Claire's Stores Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores part-time for more than a year

Pros – Gain a sense of independence, and basic management skills.

Cons – Too many responsibilities for the pay.

Advice to Senior Management – Give more incentives for employess to achieve better sales goals.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Making your own schedule is a great benefit. The benefits; insurance, 401k, vacation is all competitive.

Cons – All the blackout dates, besides the normal for the holiday season.
The constant, it's never good enough.
The lack of payroll. What a joke.
After a store manager there really isn't any where to go.

Advice to Senior Management – Get in the field. The payroll is no where near enough for all the tasks and taking care of out customers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Claire's Stores full-time for less than a year

Pros – Only 40 hour weeks but still salary pay and benefits.

Cons – Single person shifts, not enough payroll to really train your people.

Advice to Senior Management – Update technology. Improve training methods.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Ear piercing, although some families are difficult!
Cute kids, most of the time!
Always busy, never bored.
Great vacation hrs

Cons – Overload of work
Poorly paid regardless of past experiences! Third Keys are paid the worst & have a lot of responsibles, some being paid only a dollar more than sales associates!
Under pressure to achieve every goal you are given, ep, ads, upt, sales, cashwrap, etc......
Not always appreciated
Micro managed
On your own a lot without a break
Inadequate hours to achieve tasks, visuals, markdowns etc.... Super woman is not real!!
10 for 10, the worst! Customers are dumb, constantly repeating an explanation of promo!
Customers complain about almost everything & will report you to Company of their 'bad' experience even though you were following policy!!

Advice to Senior Management – Communication is the worst, DSM does not follow up with phone calls until a few days later!
Managers 'run' to DSM with almost every problem, GROW UP!!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Claire's Stores full-time

Pros – Benefits excellent, Pay fair, a learning experience

Cons – 7 to 8 hr shifts alone. Tasks piled one on top of the other with no help and no payroll to get the job done. In a typical day you have to drive to the bank verify deposits check paper work from the closing the night before, tag promos as directed through email, process damages, fix everything that has been broken by customers, clean store fix fixtures and wall displays that have been torn apart, process and get all in coming receipts to the sales floor. fill the floor from back stock clean windows as needed which is daily, Greet every customer sell to every customer check out every customer, process customer returns answer the phone, perform ear piercings monitor store for shoplifters which many times out number paying customers. Train and develop staff most of who you see less than an hour a day. Recruit new talent. All on a 105 payroll hours or less for an average volume store. Up for the challenge ? There's more 200 plus pages for every planogram with 15 pages of verbage that you have to decode because it is erratically and illogically written, pre-plan the floor sets. Floor sets you are given 3 to 6 payroll hours to execute them floor sets are to be done after hours which you have to work the day of and stay after to do the floor set this means a 10 hr day or more. There are even planograms for the backrooms because they assume you are not intelligent enough to manage your backrooms. Mark downs are very labor intense and you are given 2 to 4 payroll hrs to mark down the store and all back stock. Mark out of stock which you must scan everything in your back room is 2 to 3 payroll hrs. Weekly tasks include schedules paperwork and performance plans. Still interested? There's more store managers every month must preform a PM visit you don't get paid for these you are to deduct this time from your 40hr schedule. However you must not leave early or come in later. the hours are very clear. Whats a Pm visit it is an hour of your time spent spying on your employees in order to catch them stealing. While internal theft happens they all know of the policy therefore if one were to steal they don't do it during the closing hours cause they know you maybe watching. Then there is the question of breaks, Answer you don't get one and you can't leave 1/2 hr early to compensate for not having one. Don't count on using the bathroom either. You must be in the store till 6pm for an opening shift. Over time NO! The company does not want to pay it and if you go over your allotted 40hrs be prepared to hear about it and then some. 9 out of 12 months are blackout periods, vacation requests must be made a minimum of 3 months in advance and have to be approved, so make no long term plans. Holidays you don't get paid the company makes a mandatory schedule you must follow so that a holiday is your scheduled day of. Pay scale is laughable for the amount of responsibility. Assistant managers are paid 2.00 above minimum wage 3rd keys 25 to 50 cents above minimum and associates minimum wage. Store managers do better but again for the work load and responsibility the pay is well below other retailers. raises 11 cents to 24 cents per hour annually. Still want to work for Claire's? Upper management, Oh what a joy these people are, in general they are rude inappropriate and trained to criticize in a nonconstructive manner . DM's offer little to no assistance, They are often rude and condescending, expect to leave a lot of voice mails that will not get answered. The DM will micro manage you to death, making your job even more difficult and task heavy. . The RM comes once or twice a year and the biggest pleasure of the visit is when they leave. It is criticism from enter to exit. The one I dealt with was rude and did not conduct themselves in an appropriate manner conducive to business. So you want to work for Claire's? I will say that my time management organizational and multitasking skills have become sharper than ever. Claire's on your resume is a huge dark cloud. Other retailers do not take Claire's experience as good experience. Now that Claire's has gone public with stock don"t waste your precious money they have a long shaky financial history. Product is low quality and always a variation on the same thing
Labor laws do not exist in Claire"s They are ignored.

