Pros
If you're looking for a lot of hours, Academy will sure give you them! You will bank on overtime!
Cons
Benefits were cut after the buyout: I no longer receive tuition reimbursement. Waiting with bated breath for them to cut 401k matching and paid time off. Sorely understaffed. When I started, I'd often only get around 24-32 hours per week, which was fine with me, and we'd leave the store at a decent hour. Nowadays, despite much a much higher sales volume, our staff has been cut, and as a PART-TIME ASSOCIATE I had to practically fight to not be scheduled for 42 hours one week. This does not account for the fact that we never leave before midnight, despite being scheduled to leave at eleven. Full-time employees are now beginning to be scheduled six days per week. They'll schedule you for what should be full-time hours as a part-time employee without giving you the full time benefits. Employees will often be scheduled for early morning shifts (beginning at 5 am) after closing shifts (where they often don't leave before midnight). I have no idea why this is legal, but at the very least it is grossly unethical and negligent to make employees drive to work after having less than 4 hours of sleep. Schedules will be changed without notice. I have no idea if this is common in the retail world, but it wasn't unusual for the schedule to change the day before your shift without notification. Sometimes people would miss a day without being aware of it, sometimes they'd show up to work for nothing. I really miss the small perqs, like when we'd all get free drinks after an unusually busy day. Sure, it seems small, but the small (cheap) perqs like that really made us feel valued. I've been here for over two years. It was wonderful working for an employer that genuinely valued its employees, but it feels like those days are over. KKR has certainly saved this company.