being said if you work here be ready to take the blame for everything even if you didn't do anything they are claiming to begin with they deflect problems like crazy!

This can be a nice place to work at but the company doesn't treat their employees nice. A typical day at work if I open, I have to count the money and put the money in the tills. I also have to make out the sales sheet and put how much we are goaled at each hour. I have to write down when each employee has to go on a break and where they are zoned at in the store. I then have to look at the e-mails and print out the shipment notices. When I open the store I greet customers as they are walking in and ask what can I help them find today. If there is a change over on the floor I'll set that up or if there's shipment to be done I'll start working on that. When we are slow I walk around making sure product is set right on fixtures. I've learned a lot about being a team leader at Hallmark and about retail. How to drive sales and how to sell product. The management at Hallmark I think isn't that great. We have a new district manager that walks in the store and ignores the employees. She doesn't congratulate the other employees when we make our sale goals. The first time I met her she stared me down and then introduced herself to me. Instead of interacting with the employees she watches them and  tells the store manager what she thinks they are doing wrong. I find this to be very rude when I feel like me and the other employees work very hard to make the daily goals.  I find the store manager to  have poor management skills.  What I mean by this is that she doesn't know how to make out a schedule properly and doesn't train new employees the way they should be trained. She also doesn't know what is more important to do in the store and she embarrasses you in the front of customers when she gets mad at you. The assistant store manager is a very sweet person and some people think she doesn't know what she is doing but it isn't her fault. She wasn't trained properly by the store manager and is still waiting on training for the past 3 years. Some of my co-workers are nice and others are just plain flat out rude. Two of them don't say hi to you when they walk in for work and don't even talk to you when you are working with them.  There's one employee that can blow up on you sometimes when she doesn't understand some things and can say nasty things in the front of customers. I would say the hardest part of the job is when we have to build fixtures. The pieces are made of metal and can scrape or scratch your skin. The most enjoyable part of the job is when you meet the customers needs and they are happy. I love it when they remember me and want me to wait on them. I also like hearing about what special occasion they are buying the cards for.

This is the absolute worst job I have ever had.  They are stuck in mid-20th century with their very laughable "technology".  You have to work 10-12 hour shifts VERY often, with less than 12 hours' notice, and you will get written up if you don't work the OT. They could care less how beat you are from the OT, your productivity quotas still have to be met. The "training" is probably the biggest joke of all.  They don't actually train you, the trainers just stand around chit-chatting to each other, while chaos ensues down the aisles. They show you how to go pick up your order, and the super absolute basics, and then after your "training" is over, YOU are expected to figure out all the cheats and shortcuts so you can get your productivity.  You are expected to reach performance quotas in less than 2 months, or you get written up. The way they calculate how much time your orders are supposed to take to fill, is a very well-kept and well-hidden secret.  Meaning that if you fill the orders like they show you in "training" you will NEVER meet your quotas, meaning that if you DONT figure out the cheats and shortcuts on your OWN or from someone else who is NOT a "trainer", you won't make it.  No one that makes their productivity does it by picking up an order, and filling it like you were shown during training...so how are those times that the orders are supposed to take to fill, even determined?...That's their big hidden secret. VERY unethical company. The managers are all different, meaning there are no clear set rules in place for what is actually required of you. Some managers write people up all the time, while some managers don't write people up that have the same performance or attendance issues. The people that work there are not nice when you are new-they treat you like you are intentionally trying to get in their way, when all you're doing is trying to get the hang of it and do your best so you don't get written up. People get fired ALL THE TIME, for productivity. The inventory that you have to pick is in NO kind of order-51 is right next to 69, 25 is right next to 3, groups like 50's 60's and 70's are CLOSE to each other, but not in numerical order, etc. Basically just a bunch of idiots threw the place together and walked away snickering. There doesn't seem to be anything of value that I have learned while working here other than this is a really surprisingly terrible company to work for, since they claim to be so family oriented. I honestly do not recommend this job, or this company, to anyone.

I enjoyed working at Hallmark very much.  We had a great group of employees.  We worked together as a team to get things done.  Everyone was very helpful in making sure that I learned the routine.. We had to have at lest two employees in the store at all times.. 
We had three key employees.  They had all been employed at Hallmark  for several years.  
Their job was to open and close the store.  They had the keys.  At the beginning of each morning I helped them count the money in the two cash registers.  We started out with the same amount of money in each register every day.  
Once the store opened our main concern were the customers.  We offered to assist them and give them ideas if needed.  We advised them of the specials for that day.  We wanted each customer to have a pleasant shopping experience at Hallmark.
During slow times we stocked and straightened shelves.  We also put together new displays and stocked them according to store diagrams,( received from upper management).  
At the end of the day we vacuumed, dusted and made sure the store was in perfect condition for the next morning. We counted the money in each register and balanced it with the receipts received during that day.  The charges had to also be tied in with this.  We made sure that the same amount of money that we started out with in the beginning of the day was left in the cash register for the next day.
Any shortage or overage had to be recorded.  It was not usually more than a penny or two.  We were all very conscious of the job that we did.. I think everyone loved it there.
The hardest time was Christmas.  We received thousands of ornaments. They went all the way from the ceiling to the floor and took up about three or four rows of racks.  I mean thousands of them.  It was unbelievable.  Everything had to be very organized in order to find a particular ornament when needed.  Shelves had to be constantly restocked.  Customers could put ornaments on lay-a-way.
Each lay-a-way had to be labeled with the customers name and each payment they made had to be recorded.  
All and all it was a real challenge but we did it and enjoyed the hard work that we did.   If they had not closed the store I feel most of us would still be there.
 Amy the manager was so fantastic to work with. I had no problems while I was there.  It was obvious that she knew her job and role as manager very well.  She loved it there which carried over to boost the moral of the whole staff.

