sales associate

retail sales associate

retail supervisor

associate

loss prevention director

UNIQLO

Pros
- You'd meet some of the best people and make life-long connections... SOME.
- You'd be able to see what you can and cannot handle, identify your strength and weaknesses, or what you are NOT WILLING to deal with.
- Benefits - because it is an international company
- Very structured so it's easy to learn from the get go, if you're willing
- Structured promotion opportunities - quarterly for associates & bi-annually for managers

Cons
- Micromanagement style - you're expected to work to exhaustion, in store & in corporate, especially if you WFH currently, expect 10-11+ hour days, no lunch breaks, & some work on weekends
- Zero work-life balance. You'd have a little if you're lucky enough to have an understanding manager
-Working environment (in stores & HQ) does not follow company values & standards, ironically you are supposed to memorized them.
- Senior managements are more managers than leaders, also EXTREMELY contradicting
- They say will say there are opportunities for growth (esp. in interviews) but you'll only get it if you'll willing to suck-up and don't have an opinion (for corporate & west coast store operations, east coast is a little bit better). So if you want to be a mindless follower, you'll be promoted.
- If senior management sees you as "difficult", meaning you voice concerns, suggest ideas for improvement, or stand up for yourself and your team/store, you'll be ignored for promotion or for their expats, sent back to their home country.
-HR team is okay... some members do genuinely care. They can help you with any paperwork related stuff, like the basic HR tasks. But when it comes to your own work/professional questions, issues with management, work environment/culture, the most they'll do are touch bases and say what you need/want to hear, when nothing can and will be done to improve due to, again, senior management
- Store operations - New store managers are well under-qualified, most are title-sensitive, & got the position because of the company's need of managers due to high turnover (more for west coast operations) and/or favoritism (refer to previous statement). The ones that genuinely care about making the store & company better, would obviously express opinions & if they don't align with senior management, are denied promotion with lame excuses. OR they will promote you because they have to not because of acknowledgment of the hard work you've been doing
- Corporate - LOTS of politics and gossip (think high school), everyone is out for themselves so they'd "look good" to the Directors & CEOs, you could be thrown under the bus if you don't stand up for yourself, even by a Director. You'd be lucky to have a supportive manager but sometimes, even they can't do anything.
- Managers & Directors are either Japanese expats (quite sexist, if you're female, no chance to of promotion but they'll work you hardest) or Americans (locals as they call it) who only only got their positions based on sucking up and following directions rather than bringing results like they say they expect from you and should.
- Very structured to the point where you have to do it their way
- Computer systems are extremely outdated, everything has to be approved from the JP Global HQ.

Advice to Management
- PLEASE appreciate, listen, and support your employees
- PLEASE learn to be a leader and not so focused on your entitlement as Managers/Directors
PLEASE have some humility and acknowledge when you're wrong or at fault because we are all human and working relationships work BOTH ways.
Promote your employees FAIRLY and when they deserve it (like one of the company's standards)
Saying "Thank you for your hard work" is extremely overused & is meaningless at this point. It is very generic & insincere since everyone uses it before giving negative feedbacks. PLEASE show it through your actions.
And when you say be open to the changes and innovation, please actually do it.

Honestly first 3 months I was there I sort of hated it, and then I ended up liking more than I thought I would but despite that I don't think I would work retail again. This job is incredibly fast paced, and you always have to be on. This was very different from any place I've ever worked. For a retail job, its kind of strict and demanding. 

First dress code, you need to have plain clothing no patterns no logos with the exception of flannel, plaid, gingham, houndstooth ( but it cant be busy pattern). Basic colors are allowed as long as its not bright or neon or color blocking. I had to buy clothing because I own nothing but happy bright colors which was not an issue at my previous job, which I worked in an office and dress code was business casual. I would have preferred for them to assign uniforms honestly. 

Felt kinda isolated and lonely when I first started especially if I wasn't scheduled to work with fellow new hires, people weren't mean but not super friendly either, they stuck to their friends. Once they knew me this all changed and I made friends with people who had beed working there for years. 

Uniqlo has very high standards on floor presentation and maintenance. They expect a lot from workers and I feel like this can be unrealistic sometimes especially once the floor gets busy. They want perfection at the end of the night: size order, neat folded piles, go backs processed, clean floor, etc. All of this done within one or two hours depending on time allotted and whether they have side tasks for you. You are always having to be extremely fast paced. The company has protocols on how fast you should be able to fold items as you go up in rank. It can be a challenge especially if the sales floor is trashed once the store has closed. 

