assistant buyer

sales assistant

merchandiser

engineering team leader

team leader

Mountain Warehouse

I Worked for Mountain Warehouse for 7 months and left due to relocation. Here are some things that desperately need to change, from the perspective of a Supervisor. 

- Last minute changes from upper management. Things like heavy price changes or stock takes etc would be sprung on us at last minute, meaning the in-store team including the store manager would be stressed and have to constantly change rotas. They expect you to be 100% avaliable and basically have no life outside working to fill in when more staff were needed to deal with the tasks they would set us. 
- Hour allowances for stores were incredibly low. This along with high tasking and sale expectations created a tense workplace. In my store, there wasn't enough hours to have more than 2 employees in on a day for a period of time. Still, they expected us to be able to complete all tasks set as well as spend enough time with customers to get high sales. My store manager would be working overtime every single week and wasn't able to take TOIL. We had some temporary members of staff in the summer to deal with the summer holiday rush, however our hour allowance was taken down at last minute, they had to leave 2 weeks before their contract ended and a week after we had been told about the hours coming down. 
- There is a huge issue with under-staffing. We had a member of staff leave and for about a month there was only 3 members of staff total in our store. This meant that I was working 40 hours on a 20 hour contact and my 17 y/o coworker was working 40 from an 8 hour contract. We had no help at all from the Area Manager at this time. A store close to us had an employee go out on long-term sickness, and the only other employee left. This meant the manager was running the store by himself, with no staff. The manager from my store had told the Area Manager weeks before this happened that this store was understaffed, and had suggested that some of the extra staff that we had in the store at that time went over to that store. This was not implemented until a week came about where the store was in desperate need of cover due to the manager having personal responsibilities. This meant rather extreme last minute rota changes for us. 
- Different treatment for members of staff regarding illness and absence. This is personal experience, I was absent for 3 days (non consecutive) because of a serious medical issue which had me hospitalised for one of those three days. I understand that in any company there is expectations for attendance, but when I was pulled into a meeting with the Store Manager and Area Manager, I had brought my papers from the hospital, but they weren't looked at once by the Area Manager. Instead I was told "It has an affect on the whole team","You let people down" and finally, "Is it because you're going out the night before?" (I hadn't been out on any of the nights before I was off ill, and there was no reason for my Area Manager to think that other than the fact that I am a Teenage girl.). There was no empathy or asking if I was okay in that meeting. The only person that seemed concerned for my health was the Store Manager. 
Now you can imagine my surprise when we had a problematic member of staff that was absent for around 3 quarters of the 3 weeks I worked with him for, and was never pulled into a meeting! Only in-store casual chats with the Store Manager. The Store Manager did voice her concerns to the Area Manager but was ignored or shrugged off. All I can say is if you are a young woman with a chronic illness - do not apply to this job. 
- Extreme and sudden price changes. I understand that we have to come in and out of sales, but when one week there would be a hoodie for £12.99 and the next week it goes up to £59.99 and then upper management asks you why sales are low? It seems like bad business. The people in head office that set the prices weren't the ones that would have to deal with abuse from difficult customers due to prices, it was us. 
My final opinion on this company is that it is completely unorganised and higher management is so detatched from in-store workers that it makes it incredibly hard to work there. I have the highest amount of respect for my manager because of the amount of stress she was put through due to careless decisions made by higher management was enough to make anyone quit. 

I took this job on thinking I would simply just be selling clothing to the public and then doing paperwork after closing hours. But I have found there is a lot more to it then that and some shifts have really pushed by abilities and taught me a lot about the skills I have already required.
In my current position, working as part of the management team, I have to work towards achieving daily targets set by the Head Office. Each week they send us a store budget that they expect the store to achieve, based on the previous year's sales figures. This I break down into achievable figures throughout the week. I judge this on my own knowledge of local events, when the market is in town, if the store is planning a special promotion to attract new customers, the weather forecast for the week and how the store has performed recently on a daily basis. I notify each staff member of this target at the beginning of their shift, so they know what we have to work towards. 
Each day I also have to motivate the staff to obtain, as a team, a certain level of Items Per Customer. This can be done by link selling items, so if a customer is looking at waterproof jackets I would suggest looking at the waterproof trousers or Proofer to maintain the quality of the garment, something that is suitable for the customer and also helps us increase out sales figures.
Another area I have to work towards is an Average Transactional Value for every customer. This I do by showing them a few alternatives, ranging from the basic to the best and then explaining why the top range product would be best suited for their requirements.
Finally I have to sell a certain percentage of Add Ons- items which are discounted with any purchase and appropriate to the customers needs. As a Supervisor, throughout the day I will check to see how each staff member is doing and, if necessary, encourage them in certain aspects of their sales techniques or change their function within the team so that they can concentrate on something that is achievable in the short term to motivate them again.

