American Eagle Outfitters Reviews

Pros

This is an easy retail job that is accommodating for a school schedule or a second job. Gives the opportunity to receive standard retail experience.

Cons

Management is not always stable and often necessary information is not passed down. It is very difficult to move up in the company without stable management.

Pros

Friendly staff, good benefits and pay at management level

Cons

Lots of negative pressure to get things done quickly without the support

Advice to Senior Management

Respect the staff more

Pros

Great job stability and benefits. As store manager I was given (almost) free reign over my store. I could hire who I liked and was able to make merchandising decisions suitable to my particular market.

Cons

The only people who get promoted are people who leave AE and come back to a promotion. The senior management has very high turnover which makes it difficult to form relationships that will help you get promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

If there were any advice for senior management it would be to further invest in your managers. There is not enough on-going training and development to keep people interested long-term.

Pros

It was a job, and after my first month of working there I knew that my time there would be short. If you like the clothes you get a good discount but other than that it has a lot of opportunities for development. The company does have great tools for scheduling and forecasting sales.

Cons

They have no real training program and fire people on a weekly basis. I have worked in retail for over ten years and I have never seen turnover like this. The bonus incentive is a joke, you might as well work a couple of hours overtime and get the same thing. The use the term Team very loosely, it is only used when the situation is advantageous to them. There are people who have worked for the company over 4 years and still do not know how to do a floorset or schedule so when someone quits or is fired everyone is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Advice to Senior Management

My biggest advice would be that if district managers are doing all the hiring and then saying that the people they are firing are bad hires then what does that say about the district manager. The best plan is to probably get rid of the dm and rm and clean house and create a new culture within the company. I am so glad I resigned and no longer work for this company.

Pros

Coworkers, make friends along the way
Product Discount, you can not beat 40%
Easy work tasks, folding clothes, cleaning up the shop, easy!

Cons

Over looked for personal growth with company
Long hours for floorsets

Advice to Senior Management

Words of wisdom to Mgnt, reward your staff, when and if they make the store goals. There is no I in team.

Pros

got flexible for my timetable

Cons

the work location is not convenient enough for customers to reach.

Advice to Senior Management

no

Pros

A wicked discount
Get to talk to people a lot
Assistant managers were nice
Atmosphere when we meet our sales goals were really cool

Cons

Really really high sales goals
Managers would be really angry if we didn't meet sales goals, which results in less hours
Hard to shift hours around

Advice to Senior Management

American Eagle was one of the most popular stores at our mall, and during sales peaks, there would be literally a crowd of people inside, when we were expected to attend to all of them and draw at least 2-item sales from 20% of the people. The sale goals were really high, there was a shift in the summer where the sales goal for EACH employee was 600$+, with more than 10 employees on the floor. The competition for sales is really rough, as they determine the hours you'd get.

Pros

The best thing AE gave to me were long time friends.

Cons

-Power Struggle amongst the Managers and Leads.
-Unorganized.
-Managers and Leads always on your back.
-Walkie Talkies needed to be on and in your ear at all times. I left with a headache after every shift.
-Hiring new people but cutting current employees hours. (makes no sense)

Advice to Senior Management

This place is a mess!! Everyone whose worked here ends up leaving after a month because they can't take the BS.

Pros

There are definitely benefits to working at American Eagle Outfitters.

Employee Discounts - The normal discount is 40% off of normally priced items or 50% in the week or two after a floorset (when we bring out new merchandise). Employees also receive 25% off of clearance items and items sold in the store which were not produced by AE.

Flexibility - As a part-time job at a store which usually has a large staff, there are seldom issues in requesting time off as long as proper notice is given.

Work Environment - A good work environment, fun people to work with and good relations between employees and management.

Cons

All in all I have experienced only a few negatives to being employed at American Eagle Outfitters.

Pay Raises - I've been employed at AE for some time and have had no employee review or other opportunity for pay advancement.

Management Incompetence - Having worked with multiple Store Managers and more Assistant Managers I have worked with both very skilled competent managers and also managers who did not seem at all prepared to lead a store. Possibly better training or a more exclusive selection process would be beneficial.

Advice to Senior Management

Oftentimes management pushes the AE Credit Card to a point where it may become annoying to customers, they need to realize that shoppers don't wish to be constantly badgered about something they don't want. Also, employees who push themselves and strive to achieve more should be recognized for the effort they put in.

Pros

The pay and benefits were good.

Cons

You get overlooked if you dont fit their stereotype.