Pacific Sunwear Reviews

Pros

Great place to move up quickly, great support for taking initiative and not being ambiguous. Lets you own the business in your store.

Cons

Constant changes in a bad way. A lot of going back and fourth with policies and procedures. Not a place to make a career out of if you are into retail.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a decision on what direction you want the company to go in. Remodle the stores to not look so dark and depressing. You can spend a few dollars to atleast pain the place. Also, too many styles are going on in the company, most successful companies have some sort of schtick. Keep the policies and procedures in order. Have a clear and concise view of what is wanted.

Pros

If the store manager has a great sales team in place, it can be a fun work environment but to be honest, that's about all the pros for this company.

Cons

Ridiculous workload. Company expects you to be focused customer service, but schedules markdowns, major promo and display changes all on the same day. With payroll the lowest I've seen ever, this is a no-win-scenario. Sales suffer because of this and most times I've worked by myself with no sales associate in a store that is one of the highest volume stores in the company. Our store shrink is double that of company standards unfortunately and you feel helpless to turn it around because of the lack of payroll and constant projects. Overnight floorsets are basically nonexistent here as well. The entire store changes usually happen while the store is open, again because of payroll allocation, and in turn doesn't help with our shrink.

Extreme lack of appreciation by district managers is another problem. I worked an 18 hour shift in preparation for last Black Friday and never even got a thank you. Our district as well as the surrounding ones, have been in a manager drought for years now because of the reasons above. I would estimate the average turnaround time for assistants and store managers is a year or less currently.

Advice to Senior Management

Refresh the product lines and bring back brands that the company was founded on. Increase payroll to acceptable levels

Pros

good discount, good environment, good benefits

Cons

workload is too heavy, very unrealistic expectations as far as projects the company gives and the time frame they want you to do it in. District Managers tend to focus on high volume stores and make sure they are doing okay, but leave low volume stores out to dry. management turnover rate is ridiculous, cannot keep stores staffed. Communication throughout the company also needs to improve. Too many last minute decisions that throw off the stores.

Advice to Senior Management

at a district and regional level, make sure all stores are staffed efficiently, make sure their needs are met and make yourself more available to help

Pros

The people and the casual dress code

Cons

Too much work and not enough workerbees

Advice to Senior Management

Be fair and consistent

Pros

The people you work with will be some of the best you will ever meet and the health benefits are really good. They also run a lot of contests to earn extra prizes and/or money.

Cons

Recognition does not always come readily. More times than not the expectations are unrealistic and unreachable for management to complete given the information provided along with payroll given. Communication throughout the company needs to be better and clearer.

Advice to Senior Management

It starts at the Top. Dig in to what you are really asking those at the store level to complete on a daily basis while demanding perfection. Hold yourselves accountable as you would hold others. If you cannot walk into a store and complete the tasks given on a daily basis then you need to re-evaluate those expectations. We can only do so much as one person and that needs to be recognized.

Pros

If you like retail then you'll love this job. Very easy going co-workers and its an enjoyable experience. Customers are great and the dress code is very laid back and cool.

Cons

Very sales driven and competitive. The less sales you make the less hours you get, sometimes you would barely get one day a week and it was a five hour day. No set schedule, you get what you get.

Advice to Senior Management

The hours that are assigned should be evenly distributed between employees and someone should be assigned to controlling the fitting rooms at all times.

Pros

Good discount. Good people to work with.

Cons

Unrealistic and at times unreal deadlines to achieve. Corp is constantly giving projects to get done asap, but pulls us away from customer service that they intend us to keep pushing for sales.

Pros

-Flexible hours. Will work around your availability and honor requests off.
-Great discount.
-Friendly managers/coworkers (maybe that was just my store?)
-Relaxed environment. If the store looked okay in maintenance, the only thing you had to do was talk to customers and engage in conversation.

Cons

-Low pay
-"Call-In" shifts - having to call an hour before your shift to find out if you're needed to work.

Advice to Senior Management

The senior management at my store was awesome. All managers at my store were cheery, happy and energetic which really had an effect on our staff. The only thing I would suggest is getting rid of "call-in' shifts

Pros

Great people working in stores.
Good discount.
Freedom to be creative with visual updates.
Very flexible with your personal needs willing to work around school, and other obligations.

Cons

Lack of Leadership, Communication, and Clarity from upper Management.

DMs and RDs spend too much time playing favorites and railroading hardworking employees who have been with the company for years.

No identity as a company, all they say is change is inevitable but when you change everything from what the company has always stood for then its time to change the name as well...

Advice to Senior Management

The problem is not at the store level.. Fix the problems in corporate and allocations and maybe you can save the company.

Pros

Great discount (free jeans!)
Laid back work environment
Fun coworkers
Management gives consistent feedback about your job performance
Easy sales goals

Cons

-A lot of promises made to various associates about job advancement that never end up happening
-District managers pile way too much work on store management, leaving them stressed and taking it out on brand reps
-High school age employees=high school drama!
-Management often complains to brand reps about other management (awkward!)
-Often a lot of responsibility placed on high preforming brand reps without any extra compensation for the extra work expected of them

Advice to Senior Management

-DM's need to make more frequent store visits in order to actually understand what is happening in their stores.
-Management should not make promises about promotions to brand reps that they can't keep
-Management needs to keep their own problems to themselves. Talking crap about fellow management to brand reps is unprofessional and highly problematic!