If you are put in re ticketing, it will also have it challenges. 
Re-ticketing requires most times to repackage items and there are standards of how certain items are packaged. During training I was told not to worry about it as they have specific people who do it, but as I learned with more time being there that was not the case. Whenever I asked any sort of higher up how to fold certain items back into packages no one knew anything. I just had to figure it out. 

They will tell you that in order to move up you have to learn many things about each role in the company.... But I'm not entirely sure how true that is because from my experience a lot of higher up's were not knowledgable on many things.... 

In any-case I'll wrap this up because my review has gone on forever.
There will always be something new to learn. You'll have to ask multiple times but eventually someone will hear ya and you will learn. Lots of opportunity for growth if you talk to the right people in the company. If you love retail this company has a lot to offer.

Things I hated here, the lack of cleanliness. Staff room, bathrooms, and even sales floors dirty and dusty. I thought because of how strict they were and being Japanese company and all cleanliness would excel but no ( maybe its a retail thing?). Communication from management to staff sucked. They changed schedule a lot especially during holiday season and would not inform associates. Another con, only way to see schedule is if you go to work, there is no way to access a digital one.  Another con you are scheduled for 7.5/8 hr shifts but in reality you are at work for another extra hour (if they don't ask you to stay extra)..... so lets say you have an 8 hr shift you are actually scheduled for 9, because of the one hour lunch you have to take.

I'm a college student that started working at Uniqlo maybe a month or so ago and it has already dissatisfied me extremely. I'm rather observant, and the company will lie to you at interviews about the growth you're able to make, it's all fake. There's no room for promotion unless you're favorited which is rare because managers are super strict about doing everything the 'Uniqlo' way. I don't even know where to start.

Management has been the absolute worse. They target hiring college students but when you are hired, they won't let you change your schedule for school purposes- even at desperate times. They're rude and playoff your issues and act like they are busy when they're mainly just chatting with each other in an office all day. I have only worked there for a short amount of time and have already had them miss a day on my paycheck and another one of my paychecks was late two weeks. Although I personally may have not needed the money- some people rely on this job to provide for bills and it's highly unprofessional. They will blame issues on the system when it's their own fault, but still, expect us to put 100% on work when they can't even compensate their employees on time. Managers also have a huge issue with communication with one another and you could be placed doing something else other then what's on your schedule just to be complained later by another manager asking you why you were there when it wasn't planned. Managers develop a petty attitude, I guess it comes with the job. 

The biggest issue all goes back to management. They make you feel bad about tiny things, people are quitting almost every day and employee turnover is crazy. They hire like 15 people at once to compensate lost workers, some of which quit on the first week or so. 

Expectations are extremely ridiculous. Uniqlo kept the Japanese standards to train employees, maybe it had more appeal to some people but it's absolutely insane. They expect all employees to be doing something every second of the day to the point where you get afraid to take a simple bathroom break. Phones are to be locked up in lockers and something as little as leaning on a table or fixture will get you in trouble. They expect all employees to be running around on the floor putting back huge mountains of clothes, assisting 10 customers at once, and updating managers on your status at all times. One specific thing I always found odd is that they expect all employees to have phrases from a handbook memorized and which in some cases we could be tested on at random times. It's weird. They watch cameras for slackers, and never show appreciation for your hard work. Even if you're trying, it'll go unnoticed or ignored. The pay rate for this amount of work is insulting and the way they talk to you is just as bad. They talk to us like children and when you ask a question, they act annoyed. There is no teamwork because of this, everyone is too afraid to help one another because if you don't look out for yourself- you could get in trouble for the smallest things. 

If you are looking for a full-time job and plan on making it a career in retail, you could try it out. But as for part-timers who are students and just want a job on the side for some extra cash- BEWARE that this job is definitely not worth it at all, not even to try. It's insanely ridiculous and feels like high school all over again where people form little cliques and talk down on you. The disrespect is extremely evident and it's clear that employees are at the bottom of what they're trying to improve on if they are at all.