I found the hardest part of my job was at the very beginning of the job. It was a new store and aside from the other members of the management we were all new to the job and got some very basic on the job training. I struggle to take command of situations as my experience was pretty limited at the time and so to get over this I took the training manuals home with me to research in my own time, asked if I could work at another store, for free, to learn more about what is expected of myself in the job and at every opportunity I could I asked the managers questions regarding my role. Whenever possible I tried to work closely with a member of staff who I thought was a positive influence on my role and so I learnt a lot from them which quickly built my confidence up.
My biggest challenge now is adjusting my management style to include the new members of staff we have taken on, as they all have varying degrees of retail knowledge and so they require differing levels of support, which affects my day to day running of the store. At first I struggled with this, as we had retained the same work force for over a year and so I had gotten used to assigning jobs to people I could trust in that position. But through talking to each new staff member individually throughout the day and during different tasks I have begun to learn a lot more about them and how they best work, enabling me to choose roles that suit them best. This change in the team is something I will be able to react to quicker in the future.

A very competitive company with plenty to do but as manager, the burden and stress you have to endure is beyond ridiculous. I had many successful years in sales until the economy died down and customers just didn't want to spend, making it difficult and distressing to achieve like for like sales. It felt like a crime if you missed targets or KPIs (btw, KPIs here are the biggest joke and choice of add ons given to sell you'd be able to buy in your local pound shop). Once your store is flagged as below sales expectations, despite the successful years, the company and the area manager turn on you just like that. Poison. You can try and try and TRY but they won't care as they just want results viewable in black and white to see on their little toy tablets. AMs make your life miserable and mentally depress your entire existence. The amount of things the company expect you to do is beyond ridiculous and even then, they're cutting staff hours so you can't win. It was obvious my area manager operated on favouritism and definitely favoured female managers as they'd get away with so much, even for poor store and stockroom standard or sales targets. It's quite sad and disgusting. There were many stores on my patch who would quite happily gossip behind other store managers back rather than confronting any actual issues but most of this gossip was just sad and petty as these gossipers "think they can do better". This company has very poor structure as promotions can change last minute and you have to dress your windows over and over again just in 1 day amongst processing your own delivery 2-3 times a week and up to 50 deep filled boxes each delivery. Staffing is always low so they make an excuse that you're responsible regardless of the outcome so you end up either starting stupidly early or finishing stupidly late and obviously, not getting paid for the extra nor a simple thank you. No matter how many hours you put in, you never get the recognition. All they want is results, which is fine, but at least treat your employees like humans. You're no better. They expect blood from you without so much of a thank you. My AM was just a grumpy man who seemed to have lost interest in his role a few months before to Corona kicked in. He'd be more interested in just sitting out back on his laptop and phone rather than interact with my team, myself or even a customer unless it was something negative, he'd show his face. I'd say if you have no morals or work ethic and love to be mentally abused, then Mountain Warehouse is the place for you. If you are human, have a heart and are happy, then I'd stay well clear of this company. Believe me. Also, the fact that the CEO Mark Neale, went on live radio and told the entire nation there would be up to 2000 redundancies within the company before even informing the employees first themselves. What a coward. That was the final straw for me.

