Mervyns Reviews

Pros

Excellent training and career development, corporate culture - team oriented make didn't make it seem that you worked for a big company.

Cons

Senior management mishandling of operations, disconnect between customers and product offerings make it frustrating to plan for long-term goals.

Advice to Senior Management

More understanding of base customers and what they needed. Definitely needed more market research and trend analysis. Don't rely too much on what vendors offer but trust merchandisers, product development to make own trend and direction for company assortment.

Pros

Mervyns had a small company feel with big company benefits. There was good opportunity for advancement and a very talented, dedicated , hard working group of employees. Mervyns developed a very strong customer base and a west coast approach and feel that was very appealing to both customers and employees. Offered very competitive salaries and supported work/life balance.

Cons

Senior management did not work cohesively which led to confusion and duplication of effort in the ranks. At some point we lost sight of who our customer was and tried to be too much like other retailers. We had a niche and just needed to stay focused on it.

Advice to Senior Management

Work together. not on different agendas Provide a collective front and believe in the abilitiy of team to get it done.

Pros

Mervyns was a wonderful experience. I started as a Christmas seasonal employee and was surprised to learn that the retail business was a truely fascinating and faceted field, not just "assisting customers and cashiering". I was able to learn many aspects of retail, such as Ad Setting, Freight Handling, Floor recovery and Merchandising, Mervyns offered training in all these areas. Mervyns had great employee benefits and training opportunities. Managers and Supervisors were always fair and respectful to the employee's needs. The best reasons were:
Great co-workers. Flexible hours. Excellent Managers & Supervisors. Organized and clean store. Thourough training.
Outstanding team work.

Cons

Requires some very early or very late hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work

Pros

Opportunities to advance are there for those who want them. You have the resources of a large company but the ability to move with the speed of a smaller, nimbler operation.

Cons

A lot of entrenched old-school department store leaders who refuse to change the way business is done in spite of poor performance. Lack of accountability at the highest levels. The wrong people in the wrong jobs. Absence of trust by management in the rank and file to do their jobs. No support from private equity ownership.

Advice to Senior Management

Find great people, point them in the right direction and let them do their jobs!

Pros

No commute - the only reason I continued to work there. The employee discount was nice, but prices were inflated, so you had to use coupons as well. Multiple discounts were a plus.

Cons

Low pay, bad management at all levels. Things like employee turnover and shortages were not addressed effectively in policy. Easy solutions were never implemented. For this, senior management should be ashamed. You can blame the economy, but there's a reason why some retail will survive while Mervyns closed.

As stated above, multiple discounts were allowed, but I found out this created management suspicion. Employees were not treated like customers when spending their meager paychecks in their own store. I even know of employees who chose to shop in stores other than their own because of this.

Advice to Senior Management

Too little, too late.

Pros

Family friendly, community oriented department store. Good pay, flexible hours, room to grow. This company allowed me to raise my family while still grow in my career. I had the ablity to attend field trips, attend special events and helped to coordinate school activities.
The great thing about working here was the ability to plan your own day, the ability to handle and accept change, create plans and manage to them.

Cons

At this point, Mervyn's is closed, however, the downside, was too many owners who did not undestand what Mervyn's was, which in fact led to it's demise. Target was the biggest downside to Mervyn's, as it was Target's management of Mervyn's that ultimately led to bad directions and shoddy looking stores.

Advice to Senior Management

Talk to employees who have been here to understand who the Mervyn's shopper was, and what Mervyn's stood for. There were too many changes iin Management over the years to give the store consistency. Too many directions, to top heavy in Senior Management.

Pros

I will miss working at Mervyns. I had the pleasure of working with some great leaders and associates. This company is truly a "neighbor" store that supports the community and strives to give the best customer service! The training and development of management is valued and there was opportunity to to advance with in the company.

Cons

Liquidation! Little communication about pending processes and potenially losing our accured vacation. Communication was withheld reguarding no COBRA benefits after final closing date.! Being sold from Target was a turning point for the company. The technology suffered and we have had long standing problems with becoming an independant company.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication

Pros

The company really felt like a family and never made me hate going to work. Also the training was very good and you never felt like you were under appreciated on the job.

Cons

The only downside to working at mervyns was the whole customer service piece. As a manger, you generally have to deal with many customers who are downright rude and have no decency when trying to get what they want. Unfortunately you often times had to spend 20-30 minutes dealing with customers that were unwilling to accept no as an answer... even though they were in fact in the wrong.

Advice to Senior Management

GIVE OUR VACATION PAY BACK!!!!!

Pros

Exposure to big box retailing is a benefit I will take with me through out my career.

Cons

Long hours and messy customers were a constant. Never enough labor hours available and terrible IT systems once Target system was replaced.

Advice to Senior Management

Need more labor hours to keep the stores shopable.

Pros

The company really felt like a family and never made me hate going to work. Also the training was very good and you never felt like you were under appreciated on the job.

Cons

The only downside to working at mervyns was the whole customer service piece. As a manger, you generally have to deal with many customers who are downright rude and have no decency when trying to get what they want. Unfortunately you often times had to spend 20-30 minutes dealing with customers that were unwilling to accept no as an answer... even though they were in fact in the wrong.

Advice to Senior Management

The only advice I can give at this point is to fight for the workers vacation compensation upon liquidation of the store. Apart from that, I have been very pleased with the overall performance of Senior Management.