retail sales associate

store manager

retail assistant manager

restaurant staff

sales associate

Stripes

A little background about me, I worked in retail for about 10 years now and in that time worked many different positions eventually ending on regional manager of a small chain of gas stations before working for stripes so I knew a thing or two about gas stations before being hired for store manager.
My time with them was riddled with poor communication from the higher ups and massive hour cuts. They want their managers to eat sleep and breath stripes. Praising managers who stay at their store for over 12 hours but only clock 8. In my time training for the position I was trained by 3 different managers at 3 different stores. That's not normal.
I did some training learning the system before my main training for manager. Even before the main training the district manager was trying to make me quit saying I wasn't cut out for this and I wasn't customer focused. Oh and did I mention she said she didn't want to hire me she was vetoed by her boss.
Eventually I made it to the main training but it was done by a woman who spoke little English even though I speak nothing but English and at the biggest store around. I'm no expert but when i train someone I would put them at a slower pace place first then ramp up the difficulty. Eventually the manager training me grew to resent me and stopped training me all together so I begged for a transfer. It took 1 month to get it and training was only 3 months long finally when I received the transfer the training manager was not notified even though he was suppose to check up on is every week. By the time the final test was done I failed because the new manager training me didn't have the proper teaching materials and they wanted me to do another month of training even though they had already given me a store to manager. The district manager basically told me I was going to hush hush about the store I was going to manager and still do the training. So she wanted me to do 8 hours of training then another 4 at my store.
From what I seen working for them is that they have huge communication issues and the higher ups want to milk their employees dry. So much so that when my wife had a miscarriage and when I got into an accident they wanted to write me up. They do not care about their employees.

Work-life balance
They dont value your effort or your skills all they care about is sells if they dont sell then every does do there job, they miss treat there employees and dont value loyalty. I hadn't called in a day at work in over a year best on timely worker we had and was take off the schedule for no reason, been there for over 2 years. They do not value loyalty or hard work at all even when you trying your best this goes for anyone they get in trouble some way or another. Plus the carousel of mangers and send thru and change is ridiculous no structure. Terrible work environment.

Job security and advancement
If your not stabing someone in the back or throwing them under you are not getting anywhere in this company. They will fire you for  there mistakes with scheduling that's how bad it is there is not recognition of there simple mistakes, this company needs a whole recall for management.

Management
They do not value you at all they push there power around like they should be feared and threaten peoples jobs constantly, not a good work environment. Mangers dont allow people to ask for days off they want the manager gives them whatever day they feel like. It could be a week after the time u asked for they do not care about there employees.

Culture
People are honest with eachother because it's so frustrating and difficult to work there the only thing keep eachother in check is eachother. If u dont have other employees to reiley on then your going to have a hard life there because management doesn't care but your local work family does more. Shorter said workers have eachothers have there.

Overall
They do not value your effort or your skills, they do not see what you have done only what you haven't,  they do not credit anyone for anything and you will lose patients. Do not care about there employees who have family medical issues they dont care about anything but there sells.they dont care if someone has a emergency. I promise you that. The only thing they care about is if you have your own way to get to work. They called someone in blowing them up while they were giving a eulogy at here baby nephews funeral. They do not care about people is my bottom line I dont suggest it to anyone.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Stripes Convenience Stores is It all has to do with the stores GM. MY GM worked with my childrens school schedule for 4 years. Until a new GM took over the store and he didn't want to honor the schedule I was hired with.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Stripes Convenience Stores are low. I believe for how hard we work and how much we give up in our personal life and what is expected of us at work the pay could be a little more generous.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Stripes Convenience Stores, I think Again it depends on your GM. The GM I started with did everything to make our store a united staff and would help us work out any thing that threatened our jon security. Even in months of time when the company need to cut back hours he always respected us to help us and his company.

Management
In general, managers at Stripes Convenience Stores again this all falls on the GM and how they run their store. If they lead by example and respect. Then we will want to do all we can to thank that by giving our all and best to the store and company.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Stripes Convenience Stores is amazing because our First GM taught us to be a family of one can make our work place a better place to work and make a strong unity to represent our store and company. But when they replaced our GM with a new GM his way of running the store and staff was nothing to do with understanding, or respect, unity, or family so a lot of the staff left little by little from the store. What the first GM the store had built for our store. The new GM couldn't keep up and our store started to become degrading little by little for staff and our guess.

Overall
My experience working at Stripes Convenience Stores was amazing, It helped me grow in business experience, customer service, and helped me build on my  management skills.

-A typical day at work was mostly standing at the register and tending to customers, but would also clean and maintain the front, back, inside, and outside of the store, including the cooler.
-I learned a lot about dealing with the general public, such as not letting your personal life effect your emotions at work when dealing with customers.
-Before I transferred to the Houston location, my previous co workers and I got along great, we communicated excellently, and helped each other always. After the transfer, a few of my new co workers were lazy more or less. I was used to always doing something even when there was nothing to do, and to see people standing around without a care in the world while I'm doing the majority of the work really frustrated me.
-The hardest part was dealing with a couple of assistant managers who continuously tried giving me orders as if I had just started, when I did more than them on a regular basis, and was always doing what was supposed to be done. All the while, my request for more hours or more pay was completely disregarded.
-The most enjoyable part about the job was before my transfer. I worked with people who had outstanding work ethic, such as myself. From the general manager to the newest employee. It's just a matter of location, every place does something differently than the next, and it'll either be a great experience or a bad one.

