Where to Work in Retail

Where can you work if you want a job in the retail industry? Here’s the good news – absolutely anywhere. From a small-town farming community in Iowa to a large city like Miami – and really anywhere in between – retail jobs are readily available. It is simply a matter of finding one.

• Department stores are those that sell just about anything. Breaking down this category even farther, this is the discount department store, like Wal-Mart, and the “anchor” discount store like Macy’s. These are the stores that will have the most employees and will often feature managers in every department.
• Warehouse stores, sometimes referred to as wholesale warehouse outlets, are all over the country and do a bustling business. We profile Costco warehouse jobs later in this section, and you can also look into similar stores such as Sam’s Club.
• Specialty stores sell one specific category of items. It is like taking a single department from a department store and expanding it into something larger with more product choices. Within a specialty store, there may be more specialized departments. For example, in an electronics store, you may find departments for televisions, cameras, music, and so forth or in a pet store, you may find departments for toys, reptiles, bedding, et cetera. Working for a retail sporting goods store is highly desirable for people who love athletics.
• Used goods stores usually have a number of different kinds of products, but the emphasis here is that the items have been previously owned and are much less expensive.
• Online stores may or may not have a brick-and-mortar counterpart. However, they still need employees. Although they may not need cashiers, they do need people to ready orders as well as deal with technical problems and respond to customer questions via email.
• Grocery stores: Grocery stores are technically a subdivision of specialty stores, but they are the most common and often have the most complex employee make-up.

Retail stores can have hundreds of branches and thousands of employees, or one small storefront and a single owner who serves as employee. The retail industry is extremely diverse, making finding a new job fairly easy and tons of fun.