Got this job because of school. Most the employees are fellow college students who must endure the stress this job will give you. A typical day at the flagship store is long and busy filled with tourist undoing every single stack you just folded which is typical retail but this place, man just overdoes it.
1. The interview is done in group. They sit you down and start asking where you see yourself in 5 years etc. Followed by group orientation where they basically tell you everyone even your coworkers can be shoplifters. This is the most stressed part of the orientation.
2. Now onto the hardest most stressful part of the job. You have closing/opening meetings every single shift. You must scream their phrases and memorize them by heart or else you will be singled out. You must remember the color charts and the cut of the clothes. You must carry your pouch and name tag, the dress code is basically anything they sell. Said pouch will be randomly inspected for your phone lol. You will be assigned what time you start but forget about what time you leave because you can be there till 2 am regardless if your done with your assigned area. If there is still a whole bunch of stuff undone, you will be forced to stay until its finished and it can be bins and bins of clothes, while your other coworkers who are cooler with management have left hours ago. Those bins and bins of clothes MUST be folded with their techniques or else you will have to refold them again. If you ever gone to a Uniqlo store you would see how perfectly folded these clothes are. This is due to the employee folding and unfolding it until its a perfect square with aligning tags. You are forced to work a 12 hour shift on Black Friday no exception. Your locker will be raided for “unapproved” items, this includes your personal items and not given to you until they decide to. They are so paranoid of theft you must have cash change approved before giving it, so imagine doing that when the line is literally going around. If your place in the stock room you have to dispose a certain amount of boxes. Imagine when the store is so over replenished you can’t push it out. You basically do everything in the store ranging from greeting to cashier and even cleaning the customers bathrooms because they fired the cleaning crew so you can do it for cheaper pay. They have high turnovers and are always hiring because of the work ethic. You will have no work-life balance at all. The hours are not flexible. You have to put your life on the line for the sake of the business lol. All of this for minimum wage lol.
3. Now onto the good. Their clothes is decent and they give you an employee discount. The most enjoyable part of the job is your fellow coworkers who just wanna go home and help you out if you guys close together. You will also meet many people due to the high turnover, many who are cool. The area is filled with many restaurants to choose from for the hour break.
Bottom line; i don’t believe this job was worth the time and energy i spent there. I have never been so stressed in my life just to fold clothes. You’d believe they are like any other retail store but no their ridiculous standards are simply not worth it. Apply anywhere else.

Let me start off with this:
Pros: 30% discount, great friends you can make.
You'll also be able to have a variety of work experience.
Thats' it. Now allow me to enlighten you through the eyes of a worker.

Disclaimer: If you absolutely need a job, then apply. A job is a job. 
However, if possible you can do absolutely better.

Cons (There is quite a numerous amount):
I won't even list I'll just go ham in regards to description. 
For starters, without going too much into info, it started off decently. Last year you made more than minimum wage. Now you make minimum, well rather you start off that way.

You get promoted every 3 months however if you don't sell your soul to your managers/the company as a whole. In fact, you'll be lucky enough to even get to A3 in an entire year. Not much room for going up you'll more than likely end up quitting due to not caring anymore, finding another job or just find yourself stuck in an endless cycle of working above and beyond just to appease customers which 95% of the time don't care of your existence, and upper management that only sees you as yet another cog in the machine which powers their paycheck, only because despite your intense dislike for the job it provides you with some money in your pocket. 

Only people that benefit from this are clearly the ones on top, along with the very few no-lives you'll work with that will work 40+ hours a week just to have a fat bank account, sacrificing physical, emotional and even mental health in order to gain it. 

TLDR: You do so much work and the pay isn't worth it. After maybe 2+ years if you're lucky your pay will make the suffering worth it but it will add on and on in regards to your accumulated stress. Even certain managers dislike the job but deal with it cause it pays their bills. You'll notice that some of your coworkers and/or managers genuinely don't mean to stress you out, but only do it cause those above their rank stress them out. 

So again, honestly please do better. But again, if you have no where to go (or for the very least at the moment) Then apply.

The job could be a lot better if upper management wasn't so toxic. If employees were treated better, and if they didn't force godlike standards which are virtually impossible to obtain in an American location it would be decent, maybe even good. Nothing will ever be perfect and it should be expected. However they will force those idealistic tasks upon those below them in order to appease their bosses, and make their paycheck. 

I respect the policy of treating customers like family and all but don't disregard the lives of those that are trying their best (or should be trying) in order for that to happen.

