to apply to guitar center or not?

[the Life Aquatic]

its a 5 minute bike ride from where i currently live at college. i need another job, my current job in the office of student development isn't giving me enough hours. should i do it? how much is the employee discount, lol will it be worth it. anyone ever work at one? how much cred will i lose

[The4455]

Do it. And buy stuff at discount prices and sell them to fellow ILFers!

[Achtane]

1. Buy M9s at discount prices
2. Resell on eBay

[tuffteef]

The discount is awesome my friend got a 2nd hand rick 4003 for $500 and there is lots of stuff that has a pretty high mark up that you pay only 5-10% over cost from what i've heard although i'm not 100% on what their policy actually is . That in itself is worth it for a few months even if working retail is absolutely soul killing from what my friend has told me.

[My name is Mudd]

Sales floor or Ops? Ever worked commission sales before?

[the Life Aquatic]

whats ops? and no ive never done commion sales. never worked in retail before, closest thing to sales was in a deli haha

[My name is Mudd]

Ops = operations; receiving, shipping, inventory control, stocking/pricing...everything that keeps the store running and not in the sales dept itself.

Commission sales can be weird at times, especially if A) you're not sure how it works, and B) if there are some un-trustworthy sales folks working the same floor at the same time. You're paid off of what you move out the door, not for your time...you can put in 40-50 hours a week and not make a dime if you didn't shift product. Just sayin...

[eatyourguitar]

Ops = operations; receiving, shipping, inventory control, stocking/pricing...everything that keeps the store running and not in the sales dept itself.

Commission sales can be weird at times, especially if A) you're not sure how it works, and B) if there are some un-trustworthy sales folks working the same floor at the same time. You're paid off of what you move out the door, not for your time...you can put in 40-50 hours a week and not make a dime if you didn't shift product. Just sayin...

you do make minimum wage if you dont make enough sales to fade. "fade" is a magical word in guitar center land that means you sold your weight in gear. like I could do $30,000 in sales $10,000 in profit for the month. sometimes less in profit. $8,000 maybe. you get paid on %2 of the sales and %10 of the profit. so in the 30/10 I get $600 + $1,000 for a total of $1600. more than a months pay at minimum wage.... BARELY. but I had to work my ass off. moving heavy stuff, climbing ladders, cleaning toilets, empty garbage. often being told to work unreasonably fast and not take my breaks per state law. asking me to work through my UNPAID lunch. you have to go through some training both in product knowledge and sales. they do fire people who cant sell massive amounts of merchandise. the guitar techs are outsourced through 3rd parties but they sometimes wear GC shirts. the discount is cost plus freight + tax. freight is really cheap. like $0.02 on a pack of guitar picks. the DRVX1 mic had a cost of less than $3 but sold for $50. thats not typical but they know how to make money. cheap labor is obviously a priority for marty albertson and bane capital investments.

one of the stores was not nearly as bad as the second one I worked at. it depends on the staff. you wont be able to get much gear if you dont have a bunch of cash to begin with. thats how it was for all the GC employees.

[My name is Mudd]

The 'fade' sounds like another version of a draw/deficit...is there a minimum hit?

[eatyourguitar]

if your total commission for the month is more than your total hourly wage for the month, you will get paid entirely in commission. in some states you will make less money right on the fence since you go from min wage to %100 sales commission, your tax status changes. if you can call out on a tuesday when there are no customers and just work all the busy days, you'll have a head start to making some money.

[Christopher]

this "commission sales" thing sounds a lot like this other thing I read about called a "total fucking scam ripoff"

[McSpunckle]

I'd guess it depends on how attached you are to your soul.

[tuffteef]

I'd guess it depends on how attached you are to your soul.

sam being nil

[eatyourguitar]

I'd guess it depends on how attached you are to your soul.

you learn pretty fast that ethical treatment of customers /=/ money and is therefor frowned upon. we charged some people more for the same products simply because we can. like not giving them a discount on a floor model thats already beat up. my manager would wisper in my ear "I heard him tell his friend that he needs this guitar for a show tonight" so instead of just discounting the only one we have cause its scratched, I would tell him

"yeah its $699 do you want to get it"
"can you nock some money off for the scratches?"
"if you want it in a box I can order you one right now free shipping and send it to the store or your house"
"its got a huge fucking scratch and your gonna charge me full price?"
"I dont want to sell you that one if its got a huge scratch in it. I'll just order you one and ship it to your house"
"I really cant wait, can I talk to the manager"
"sure"
(waits 10 minutes)
"whats going on here"
"[has to explain himself again]"
"sure I can help you out, I'll get you one thats fresh in a box, never been touched"
"I cant wait"
"its up to you. its whatever you want. you have options"
"I'll just buy this one I guess"
success!

when someone comes in that knows the manager or long time customer that spends a lot of money, things change dramatically. sliding scale of bullshit. like everything at guitar center.

[My name is Mudd]

sliding scale of bullshit. like everything at guitar center.

Not necessarily just GC...comm. sales in general, a lot of the time. Buy or die.