sales associate

store manager

assistant manager

associate manager

night manager

Loris Gifts, Inc.

A typical day at Lori's Gifts would begin with opening a register if I came in in the morning, or double-checking the prior shift's count if I came in during the day. I would approach the customers and answer any questions they would have about merchandise, help them to find whatever they were looking for within the limits of what the store carried, or take down suggestions left by the clientele for the manager. Over the course of the day I would be receiving, digitally and on paper, the invoices that came with packages that came in with the UPS or that Fedex brought to the store, and I would unpack and price boxes of merchandise. Inventory was restocked regularly during the day.

The most important thing that I learned at Lori's Gifts was how to handle people; after that, how to confidently handle money. I think since I started working at the shop I have learned to keep a much better rein on myself when dealing with other people, and a lot about the precautions and the care the go into counting and managing sums in a register. Also, I became a lot better at circumventing cases of lost keys or forgotten times.

I have worked with three different managers who all had very different managing styles, from the more aggressive, sales-based approach of my first manager, to the more meticulous and planned-out approach of my second, to the more relaxed approach of the current manager, who has focused more on a combination of merchandising and sales. I have had no obstructive issues with any of the managers, and I have observed a lot out of the different ways that they have handled aspects of their jobs, from staffing to inventory; I can see and appreciate the difference that different managing styles can make.

As for co-workers, I dealt with a lot of different kinds of people with divergent backgrounds. Lori's, at the beginning, was mostly staffed from by women from Mt. Vernon, Yonkers, and White Plains; as the management of the store moved into different hands, most of my coworkers came from White Plains. All of my experiences with coworkers at the store have been neutral to good, with no serious problems ever coming up with a co-worker that come to mind.

This could almost become a subsection of the paragraph on "important things I learned." The hardest part of the job was almost certainly somewhere between the amount of time that got eaten up by the commute to get there (it was an hour and a half ride on the bus), combined with the weird hours, and the steadily less-than-satisfactory compensation for the job. Other than that it seems that customer service in retail can always be rough, and I learned fairly and early and fairly well to get used to adjusting things after people and withstanding the brunt of their bad manners or bad moods: most of the people that come into the store were under a lot of stress. Either hospital staff, who were stretched out thin with too many hours and little support; or patients and the families and friends of patients, who were concerned about their health, the health of people they cared about or, in general, were going through enormous life-transitions. A lot of coming and going.

I have worked in retail a long time and when I started working here at Lori's Gifts December 2014 I knew from the start I was going to love it. The company is wonderful in showing appreciation for their employees. They give monthly contests to either win cash added to your check or in store credit to spend. I finally have a place that gives appreciation! Communication is fantastic and always given back in timely manner. 
Hours depend on the location. I work as the Assistant Manager in EIRMC in Idaho. Store manager will have the morning hours. Assistant manager has evening hours. Sales associates will be split one has evening shifts and the other will have mid shifts with a morning shift and a closing shift. Store manager has full time while us others have part time. Very great with understanding things happen or come up and getting shifts covered or switched. 
Typical shift for our store is come in do shift change, talk to associate get details as to what has been done and what needs to be done. Get tasks done. Cleaning. Big thing, help customers!
Something one needs to know is this is a hospital based company. You need to be able to connect and be there for the customers because they are either A.Here in hospital for something bad that happened. B.Here on a joyous occasion. C. Or have be in before and just love the items we carry so they come check for new things or sales.
You have to be able to connect and sympathize with people. You will be that person someone needs to lean on to just listen and be there for someone going through hard time or scary time or even just be there to share the joy in a happy occasion. You need to be able to work alone if work in this location and always do your best.
The hardest part of this job is it can be slow at times but there is always something you can do to help the store. You have to not mind dusting and cleaning because that fills up most your slow time!
I really recommend this job to someone looking for part time work if going for sales associate job. Someone who can be reliable and hard working.
I love that I can say for once in my life I love my job and I love the company.

