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• I worked here as an Assistant Store Manager, they downgraded most ASMs to Full-Time Sales Leads recently in order to save money.
  
  Operations-wise, this company is actually fairly organized in terms of visual merchandising, communications, operations, and leadership (at store level).
  
  Full-timers get most the hours, if you're lucky you will have a good store manager like I had myself. Training is fairly simple if you've worked in retail before. They have guides and steps to ensure you feel prepared to take on the job.
  
  The only setback is that there are not many opportunities for advancement if you are one of the remote location stores, nor do they offer many wage advancements or even recognition for a job well-done or at least for giving your best effort.
  
  Sometimes budget goals are unrealistic and DSMs can really push you to make unrealistic amounts of money which can sometimes leave you feeling like a disappointment to the company. You've got to have a strong emotional backbone to work in retail management here.
  
  Lots of 'grunt' work as there were only a few full-time positions meaning most of the workload was divided onto (in my case) two people. It gives you a chance to really get a well-rounded experience of how a store functions from every perspective but can exhaust you.
  
  Part-timers can expect low hours but a rewarding feeling working here if they are placed with the proper management team/upper management team. Training is very hands-on and trainers (usually an MIT, Lead, ASM or the SM) are always very patient and take time to ensure you know what you are doing. Also, you must be very comfortable with upselling and adding on items to sales to increase IPT/UPT to hit the stores' generally achievable targets. This is my personal experience.
  
  My rating is as honest as possible and comes from someone with no anger towards to the company as they have treated me well, or as well as you can be treated working in retail. The store-level management employees are pushed and stressed to the max due to DSM goals while DSMs have no clue how each store works differently as each local economy is completely different. They believe it to be universal and use a universal approach to achieve budget as well as KPI goals. DSMs should be required to work a certain amount of days in each of their stores to see just how the economy effects a stores capability of reaching targets consistently and improving upon them yearly.
  
  Overall, if you are willing to work hard and can handle pressure from upper management to upsell, sell shoe care, etc. then I'd say this is the place for you. If you are lower energy, not very outgoing and quiet - this job is probably not the best option for you as you need to be able to greet your customers, open a dialogue, lead the sale from beginning to end as well as finish it all of by deepening the brand by informing the customer about the Company's social responsibility.
  
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  Posted on 14 June 2017 by Rater #71 | Comments (2) | Flag as inappropriate