Advice to Senior Management – Start over communicate on all levels retrain and teach your people to put value in those that work hard everyday to make your corporation profitable. Empower your stores to do better by giving them the tools to get the job done right, starting with payroll allocation. Your biggest loss is the lack of productive communication from the top down and from the bottom up.

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

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores part-time for more than a year

Pros – Many opportunities for promotions, amazing management re-hired me whenever I was on break from college (even for just a couple weeks), fun place to work at (besides customers), always busy-never bored, very flexible with hours, coworkers are friendly and fun, a lot of things to do, great store discount

Cons – Not very well paid but you do get raises the longer you're there (without asking!), customers are annoying sometimes, stupid/annoying dress code, district manager shows up randomly for hours at a time and works employees' jobs, called in frequently to cover someone else's shift or additional hours that weren't scheduled for, consistently worried about being fired for small things (miss one on call and you're fired)

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – 50% discount on merchandise. Great experience and was a great place to put on your resume. Got to be trendy and have my tattoos and nose piercing.

Cons – They do not give you enough work-task balance time, especially in a high volume store. They want you to be by yourself, check and start shipment, help customers, and pierce customers ears. Not enough pay for what you have to do in management.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your Managers!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Claire's Stores full-time for more than a year

Pros – Piercing ears is really fun, I love talking with the customers and really getting to know them, then helping others find jewelry for specific events, special outfits, ect. You have alot of regular customers so you get to know people really fast and having good customers makes your job fun.

Cons – Not enough hours in a day to do everything they want done. You are expected to work new planograms, sort shipment (usually 3-9 boxes at a time) help customers, and prevent shoplifting. For me the shoplifting was the worst, if you are alone and having to watch people they tend to notice so I did have people follow me outside of work before because of that. They really push deadlines but dont give enough hours for them. They want you to give great cusstomer service, duh, but it has to be there way, you cant ask a customer if they are looking for something, you pretty much have to demand they tell you something you want to see in the store, and we dont offer you baskets, no, we must force one into your hand or we are not doing our job. Floor is too crowded with merchandise, which makes customers with strollers and those in wheelchairs angry and every time our DM would come in she would make the floor tighter.

Advice to Senior Management – Give more hours to your stores, you will notice increase sales and lower shrink especially if you give hours to properly train associates. Reduce the amount of fixtures on floor so people can comfortably move and shop. Dont force them to look at product or take baskets, allow the customer to decide what they want and assist them any way you can.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – I love how organized Claire's is and the environment at work as long as you have a great team. I also love how customer service focused Claire's is.

Cons – Claire's does not pay enough for the amount of work management does and they do not promoted within enough.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Claire's Stores

Pros – Great growth potential
Fun atmosphere
Great employees, many long term

Cons – none, I think it is a good company to work for.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company