stocking associate

sales associate

buyer

associate

order picker

World Market

I have never been so relieved to leave a job. I will say my store was probably an exception because we had a very tumultuous year for management changes, but even still, no store should ever function this way.

Everyone was always complaining every day about how much we had to get done, and yet no matter how hard we tried, it never got done because there was not proper procedures or routines, mostly due to lack of schedulable hours.

Managers here are expected to know the entire store from top to bottom, including the convoluted and outdated store policies, and are expected to adhere to all store policies 100% of the time-- except for the exceptions, which happen 95% of the time. 

A regular day for me at my store consisted of not being able to do my actual job because the employees are not trained enough (not enough hours to schedule multiple people together for a dedicated training shift), so I spent my day responding to calls over the headset and running back and forth between the office and the registers, because most of my work needed done in the office, but the cashiers constantly needed manager approval-- for online order returns, price adjustments, customer appeasements. Literally everything.

They have the most outdated coupon system i've ever seen, and it made things extremely frustrating during rushes. Send xyz text then respond with x and y and z and then wait 2 minutes for the coupon to load because the servers for the system we used weren't strong enough to handle the holiday traffic. Then deal with disgruntled customers who had to wait 20 minutes to check out 2 items because we have no express or self checkout. 

Customers would get very snippy with you over small things like discounts, the credit card, false advertising by the marketing team, etc. But that's normal retail.
Our registers are from the 80s with no way to look up coupons. They take a long time to learn fully and they are very confusing or inaccessible for people with learning disabilities. In the almost 2 years I was there as a managers, at least one of our registers would go down during a transaction and we would have to move the customer to a different register, then completely restart the register and the pinpad. IT always made us feel like we were the root cause of the issue and would get snippy when helping us. Same with our slow and outdated store scanner phones.

It was borderline impossible to get fired from this company. The tumultuous management changes started when we had one new freight flow manager who would purposefully go against policy, caused issues between associates and managers, picked fights with everyone, and was emotionally abusive and manipulative. He screamed and cussed at not only our operations manager, but our district manager, and he still was not fired, simply put on his final warning. When I was dragged into this drama, I was written up for not being professional enough. So was our operations manager, and she actually ended up quitting because it was so ridiculous. 
After this, we only had one assistant manager (myself) and our store manager. She was working multiple 12 hour days because our district manager refused to put us on emergency limited store hours for multiple weeks. I think the store ran this way for about two months, most of which was operating at regular hours. I was not permitted to work overtime during most of this time frame. On top of all of that, the store manager was still expected to complete all of her duties while also being expected to source, interview, hire, and train, 2 more assistant managers to fill the gaps of the people who left suddenly. How is that feasible for anyone??

Employees are not properly punished for tardies or call offs, as there is no point system. People coming in late, calling off last second, etc flew under the radar because we had very specific guidelines for when we were allowed to write them up. One took EIGHT consecutive last-second call offs to be written up. Another is 5-10 minutes late every day and has only been written up twice. Etc.
Every position has way too much under their belt for the amount of hours the stores are given. Since we were only given about 255 hours to schedule everyone, including management, every week, we often had to spend time at the register or assisting with furniture sales since there was no one else on the salesfloor to do so. Great way to completely overwork your managers.

You weren't allowed to wear shorts. Ever. Even in 90+ degree weather when the AC in the building barely works. If you try, good luck, because this company has the strictest dress code policy of any retail job i've ever worked. You'll get written up or sent home.

I could genuinely rant about this company for hours. The only reason I didn't leave sooner is because their pay is very competitive in my area, especially for management. At least the associates there were always kind.

I was very excited to work here at the beginning. The hours have never been good. They don't want stock associate's to just be stock, they want them to be cashiers which would be fine if you had enough time to dedicate to both those jobs. There's never enough time. They never run out of crazy new expectations for you to reach. "How come you can't break down 20 paletts in four hours?? You should be able to do that!" "We expect you to do 40 packages per hour. That means you need to spend only a minute on each package" 

Except, they never give you time to fix the top stock or to down stock so you end up with a bunch of mess and an impossible task of putting things out while trying to maintain order that's impossible to actually do.

One manager refused to call the female employees by their names. Three of the other managers liked to gossip. They would act like and say you weren't trained correctly but then never spend time to work on training you properly, even though every time, that was their biggest complaint. 

