This bothers me (Victoria, Howe: sales, buy, school)

[XodoX]

I think you would need at least 10 an hour here to survive. But that's why you only see mostly College?High School people working there. The average citizen couldn't survive. I know I couldn't.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by XodoX

I think you would need at least 10 an hour here to survive. But that's why you only see mostly College?High School people working there. The average citizen couldn't survive. I know I couldn't.

Well I make just under 11 an hour doing what I do. I thank G-d every day that my wife has a good job.

[dv1033]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I understand retail has lower profit margins. But what I don't understand is how Victoria's Secret, which has 1 billion dollars a year in revenue can't afford to pay their employees at least 8 or 9 dollars an hour. I mean I understand that Victoria's Secret would only make a measly 990,000,000 in revenue if they did this, but still. This is a high end store. A true high end store would pay better than minimum wage.

I don't see why you are surprised. Do high end retailers need more knowledge than low to mid end retailers. It's a minimal skill job with a turnover rate, why would they pay them much higher? I don't think it's so much as greed as the skill set needed to fill the job.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by dv1033

I don't see why you are surprised. Do high end retailers need more knowledge than low to mid end retailers. It's a minimal skill job with a turnover rate, why would they pay them much higher? I don't think it's so much as greed as the skill set needed to fill the job.

I would say yes they do need more knowledge. Those girls at Victoria's Secret know their product very well. If I go to Wal-Mart and ask about an HD T.V., I'm going to get a blank stare.

[jfre81]

You could ask a Wal-Mart worker about a pack of Bubble Yum and get a blank stare.

[descovy]

I work at Target and starting pay is $7.50... truth be told people work in retail for many reasons, not always to make a living out of it.

In my case, my husband is the main breadwinner, I wanted a part time job with flexible hours (3 kids & their activities keep me busy enough), not a lot of stress, and a nice employee discount. Because hey, who doesn't like Target???

I work to put a little money in a 401k, pay for "extras" in the household. The tires that the car suddenly needs, and all that. Plus, if anything ever happened to my husband's job it would be much easier to ramp up hours at a current job to help get by, rather than find one "cold"

People work retail for different reasons... students, retirees, parents, yes even some people trying to get by... you have to start somewhere!

[westres1]

This is typical, but what is more upsetting is the CEO pay these companies pay out....They cant pay a dollar more an hour to the average clerk but give themselves bonuses of millions and millions.

Compare what they pay the average bank teller to the average CEO of a bank. They can pay 55million a year to someone who almost bankrupts the company but 20,000 a year to a teller who, in this town, puts their life on the line every day.
Cant he give up a two or three million to pay a decent salary to his employees?

[RVD26]

I think this is typical.
I remember in high school, a guy I knew worked at Abercrombie & Fitch for something like $4/hr.
This was about 10 years ago but even then that was extremely low pay, especially for a place that sells high priced (overpriced to me) clothing.
He used to swear at the time it was the best job b/c he got a discount on their clothing (which he had to wear BTW) and got to meet girls.

[rigas]

Originally Posted by XodoX

What's there not to understand? Got one word for you - GREEDY!

i have one word also, CAPITALISM!

isnt it beautiful??????!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????

[tstone]

Originally Posted by dv1033

I don't see why you are surprised. Do high end retailers need more knowledge than low to mid end retailers. It's a minimal skill job with a turnover rate, why would they pay them much higher? I don't think it's so much as greed as the skill set needed to fill the job.

They wouldn't need to pay them any higher.

Before I started in engineering/construction mgmt, I worked the ins & outs of retail for more years than I'd like to admit, both as a worker bee and as a manager. I was at a co. for about 1 year that gave off the ''high end'' image, when in reality it was just another national chain. Truth is every chain / mall store specializes in selling a related group of products. That quality by itself doesn't make it high-end. You want high-end? Go to Nordstrom where a worker bee reputedly has a college degree and makes a teacher's salary, where the store hires a professional piano player, and where mens slacks are $300-500 a pair.

But in my experience, 90% of the time if a grunt worker stayed for 3-6 months and learned the products & politics well, s/he was offered a substantial raise (percentage-wise) + 45 hours/wk + very cheap benefits because 2 others had already quit. After another year, just about everyone in that boat quit because there were no spots available to move up, raises were very small, and someone else cheaper had worked their way up. But that's the nature of the retail beast. The customer will always want the cheapest product, and the customer will always get the cheapest service, therefore the worker gets paid the cheapest wage. Labor is far & away the largest business cost a retailer has to deal with.

As for CEO bonuses, I agree there is too much greed and much of this has bankrupted some companies. But don't assume $2-3M for a large chain is going to substantially increase worker salaries, company productivity/profitability, etc. Think about how many man-hours a big chain store burns through in a year and then do the math.