Anyone work for Victoria's Secret, Aerie/American Eagle?

[X4biddenxLustX]

For those of you who have read my previous thread, I'm having a lot of trouble with my job at Walgreens right now and am not sure how much I can of it anymore.

Just recently during a trip to the mall, I stopped into my Aerie store to check out what they had on clearance there. There is a SA who works there (who I think *maybe* the manager there) who I always see everytime I'm in the store and even once at MAC. We always have a friendly little chat everytime we run into each other and it was no different that time. But basically when I was being rung up she said that, " If you didn't already have a job right now at Walgreens, I would snatch you up for myself to work here!" and told me that if I ever wanted to consider getting a second job that I should apply there. I told her that I was thinking about leaving Walgreens and that this would definitely be something I'd be interested in and she gave me an application.

Something similiar had happened about over a month ago at Victoria's Secret when I was being rung up and the SA basically gave me and application and said that the manager likes me and if I wanted to consider getting another job, I could apply there.

Now my question is for anyone out there who may work or knows someone who works for either one of these companies. Like is it a good place to work at? Are things run very efficiently and smoothly? What are the sales requirements and goals? What are the pros and cons of this job?

I understand that EVERY job is not going to be perfect and your not always going to be happy, but I would really like to know what I'm getting myself into if I did get a job at either one of these places.

So any input or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Mabelle]

I worked at AE for a year and a half.

Like is it a good place to work at? That completely depends on the people you work with. If you get on with the Manager that is a total bonus. If the sa's there seem friendly awesome! I would say go for it. Note you District manager could be a total psycho hose beast. Mine was, and she stressed everyone out. But she later got fired.
AE is all about the money and running efficiently (although retail is never run efficiently)

Are things run very efficiently and smoothly? Again totaly depends on your manager/ stock ppl.
What are the sales requirements and goals? You're store has a high goal for the day/week/month. You do not have an individual goal, so dont stress.You're traffic has to be high... like 26 ish. UPTs should be well above two. ADS over 50$. The goals are high, but you're individual performance isnt scrutinized which is SO nice.
What are the pros and cons of this job? The do neat contests all the time to motivate people. IE; at back to school we had to sell 7 pairs of jeans for our shift, if we reached our goal we got a scratch card. For every extra jean, we got an extra one. Prizes for gift certificates (gas, and jugo juice), free jeans.
You get a 40% discount on eveyrthing in the store (for yourself or a gift) that is reg. price. And 25% off sales items. When a new collection comes out they release a list of speacial promotions of new items. Most of the time it's deals on undies and 50% off the new items. As an arie employee you would get the same discount as an AEO employee.

The dress code is good. You can prtety much wear whatever you want a slong as there are no big logos. and it's not slutty. They as for natural makeup, but if the Manager knows youre style i wouldnt worry.
With the All access pass you can get 20$ off 4 times a year.

Cons: not so great pay. But everyone gets annual raises (in canada up to 1$). Short shifts and sometimes oncalls.
Crazy customers. I'm sure you know about the all access pass... well, people abuse it, like everything else. They also have an AMAZING return policy and people return things that are years old.
Coporate, as per usual. They tend to come in, have no clue how a store actually runs, and have no idea what theyre talking about.
Floorsets (visual changes). They can be fun, but they are extremely long and often done overnight (like 9pm to 3 am). Now if you're at Arie it won;t be the case, and i dont believe you HAVE to do them. They happen over a couple days typicially.

Overall i would say my expirience at AE was a godo one. Towards the end it got bad because my manager didn't know how to hire people and a bunch of coke whore joined the team and everything got fucked up. It can be hard. They're standards are high. But i had fun. I liked the clothes and i made a lot of friends.
I duno if you're intrested in stock at all, but it's a freakin blast! especially during back to school. you get like 74 boxes a day. seems scary, but its fun and you get to know the stock SO well.

i say go for it!