As the title implies, working at Stripes is about average. Depending on the location, it can be daunting work juggling a sudden influx of customers while also tackling your assigned tasks so you must have strong multi-talking capabilities. If you're the type of person that likes doing something every minute of your shift, there is plenty to do working at Stripes. Free drinks on the job is nice.

Another part where your mileage my vary: management. While it's reasonable that any manager wants their store to be the best, there is a difference between being passionate and disrespecting the employees. Genuinely constructive critique is more helpful than being heavy-handed towards your hires. Some managers at Stripes seem to opt for the latter when 'leading' their fellow co-workers.

Training was barely enough to do the assigned job and if you are an overnight worker, you will not be trained on a portion of critical operations such as processing money orders and Stripes cards. Personal experience had questions answered with lack of knowledge and alarming vagueness.

Working in retail, was a first for me. I was brought on to boost sales in the Laredo Taco Company portion of the stores, which Stripes was hoping would be a major source of income in every store. My day began, depending on which store I was managing, between 2:30 am to 4 am. When I was having to commute 45 minutes to and from a small town outside of the city my days sometimes would not end, resulting in having to sleep in my car for a brief nap in between close, midnight, and opening duties, 2:30 am. The time I was at Stripes, I did not have a life. Work was all consuming and stressful. There were no days off. I am not a stranger to hard work and dedication but when there is no recognition from upper management on the before said dedication, a problem is created. In the time I was there I ran four different stores. There was an incident at the end of 2010 that rattled me to the core, because of that one of the most challenging aspects of the job, was the ever looming thought of being robbed or hurt in the stores. My last store with the company became recognized through out upper management as one of the best in the local area.

It's easy.  Some days can become hectic as can the schedule.  Follow the rules and laws (ESPECIALLY THIS PART)  and you'll have job security.  Make sure your team is cooperative with each other.  Some folks are just more desirable to work with than others. If everyone is on the same page, it makes the day (and shift change) run smoother. It's good to ask questions at work.  If you don't know something, just ask. But, I'm not asking why there's a straw wrapper in the toilet reservoir.  I learned people get creative at hiding straw wrappers if nothing else.  My dad used to describe jobs like this:  If I want to hire someone to stack BBs, I want the best person for the job.  I say:  Stackers over slackers.  You want to work with stackers. Make sure you're one, too.  I also just want anyone reading this that I tried my best to get Red Diamond Unsweet Tea for the store I worked at. It just wasn't doable.  Not everyone can have sugar or sugar substitute.  Make sure you have the right trainers for the new hires.  Not everyone learns at the same pace.  I kept that in mind when I trained new hires.  I remember being a new hire.

An average day would start to punch in and count the register and make coffee it would be morning rush. Customers would buy gas and food and tacos. I learned that I make really good sales associate and i am a hard worker and when Im determined i can do anything. The main thing i didn't like was the management wasn't the most organized in the past almost 2 yrs I had 5 different managers so i think that says a lot about a company. Co-workers were okay for the most part just a lot of co-workers were not the best citizens in the the world  some had gang tattoos and were on probation , which actually frightened me a little. The hardest part of my job is probably when I realized that one day a person can put a gun to my head for the money on the register and I told myself that its not worth it. The part I enjoyed the most was probably paycheck day of course and when I learn about people for example this customer worked at a jail so his taco was wrapped in clear plastic and not foil and how another customer would take take her creamers in a little brown bag for later  instead of putting it in coffee.

I worked part-time, but sometimes made the 40 hr weekly mark. They rarely let you get overtime. If you work a night shift, which is usually 11pm to 7am, it gets pretty interesting. Not in the way you would want. I felt very unsafe. I actually experienced an aggravated robbery. I was hugely traumatized after that. I kept working there but never the night shift. I also had a minor accident once. My then manager said I'd be getting a call from someone from HR. Needless to say, nobody ever called me. I kept trying to contact them but the woman in charge of HR dept, was on vacation. By the time I finally contacted somebody, it was too late. They took my information and asked questions about the accident. I later got a letter by mail saying they were not going to help me, that by the time I called it was too late. You see, they only give you a month to do something about it. I was very disappointed in the lack of effort they made to try to contact me. That to me, showed they don't really care about their employees. I only stayed in that company because I needed a job and also, I had grown accustomed to my many regular customers. I believe that it was the only good thing that came out of that experience. I met a lot of great people.

    A typical day involved juggling a variety if tasks-closing out/processing the previous days paperwork, preparing banks deposit, addressing store image and employee issues, initiating/following through on price changes, investigating cash shortages, etc. I learned to priortize tasks daily. However, I also learned to be flexible in dealing with the unexpected. I tried to adjust myself to the needs of the company and the requests of upper management(though at times difficult). The most enjoyable part of the job was building positive, long term relationships with customers and co-workers. I strived to be a "TEAM" player. The hardest part of the job was dealing with employee turnover, cash/inventory theft, and employee productivity issues. However, I do feel as though I did an above average job in dealing with these, and, this success was reflected by my store's bottom line results(which were consistently superior to budget).

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 23 salaries reported	$13.28 per hour
Store manager 5 salaries reported	$20.05 per hour
Retail assistant manager 17 salaries reported	$14.87 per hour
Restaurant staff 9 salaries reported	$13.80 per hour
Sales associate 1 salary reported	$9.50 per hour

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