InkStop Reviews

Pros

The pay is decent for the very, very small amount of work you do (did). The job is fairly brainless due to the lack of customers that ever came in.

Cons

The company probably had the worst corporate office I've ever dealt with. Upper Management was stubborn and clueless. You could never get anywhere at Inkstop, regardless of how you performed.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't open a million stores in 1 year and then just sit there and watch them crumble. Oh yea, paying bills is also a good idea.

Pros

I did enjoy InkStop's small-box retail store size. Between me, and my store manager we (for the limited time we were permitted to,) had really taken ownership of our store. It wasn't InkStop's Shawnee store, it was /our/ store. It was one place to work that I never minded having to show up to every day.

Cons

The lack of other employees we had in the company made life really hard. Our store that was open 7 days a week was manned by just two people- and when one got sick or needed time off you could be pushing a 7 day a week, 11 hour a day work week. Personal time? Whats that?

That, and the fact that after they went out of business we had to sue them to get our last three weeks of pay.

Advice to Senior Management

To top management this company started feeling like a joke about six months after i started working there. Beyond store managers (who really wern't any big thang), we had no upper management. Maybe if you had spent more time developing your business plan, you would have been more successful.

Pros

Salary for duties very fair as the responsibilities are shared. Hours for a retail store not bad closing at 8 PM and that is about it

Cons

The company spwnt no money on adverstisisng, bought no prodcut but still held accountable for sales goals. promotions were non existent as Market Leader hired all his buddies and did not promote 1 associate in the stores. While company touted open door policy any one that had questions or did not agree with company policy were let go.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to replace all upper management or change the philosophy of the company and assist the stores not brow beat them for things they have no control over.

Pros

Pay scale was decent for the work required

Cons

Company was run into the ground due to seniormanagement, no marketing for stores, couldn't afford to buy product and yet company was complaining because your store wasn't hitting the company goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Retire and let some one do your job like it needs to be done. Market the stores so customers know we exist.

Pros

Decent Pay, decent benefits offered

Cons

I hate to dance on someone's grave, but inkstop is no more. There is a reason, actually several, for that, but suffice to say that they discovered that not being able to buy merchandise for your stores for 6 months leads to bankruptcy.
If there goofs ever do re-emerge from having locked out (and not having paid their ex-employees for the last two weeks) run, don't walk, far away.

Advice to Senior Management

go flip burgers. that will teach you the basics - and take a course on employee management; hint: Screaming at whole districts on conference calls is counter-productive

Pros

Good pay for hourly employees and lots of free time.
I hear most of the problems we have don't exist in the Ohio market.
It is a small start-up company so by getting in early you can make a big impact.
Great co-workers, I learned so much from them.

Cons

Poor pay for managers.
Lots of free time.
No ink to sell. No advertising.
Absolutely no transparency into the big plan and no willingness to listen to some of the great talent they have on the front line.
None of this is a secret, walk into a store (if you can still find one) and look at the shelves.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut payroll and buy ink!

Step up and be a leader! 90% of the time management is just administration, but when unfortunate things happen do not hide your head in the sand! Address the issues openly and promptly. You will stop the rumors and negativism and earn respect and loyalty.

Create an anonymous tip and HR complaint channel. Wow! The things I could tell you...

Pros

The pay was great! Get a book or a Nintendo Ds and you are good to go!! You will not have jack to do all day! Nobody will step foot inside your bodega of a store!

Cons

No product in the stores, no advertisements, the same substandard Vuescape digital cameras and MP3 players. Being forced to sell replacement plans on items like flash drives and memory cards. Inkstop also forces you to try and get every customer's personal info for their "rewards program". What they are really doing is getting your info and selling it to 3rd party companies. The prices are nowhere near competitive with anyone else who carries ink. The "inkstop" brand of ink does not work 80% of the time. In Georgia many managers have been let go due to "fraud". and some of the smarter ones have just quit. People coming to shut off your power because of unpaid bills, being served with lawsuits from local newspapers because of money owed, constantly being lied to by the so called "higer-ups", favoritism, inter-company politics. I really feel sorry for people stuck at this company. Being threatened in emails and through phone calls because sales are bad, working alone long hours, being told that it's your job to go out and "drum up" business.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest with your workers and explain to them that the company is going under. Nevermind, you think we're too stupid to see what is obvious.

Pros

Decent pay but that is negated by the mandatory reduction of hours, easy job but boring most of the time.

Cons

Low morale, poor communication, lousy corporate atmosphere, too many secrets kept from employees, no stock or advertising, lying to customers, lots of pressure on stores to perform even with no support from corporate.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop lying to the stores, get feedback on what positve things can be done to improve things, and stop blaming store employees for the fact that the company is poorly run by people who would fail a basic Finance or Business Management class at any college. If you don't advertise or get any new product for over 6 months, you can't blame the lack of sales on poor performance at the stores.

Pros

It is a relatively simple job and they don't ask much of you besides normal duties. The people are please to work with and the market leader in my area is easy to get along with. I find it to be an environment that is easy to adjust to and be part of since it is slower paced. The benefits overall are very good, 20 hours or more and you're covered by full benefits which is nice compared to other retailers I have worked at. I think that the overall chance to bonus is difficult, but rewarding when you do.

Cons

Sometimes it is slow, too slow and management can get negative when things are down as opposed to a coaching environment

Advice to Senior Management

Manage equally, pay and treatment seem to be all over the board

Pros

Time to read a book! There is often little to do in the store for months on end. There's some busy-work that takes maybe two hours a day to finish. Bring in a book and enjoy your time. Just avoid the district manager. This might only work in the Texas market where I'm at... which is way under goal. There are some really nice employees and customers who work and shop at Inkstop. Base pay for each position is relatively high though little real experience is needed to achieve any of the positions. Getting a manager position here is as easy as applying at the right moment.

Cons

Boring and upper-management is fairly incompetent. The company uses terms like "Net Sales" when they actually mean "Gross Sales." Only a small number of people at the Ohio Corporate location have degrees. There is a small-store mindset at corporate and it holds back all of Inkstop. Each store is held accountable for making goals but there's little these stores can do to drive sales. The ads (now far and in between) drive people in to buy products that that are well below margin if we have the product at all. The company is now firing many managers in Texas, perhaps in other places as well, for not meeting goals. It should be the district manager, his immediate supervisor, and Inkstop Corporate whose jobs are on the line.

Advice to Senior Management

People with degrees and prior-experience should be moving up closer to the top of the company. The store goals should be more realistic. There's a general retail industry slow-down and expecting phenomenal growth in this economy is just plain silly. Guerrilla marketing should be encouraged at the store level. Store management should be trained on how to canvass, especially on how to achieve special order goals. Protection plan penetration shouldn't be effected by products like memory cards, usb drives, and other products that cost as much to replace as the protection plan itself. Start admitting that upper-management is making mistakes and showing the stores that people on the top are being held accountable. It speaks volumes when the number 3 guy in the company simply sets up shelves for stores.