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• This is a absolutely the worst place to ever work at they under pay you as a manager there is no coaching or development at all coming from anywhere I was thrown into 3 stores for training to have no coaching at all I've worked for the company for almost 3 years and realized there is no structure at all as a manager I had to train myself from books and calling other stores they gave me no visual training and expected us to just figure out their merchandising methods it's was pure sabotage and chaos. The DM who they decided to use from the east coast was a condescending disrespectful person who didn't even live in the city would not be able to get in contact with and wouldn't get back to me or my staff for days in regards to customer issues. She also decided to get rid of me with no write ups no verbals no warnings i also have been recognized by head office clean record shes currently looking over Calgary and Edmonton and doing a horrible job I definetly do not recommend any one working for this company especially if your wanting growth and coaching to enhance your retail management career. She made me decide not to pursue retail anymore Distribution is a joke they harp on us to make thousands of dollars and when shipment comes they bring nothing but none sense as if they don't understand the consumer they have high expectations with nothing behind it if you want to advance in any retail company I suggest you look the other way when considering Aldo   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 5 January 2017 by Rater #70 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I worked at the head office for 3 years. As previous people have mentioned, you are overworked and not paid well. If an average work week is 40 hrs, they give you 55 hrs of work and expect it to get done no matter what. That means coming early, staying late, or working from home. And you don't get paid overtime or have banked hours. And this is the normal for everyone there. Manangement and all employees accept it, so if you don't like it, find another job.
  When you have a family, this is impossible. You burn out. In my time there, I have known 4 people who went on sick leave from burnout. In the end, for all the hours you put in, you're basically making minimum wage. Not worth it.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 25 August 2015 by Rater #67 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Worked in HQ, IT Department for the last year and was given good challenges with significant impact on the company. IT might be a bit different than other departments, certainly less influenced by the fashion trends and people, yet we have to deal with all other deparments and I haven't found anyone too stupid or not involved enough to sabotage our projects. So that was nice (or normal actually). Team work and atmosphere was among the best I had in the last 10 years of experience, and I work with fun, smart and qualified people. I had to pull a lot of hours off to get a project delivered on time, with some pressure for sure, but was allowed to take some days back which was greatly appreciated. I do believe Aldo tries to keep his people happy. Works with me. Works for my family.
  HQ premises are gorgeous, food is quite cheap yet healthy, diverse and great quality, there are sport facilities on site, you can relax outside and spend a little time gardening just next to your office during lunch break. You also get private sample sales twice a year, a lot of good stuff to bring back home for a really good price (beside getting all year employee discount)
  On the not so fantastic sides, Aldo could make some effort on making smarter investments in IT hardware and software, would help focus on added-value projects instead of projects that only help fixing existing stuff for another 6 months or so. You could argue that compensation is not among the best we've seen in the Montreal area, but they tend to make somme efforts to attract the right people and hopefully keep them. I obviously know nothing about the conditions in the retail stores themselves and I can understand it's a completely different challenge there.
  So my final thought for HQ: Working hard has paid off for me so far. On many aspects, the best company I worked for over the last 10 years.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 10 July 2015 by Rater #66 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Aldo was the worst place i've ever worked in my life. I worked there for 3 1/2 months and quit cause I couldn't take it. They have ridiculous quotas and no recognition or compensation for the hard work you do. when i worked there, sales were set at 200$ an hour, 3% had to be shoe care and 11% had to be handbag sales. That means in a 5 hour shift, you'd have to sell 1000$ worth of product, and within that 2 handbags (no one ever made this) and at least like 5 pieces of shoe care. Sell a 200$ pair of boots with no shoe care? your quotas are doomed already for the day. No commission, just the discount for part-time employees. One week I made one of top 15 employees out of ALL OF CANADA (they have weekly rating charts) and the next week they were yelling at me cause I was 5% down in my handbag quota for the day. No respect for employees, no wonder there isn't one single staff that still works there when I walk by.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 24 March 2015 by Rater #64 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• I just quit after working there for 10 months. I noticed I am the last employee that has been working there the longest and lost 2 managers already. Every key holder has left. I was promised at least 30 hours a week. Most I got was 15.. if I was lucky. Was promised to be a key holder..nope. The new manager had me clocked out and made me stay longer and said she will pay me out of pocket because she'd get in trouble for keeping me late...never got any money from those hours. You get sucked in, they use you, and spit you right out like you're not shit. Work so hard for what? To get money/hours taken out of your paycheck? I could sue Aldo if I wanted to. Every single quality of this company needs help. I have resigned the shit hole. Run away.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 29 November 2014 by Rater #61 | Comments (2) | Flag as inappropriate

