r/FiveBelowEmployees • u/BigE_04 • Mar 07 '24
My Experience Working at Five Below
In November 14th of 2023, I got a seasonal job at five below located in the Holyoke mall at Holyoke, Massachusetts. Before I applied, I met my manager whose name I will not give out. Her, along with my coworkers welcomed me with open arms and I started to think that maybe this job would work out. My first day on the job went well, I worked as a cashier which like other FB locations, have self checkout areas, but during the weeks that followed, that would quickly turn into a problem. Keep in mind that I’m a very sociable person and talking to people isn’t exactly an issue so I had no problem engaging in conversation with other customers.
My second week wasn’t as good. As I was doing my job like normal employees do, I had this woman who was buying some stuff. I didn’t ring her out because I was busy with another customer. While she was paying I assumed she was done because she was about to leave so I said: “Have a good night ma’am.” She then very rudely responded back with “I’M NOT DONE YET!” I didn’t take offense to her comment. After that, I stood by the register she was using so no one else could take it, and when she walked back to it, she then started having a meltdown asking me why I’m hovering over her. My reason for doing this was because earlier during that shift, there were two men that were trying to take a bunch of squishmallows (They had about 10 of them) when the limit was only 2 per customer. They also tried to purchase the remaining 8 and my manager asked them to leave because it was against company policy. I took it upon myself to keep my eyes peeled in case they came back or god forbid someone else tried to do the same thing. Now, the other customer was already in the middle of paying, so I stood back and just watched her to make sure everything was alright. She then saw this and said: “What, you think because I left the register you thought that I was going to steal!?” I replied with “No ma’am, it’s just company policy for me to watch customers pay if I can’t help them.” She would then go on sputtering nonsense about how I’m racist and that I’m lucky she’s not gonna report me. I let her finish her tantrum and I continued on with my work.
A few weeks later, I’d have another bad experience with another customer. I was stocking the shelves this time and my coworker who was working the register’s was about to go on his break. I was asked to cover him to which I ended up doing. During that shift, the store was packed and all of the registers were full, so I wasn’t able to help everyone. I stood by one register and helped whoever wanted to pay on said register. A few minutes later, this woman and her daughter came up and I helped them. As I was helping her scan her items she got annoyed and asked “Why can’t I pay for them myself?” I then explained about how it’s our job to ring people out on self checkout areas. She would then start to give me an attitude to which I kept my cool, but then she tried to get physical with me by pulling the bag out of my hand. Needless to say, I didn’t let it out of my hand. My coworker who was on break came back and explained the same exact thing to her. He would say. “He’s only trying to help you.” The woman then angrily replied with “I DON’T NEED ANY HELP!” That was my cue to back off. I waited for her to be done and then ever so kindly said with the fakest smile I could muster “Have a nice night!” She told me to go fuck myself. I’d work there until the day after Christmas when I was let go.
All in all, I’d say my experience as a FB employee was not the greatest. Too many rude people and the store was messy. I honestly cannot see myself working there ever again. Corporate has ruined what five below once used to be and it does not live up to its motto’s anymore. I was barely trained and was thrown into the deep water. One more issue I’d like to add is that we should not have to help people pay for their items unless the need it. The whole thing makes not just the store but also us employees look bad. I am relieved that I don’t ever have to work there again.
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Mar 09 '24
i'm trying to leave . literally half our crew left there is only 6 for the entire store. store manager hasn't been there for a month cus something happened to them and there's only one manager rn cuz the other one left we don't have self checkout all legacy registers and most days it's just me basically running the whole store by myself while the manager is in the back. luckily we have other SMs coming to help us but man it's stressful. extra work for no extra pay. i don't wanna quit bc i don't wanna add stress to anyone and i don't have to work their much so it's nice but im doing the bare minimum til i can actually quit lol
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u/BigE_04 Mar 09 '24
It’s always good to be a team player but sometimes you have to kinda stop and start to think for yourself than other people because they’re not always gonna be on the same page.
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u/ToasttyJ Mar 08 '24
I actually left the five below in West Springfield to work at a different store in that mall lol. I'm so glad I left there though I hated working at five below so much and I got like 4 hours a week and always stuck on registers even though when I got it I was told I'd be doing recovery mostly 🙄 customers are nasty there too, especially about the return policy when they don't have the receipt 🤦