I've just started work at Toys 'r Us for the Christmas season. Not looking forwards to working with kids (don't hate 'em, just not a people person) buuuut... EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT ON TRANSFORMERS! It's the only Toys 'r Us in my city that I've found the Tiny Titans series at. I have a feeling I'll be grabbing one whenever I check in for the day. Unfortunately, not the best selection otherwise, BUT we are one of the one places in town (and anywhere nearby, really) with TR Laserbeak and Stripes! So, I'm curious- Has anyone else here worked at Toys 'r Us, or another toy store before, solely for the employee discount? Or really, just worked there in general?
I can't think of anything worse than working with excited and screaming kids all day. But if there's discounts to be had then it might be worth sticking with it. Goodluck, you'll need it.
I worked at TRU for 13 months back around 2002-2003. I needed a job badly so it wasn't just for the discount, but what was better to me was the ability to get stuff right out of the cases, or right off the pegs in the morning before any customers get in the store. That's how I was able to get a number of Marvel Legends variants, Sports Pick variants, and hard-to-find early 2000s MOTU figures like Evil-Lyn. (Before anyone says something, no, these were not for scalping purposes, strictly for my personal collection). If you can, try to get in the video-game section. You don't have to deal with as many customers as the regular registers and, at least when I was there, you have to do inventory counts every day, which breaks up the monotony.
Ive done it! It'll be hard as you get closer to Christmas and prepare to have your head blown off by parents trying to find that one gift for their kid that's sold out, but just remember it's never anything personal and they just want the best for their little guys. Enjoy the discounts, make friends, work hard and you might end up being invited back not long after your contract is over! Have fun bud
Haha, it's changed a bit from when I was there. I sold PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and Game Boy Advance games. We even had a handful of unsold N64 games, including a literal pile of Conker's Bad Fur Day which would be worth a mint now. Oh, and I don't know how it is now, but I had to be careful because if I sold an M rated game to a minor I would have been fired on the spot.
Used to work at a K*B Toys 16 years ago... about 16 years before I had any interest in building a TF collection. I remember seeing BW Magnaboss on the shelf, thinking to myself... WTF is this stupid shit?!
Working at Target currently, and honestly even with the employee discount at a modest hourly rate for seasonal employment, the amount saved on each Transformer is very small after accounting for sales tax.
I did my tour of duty in the toy department. Be ready for the bloom to come off that rose right quick. You're coming into the Christmas season. Be ready for hordes of people who are extremely tired and stressed out, who have no idea what help they need from you, but want that help RIGHT NOW. Be ready for people who don't know what they want, but will raise hell if you don't have it. Be ready for unescorted children, well behaved and ill-behaved, making a mess, and in some cases ruining your stock (at which point their parents will attempt to take no responsibility). Be ready for sore feet, a sore back, to be hungry and tired and fed up. But you're still going to have to keep that in check and be patient, pleasant, and helpful to your customers. I guess at the end of the day you're helping make kids happy, and you ARE getting paid, but don't expect a bed of roses from an entry level retail job. When it goes well, it CAN be fun as hell though.
You're going to enjoy working on Black Friday Nothing like being around a bunch of nasty, entitled customers, all behaving like animals.
I've been at Toys R Us for over three years now. I'm the Boys/Girls department supervisor...I've seen things and done things that no one should have to....but do they give me a medal?!?!?
Hahahaha guess who just finished their first day. Dear god, if I wasn't strapped for cash, I'd be done. But also......toys........./is conflicted
Yup. I had to come in at 4AM the morning of Black Friday. We had 3 registers in the video game section and I believe that was the only time I ever saw all of them in operation at once. Even with the 3 of us we still had a line that curved around out of the section, but I'd rather be in there than at the regular registers. Black Friday is definitely stressful for the managers, though; my assistant manager started yelling at a customer during the whole mess. I honestly thought a fight might break out. No medals, but if you're lucky you might get a nickel raise. Seriously, that was my raise after my first year. I was only there one more month after that.
I had a woman ask me the other day, in the infant section, where the toy section was. Now, even ignoring for the moment the giant-ass signs hanging from the ceiling that denote the departments (guess which one was clearly visible from where we were standing), the toy aisle was literally right behind her in full view with several recognizable product endcaps. I can only assume it's going to get much worse the closer to Black Friday we get. I'm going to assume your pay is both hourly and around minimum wage, given it's the seasonal hire period time of year. And if you're nearing your breaking point now then you really need to prepare for the hell just around the corner. Yes, you work in a toy shop...but it's still a shop. And the allure of being around so many desirable things will wear off because you see them every time you are on the clock, too. Focus more on being the best employee you can be and not about the benefits of buying plastic playthings meant for children. A fucking nickel? They had to be trying to get you to quit with an insult like that.
