A question for those who work in retail?

[crazylady7]

When (hopefully! ) the world has returned back to normal, my daughter will be looking for a full time job. She wants to work somehwre like super drug, boots or a clothing store for eg. Something like that. I have never worked in retail before so am useless with giving advice. Could I ask if you work in retail at all full time, if you could send an example week of what your hours/days are like? We're not quite sure how the hours and days work etc.
And if you have any advice at all? Thank you so much x

Not sure if this is a thread for the staffroom - maybe better in employment

I worked in retailnfrom age 17 to 22, it’s always weekends and plenty of evenings. I’ve always found older people with kids generally got the morning shifts.places I’ve worked (Matalan) offer just 4 hour shifts but generally offer over time too. Warren James was 3 8 hour shifts a week. Most places go on 4 hour shifts though

Do you know how I change it?

If you report your post you can ask MNHQ to move it into the correct topic

@milnes94 thank you, will the shifts vary with how many hours you do each month? So would one month she get more money than another for eg? X

Generally the actual contract is quite low either 4 or 8 hours a week but i always did at least 12 -16 hours (it was around college and uni) so yes month to month it varied depending on how many extra shifts you picked up but there was always a minimum I was guaranteed to get based on my contract x

Retail varies greatly, these days you are often expected to be fully flexible. Generally you will have a contract of set days and hours and you let them know your availability, if they need you and you're available then they'll call you in.
The contracts tend to be small and overtime is usually available and can be regular.
It's impossible to say what hours you will get but it should be on the job advert.
I've worked retail for a very long time and as time goes on it seems the companies want more and more from their staff so don't see it as an easy option, it can be a great job though.

It's going to depend on the contract that she has.

A lot of shops now are employing staff on flexible contracts. So they guarantee core hours, the one I know of is 10 hours now I believe, and then they ask you at interview what your flex availability is.

So, they will guarantee ten hours, which will be fixed hours and days and then flex you in as necessary, subject to your availability.

In the case I know of, they have up until 24hours before a shift to notify you but you must be available until that point.

It really depends though. Some shops might still be on fixed contracts. I would imagine it will state the hours on any adverts.

I thought this was going to be a thread from a teacher so pissed off with the negative threads that they were going to have a career change to work in Tesco

I'd imagine that there's no such thing as a typical retail job nowadays, might be easier to decide which shop she wants to work for and find out how they work thngs.

I’ve worked in retail all my life
Depends on the store
It’s VERY rare to get full time hours, especially contracted, generally the manager and possibly supervisors might get 30-40 hours
Everyone else is usually on 4-16 hours contracted but expected to work up to 40 depending on if they are needed, it’s a bit crap really
I’ve worked in big supermarkets and smaller shops, I’ve found smaller shops give bigger contracts but chains tend to go low
Hope that helps

Yes I'm a retail manager and have been for 15 years. Currently in the beauty sector.
Has she ever worked in retail before? As PP have said, it's rare to get a full time job straight off the bat, these are more often managers and supervisors.
Working hours will vary depending on location of store. For example the shopping centre we trade in is open 10am-10pm so some late nights will be involved.
My advice is for her to be as flexible as possible, but ask for rotas well in advance. I publish my team's hours around 6 weeks in advance so they can plan their personal lives.
I have several students who prefer evenings and weekends, so any fully flexible staff I have tend to do more weekday shifts.
If she is fully flexible she should get a job quite easily!

To be honest retail contracts are only ever full time for managerial levels. She would be looking at an 8 hour contract with the option to do overtime. However this will not always be possible, especially during quiet times. Will she be able to live on that?

My DS worked in a Tesco Express for a few months after uni.
Overall a very good employer but they don't offer anyone a full time contract.
He was contracted 13 hours over 3 days. One day 9am to 2pm the next 7pm to 11pm. Lots of opportunities for overtime and shift swapping though.

Thank you for all your replies. Will have to check the job descriptions when she's applying to find the hours then. Hopefully she would be given her rota a few weeks in advance otherwise that must be such a pain :(

crazy most retailers will expect flexibility and are highly unlikely to give a ‘fixed’ rota in advance, I appreciate that’s tough but most retail companies have to respond to factors such as staff absence etc - even a change in the weather can effect the number of staff you need on duty.

Supermarkets are best if she wants set hours and decent pay.

I doubt that rotas are given much in advance, at Tesco DS would get it each week but if someone called in sick he would get a phone call " can you come now?
You don't say how old she is but presumably living at home so able to be flexible?

When I worked in retail (up to 2 years ago) I got 4 weeks worth of rota at a time. Could be different now.

The supermarket that I know of phone staff up to 24 hours before they are needed. If those hours were given as availability then staff are expected to maintain that availability.

I used to work in retail in my teens and early 20s, worked in a variety including Boots and clothes shops. The only place that didn't require me already having retail experience was a supermarket when I got my first job at 17. I normally got about 20 hours a week contracted but always worked full time as overtime was always available. Boots shafted me though when I worked there, made me change my core hours or leave, I'd stay clear of them.

Retailers vary massively but in my experience very few offer full-time contracts below supervisor/manager level unless they are for a specific skill.

Look at the opening hours for the shop as she may be expected to be fairly flexible within those hours with (possibly) a couple of weeks notice of shifts. So in a big shopping centre it could be anything between 9am and 10pm; a smaller high street store might only trade 9am-6pm. The more flexible you can be the more hours you get! Retail changes quickly though so often there will be last minute requests to change shifts or work additional hours depending on trade, staff absence etc.

Bear in mind that Christmas is generally the busiest time with no holidays allowed in December/January sales and annual leave may be 'first come first served' with school holidays in high demand.

It depends where you go. I've had full time contracts as a sales assistant about 6 years ago but the rotas were always changing so you need to be flexible otherwise it can be stressful just the rota changes and losing weekends off that you had been given.

DS and DD had retail jobs a few years ago including River Island and Tesco. They both had low contractual hours 8 and 12 respectively but then were offered extra shifts at other times.

Tesco was a far better employer, better rates of pay, closer to home, more shift availability, no pressure if you didn’t want to do an extra, happy to put you first if you asked for extra shifts, variety of roles, better prospects if you showed potential and wanted to stay with them, more perks such as free shares, never got pay wrong.

River Island was the exact opposite.

Our rotas used to be 4 weeks in advance.

Ours was a small store with only 15 staff so same shifts every week.

Only full time people were management. Everyone else 6, 8, 12 or 16hours a week.

All did at least 1 weekend day and lots of evenings

You get extra shifts if you are a hard worker. The ones who get things done get the hours I noticed.