Zales Reviews

I worked at Zales full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Employee discounts.
Helping people find the right item for their significant other.
Interaction with people of diverse backgrounds such as customers and employees.

Cons – So much emphasis placed upon obtaining credit applications, credit insurance, selling Jewelry Protection Plans, repair sales, all in addition to hitting your sales plan. The company is struggling to survive, and the Jewelry Protection Plans are a huge part of their revenue stream, which would account for the relentless pressure to sell them, which can be 30% - 45% of the cost of the jewelry in some cases. The irony is that there is no way that most of the upper management, district level and above, could possibly achieve their own expectations. This is mainly due to the fact that the company has taken a liking to hiring upper management and executives from the clothing industry.
This has even filtered down to store management.

Advice to Senior Management – None. You seem to know it all.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Zales

Pros – They are very team oriented. Friendly and focused on work/life balance.

Cons – Seniority is paramount. Very political.

Advice to Senior Management – Lose the people that don't do their work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Zales

Pros – This once great company offered broad based opportunities from the field to the office. They had a rightfully deserved rep as the leaders in the retail jewelry industry.

Cons – The revolving door to the executive suite has left a legacy of turmoil and unfocused change. Fear, confusion and political tribalism prevail. When the new regime takes power, everything their predecessors did is deemed worthless and thrown out. Start from scratch, everything we do now is pure genius. Turn over the entire team. Lather, rinse, repeat. So it goes, on and on. Constant retracing of the same path to ruin. The price paid for all of this is felt up and down the line.

Advice to Senior Management – Get a plan and stick with it for more than 2 years.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Zales full-time for more than a year

Pros – They really believe in taking care of their customers. Upper level management is touchable.

Cons – Operational death field. The operations of the company are too out of date and the corporate support staff "tech support, audit, accounting) are all far too over worked and unorganized. There is too much room for fraud, loss of control over customer situations, communication between departments are far too difficult.

Advice to Senior Management – Take care of the out of date technology and operations stat. You are loosing customers and staff at an unnecessary rate. Spend the money to update the systems, hire the right support team members so that your sales team can do their jobs instead of cleaning up issues.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Zales full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The only pros I had were phenomenal coworkers

Cons – Pay is low, workload is high, raises are minimal or non existant, don't expect a promotion (I've worked there for 13 years and still waiting), jeweler services are at a consolidated shop that does mediocre work and takes too long.

Advice to Senior Management – Give appropriate raises, bring back assistant managers to assist with the large workload managers have, promote from within instead of hiring all outside people that have no experience in the industry.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company