One of the managers that was supposed to be in charge of stock was expected to help the others with the paletts but refused to lift a finger. Instead they preferred to micro manage and scream at employees when they weren't moving "fast enough". They would take away the few hours they gave to make themselves look better for the budget. The hours we were given was only 5-15 hours per week. Most of the time it was 10 hours per week. You have no chance at advancing here. 


They tried their best to get all their employees to self incriminate. They told people there were cameras everywhere, even in the break room. 
There were none in the break room. They tried to get you to tell them who you thought would steal that worked with you. 

Overall, this job really wasn't worth all the worl I did for them. They really expected you to break your back to work for them and if you weren't lifting insanely heavy stuff for them, extremely quickly you were being screamed at and told how awful you are. They expect you to just injure yourself for them. They don't care about you at all. 

This was okay for maybe something seasonal and in addition to other work but I'd never recommend any of my friends work here. 

Oh and the training they tell you that you so desperately need, it doesn't exist. They need a dedicated trainer position but they are too cheap. 

They eliminated the department head roles and merged them which makes it even more impossible to do the work that is expected to be done. Instead they want to pile that onto the insane expectations that stock is already living under. 

Not sure what else I can say about this job to dissuade you from it. 
Oh, they decided to let me go during the pandemic because they wanted to weasel out of paying for my unemployment. They decided to tell me that I needed to be available from 9am-9pm 3-5 days a week except that they don't ever give 3-5 days a week of work. Ever. And never from 9-9pm. If I couldn't be available whenever they told me to available with no notice, I would have to take a leave of absence. Then they contacted me letting me know they were firing me. 

They ended up firing people that had been taking on extra work at the store and making it better because they claimed to be really needing the help and held the possibility of a promotion and of full time over your head so you do the extra working thinking it is reflecting well on you until you find out that you've been fired, after they had you train the new girl on all your extra tasks that you do to help out around the store. Many people got fired despite being in positions that seemed "secure". 


My experience working here was mostly bad. The management team did not take training as an important part of the hiring process. Their was so many things that I was never taught that I never knew I needed to know until I was confronted by a customer about them and I sat there clueless. The rest of the recently hired associates agreed that we all lacked training when we would get in trouble for things we didn’t know we had to do. The general manager was great but the head supervisor was a terrible leader and teacher. She was lazy and sat in the office her entire shift all the time. The associates ran out of gloves which were used mainly to clean the bathroom and it took her 3 weeks to get us new ones. To top it off she got mad the bathrooms weren’t cleaned right but none of us wanna clean a public bathroom with our bare hands. That’s completely unsanitary. Another thing is if you get a job here be prepared to deal with the extremely outdated technology they use and refuse to update. The registers are giant calculators and are so fussy. They always gave us problems which would lead to lost customers. I worked at a store that was new, not even a year old when I started and they didn’t think it would be necessary to put new registers in and gave the store the same old registers all the other stores have. Their website also only updates once a week so it creates a lot of problems when a customer comes in claiming the site told them we have something in stock when we didn’t. There were too many customers that put their anger on the associates when a simple upgrade from up top on all the tech could resolve all those issues. My location was also very clique-y and that circle included the supervisors. They were allowed to stand around in circles chit chatting but if two associates working in the same area said a word to each other we were told we weren’t doing anything. Also, during my interview the supervisor had told me that they were looking to keep many associates past the season because they were a new store. But when the time came they let go all of the girls and kept the few guys because they said they needed more men to lift furniture in the back. Besides being extremely sexist, many of the girls working had much much better work ethics than the boys they kept just for their “man power”. One of them got told many times he shouldn’t be in customer service by customers and he still got kept because he was a guy. 

The store I worked at had excellent lower management and other workers, but upper management is regularly out of touch with their stores and expects beyond reality for their lower management to due, and refuses to hire adequate management to cover all of these tasks. 

Normal associates are often limited in what they can do without a manger or a “badge” as it’s called at World Market, which is essentially a floor manager. Badges are needed for many store functions yet the promotion process is completely unreasonable for the benefits and responsibilities given. There were at most 2 badges at any given time I was working at my store, and they refused to hire more. There is no real explanation given to us as to how to become a badge, some people do, some don’t. I’ve had co workers over 2 years of experience never be considered for a promotion to a badge, while they bring in external people with previous experience who leave in a few months due to better opportunities elsewhere. 