Our store is so tiny it's incredible that it's still open.  The stockroom is an incredible mess, it's literally the size of a small hallway stacked with stuff.  I'm learning more and more everyday, little tips and tricks, but mostly I feel pressured into pressuring people into buying extra things to meet sales goals.  Of course I don't pressure people into buying things but I do show the promotions and deals as well as clearance that is there for that week.  I feel as tho I'm always getting hounded about trying to suggest items, suggest, suggest, suggest.  This company cares about it's sales but not it's employees.  You get 30% off normal priced items (not including food and drink!) I do enjoy seeing what clearance is there and sometimes getting a couple of things that are a good deal.  Management is okay, the assistant manager is who I'm having to deal with because the Manager is out on leave.  I hate being called in last minute to go work, like for instance, today, I was called early this morning, to go into work, because the other store associate is "sick."  I mean, I need the hours, so I said I guess, but this is not the first time.  I've had to fill in for people for at least like 3 or 4 other times.... It's ridiculous.  All I'm saying is when I want a day off, they had better fill in for me, otherwise that is so unfair it's not even funny.  I kind of feel like I'm having a big workload dumped on me just because I'm new.  But anyway, I would rather be busy than be bored, which speaking of, you have to always stay busy because corporate has cameras, you can't take a bathroom break for more than 5 minutes, you have to eat food in the stockroom because you can't be seen eating it on the camera or by customers.  I am learning a lot though about what it takes to have good sales, in hopes that one day I might open my own craft store or something of the sort, so I know what tactics to use to sell sell sell...... I do kind of like the planograms because I'm learning what things go where and what looks good set up certain ways.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The customers. Working in a hospital leads to close relationships with hospital staff and patients.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Lack of structure, unreasonable expectations, lack of coordination with hospital management, low pay and no benefits makes it difficult to motivate a team. My location was open 6AM-11PM, with employees in the store for half an hour before and after to open/close. In management you are expected to cover any and all shifts needed to comply with hospital contracts, leading to several times I was expected to work 530AM-1130PM and then come back the next day at 530AM (due to a single call out from a staff of 4, so finding coverage was almost impossible and the rest of the staff was already working to the max of their availability.) 
Parking was so bad in the hospital that my employees would come over an hour in advance to find parking, and most parking was for patients and visitors so they would issue us tickets, even though we were not hospital employees. The parking we were allowed to use was a 10 minute walk from the hospital, which wasn't possible for any employees that need mobility considerations. 
The pay is incredibly low for all these considerations.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment itself is not bad, I loved my customers and the day to day of the job. But the culture is VERY negative. There is no room for questions, and absolutely no one in upper management is interested in making decisions with the consideration of store staff. They are not interested in investing in their employees, and you can tell by their turn over rate.

A  TON of constantly changing arbitrary goals that don’t speak to the uniqueness of what sells/doesn’t sell in individual stores due to varying markets/demographics etc.. How about just focus on achieving sales goals without, say, pushing a Bluetooth headset that is also wired. Yeah, customers look at you like you’re crazy. Bluetooth typically means no wires... so someone in buying obviously bought a ton of this ridiculous (useless) merchandise and now we are forced to shove it down customers throats. That is what I mean by arbitrary nonsense goals, of which there are way way way too many! Business ethics is pretty much non-existent. Sure, investors are trying to push the bar on numbers to make a quick sell of the company when all is said and done- but to what sacrifice when the morale of its employees are going down the tubes? Be prepared for higher rates of turnover and the financial loss of having to hire and retrain, unless Lori’s wises up and starts considering the people that work for them as more than just a means to an end in pushing sales. Swift and poorly organized changes to the business model with complete disregard to the strain it puts on stores with VERY limited staff to implement. Our store is staffed by one person alone, our entire team is just three. Near impossible to get a hold of individuals in corporate to troubleshoot issues at the store level, which seem to be never-ending. I could go on and on. Starting to look elsewhere for employment and I know I’m not alone.

The corporate culture at this company is terrible. The market directors will tell you suddenly that you need to cut hours and slash the hours for sales associates in half or cut team members altogether. There is no negotiating with them because they do not care about their store teams. 

Their sales expectations are ridiculously high for the poor quality goods the company purchases. I have to process returns almost daily for products that do not work straight out of the packaging. It is incredibly difficult to sell products that do not work or are very obviously bad quality. The biggest seller is food and drinks but quarter after quarter they will reduce the budget that a store has to purchase food and drinks. 

This company is not open to suggestion either like they will send earrings to a childrens hospital and toys to a surgical center and expect individual stores to eat the cost of shipping products to stores that can actually sell the inventory. As a manager, it feels like the company is working against me.

