Retail Discounts and other Job Perks

Imagine this scenario: you run the cash register at a local bookstore, and a box of recent arrivals has come in. During shipping, something poked into the box, damaging a number of books. The storeowner can’t send them back for a refund, so she removes all of the damaged copies and puts them in the employee break room for anyone to take home – first come, first served.

Over the course of a few years this has occurred a number of times and you’ve added over a dozen books to your home library.

Many retail jobs offer such perks to their employees, letting them take home damaged or broken but still useful goods from their return departments or elsewhere in the store, particularly if those goods are going to have to be thrown away anyway. This is a great boon to the employees who know who to ask for the goods, and even offsets the low pay a little.

In addition to the potential for free goods, there is always the discount to consider as well, which in some stores is minimal and in other stores can be substantial. If you pair your discount with the knowledge of exactly when they are going to be putting your favorite products on sale, your discounts are even bigger.

Another perk that you won’t receive in most other industries is the ability to have a rather flexible schedule. While there are tons of 9-to-5 jobs available in the retail industry, as a retail store manager, retail sales clerk or cashier, or retail stocker (and in other positions in some cases), you may not be working typical business hours. That means that you can take on a retail job as a second job or you can set up your hours to work with your spouse’s schedule.

Retail employees have plenty of perks available to them no matter what kind of store they are working at, whether they sell books, groceries, shoes, or all of the above and more. A retail store offers low pay and has high turnover, so they try to be a little generous in most cases to employees who stick around.