The largest issue to why the stores cannot function properly is a lack of proper staffing. There were about only 2 people in the entire stock crew for the majority of my employment, and expect them to impossibility fit pallets of product into a stockroom too small to fit if. The amount of product coming in would not be an issue if they had adequate staff, but they refuse to increase base pay beyond state minimum while larger and smaller companies that expect less of their workers and treat them better offer pay that is more than $2/hr above what World Market offers. Raises are given on a yearly basis based off of your performance review, but the majority of retail workers don’t even stay in the same position for over a year, so there is little motive to work harder when you will see usually no more than a 50 cent pay raise for it.

World Market is not a bad place to work for a summer job, or a little money on the side, but don’t expect any advancement at this company even if you go above and beyond, and have previous experience. I was lucky enough to have great co workers and lower management, but it will depend on the store of course.

Typical day will either be at the registers or on the floor of the store, and you can be switched between the two when needed. Being at the registers can be overwhelming, if you need help with a transaction someone has to walk from alllll the way from the back of the store usually. 
Being "on the floor" of the store means you are "recovering" meaning making the products look neat and orderly which isn't bad; just a lot of squatting and bending. It also means dealing with customers questions, and if they want to buy say furniture, you're the one who checks if the piece is in stock, and brings it from the back to their car.

One of the more annoying parts is how much they push getting "sign ups". When a customer signs up for the "membership" (its free. just phone # and email), they get a 15% off coupon for that purchase. Management frequently repeats they want you to ask EVERY customer if they want to sign up, EVEN IF they're buying a bag of chips. It's nice to save people money on big purchases, but I'm definitely not helping if I'm pushing for signups with every customer. 

What's making me look for new job is the lack of upward mobility, you can pickup shifts here and there and maybe even 8 hour shifts, but they pretty much only offer 4 hour shifts at about 12-24 hours a week. And if theirs no room for a higher position at a certain store, even if you meet qualifications, you're staying at part time.

The management at WM is laid back, yet mentally straining. I found specific managers to be manipulative and passive towards employees. However, if you are looking for a laid-back job and are great at providing for privileged customers, then this is the place for you. 

There is not a defined starting price as a sales associate or a stock handler. Some started at as low as $7, and others as high as $10.50 for the same job and similar experience. My starting price was $9.00, starting as a cashier. 

As a cashier, you are held responsible for surrounding stock, like any other job. The registers are pretty clean, but the back is not. On my first day of training, I was taught how to clean the bathrooms and it was just as effective as not cleaning it at all. There aren't cleaning supplies other than Clorox wipes, mop soap, and a toilet brush and toilet cleaner. 

The management is... okay. I found it easy to make conversation with them. From my personal experience, I did not seem valued as a hard worker even when I got promoted to a Badge Holder (Kind of like a supervisor.) Many times, more than three times, I have felt manipulated into working longer, coming into work, etc. Overall, they are great people to know and are understanding of obstacles that may interfere with your work performance. They are willing to help you or assign you to something that best accommodates your physical well-being.

The most enjoyable part of working in the world market was the other employees. They bring light to the environment with their knowledge and joy for the job. It is easy to ask anyone for help, regardless of who you are working with on any particular day. As I have seen employees come and go, I have noticed that most are on the younger side, and some getting into or out of college. 

I worked at world market for almost 3 years. If you want the truth... There is a lot of drama. There are a lot of promises that will be made to you that will not be kept. I've seen a lot of people work their hearts out and never get promoted except for their 20 cent yearly raise. If you ask for time off then your hours will be cut just to spite you. You can move up but it takes a lot of sucking up to the managers and really repeating over and over how you are interested in that job opportunity. They used to like to hire in people instead of promote within but then everyone started to quit. People are two faced and you have to Watch what you say around everyone. If you complain about anything to any of the supervisors, they will tell the GM. It's a good place to work if you don't really care about your job. If you really care about your job then all they will do is bring you heartache. I worked my hardest and moved up to a department position and you still are not respected. You can not take anything personal here because one minute everything will be fine and the next minute you will be yelled at for not doing something. You will be given many tasks to do and even if you apply as just a cashier, you have to also do stock because they do not have an overnight stock team. It's a lot of work for only $8 starting off pay. I worked hard for a long long time and barley made it over 11 and that's 3 years. If you don't care and this is just a college job or a seasonal job, go ahead. If you are a happy person who cares about people then don't work here. I've seen a lot of great people go and a lot of nice people turn on you at the end. In the end I had to say goodbye. Hopefully things will change in the next 2 years when they switch out the management because things need to change back to how they were and when they used to respect people.

