fine jewelry sales associate

sales

shop associate

retail sales associate

customer support representative

Na Hoku

I worked here for a little over a month during Christmas season and it started off okay. I ended up quitting college because I really liked the industry, about jewelry and all of the different brands we carried. By my 2nd week or so I started on the sales floor and ended up making a sale of over $7000 on my second day. When I came to work the next morning, my coworker said good job yesterday and how my boss would hate me if I kept that up. From that point on, my boss would keep pulling me aside to tell me how “this was not how to make friends” and how “I was stealing from my coworker’s pocketbooks”. I ended up being #5 in the company for sales by my 3rd or 4th week in, but it always felt like instead of being genuinely proud of me, my boss was always pulling me aside to tell me off for something or that my coworker was right, and she really didn't like me. It felt like I wouldn't fit into the work environment there unless I sucked up to her. A few of my coworkers were very genuine, but it seemed like they all felt that way too. They would warn me about getting too close to one of the coworkers who really liked my boss, because she would tell my boss everything. While the other two didn't like my boss at all but were nice to her face because she was still the boss. The whole environment was always really fake and I hated it. Although I loved the jewelry, the job, and the company itself, I wouldn't recommend working here. The pay is good, but even after I quit they've always been constantly hiring and apparently even upped their wages to try and draw more people in. 

The turnover rate is crazy high and the boss really is genuinely doing her best to run her store, but it feels like although she's a great worker, she's not a good boss because she's very stuck on proving herself. Others I worked with warned me of how she competes and compares her numbers to everyone else as well, and as time went on, I definitely felt that this was true.

If you love to text and basically do anything else besides your actual work that you're being paid to do then this is the job for you! I noticed so many things wrong with my work environment that any one could see that it's not right the second you start. We always have new hires but they never last long, why? Well first of all you're told that when you start everyone in your department is "family." I'll be honest out of all my co-workers only 5 are very nice and do help but the rest are just unbelievable. Best part of my job is when I'm not respected as a human being. I'm sassed all the time, if I ask for help it doesn't rub certain people the right way. I noticed though for no reason at all someone has a personal issue against me and honestly I can say 100% that I have not once disrespected anyone or have done anything but follow the rules/directions I am given. I would love to work here if I was being treated with respect as a person and if people would just please do what they're being paid to do. I have brought up the issue of employees not working when they are clocked in and I got lectured because apparently "it's not my business" as I was told but if I'm working and getting things done when someone is on their cell phone or staring off into space and still getting paid to goof off then it is my business. Also if you love drama then please apply because let me tell you I have never seen so much in my life it doesn't even compare to high school. It's really rare on how many interviews occur, they either call off of never show up. I always thought that if you were a good team player with a positive attitude you'll be able to overcome anything, I was proved wrong and I just don't know why it turned out like this for me. If you're still interested in this position then please join I just want to share my experience with this department. Good luck to future employees I hope you won't be treated like how I was.

The company uses extremely old school technology. They use Excel for a large part of their "database" which is such a bad idea and bad process bc it will make your job extremely hard to do and the work process is prone to human error. It is also super easy to change things in Excel without any tracking and then having to pass it around through multiple people to modify it. And then management will publicly blame you in front of all your colleagues for mistakes even if you are a new employee. A colleague also advised me not to put my purse out on my desk as they had an incident where another colleague's iPod was stolen in the office place. There is no worklife balance as they expect you to work 45 hours a week which they don't tell you upfront in the interview so your salary is actually divided by 45 hours a week, not the typical 40 hours a week.
No free coffee. Very minimal training for new employees.Not very intellectually challenging pulling/updating reports (more tedious) Not an innovative company. Not a progressive atmosphere. Workers are complacent.

Advice to management: Don't let an employee who's been on the job for 3 months train a newbie as that is setting the newbie up for failure especially if the 3 month employee hasn't even done a very important report with pages of confusing instructions before and so the newbie produces it wrong, gets blamed in front of all the colleagues, even after 3 month employee approves of the work as done correctly, which clearly was not.