 

[X4biddenxLustX]

^^ Thanks for your honest and detailed input hun! I am starting to realize that knowing as much as you can about a certain position at a work place is VERY important. It's best to get input from someone who doesn't work at the exact place your applying or working for. My job at walgreens has screwed me over way too many times already in the 2 months I've been there. I was given a run down on my job duties during my interview and hiring process and everything seemed great and managable for me. I was also told that my schedule would consist of equal days and nights and that it would balance out. What a lie. I bust my ass everytime I'm there working by myself about 98% of the time, and I've been working nights another 99% of the time when I was promised day shifts also. I'm scheduled to work ALL night shifts practically by myself for the next 2 weeks. So I really need to know what I'm getting myself into with every job offer I'm considering.


I have a friend who works at AE at a different mall and I had asked her about it. She didn't seem to really want to get too detailed about how it's like to work for AE/Aerie, probably just cause we were texting each other late at night. She did say that it's as perfect as a retail job can get and there are a lot of pros for employees such as contests and prizes like you mentioned. She doesn't get many hours though which is a problem for me cause the only reason I'm still with Walgreens is cause of job security and credit card debt. Yeah I know the pay isn't great, my friend only makes PA state minimum wage =[ But less pay and less stress sound better to me than higher pay and a ton of stress.

All the SA's at Aerie that I have talked to seem to be very friendly and don't mind making small talk with me whenever I'm in there to shop or to just look around. I am really hoping that the girl I keep running into is the manager cause if she is I may have a better shot at getting this job. The store always looks neat and everyone seems to be very laid back. No one there ever seems super stressed out and frazzled like I am when I'm at work. So it seems like this store's management is very good and is working. I always see quite a few people in that store everytime I'm in there so sales goals shouldn't be hard to meet. That's good that it's an overall store goal not a individual one. At Walgreens we have a total sales goal everyday for the cosmetic department where I'm at and we haven't been doing all that great at meeting it. We've been trying our best but there are a lot of things being done run with how the store is run that makes everything difficult for us beauty advisers. So now they've turned it into an individual sales goal. It's now 45 sales to begin with, going to be 50 and higher later on for EACH beauty adviser each shift. I'll try but good luck with acheiving that when I get 3 dozen boxes full of things to put out, overstock, facing, and covering for other people's breaks to do each night alone.

Crazy customers, you'll get them everywhere. I just stay polite and try to help them get what they need and out of the door ASAP, mean I know lol.

As for clothing, can I lets say go to any discount clothing store and get a bunch of different color tank tops and plain but cute tops and wear them to work at Aerie? I really can't afford to keep buying a ton of new clothes especially at pricier stores even with a big 40% discount. I currently right now only own about 3 pairs of capri sweats, 2 jackets, 1 tank top and a bunch of undies from Aerie lol. I don't have anything from AE as I'm not that really big on their stuff. I do love Aerie though for something comfy to wear, just too broke to buy a bunch of it right now. I'd probably have to work there for like a month of 2 before I can really start buying a few items of clothing there. If I do get this job, I may ask my friend at AE if she could pick up some clothes for me from Aerie with her discount before I start and pay her back.

I really think at this point I'm going to set up a meeting with my job coach at the work agency and let her know about me turning and application in for Aerie. I'm going to ask her on how to quit this Walgreens job amicably cause I swear every night I'm there I have this urge in me to just scream " I QUIT!" and run out declaring my freedom hahaha.

 

[Mabelle]

You can wear any brand or anywhere. It says in their employee handbook (that you should keep throughout employment there and refer back to) that you certainly do not need to wear AE clothing. Just no big logos or brand names.
I think you should apply at arie. I mean, you don't have to quit walgreens until you get something else, right?