World Market is a sales job, first and foremost, but daily duties can and will include tasks such as putting up freight, restocking, taking down or putting up displays, checking in deliveries, and cashier work. Business at my location was steady with obvious fluctuations when School or other companies closed for the day. At times it could be very busy, at others nearly empty save for employees. The fact that you always can find a task to perform was a double-edged sword; great for those slow times, but frustrating when certain tasks needed completing and the store was very busy. being able to manage your time and be available for customers while still completing your job elsewhere was key.

Promotion within the company at the store level rarely happened, at least at my location. The supervisors were all tenured employees with a long history with the company and no inclination of leaving. In my time with the company, only three openings ever came up. This particular issue is now much worse since the company downsized at the store level in 2020, reducing supervisory roles to just the general manager and two assistants.

30 minute lunches were guaranteed if your shift was over six hours. They were unpaid, which allowed you to leave the store and do whatever you wanted with the time. Every shift over four hours had at least one 10-minute paid break, but often times the workload demanded skipping those.

It was obvious that the people at the corporate level cared about their employees. Right up until the downsizing, there was a heavy emphasis on employee morale and well-being. I cannot speak on the culture now, as my position was included in the list of removed roles during this time.

As my first job, I was very eager to start this new venture. At the time, they were relocating stores so I was one of the many people there to help set up much of  the shelf stands, displays, and inventory (at the time). It was an eye opening experience as I felt that this labor was great for someone as their first job. It taught me a lot of lessons and helped me come out of my shell. It was always a clean, and well functioning environment except for the management that is. It may just be the location, but almost all of the employees were unhappy with the manager in charge. Constantly making schedules that didn't meet the necessary amount of hours employees needed and their correct availability. And many employees had either left or were let ago in a span of a few months which included more than half of the staff. It may of have just been due to the fact that they needed extra hands for the opening, but it was still very uncommon for that many employees to just be gone in that time span. And I had been let go, due to ailments and other personal issues at the time which is perfectly understandable, but when I had been let go, I didn't receive a single call, text, or email. The way I found out that they had let me go was because they were no longer giving me hours for two weeks straight and I came into the store, tried to purchase some items, and my employee discount no longer worked. I immediately walked to the offices and I asked the manager what had happened and she informed me right then and there, for the first time, that I was let go. It was a confusing and upsetting situation that I hope to never encounter again. My overall experience was mostly positive excepting for that one glaring issue at that store, and ruined any chances of me ever working for the company again.

There's no other store like Cost Plus World Market! With its colorful mixture of gourmet and imported foods, fabulous beer and wine section, wide range of housewares, plus furniture, bath and body products, children's toys, stationary and gift wrap, World Market draws a loyal group of intense and eager shoppers. If you enjoy decorating, cooking, or hosting fun parties, you could be a great fit for a job in this company. The hiring and onboarding process is excellent, the managers seem committed to training new employees and adhering to store policies, and there was a lot of positive support and fun co-workers at the store where I was a seasonal employee. Managers made sure breakrooms and bathrooms were kept clean, and we had a pretty nice area with lockers, refrigerator, food prep, etc. The store had fun days and promotions for employees during the holidays, and also hosted a dinner for us on the job. It was incredibly busy around Christmas holidays. Standards for store appearance are very high, so you have to be willing to do a lot of restocking and a reasonable amount of cleaning every day. There is a moderate amount of positive upselling, and store associates are encouraged to interact with customers and to provide personalized service whenever possible. In the store where I worked, one downside was the very outdated cash register system (from the 1980s or '90s???) This made it difficult to learn and use the cash register and it wasn't great for the customers either, who are accustomed to modern point-of-sale systems.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Stocking associate 20 salaries reported	$24.75 per hour
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Associate 10 salaries reported	$1,575 per week
Order picker 10 salaries reported	$22.00 per hour

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