Blacks Photography Reviews

Pros

Good training for those new to retail

Cons

Work culture not as consistent from one store to another

Pros

you can get hours to work esp during holidays

Cons

awful place to work low morale

Advice to Senior Management

fix the problem and pay people better u making a killing on camera profits pay your employees then welll

Pros

cameras, phones, good if you like technology

Cons

new culture where selling phones is the #1 focus - nothing else matters.
have to talk to customers in detail and if you don't you are written up.
Demeaning attitude to staff including managers. Senior management are disrespectful to staff

Advice to Senior Management

Stop talking BS and stop focusing on what we didn't do and more on what we did do.
I didn't sign on to get belitted in public.

Pros

If interested in photography it's a great place to work.
Great staff discounts including an employee phone since Black's was purchased from Telus in October 2009.

Cons

Pay is not all that good for the level of knowledge needed to sell.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't ignore all the good we do and only focus on the bad.
If we meet lots of goals but didn't sell as many phones as you would have liked, STOP beating us up about it and focus on some of the positive things we did well.
Don't threaten stores and employees for their job security if goals are not met. Don't offer to help and then throw out veiled threats that our job is at risk.
Don't replenish us with 3 of an item we sold 1 of - just because they come in a box of 3. We don't have the room to stock everything.
When staff in the stores are telling senior management their problems don't dismiss them and think you know best. YOU DON'T ALWAYS
promos and marketing is a joke -all so unorganized
Don't think all regional managers are above reproach - many of them are not doing their job correctly.

Pros

My store is great. I love the people I work with. Since Telus bought us we also get a great phone plan with them for unlimited everything for 15$/month. Discounts on prints and frames and albums are 50% and 40% off accessories. If your a photographer or your hobby is photography, this is great for you to save on equipment.

Cons

Really bad pay (minimum wage) for a position where a lot of knowledge and training are necessary to get the job done well. A lot of disrespect from head office and the higher up towards employees. Customers are rude and disrespectful enough as it is, so some support from higher up would be appreciated. There are no opportunities to move up, and if you do, the pay is still horrible. No incentives or commission (only small spiffs that aren't worth much).

Advice to Senior Management

Pay us more and treat us like we matter if you want us to stay. People only want to do a good job if they feel that they are appreciated and have an incentive. At Blacks, there is no incentive to do a good job since you never get recognition either by pay or by motivation to move up.

Pros

The best thing about working for Black's is the ability to work with the photography equipment and the support you get from co-workers (excluding management).

Cons

Communication! There is a huge lack of communications when concerning promotional changes and information, on many occasion we have learned of a promotion through customers who received an email. The expectations are ridiculous, you are never to be behind the counter, should greet every customer that walks in, put the delivery away, put up price signs... now I know that all seems reasonable but if their has been heavy traffic in the store that didn't allow you the time to put shipment away - there's an earful waiting for you. Everything is expected to all be done at once, you hardly ever hear positive feedback. It tends to be a very poisonous work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

The part time and full time staff you have working in your stores are your front line workers. These are the people directly dealing with your customers. When your employees feel burdened to go into work for fear of what they are going to be reprimanded for that day it shows in their face and demeanor and will be too easy for customers to pick up on ... probably not the impression your going for.

Pros

Great staff, fun place, keeps you in the field of photography, great place if your starting out, fun toys.

Cons

Bad pay, horrible communication, bad sales tactics.

Advice to Senior Management

One of the largest problems is the fact that higher management (i.e. head office) doesn't see what is going on in the stores. Our store was a high traffic area due to its proximity to a main exit of a mall, but due to this fact a lot of people would pop in to stare at things while they waited for other members or their shopping party. Management only say the numbers and not the whole picture. Because of this we constantly got berated for not selling to a high enough percentage of our visitors.

Another large problem is that management need to make some changes in their marketing department. Every sale we have, there are at least a dozen changes or fixes that need to be made to different products because they sent the wrong prices or sku#'s or some other problem, as well as the massive amount of spelling errors in flyers and in-store price tags.

Pros

Discounts, friendly, fast paced environment, air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter.

Cons

Long hours of standing. Hazardous materials - but WHIMIS training is provided. Pay is not all that great.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to retain good employees you have to pay them more.

Pros

Amazing fellow associates, learn a lot about cameras through hands-on experiences, opportunity to advance due to many employees leaving, great discount on photo-printing.

Cons

Low low LOW pay, untrained & unfocused managers, no one in upper management knows much about the technology being sold, CONSTANT promo changes, bad marketing of promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with more efficient method of promo and price changes in order to waste less selling hours, do not send SO MANY bulletins with constant little changes to promos. Time is constantly wasted by associates cutting out price signs. Focus each promo on a few big things-- don't change things in the promo every week and confuse not only associates but customers. Organize the menu listing all photofinishing orders (i.e. when making a photofinishing envelope) so that associates are more aware of all services possible.