Trans World Entertainment Reviews

Pros

I really enjoyed working for the company. I liked selling entertainment product and being encouraged but not forced to make sales. Obviously sales were a part of your performance reviews but I never felt pressured to increase my numbers but was given pointers on how to increase my numbers. I felt fairly well recognized for my work even at a lower level of employment.

Cons

Unfortunately the entertainment industry is struggling as far as product sales go with having to compete with online stores, rental services, and Wal-Mart. Due to the struggle I had to endure two closings of two separate locations. I do not regret working at either location, nor do I blame the company for my current unemployment and I am not bitter at the company in any way but I would not recommend taking a job at any location in hopes of long term employment.

Advice to Senior Management

Lower prices! I understand the company wants to make a profit but some of the prices are a little to high to compete with online sales and Wal-Mart, though I am not encouraging stooping to Wal-Mart's level at all.

Pros

Fun products. Reasonable work schedule. Regular hours for management.

Cons

Low pay scale, unreasonable upper management. Unstable work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Constant confusion from upper management. Poor communication between departments within the company. It seemed as if the higher you rise with the company, the crazier you needed to be. I have never heard of a company that was more fixated on plan-o-grams and magazine subscriptions than actual sales dollars and profit margin.

Pros

Fun, Fast paced, very good benfits! One of the most enjoyable jobs I ever had.

Cons

Not so great pay. Lots of stores closing, Leadership is sneaky and can't be trusted.

Advice to Senior Management

The Houston Market Needs a leadership change for the top down.

Pros

It's a job, with weekly pay.

Cons

In a dying business, they take away your necessities in order for the company to survive. Instead of striving for great customer service to get a customer to come back, they take your payroll down to bare minimums and expect the highest caliber customer service in return. They took away the secret shopper program, and now only go by customer call-ins. Today, most customers only call in to complain, not to compliment. In the event that you DO get a compliment, you rarely hear about it.

Policies are not in stone, so those who break or follow them are at the mercy of upper management when it comes to discipline. What goes for one does NOT go for all.

You can work very hard for many years, but one customer complaint, and no matter how crazy the customer was, all of your hard work goes unnoticed.

Advice to Senior Management

Be fair. Your employees are your life blood.

Pros

Good work environment if you have good people around you to work with. It's a lot of fun to work with music and movies all day.

Cons

There is absolutely no opportunity for advancement. The company doesn't really know what a raise is, and you have to be willing to wait forever.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent in your practices. Stop deceiving customers...dealing with customer complaints about deception practices is one of the worst parts of the job.

Pros

Great people, a fun place to work, and you get a discount.

Cons

Since it is retail you have to deal with holiday shopping but other then that its good.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider everyone for advancement not just your friends.

Pros

It is not too hard to get a job at Trans World Entertainment or do well there. The job is pretty easy compared to other places I have worked. There is not too far to go above and beyond regular duty but it is easy given the environment to slouch. In the small stores you sometimes work alone as a manager which is about the easiest thing you could do. Managers do ring on registers a lot and you are not above too many people so there are not too many people to keep tabs on. The company makes some strange ideas compared to the rest of the retail world but one of the most interesting is that anyone on a register can get $0.50 all the way to $10 bonuses on items they sell depending on if they are add-ons or replacement plans, etc.

Cons

High prices make for constant customer questions as well as complaints. Strange decisions from the corporate side leave you wondering.

Advice to Senior Management

Put prices back in line with other retail and really push the item by item bonuses to increase associate's want to drive sales.