Merchandiser's who learned merchandising at Hallmark are considered highly skilled.
Training is awesome. Start out as a sub and soon you will have 6+ stores and you will make bank! Part-timers workers, work full time hours. Cards must be maintained, quickly.
Pay is good. Breaks are included. Your schedule is primarily based on your territory managers needs. Your schedule is pretty much organized around your agenda during the day. Of course, holidays are big card days and need more attention. When you have two stores in a day, large or small, time management is important. Trainers will help you grow along the way. They come and help you learn and teach you tricks of the trade.
Drive time paid, store to store; .58cents per mile.
Every merchandiser used a handheld device for inventory and ordering.
Prolonged standing, squatting, leaning, grabbing and lifting mandatory; able to lift and maneuver over 50lbs, mandatory. You have to have organizational skills. You have to be able to utilize working with what you have, efficiently. Some stores better than others.
Boxed pile up in receiving area of grocery stores, need attention and not always within reach. Sometimes boxes are worn and torn, cards in disarray. 
Injuries are common. Safety measures not always adhered to. Merchandiser are often in a hurry to complete resets, every holiday in every month. Boxes fall in the most unlikely places onto your body if you happen to be near. Grocery carts are used to haul boxes from receiving to the fixture. Some stores are tremendous. 
Metal wagons hurt if it bangs into your leg. No joke. Be ready for a physically taxing job. Your supervisor will help you manage your time and decipher the visual guide, but you are expected to do the heavy jumping. After all, it's your store. Other employees if asked will help if you have a store that needs attention and you are overloaded. Managers may crack the whip, but a good manager knows his or her stuff.
Hallmark employees are good people and everyone chips in to help when asked.
The company is very fair. No propaganda videos to endure. Every Christmas holiday employees receive a very cute and festive Christmas tree ornament. Of course, you have first dibs at buying top of the line cards and ribbons, bags, gift ideas.
It's a great company to work for and be proud of. 

  


The biggest benefit of this job is the flexibility. If you have kids in school, or maybe just need a side hustle, this position is perfect. You can service the stores in your territory whenever it's convenient for you. You don't have to be available 24/7 like some retail jobs demand of you. I rarely work weekends, but there's also opportunities to pickup extra hours.

If you've done retail before this is pretty basic stuff: lifting a few boxes onto a cart, sorting merchandise, being on your feet the whole time, following planograms for holiday merch, etc. Personally, I have always loved organizing things, so this job is right up my alley and I love seeing the physical difference in my departments when my visits are done.

In my typical day I may have two or three stores. I'll go into the store, check in my shipment, sort the new cards and mech so it's ready to stock, zone the messy sections of the department, put out the new products, put away any go-backs, audit the empty card pockets or bare shelves so new product can be ordered and delivered, then throw my trash out and my store visit is done.

The biggest drawback is there's NEVER enough budgeted time to complete all of the things Hallmark wants you to do. It's impossible! Whether it's go-backs, getting your full shipment out, or fully zoning each section...something always suffers in your department and it's EXTREMELY frustrating. It feels like you're set up to fail no matter how fast you work. Hallmark really needs to set realistic time standards, because right now it's not working. I feel like merchandising is a vital position that doesn't get respected or compensated enough.

Overall, I enjoy the actual job itself and I've met some pretty awesome people. My territory supervisor is amazing and she's extremely supportive! If I had a bad manager I would've walked out on the first day, so I'm very lucky to be on a great team. The true schedule flexibility and love of organization is what keeps me here.

P.S. You'll need a car to get to different  stores in your territory, so keep that in mind when you apply. Also, don't go in expecting benefits or large pay. It's just a side hustle or something to get stay-at-parents out of the house for a few hours a day.

If your goal is to work independently (meaning you rarely see anyone from the company), and be able to mold your schedule to your own needs, this will be good for you. However, if a part of your work DNA is also to feel like you're part of a team or company, that you are valued for your experience and talents, and that you are heard when you see ways to improve processes, you will be disappointed. 

The work is physically hard, very hard (heavy boxes up to 50 pounds need to be lifted and transported to sales floor), and the pace is extremely fast, with a workload that consistently leaves you unable to feel that you've accomplished everything you were supposed to. The job is not difficult, but the hours you are given, and the work you are expected to do in that time, rarely matches up. It is an algorithm as opposed to a schedule based on the reality of the job. For me, it was frustrating to see the amount of wasteful motion, the lack of correct communication, and most of all, planograms and program instructions that were designed in an office, by people who have never actually done the work. And often without the product needed to complete it properly. 

Hallmark also now has an issue with proper compensation especially for Time & Travel. They have barely raised the compensation for mileage in spite of the fact that gas prices have nearly tripled since I took the job, and they also expect that the first 30 minutes or 30 miles of travel from home not be compensated. You're only compensated for time and travel between accounts, and those accounts are usually grouped tightly together. But your territory assigned, can be up to 30 miles or 30 minutes away. 

I tried really hard to love this job. On paper, I should have. But in reality, the company is so disconnected from their retail merchandisers, and have created layers that allow for very little communication with those who could impact change. If your direct report does not want to advocate for you, there's no place really else to go. Maybe for a lot of people that's just not a big deal, but for me, I just couldn't finish the day with a sense of accomplishment.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Merchandiser 3014 salaries reported	$15.39 per hour
Retail merchandiser 862 salaries reported	$15.07 per hour
Retail assistant manager 40 salaries reported	$14.88 per hour
Field supervisor 123 salaries reported	$20.03 per hour
Retail sales associate 38 salaries reported	$12.55 per hour

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