If you are a sales associate, it is a decent job but do not expect anything long term or reliable from this company. 
The actual work is good. You get to know a lot of the hospital staff and it is very engaging work. If you really like supporting people or being a friendly face, then this is a great position. If you expect corporate offices to work with your store to boost sales by providing the inventory or labor to hit sales goals, then this is not the company. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Calm paste environment. Getting to know new people and making deliveries to rooms getting an opportunity to see the smiles on patients face.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
My district manager was verrryyy difficult to deal with very messy and dramafied and definitely doesn’t care about how she treats and talks to you! Marissa will talk about her managers to others and talk to her managers about the next! Never received a bonus even though i ran the store by myself for 4 months Monday through Friday i felt drained. Company can’t keep employees because either some or under paid or company can only give them 12 and 15 hours.Only get a 10 cents raise a year. After leaving the company after a year my mind has been at ease and peace! 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Overwhelming to me because i did everything on my own majority of the time inventory counts, truck orders, pricing and put product on shelves, setting the stores up to their liking every 3 months, delivering orders to patients rooms, conference calls while dealing with customers, hiring and interviewing 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Laid back unless you have truck orders to price and put up on your own and have flower arrangements to do

Absolutely adored Lori's when I was first hired and my store manager was the very best the entire time I was there. She's the reason that rating is a 3; she's a five-star manager but the culture and attitude of Lori's corporate doesn't warrant the same praise.
I know the pandemic affected hours drastically and compensation was never very good. It's (near)minimum wage retail, and it's part-time work for everyone except store managers and above. So, no benefits in addition to the very low wages.
Would be a great side gig or first job but absolutely cannot be a person's livelihood.
Customers are mostly hospital staff and you get to know your regulars very well. Lots of visitors with family/friends in the hospital as well who are generally friendly so long as you are kind and sympathetic, too.
Very cool products available, and there's a nice employee discount, so the position isn't without perks.
Depending on your neck of the woods, you may often be expected to float from store to store on a whim, and are thought of as a lesser employee than people who have a habit of calling off, if you aren't available to take on last minute shift after last minute shift.
Lori's is still miles above other retail positions even at its most stressful but it is retail and you will be taken advantage of. Just know that going in, and decide what your boundaries are.

Our shop had the lowest turnover, however with new ownership they cleared out all upper level personnel. They forced our manager out and with a new regional manager (lacking any people skills) who yelled and said an employee could not leave at her end of her scheduled day, (that required hospital security as well as local police) so she could leave -  that employee never returned and with that our assistant manager left. Now with the new manager and regional manager in - thick as thieves - the "new" rules were ? at best. If we were not at goal at closing, we were required to stay open 15 mins longer, and if we were close to goal, we should purchase a drink and snack to  achieve the daily goal.  We were no longer able to order small shopping bags, have been out of tissue paper, and small card bags. So if someone purchased a piece of jewelry - nothing to wrap it in or a bag to put it in. If a small plush animal was purchased only a large shopping bag was available for the gift, (small bags we had used for 6.5 years.) I LOVED my job and it hurt to leave, but  with the stress and low pay I too was forced to leave.  This is the only position I have held where the company did not have an exit interview. Their only concern now is the Daily Goal, another Blockbuster moment !

Basic store clerk duties/cahier duties.
Receive stock and price, maintain neat and orderly appearance in store. Greet customers in a friendly way and help choose merchandise, suggesting extra items to boost sales.
I learned that a hospital gift shop is a very lucrative business.
Great management team, many levels that extend across the country.
Solitary, with the exception of 1/2 hour shift changes where two cashiers are present. This store has three employees-The manager, the assistant manager and myself.
The hardest part of the job... Often the family members of the patients just "hang out" in the shop because they are escaping the thought of their loved ones being in the hospital, some get emotional...other times it would have to be keeping an eye on the suspicious shoppers. The store is extremely small, and just five people in it at one time is a crowd.
The most enjoyable part of the job...the hospital staff. Many regular customers, most have a great attitude and are kind and friendly people. The gift shop also has a great rewards program, and employees receive many incentives to boost sales, it is a fun place to work.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales associate 420 salaries reported	$15.42 per hour
Store manager 102 salaries reported	$20.71 per hour
Assistant manager 65 salaries reported	$18.59 per hour
Associate manager 53 salaries reported	$16.81 per hour
Night manager 20 salaries reported	$16.30 per hour

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