Your trained in tills and told how to approach someone and how to do half price add ons. Shown how to lock up a few times then left to your own devices. I didn't feel confident at all. Everything I tried to do was wrong , asking for help was also wrong. I was on delivery for the first few weeks but usually delivery meant you unpack from boxes( remove packaging) , hang it then take it out to sales floor staff to cube and distribute/place. Sales floor staff refused to help me so I did 4 jobs at once.If anyone else did delivery they got help. If there was a cash error or something didn't add up it was basically sort it out by replacing money yourself or fill out a form as to why its missing. It was advised that people that work there replace the money that goes missing to save on paperwork.I was never shown how to investigate if money or something doesn't add up. I saw the training booklet once when i started my first day we never touched it after that even though I was there for a year. So you get taught the basics and your supposed to teach yourself the rest. I had never dressed mannequins or moved shop displays around. I was left alone on several occasions , thefts happend I wasn't asked if I was okay. No CCTV in any mountain warehouse. Which meant I was alone to cover lunches alone a lot. You had to serve customers , sell shoes / assist customers and refill / restock the floor alone. I was trained as a Supervisor on the basics as stated above. When I asked for more training or further questions I never received help I was frowned at or disciplined for not being shown. They took me on part time and wrote me down for triple my hours a week without asking. Managers took longer breaks and left everyone else to do jobs that needed doing whilst they made coffee and sold stock. If anything went wrong it was our fault even if we weren't there. Got asked to do a job I had never done before no explanation just told to do it. I made over 2,000 that day and didn't have time to do the job asked of me and I was shouted at and belittled. I should know how to do it and have common sense when no one showed me? Very clique based and two faced. Wouldn't recommend. Forget it if you have health issues its deemed as unacceptable and you shouldn't take time off even if you have a bug if you phone in sick your expected to go in until they find cover which goes against their polices. Most enjoyable part was going home or having a day off.

Ive been with the Mountain Warehouse for nearly 5 years now. I started as a Sales Assistant and have progressed to Assistant Manager within 3 years. Many of the old reviews I've seen don't reflect the majority of stores as the company has improved immensely over the last few years. The team dynamic was challenging when i first joined this store but over the last few years has changed for the better, helping to make positive improvements and move the store in the right direction. 

The stores can be very busy at times but with the right team it's always a good fun place to work. Each day is different and sometimes more challenging then others i.e last minute heavy task loads from head office given at short notice, it helps to have valued team members that muck in and work together. 

The training has vastly improved and you get to develop your knowledge of the company, how it runs and about the products you sell. It is very KPI orientated here so you need to have strong selling skills with confidence. If you want to progress there are always opportunities within the company to develop into better roles as well as learn new skills within the role your in to improve yourself. 

Mountain Warehouse are a company making changes/improving for the better i.e opening new stores, refitting older stores, even making environmental changes to the products we sell eg. going organic and recyclable. Generally day to day work has improved the last few years with new tools and tech introduced to lessen the timescale on certain tasks and for staff to be more productive and more pro-active; as well as upgraded online training, HHT scanners and digitised paperwork to make workloads easier. 

You have to be strong minded, multi task within your role and bring a strong work ethic to the team when you come to mountain warehouse. With a good team behind you its a great place in moving forward.

The team I worked with was very fun and made the day go faster, and the store itself was amazing. The Manager was very knowledgeable, and helped all the staff in anyway they could. They were asked many questions throughout the day, and always answered enthusiastically and made sure the employee fully understood the answer. The Manager also included all staff members in any decision they made, as they believed all staff should be included, as all opinions mattered.   

But the work load was unbelievably massive! HUGE deliveries and no stock area to actually work the delivery, or to store it. The hours given to the store was extremely low, and with the work load given this made everything 10x harder. Shop moves happened 4 times a year, they changed every season, and were only given a short time scale to actually move the WHOLE store around. We were not aloud to do this move while the store was open, so it had to be done when closed. NO extra hours provided for this, so most moves were only carried out by management on salary with NO extra pay, and in some cases that meant staying till late i.e 9/10pm, when the store closed at 6pm. 
KPIs are a big thing, and if you were not hitting the targets then you were questioned constantly on why, with no valid reason being excepted. If sale assistants do not hit their targets as well, management as expected to write them up and retrain them. This had to be done even if they were normally exceptional on KPIs and were just having a bad week, which did happen. 
If we do not hit sale targets, we were made to feel like we were not doing enough, when in some cases the foot fall just wasn't there at all, but this not an acceptable reason. 
There was also no help from others stores if were out of the way. the store I worked in was classed as out of the way. The nearest store to us was 150 miles away, and we were only aloud to asked this store for help. If they could not help then we had to work it out for ourselves. 