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• -Never respecting your schedule
  -Taking for granted that Aldo Group is all you have
  -You got plans, a family to see, studies, emergencies? Too bad so sad for you, Aldo Group is all you got.
  -False promises
  -Low pay
  -Going from 40h a week and more, to barely 8-10h... Because that's how a business goes, don't ask
  -Supervisors who will barely look at you
  So yeah... Don't go   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 4 September 2014 by Rater #59 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Cannot recommend this company as a place to work for anyone. Definitely about the politics. That's how the owners think. If you are good at pleasing them, then you are good at "human relations". Very unkind management.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 7 July 2014 by Rater #58 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• One of the main problems with this company is upper management. They have no concern for their employees or how hard they work. You are over worked and underpaid and when you want a vacation there are so many times of year you are not allowed to take it it's nearly impossible. They say they have reward programs like club elite but look at the small amount of people who actually get to participate in this reward compared to the amount of employees that are in the company. Time to get a reality check Aldo ! It's time to really work on those love respect integrity values because you definitely don't value the majority of your employees !!!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 31 January 2014 by Rater #56 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I never hate anyone in my whole life; however, I hate Call It Spring (from Aldo Group) from the bottom of my heart. This was the worst job I had ever had. From what I experienced at work, I think it was the business model at Spring that made everything the worst. I would show some working experiences with you.
  First, low pay but you had to work extremely hard. I mean, many retails have low pay for sales. When I worked there, the stock room at the back had limited spaces. We all had to climb stairs, bumped into boxes and running around non-stopping. At the end of the shift, I always had many scars on my hands. I never felt that exhausted after work. I experienced the worst at Spring.
  Second, NO value, trust or appreciation on staff. "Policy" says staff checks each other's purses when you come in and go out. I felt so disturbed when the manager or other staff checked every pocket of my purse. I heard it was to prevent stealing. I am telling you, this company acts like they are in the National Defense department. Top secret! Ridiculous!
  Third, no flexibility and bad management. Every time, when I walked in the store a few minutes before the shift started, I wasn't allowed to sign in because they had to pay me a few mins more. OMG! That was a few more cents they had to pay u! How stupid and discouraging! You are given short shifts; worse than that, they can ask you to go home after 2-3 hours. I booked my day for work and then I was told to go home because no one came in to buy shoes. When they had new stocks coming in and some staff was asked to come in for 2 hours just to set up new displays. They never considered that you had bills to pay and had a life to live too.
  Forth, an ignorant so-called regional manager came in to "check" the store and staff. I wanted to laugh so much that he acted like an army captain. All of us got our nerve up. Every client came in and was "bothered" by us saying "what can I help you" although they wanted to be let alone. We had to do that because the manager didn't want us to stop and do nothing. Some of us had to pretend to sort out the displays although they were done already. I felt like we were being treated like kids and were learning how to behavior.
  Fifth, one day, one of the staffs lost a key. We got asked 3 times in a month to check our purses. 3 times!!! The reasons were that we didn't check our purses or pockets carefully. The key migt be inside our purses. They probably suspected someone stole the key. If that someone wanted to steal the key, did you think he or she would return it after you asked to check 3 more times?
  All in all, I quit after a month or so because I hated it very much. I don't recommend anyone to work there. Please RUN!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 6 June 2013 by Rater #52 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• As an employee for the aldo group, for the past 3 years, I have to say at first I was very proud of the work I did.
  I was advanced pretty quickly, and made a manager.
  However, I never thought my whole life would be consumed by this company.
  I work all the time, never get days off, and get paid a poor salary for it.
  My upper management is awful, and everything is politics.
  Im looking for a new position at a different company, and will be taking my great employees with me!!!
  This company expects you to do everything with nothing and yet they say they allow more staff hours than other companies do.
  Thats a joke.
  Peace Aldo.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 22 November 2012 by Rater #14 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I have worked at aldo for about two years and i have never ever regretted something as much as i did this. The people who work there are very unprofessional, I would never recommend to anyone to work for this company!!! They dont entitle you to proper meal breaks, benefits (which there is not very much of) or treat you fairly.
  The Managers who work here do not have enough experience to be managers, there are a few who were good but majority of them still act like they are in high school and it is shown in their performance as a manager. I am not proud to say I worked here because it brings back horrible memories of horrible people.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 30 October 2012 by Rater #13 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• 1. Low pay
  2. Inadequate management
  3. An atmosphere reminiscent of high school (I hated it then; I definitely don't love it now)
  4. Did I mention LOW (paycheck-to-paycheck) pay?
  
  Don't be lured into promises of taking over the footwear world. Even if you have a "passion for fashion" as I thought I did, the negative atmosphere and people here will kill it.
  Save yourself; there'll always be another job.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 29 October 2012 by Rater #49 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• I have worked for ALDO HQ for the lats year, which was the worst past year I ever had in my life. They suck the life out of you. Work load was just ridiculous and not balanced at all. I had to get in at 7h am so I can finish everything by 9h pm! that was my schedule for every single day. But don't forget you get paid from 9ham to 5h pm!!!! no overtime compensations. I am alowed to say this because in nature I am a really organized person that get's everything done in time and as expected and even more, but here to get things done it was a nightmare as you can see by the schedule I had. There are a lot of people that are not qualified working in the positions they are and sorry for the language but "don't know squat!!!" about anything they do. Sitting at a desk or in a individual office does not meen the person knows what he/she is doing they are there because they licked someone's behind to be there but have no knowledge about anything! Watch out for a huge load of backstabbing in this company, keep your ideas to your self and lead them your self, do not present it to no one not even your manager/director if you would like to implement something do it your self! I have come up with multiple ideas for the growth of the company which they said no to, but soon as I left, my ideas, my strategy were used through out every imaginable platform of ALDO and the person that once said no to me became a director. There are a lot of people not qualified for the title they are supporting and should not have that. If ALDO decides really who really should be there I strongly believe that ALDO would be the strongest brand out there. Creatively, ALDO is stagnant and lack people who can really bring something new creatively but when they do find someone they take advantage and take all ideas straight from your hands. People should be entitled to a title based on their knowledge, creating new ideas to generate growth for the company, new strategies and not be entitled to a title because you have lick someone's behind or he or she is "super cool", and sit on your behind and say "we are good where we stand here today", instead of moving the company forward and say " where can we go next"!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 5 October 2012 by Rater #48 | Comments (3) | Flag as inappropriate

