Pros
Some of the managers are friendly and helpful and for someone under 21, the pay is good as it is a £12 an hour standardised. Meaning that if your 16 you will be earning the same as someone double your age in the same role
Cons
Working for Primark is an experience. On the surface the work is fairly easy so long as you know how to fold clothing and have some basic people skills, though the Bristol store in particular is dreadful to work for. I transferred to the Bristol store from my home town as I was going to uni and since starting there, there has been problems. Firstly, not being able to get the hours I requested and then not being offered any over time, even after asking for it. The Transfer process was also like being dropped into a 20ft pool. On my first day I wasn't even given a tour of the store, just dropped straight onto tills to start working (before I signed my contract). Which made it very difficult when I would have customers ask me where things are, and then get mad at me because I am unable to tell them because I have no idea. This seems to be a common theme with the store, as other colleges who have worked there for years still don’t know what the other floors layouts are like. Basic things like not having enough pens behind the tills to do returns and constantly running out of the free paper bags are enough to add stress to a shift. This kind of poor planning from the management makes it much more difficult for the sales assistants as the customers take it out on the lower-level staff. "Oh, you're scamming us by not being able to give us a free bag and making us pay for the reusable ones". Management will go on at the till staff to sell more reusable bags every 10 minutes. No matter how hard you try, if someone does not want to pay £1 for a bag, they're not going to take one. So, when you have someone who’s buying half the store and still won't buy a bag you’re left being berated because you are unable to offer the customer a free alternative. Working on the shop floor is not so bad, though it is exhausting. Maybe on a quiet week day it wouldn't be so bad, but when you have half of Bristol and south Wales rushing through and chucking all the neatly folded clothes you have spent the last half hour tidying on the floor and asking you stupid questions every 2 minutes, it gets to a point when you think, why do I even bother when if I turn my back its worse than when I started my shift. Management and the P&C (HR) at this store is also dreadful. I will say that there are some managers who do differ from what I am about to say, though on the whole, management doesn’t seem to care about their staff. It could be the busiest day of the month where at the end of your shift you can barely stand because your feet and back are killing from the constant bending down and walking about and you won't even get a thank you for a full day's work. It may sound petty but these little interactions go a long way in making you feel valued as an employee. By the end of most shifts, you will end up feeling completely fed up and on the verge of hitting someone. The best way to describe working for this store is that you basically become a number. No matter how hard you work yourself to give the customers a better experience, you will be valued no more than the idiot who has the faintest clue of what they’re doing. Coming from a much smaller Primark store, obviously it will be less close nit as its will be like 4 times the size, though it can feel like management discourages employees getting to know each other. Even if it’s quiet in the store and you are having a quick natter with a college, a manager will rush over to either ask why you’re standing around talking or to move one of you to the other side of the department. This makes it feel very isolating working at this store as the only time you have to get to know the other employees is in the changing rooms/break rooms, where most likely you’re all half asleep or fed up of talking to people as you have to spend your whole shift dealing with customers. I am writing this review as recently the store has gone through all of their temp employees and decided who they want to keep after the new year. I, despite having much more experience than a lot of the other temps (who also shouldn’t have been a temp as I had already gone through the probation period), was let go due to bad attendance. Which is utter bull sh*t as I only missed two shifts which were previously approved. After speaking with other colleagues who have been let go a lot of it seems to be “Manager digression” which boils down to, the manager doesn’t like you/know you that well and would rather have someone they like better, rather than have a good employee who actually knows what they’re doing. If you are ever thinking of applying to work for Primark, DON’T! It is one of the most miserable retail jobs you could have. Look elsewhere where you will actually be valued as an employee and a human being.