retail sales associate

store manager

sales associate

zone manager

store director

Tandy Leather Factory

The company largely caters to businesses and small-time crafters that want to come into a store to touch the leather and learn about the craft.  You'll meet Boy Scouts and Troop Leaders, folks making bible covers for the first time, crafters wanting to learn how to make leather masks, business owners making custom BDSM collars or restraints, and Ren Fair folks making armor.  The diversity and creativity of the customer-base is truly what kept me interested in this job.

A typical day at work includes cleaning and sanitizing the store, checking inventory and restocking, answering the phone and taking orders, picking and packaging orders to be shipped, taking shipments and inventory off pallets and placing them on display, interacting with customers as they shop and answering their questions, proactively discouraging shoplifting, running a register, counting bills and coins at the end of the day, and securing the store.  You will likely be required to enforce city and county ordinances, if there is something like a COVID-19 mask and social-distancing requirement.

It is imperative to maintain awareness of current events, grow your knowledge of leather, be aware of older prices, current prices/sales, and future sales.  Upselling is not required, but becomes relatively simple the more you learn about the products.  

You will be given several paid holidays, including several that you can schedule for yourself, in addition to PTO.  

There are annual evaluations for pay raises.  Last year they were guided self-evaluations where you were required to speak of your accomplishments within the company.  Then the manager would look over them and approve/disapprove them.  I know of one employee that received 2 separate raises and only made 63 additional cents above their hiring pay-rate.

My favorite part of my employment is when I would teach classes.  I really loved working with customers on their projects and helping them adapt different patterns and ideas to suit their style.  

 I loved working at Tandy Leather! 
 Our Manager was very easy going, and really tried to take care of both her customers, and her team. 
 My co-workers were so much fun to work with, and were a great team who always looked for ways to help each other, and our customers.
 We became close with many of our customers. And often they became like family to us!
 One of my favorite things that we did, is that we would regularly have booths at different fairs, and conventions to bring attention to the company. We were often one of the most popular booths, because we had the children & their parents making free leather bracelets, or necklaces.
 We would have classes both in & out of the store, where we would teach about the different aspects of leather working.
 Also, I have found that wearing my Tandy Leather shirts are a great conversation starter. I get people all the time stopping me, to tell me stories about how their parents would take them to Tandy as a child. Or stories of leather projects they have done as a kid, and how they now want to get their own children into working with leather.

 I would say that the only real downside, for me at least. Is that due to corporate policy, the starting pay is low & the raises are small. It is on the low end for retail.

I started working at Tandy with high hopes—it was a fun and creative retail environment. For a while, everything was great. The work was engaging, the customers were great, and the team had a positive, collaborative atmosphere. But things took a sharp turn when they got rid of the original manager.

After that, the vibe shifted dramatically. The craft and creativity aspect that made the job unique was not the focus anymore. The job started to feel more like a corporate machine than a place to help customers in the pursuit of their leather craft journey. The fun and engaging aspects that made it enjoyable were completely stripped away.

New management has been a major letdown. They seem completely out of touch with the needs of the employees and customers. The corporate decisions have only made things worse, and the company now feels like it's on a downward spiral.

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend working here anymore. It used to be a great place, but now it’s just a frustrating and uninspiring environment. I’ve seen firsthand how the new direction has hurt both the employees and the business as a whole. It’s disappointing to watch something with so much potential go downhill so quickly.



Basic to state that if your are free thinking and educated, this is not a place where you will be welcomed.  Management at store level is laughable and varies between stores; double standards are highly utilized between employees and management.  Most managers and employees have no real experience in the leather working skill trade.  Regional managers want the ‘yes men’ mentality and care only about their profits.  Very little connection with the actual retail employees.  Corporate doesn’t care about the retail stores and the CEO would rather move away from storefronts or support changes to merchandising methods without knowing consumer base in regions of operation.  The care for quality product is a very low priority.  Pay is well below desirable based on cost of living in regional areas.  