Your typical day of work involves lots of customer servicing, folding clothes, hosting the fitting room and standing around the cash registers either checking people out or literally just standing in place doing nothing.

The most an average associate will learn are customer service skills, folding clothing and tasks to replenish stock on the floor.

The management, while most are nice people, all share the same glaring problem that has become an issue for the store itself. Nepotism. Management will constantly encourage associates to work much harder than they get payed for and socialize less. Irony is that they all do the exact opposite and create a double standard between regular associates and management. The exact opposite of setting a good example. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, you won’t get considered for promotion or respect without getting into their “closed” social circle. Someone significantly less qualified will take that position. This contradicts the entire purpose of the company standard evaluations they make everyone do. Management has 0 consideration for their associates as the store hasn’t had a pay raise in many years and the only form of item feedback (they call VOS) we can give is a fallacy just to make the managers seem like they are doing their job to corporate by making us meet their quota.  All of this I believe is the main reason the job has such a notoriously low retention rate. Much of it can be brushed aside if the store actually cared to give everyone raises but they can’t even do that.

Workplace culture is fine. Coworkers will be the ONLY reason anyone would consider staying in the job longterm without moving forward. That is also the most enjoyable aspect of the job seeing as most coworkers are willing to help and converse with you throughout the day to make the job feel easier.

The hardest aspect of the job is the highly inconsistent work schedule. Part time workers will often get full-time hours without any of the benefits which never made sense. And it’s not that easy to get full-time for most associates due to the issues mentioned above.

To summarize, a job this easy shouldn’t have all of these issues for the average worker to begin with. It’s an easy job all things considered. Regularly updated competitive pay and more competent management would easily make this job worth sticking around in the long run. 

But for the time being, don’t expect to work here longterm.

It's hard to tell if it was just the store managers or the whole company, but it was probably a mix of both. The store and assistant managers were all very young and inexperienced, like they hired anyone who was willing to follow their dogmatic work culture. When they had something to criticize you about, it was in a cold, sharp way and they really do treat you like robots. You're expected to hand out bags and recite the daily goal to the exact dollar as if those are useful metrics by themselves in increasing sales numbers and then when you don't make goal as a store (there are no individual metrics) you're made to feel like it's your fault. There was never any, "Let's do our best guys!" but rather, "Making our goals is how we pay you guys" and "If you don't like the way we do things, there's this thing called a door."

They would also have this sense of urgency to sell products, but while they would want you to have the daily goals and the products to focus on written on a notepad by the time you started there was no training on actual products. There were no computers to do research or handouts about those particular products. They had plenty of handouts on the details and rankings of messiness though.

The scheduling was also incredibly unstable. I'm not sure if that was just the culture or the inexperience of the managers. Based on store goals, my hours would go from 28 one week, to 4, to 14 other weeks. I'm sure that's okay if you're a high school student who lives at home, but not if you have a car or rent to pay for.

All the district managers and above seem to all be from Japan to preserve the original company culture. After wondering about the harshness of the store managers I was once told something like, "Yeah, it's actually normal for the district manager to yell at the store managers when they think the managers aren't up to their standards." I've lived and worked in Japan and while it can be an emotionally cold atmosphere, I've never heard of people yelling at their employees like it was normal. Warning bells going off all the time, I found a new job after only 3 weeks.

Lots of employees (and reviews) said they wanted to leave, but that they really liked their co-workers. I'm not sure why some people stay for that reason since every workplace has nice people. However, other places have much better management and company culture which makes people happy in general.

I really liked Uniqlo products, but after feeling like I and all other employees were trash to management, I can't bear to purchase their products ever again.