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• Plenty has been said already of the HEAD OFFICE in VILLE SAINT LAURENT...I will add my own experience...EVery member of the HR department is a incompetent fool. Their social skills are in the negative and I don't care where you got your stupid HR degree, that doesn't translate into having quality interpersonal skills. Their methods of recruiting is pure sh1t. I had to do my interview in the hallway as the RH dumbass did not even bother securing a conference room. This after asking me to move our initial encounter to one hour later in the day as poor girl had OTHER sh1t to do. Real classy!! The head office is a collection of some of the dumbest women this city has to offer. Extremely poor social skills. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS SHT A$$ COMPANY!   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 28 September 2012 by Rater #47 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• i worked at spring for 2 years. i hated every moment of it. i only got hours because i was a keyholder. everybody else was stuck with 5 -10 hours. my manager was a doorknob. he had no life and would go as far as to call you every hour to 'check up on the store' no trust in his employees. The store was audited almost every year for the past 13 years. internal theft was astounding and would go on for months. DO NOT WORK HERE.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 31 August 2012 by Rater #30 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• fun place to work  

  Posted on 21 August 2012 by Rater #47 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

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• Working for Aldo was one of the proudest jobs I've ever had. I really enjoyed my job until I began to feel taken advantage of.
  
  Aldo's sales goals are based on productivity. ie: Shoecare, Handbags, Order, Sales per hour, and items per transaction. When you are the person that is always chosen to do the tasking for the day, you don't get to sell, and therefore don't get perfect productivity. I worked for the company for a year and a half and was basically invisible to anyone in upper management because I wasn't on the productivity board. I put my sweat and tears into my store and got zero recognition for it.
  
  I'm very sad to say goodbye to the Aldo Groupe, but my wage and my lack of advancement did a job on my self worth so I had to walk away.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 19 August 2012 by Rater #2 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Pros
  -If you can push products like shoe care and purses down peoples throats then your pay will be in the $12-$14 an hour range.
  
  Cons
  -Constantly being forced to sell shoe care that doesn't even work as advertised
  -No respect at all.
  -Even if you hit all your sales targets there is no guarantee that you will be working for them next week.
  
  I knew it was time for me to leave when I saw the managers tasks and expectations , the words "question everything" made me think twice. Good luck to all the current employees, your going to need it!
  
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  Posted on 9 August 2012 by Rater #15 | Add Comment | Flag as inappropriate

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• Pros/ opportunities to grow in management, lots of hours in management(you live there), benefit plans after 6 months of FT work. Cons/ wages are all based on POLITICS, NOT EXPERIENCE OR EDUCATION AT ALL, 10 times the amount of work then any other retail sales job you have had, most of your pay will go to clothing and footwear that you dont even like or need but must where for style guide and it changes every few months with trends so what i buy now i wont be able to wear in two months, the worst customers u will get at any other fashion store, no life-plan to all work every night, wknd, holiday, always OT, worked for 3.5 yrs with no positive recognition, DMs jobs are to find what can be improved no matter how good things are, cheap products, a tenth of the amount of hours of most stores so always alone helping 20 plus customers!!! resigned because we moved away to a smaller town but should have left years ago. however, not everything is negetive, give it a try if you love talking to people 24/7 it will keep you on your toes.   read complete rating Hide complete rating

  Posted on 20 July 2012 by Rater #12 | Comments (1) | Flag as inappropriate

  Was this review helpful? 14 0