If you care about your job and representation of yourself with quality and consumer appreciated products, avoid working here.  If you want the double standard where you can sit around and do what you want - as long as you don’t think freely - you will be welcomed.  Though don’t mention that you care about people and hate ripping them off.

As a leather crafter Tandy has been very fun. I learn a lot everyday and the customers are generally very nice. However the company as a whole is severely lacking. They offer very low pay, barely above minimum wage, and have frequently said that they offer “competitive pay” for the area. As there is really only sales associates and managers at most stores it is difficult to advance within the company. It is also a fairly large company and they don’t seem to have anything together. They are always unorganized and it often feels as though no one in upper management communicates with each other or with anyone from retail locations. This results in a lot of upset customers because of errors on the company’s behalf. I have also experienced a toxic environment from the managers I have had at the company. They are manipulative and conniving with no concern for keeping anything confidential. I do partially believe it is the companies fault as they pin the managers against each other both throughout the whole company and within each district. 

work environment - warehouse/sales floor combo

Unfortunately after working for this company for half a decade I never got out of the under 17.00 an hour range with the local going rate of starting pay being 16.00 an hour, after inflation you got a pay cut each year, not a raise, so if you are a single person who just needs a job, it'll fill that void until something better comes along, but the upward movement is stagnant and they can and will higher from outside the company faster than they will from inside, they change operating procedures constantly, and most upper management/leadership doesn't listen to the people working the warehouse or sales floors about what works and what doesn't

Tandy is overall a fun place to work. You get to meet some really interesting people, and you'll learn neat stuff. Workers and management in most locations are easy to work with. 

The pay is awful. It is difficult to the point of near impossible to get a raise. If you do, it'll be gone as soon as your state adjusts minimum wage. Employees are expected to know specialty knowledge (leatherworking, sewing machine repair, teaching classes), but the company will not pay a fair wage for that knowledge. The only way to advance is to go into the management training program, which is still lacking in decent pay or benefits and demands you relocate as they wish. 

Management will usually stand behind their employees if a customer harasses them, but if it's escalated the company will typically not back the manager or employee. 

working retail can suck as you get some idiot or nasty customers, so you have to roll with it as customer is king. when its slow you get work do craft leather items and there is a wealth of information to learn from, video tutorials as they train you on all their products but also they provide free leather and offer classes where you get to make stuff with customers. it can be fun and rewarding. but then there is the pay which real low, $9 per hour and the benefits suck but better than nothing. upper management is clueless. the store is in shambles, robbed multiple times. no security cameras, no vault, the absolute bare minimum. no break room either. the ppl i work with are friendly and maybe the best co workers i've had but they too hate how upper managenemt does very little to help their retail sales employees.

Tandy is a specialized store that deals leather products and tools.  Typically, probably due to the location and customers not knowing that they have opened a store in our city, we did not have a lot of traffic come to the store.  It was rather slow during the week but we did offer tooling classes on the weekends.  That was quite a bit of fun. Through my time there, I was able to learn quite a bit about the different types of leather and the tools. To be honest, there wasn't a lot that I could say was hard about the job. The people that did come by were great.  I was able to learn so much and improve my skills.  Funny thing was that I never had any actual training with leather before I started working there and when I left, I felt that I could be considered an expert.

A typical day starts out with opening the store, doing web orders if there are any. After that there is inventory and catering to our customer's needs. By the time that is done it is lunchtime and after that is sales phone calls, finishing inventory, and closing the store. 

As far  as management goes, it has been shaky in the past but is looking up now. One would have to say that despite a current management change, the management there is inexperienced but they are decent, eager to succeed, and hopeful. The staff may be entirely new, but the new girls are helpful. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was the ability to connect to other leathercrafters and the opportunity to learn about a new craft.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 56 salaries reported	$15.58 per hour
Store manager 11 salaries reported	$25.36 per hour
Sales associate 14 salaries reported	$14.86 per hour
Zone manager 28 salaries reported	$78,500 per year
Store director 2 salaries reported	$75,000 per year

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