The actual job of interacting with customers, and sharing your knowledge with them, while also selling is awesome.  A major part of this job is to teach customers, most of which are tourist, on the history and life of Hawaii.  And most of your coworkers are amazing, fun people.  However, it is also a job that works off commission, so you will also have shady people you need to watch out for.  As far as management, it's a toss up.  You have some good managers, but a majority of them are there only to better themselves, not their employees.  For me the worst experience I had was being let go from the company.  Quite honestly I wasn't upset I was let go, it's completely understandable as I wasn't meeting my sales goal regularly.  The upsetting part was that I was let go over the phone while still at the store.  My store manager was off that day, so I had just worked a back to back, (closing at midnight and opening at 8).  Once I finished the opening shift, our district manager had called the store to inform me they were letting me go.  As I said before, it was understandable for the dismissal, but I would've appreciated a little more professionalism about it.

I worked in Maui pearl factory on front street, and the management is Awful! He steals your sales if he knows the customer will buy, and is a very AGGRESSIVE person. He’s the worst person to work with and harasses woman everyday!!! Don’t even get me started on the upper management ! It’s all about favoritism and how well you can sell. The better the salesperson you are, Will determine the level of respect you receive  from them. The product are absolutely amazing, and quality is substantial. But the corporation and its management is greedy, promotions are based on how much of a bosses pet you are. so if they tell you to JUMP YOU BETTER SAY HOW HIGH! There’s only one amazing soul who was my supervisor, an amazing woman who inspired me, that kept me there as long as I did. They need to get rid of that awful man managing front st pearl factory. The company is covering him up, even after all the countless woman he has harassed.

Forget about receiving any support from the manager and most of all forget about having time for your personal life. If God forbid, you need a day off, you will need to ask for months ahead of time BUT they will wait until the last minute to give you your schedule...they're ridiculous! I'd be working the closing shift on Friday "wondering" if I was going to work Saturday morning. She will literally email us the schedule right before closing the store on Friday night.
This store is constantly understaffed, so they will sometimes schedule you five and half or six days a week to cover all the hours they're open.
On the other hand, if you don't have personal life, and don't mind being overworked and unappreciated...the commissions are good.


It is a very monotonous routine. There is not enough guidance of the company processes , introduction, or proper training for the job, which makes the learning process difficult.

There are no clear protocols or way of going things . I have learned and developed different practical skills through hands-on experience.

The workplace culture is very poor, and the environment is not very positive. No team work, meetings, goals or clear communication. 

The hardest part of the job is the long schedule and working hours.

The most enjoyable part of the job is working with my hands and developing practical jewelry-making skills.

I have worked in multiple Na Hoku locations over the past 10+ years. While I have worked with a couple of managers that weren’t very competent, some sharky salespeople & a few obnoxious customers, I doubt there is any company that wouldn’t have these same difficulties. Overall, managers seem to really be invested in their stores, most have great core teams that work really well together & customers tend to be really, really nice. 
They pay commission on all sales plus bonuses for making your monthly sales quota and various contests. The quotas seem to be fair; most of us rarely miss it. 
There’s a definite advantage to selling exclusive, well-made jewelry from your own factory.

I worked in both divisions of the company.  The Pearl Factory is very high energy and fun, but a very physical work day. I had the opportunity to manage one of these stores and it was a wonderful experience.  Sales can be challenging and the customers are extremely diverse which adds interesting experiences every day.  Na Hoku is much slower paced and there is a  lot of down time and waiting.  They don't clientelle as their focus is primarily tourism.  However, in both locations, the sales goals are very attainable and compensation is highly competitive for the jewelry industry.

I did not enjoy my time at Na Hoku. Everyone I worked with either got fired or quit. Within the short six months I was there, by the end I was the associate that had been there the longest.

Managers don’t set clear expectations and talk about employees behind their backs instead of letting them know upfront what can be changed. During holiday time you work 14 days straight without days off and extra long hours so we were constantly getting sick because we were so tired. Salary is low compared to most jewelry companies. The only positive part to this job was that they taught about gemstones and diamonds, which I am thankful for as I now have a new jewelry job that pays much more.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Fine jewelry sales associate 87 salaries reported	$23.42 per hour
Sales 4 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Shop associate 19 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Retail sales associate 1 salary reported	$26.00 per hour
Customer support representative 10 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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