 

[X4biddenxLustX]

Oh, that's good! It'll save me a ton of money if I do get hired there. The way I like to dress nowadays is more comfortable and laid back rather than being all dressed up all the time. Which is what Aerie is about right? Looking cute but not too fancy? I remember when they were about to open the store up at the mall and still hiring, there was a sign saying, "Would you like to wear your PJs to work? If so...apply here" something like that.

I don't have to quit Walgreens until I get another job. I REALLY REALLY want to at this point. Cause I feel like I'm going insane. I come home stressed out and just irritated. My parents and everyone else has been noticing it and they don't like what's happening to me. This job is affecting me very badly. I'm one of those people that has a very high expectation of themselves and if I feel like I'm not up to par, I FREAK out. And like I said, I keep getting screwed over my Walgreens. There is a lot of bad things going on with this job that I don't even have time to list but basically I feel like I'm 2nd class piece of trash when I'm there alot of the time. Many nights I just go home crying cause of it. If it wasn't for me owing over a grand on credit cards right now (I really regret this now and it's never going to happen again.) I would of been gone. Now I'm going to apply to Aerie and a few other places that seem to be hiring and going to wait until the 3 month mark (June 10th) before leaving.

 

[monter]

I've worked at VS for six and a half years.

It varies from store to store how competitive the selling is going to be. I work in the Chicago suburbs, and our store is fairly high volume in our district, but we have a good team that works together well, so there isn't a ton of stress to make huge sales. It's obviously a goal that we have, but it's not something shoved down our throats.

One con at VS is definitely the credit card, though. That is kind of a big thing that you do have to sell. Girls that get more cards typically tend to get more hours.

We do get a discount there (30%, plus 20% at Bath and Body Works), plus when new bras or beauty products come out, we often get them gratis or at a way discounted price (like five or ten dollars instead of fifty!).

VS's dress code is pretty easy, too - all black (unless you wear a white collared shirt under a blazer).

I worked there all through undergrad and now through most of law school, and my manager's always been pretty understanding of my limited availability. I only work there on Saturdays during the school year, and she has no problem with that. Granted, that might just be because I've been at that store longer than she's been there...

I would turn in your app for both. Why not?

 

[X4biddenxLustX]

^^ The VS at my mall I think has pretty good business, it's located in a more upper class suburbian area where most of the people (not myself though sadly lol) have quite a bit of money to spend. So I don't think meeting sales goals there is a big problem for the store.

I shop there A LOT and have spent ridiculous amount of cash there the last few months. So all the girls that work there definitely know me by now and I think that some of them probably don't like me as much cause I always have coupons lol! But hey considering how much I've been spending there I don't think coupons will cause them to lose out on all that much money. But the manager is always super nice with me. I once had to bring in a PINK shirt that I had already worn and washed once but the writing on it got all messed up. She told me to just bring the shirt in next time I'm in and I could just do an exchange without a any tags or a receipt. So I think she's cool with me? She was also the one who told an SA to give me an application cause she had seen me a couple times in the store and had liked me.

I would love the discount at VS, cause I'm seriously addicted to their stuff. $5-$10 for a VS bra, what a freakin bargain!!!!! Another manager at a different store had mentioned that working at a VS could be something good for me to look into. Cause they like to have people who have tried a lot of their products and really like it to work there.

I have heard from others who work at VS that they do make a huge deal about signing customers up for the charge card. And that it is a big determining factor on how many hours you will receive to work each work. That's the problem cause I need at least 18, no more than 28 hours a week to work. I have a huge fear of looking at my schedule at work and seeing that I only get like 7 hours (happened to a friend and co-worker of mines today) to work that week. But I have noticed that my VS, they don't seem to be very pushy about signing people up for the charge card. They'll try to persuade you of course if they know you don't have one or try to get you to use it if you do have one. It's not nearly as pushy as some other people have said it can be.

Yeah, I think I will set up a meeting this week if I even have time with my job coach and let her know that VS and Aerie are 2 of the places that I'm looking into applying for.

I just really hope I find something soon that doesn't suck ass so badly.