I thought it would be a fun experience working at Uniqlo since I loved shopping here, but it exceeded my expectations in the worst possible way. I've worked retail and customer service jobs before, but this one was the absolute worst. Firstly, it seems like they were reluctant to pay their employees because I've experienced 2 accounts of miscalculation of hours (1st time was from the training day when the trainer forgot to hand in our time sheets... lol). They make you refill out the time sheet and hand it over to HR.. all that work just to assure you get paid what you're supposed to. The company policy had the most particular rules, like making us put away our cellphones in our bags (are we still in high school?), making us ask for water or to use the bathroom, and the dress code... I always thought dress code was supposed to be business casual, which is what they tell you at orientation; but it's not just that. Certain patterns aren't allowed, no shirts without collars, yet we are allowed to wear baggy clothing... sweatshirts and hoodies... aren't exactly business casual though? No colored hair or multiple ear piercings... but dress code was bearable, I was able to get around it. What I hated the most was that managers would constantly nag us to have energy, smile, and greet the customers (even if you were doing it most of the time, the second they caught you not doing it they would come up to you and nag you about it. Even though they themselves were not doing any of it). Also, we weren't allowed to have water on us (never had this happen before for any other job of mine), yet they wanted us to greet every customer. If you were assigned to be the greeter at the entrance, that meant you were up there yelling welcomes and thank yous at customers entering and leaving for HOURS... without water. They also make you sweep the floor and dust shelves. I was there for opening and when everyone else was assigned to push out new boxes of clothing, I was told to sweep for 2 hours before the store opened. I did not get a degree to do this lmao. Also, no matter how nice you were to customers, a ton of them were always entitled and gave you attitude if you weren't completely sure where an item was. Anyways, just stay away from here if you actually want to find a job you like. It's just not worth it.

The training period is intense where you will be delegated to the backrooms and taught how to fold and timed (i.e. a t-shirt in 7 seconds). 

There were only three managers and if you wanted to use your employee discount, they would be very strict on what you can and cannot buy (i.e. new items cannot be bought by employees with their 30% discount until two weeks after the release).  They say they value customer service but one employee scolded me for helping customers instead of folding a shelf of clothes perfectly. 

A lot of times, the training sheet where your progress was tracked was lost or mixed up so neither manager or supervisor had any idea of what had been covered. There were also conflicting standards. 

There was a limit to how many times a month you could trade/give away shifts (max of three)  and you could only change your availability once. Every single shift I worked was 8-10 hours long and that went for everyone. There were ipods that employees got to help check stock, communicate, etc., but they're limited amount so if you didn't have one and the manager changed the schedule during your shift (happened constantly!! At least twice a shift), you were doomed.

They also mislead everyone in the hiring process by advertising the job as a permanent position but then offered seasonal. Some people who had been working there for four months were hired as seasonal and thus didn't get the benefits of health insurance that they would've qualified for. So they had everyone during the interview that the positions were permanent but only offered seasonal positions to those hired after the store opening.

The pay was good but the toxic work place was not worth it. They don't allow  having people who enjoyed doing stock or cash be placed in those areas for most of their shifts or at all. Sometimes you would be put somewhere for only 30 minutes. Even if you were amazing at fitting room and management was aware, they wouldn't take that into consideration when making the schedule.

Although it wasn't my first job, this was my first retail job.  Overall, I personally did enjoy my time working for UNIQLO, but it definitely is NOT FOR EVERYONE.  If you are looking for a laid back retail experience, this is not the company for you.  Since this is a Japanese company, there are numbers and numbers of rules and regulations.  This company is very detail oriented.  You cannot do simple things such as lean on a fixture.  When you're on downtime with no customers or anything to do, you are required to be doing something.  If a supervisor or manager sees you not doing anything, you get in trouble.  You are always supposed to look like you're busy.  If you're not folding clothes, or helping a customer, you have to go around and clean all the fixtures, top to bottom.  Don't expect to have free time to do something else during down time.  Also, this isn't true for every location, but they tell you that you cannot speak to your friends/co-workers when on the floor.  I've worked with many people who got this as a first job, and I've seen them quit literally a few weeks after because it just is not for everyone.  

When you start working and begin training, they tell you about all the opportunities for advancement and promotions, however it is not easy to get them.  You have to be evaluated, of course, but I have seen people working since the beginning not get a raise, ever.  I'm not saying that it's impossible to get a raise, but the way they present this information to you makes it seem as if it's easy to get a raise and that everyone gets it.

Working at this company is almost like you're in another school.  We were required to memorize things such as the UNIQLO code of conduct.  And when I say memorize, I mean we literally have to memorize every single word.  They literally give you a test where you are given a blank sheet of paper and you have to write down every single code of conduct.  If you have even a single punctuation error, or miss a word, they mark it as wrong.  You have to memorize 6 standard phrases, and at every morning meeting, you have to repeat them out loud.  

I think this is a great company, and I enjoy the clothing, and I enjoyed most of the people I worked with, but I cannot stress enough that this is not a job for everyone.  You have to have the right mindset to work here.

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