a friend of mine went for a job interview at sears, just some part time stuff for extra money while through college, anyway, he said that they just might probably have a position like selling appliances or something, and they said how much he makes depends on how much he sells.

so the question, do they pay below minimum wage like watresses? or would it be something like minimum wage then commision off of things? they didn't explain, he has to go back on wednesday for the rest of the interview.

thanks.

 

probably a base wage (min wage) plus commisions. Had a freind who breifly worked for sears

 

Below minimum wage, plus commission. That's how it worked when I was there and selling Lawn and Garden anyway. If by some chance you don't sell enough to make the equivalent of min. wage or above, then they will front you enough so that you do. I heard they will take it back out of your next check that is above though. Never had it happen, so I'm not positive. Make sure he watches things to make sure he is getting the correct commissions, I had several problems in that area come paycheck time...

Tell him not to be afraid of letting customers know he is commission, especially if they "have some more looking to do". Many people are more likely to buy from someone on commission as opposed to a store where the employees aren't. It also keeps people from coming back to buy it when he isn't there, only to have someone else nab the sale. The word 'commission' doesn't need to said necessarily, but he needs to find a way to let them know that works for him.

Tell him to learn everything he can about what he's selling, and to study them during his off time. If he doesn't know something, at least make an effort to find out. It can be a really good job depending on the management.

 

he will get a set hourly wage plus commission if he is lucky|!!! when i worked big ticket sales (at sears and other places) it was 100% commission and all you where sure of was minimum wage. and if you where only making min, you didnt work there long

 

I'm not sure about the selling end, but while I was in school, I got a job at Lowes doing appliace deliveries and set up. It was a really fun job, new challenge at every stop. I managed to work out a pretty sweet deal, made my own hours during the week, worked sat and sun. I started at 12.75, but thats because they hired me as a delivery driver, and about 5 people looked at my liscence, but finally someone realized I wasn't 21 yet. But I did everything but drive with some of the drivers they hired........

 

I used to work at sears around a year ago in the auto department and they pay you $5.50 + commision. Rotate tires you get $1,replace a tire you get $1.50 it's the bigger jobs you make money on. It kinda sucked when you didnt see any work for a day or two.

 

alright, they said he works for 6.25 an hour, plus 1% commision, but they said they "take it back" when he works on saturdays. what does that mean? he thinks it means any commision he gets they take it back to make up for lack of sales during the week. they clearly stated to him that they never sale anything during the week and saturday is about the only time. plus they said he works 25-30 hours a week and it is an "aggressive" job, means there are other people to compete for commision.

needless to say, he told them to go shove off (not so cordial words) and their slave wage system, he would be clearing what....$110 a week? not even worth it.

 

Jeez, good for him. I quit because they started doing stuff like that. When I started I was making 4 something plus commissions, but most of mine were in the 3-4%+ some of it was 10 or more. I was in Lawn and Garden though (and sporting goods, kind of). I could make over $500 on one sale with a few of the Garden tractors and a Maintenance Agreement. About the only thing we got 1% on were things like trimmer line and clothes from upstairs. They started reducing comissions, having "system errors" and losing some of my sales and taking sales from me that were from other departments (even though no one was working in the said department at the time, water softeners and vacuums can be big money too). We think at the time they were trying to run the full-time people off, don't want to have to pay benefits.

Until the above happened, I was making quite a bit more than my manager. They got PO'd at me because I wouldn't take her crappy job when she quit. Almost half the pay overall, twice the hours and get griped at all the time. I would have been making 1/3 to 1/4 per hour what I was making as a salesman. No thanks. My buddies told me I had people coming in to buy from me for 2 years after I quit. That place has gone way down hill since about 3 months before I left. The customers can see it too.

The tool department is horrible since they took everyone off commission. Maybe 1-2 people who know something (but often aren't there), and the rest are HS kids manning the central checkout. They don't know anything, nor do they care.

Not sure what the "take it back" means. Sounds like they are digging their hole even deeper.

 

My older brother, now 59, started out working for Sears way back in late 60s or early 70s. He was going to school at the U of Memphis at the time and took all of Sear's courses they offered back then for management. He wound up getting a store in AK then MS. I think they "screwed" him around on his pay so he went to Radio Shack as a manager and they screwed his pay there also. If store profits drop, so does your pay.

Anyway, he went to work for UPS and got into management with them and will retire this year.

 

Yea sears is a big joke thats why I quit. They screw your pay,commision,and insurance. Then you get wrote up if you dont sell enough, so you gotta beg customers to buy a product that they dont even need. Sir your air filter has a few grains of dust on it so you better change it, or sir your battery looks like it has dirt on it so id suggest putting a new one in today.LOL what a joke.

 

I had forgotten about the insurance scams. "Oh, we got a new insurance company, your full benefits will start in 6 weeks."

...6 weeks later "Oh we got a new ins. company, your benefits will start 6 weeks from now."

6 weeks later "Oh, our ins. company got bought out/merged, your new ins. will be good in 6 weeks."

repeat, repeat and repeat. I worked there for a couple years, I NEVER actually got to use any of my benefits. I finally dropped out of all of it a few moths before I quit, told them I could make better use of the cash as toilet paper. What a scam. I paid more to their useless/worthless ins. policies in that time than I have spent at the doctor in the last 10 years.

I'm getting mad about it again, let's talk about something else.