I worked there in 2023. Best and most enjoyable was the 50% staff discount (even on sale items) and you get provided with uniform - even footwear. However, management was poor - no proper organisation, and run in a chaotic manner. Management frequently having cigarette breaks and leaving store without - or with insufficient staff. Stock room very untidy, no system in place and you couldn't find what you were looking for. The store had stock that was hanging way too high up, you couldn't see what there was, and certainly couldn't reach it unless you used some really tall ladders. There was always too much stock out on a rail, so much so it looked really untidy. I'd been into other stores, and they weren't like that. On a daily basis, we had to ask every customer for their email address, and encourage them to buy 'add ons'. Weekly there was price changes. One week it was Buy One Get One Free, the following week it could be 3 for 2, then the following week - back to Buy One Get One Free - or 'sale'. It confused customers and staff, and to be honest - it was a waste of time, effort and paper. We spent more time putting stickers on, stickers off then stickers on again - when we could have been attending to customers and getting sales. Deliveries were mismanaged, no organised system, staff had boxes strewn all over the shop floor so customers were stepping amongst boxes (nobody bothered about health & safety) and staff grumbled that customers were 'in the way'.  However, the sales staff I worked with were all nice people. Apparently the store struggled to get staff, and when they did - they didn't stay long. I was told many didn't see eye to eye with the management. What I learned when I worked there? I learned you often got blamed for things you weren't responsible for, you didn't get full or proper training when you started and you dreaded going into work every day. No, I wouldn't recommend working at that store, it's the worst place I've ever worked. It could be a better place to work - but needs a good shake up.

Depending on what store you work In will depend a lot on your experience with this company however even if you get a good manager there is no getting away from the dire head office organisation. Delivery days become so stressful because stock is delivered randomly chucked in dirrerent boxes, they have no idea how much stock a store can hold which usually results in extreme overstock issues, our stock room was so full we had to use the fitting rooms to pile excess stock which is so unprofessional not to mention a blatant health and safety risk.
Contrast pressure and threats of dismissal if you fail to harass customers for email addresses and sell “add odds” i.e extra tat masquerading as half price, and not even a small bonus for achieving these targets.
Due to the pretence that everyone is “half price” this results in constant price changes, again completely disorganised same item In different colours having multiple prices which really confuses and at times causes arguments and bad feeling with customers. Same items changing price one week then go up again the following week, utter waste of time which could be used providing good customer service.
For a company promoting the outdoor lifestyle their practice or wrapping each delivery item in sometimes multiple layers of plastic is utterly inexcusable.
Store managers are poorly trained and don’t understand simple management concepts such as of working out statutory holiday entitlement, meaning the company is breaking the law by not giving staff time off they are entitled to - whether you work a bank holiday or not you are entitled to 28days holiday (pro rate) a year but this is simply not happening.
Pay is appalling and the minimum they can get away with on all levels. Supervisions pay is only 40p above minimum wage and not worth the extra stress. 
The only good thing coming to work was the friendly colleagues.

I worked at Mountain Warehouse for 2 months on a temporary seasonal contract over the Christmas period. A typical day included all the tasks the permanent members of staff didn't want to do, such as un-boxing deliveries and replenishing the shelves, ensuring the shop floor was clean and tidy, clearing out the stock room, and only very, very occasionally actually operating the till and interacting with the customers. Given that the company sells very specialist products, I thought I would be given some product training so I would be able to help customers more, but I was given maybe a few minutes of it, no joke, and so whenever a customer approached me, I wasn't able to help them out at all, as I had no idea how to answer any of their queries. My manager was very nice, and was always able to help me out if I needed assistance, as did my co-workers. Overall, I can't say I particularly enjoyed working there, just because of the lack of training I received and the fact that I was given such tedious activities to perform each day and couldn't interact with the customers due to my complete lack of the knowledge of the products. After leaving I noticed the shop were looking to recruit a part-time sales assistant on a permanent contract, however, I wasn't contacted regarding this, nor were any of the other temporary workers, so I would assume the company were looking for someone with more experience. In terms of pay it was very low, a minimum wage of £5.30, which given the fact that I was offered a very small amount of hours, didn't amount to much in the end. I was also only paid around 3/4 of the full amount at first, and had to wait longer to receive the rest. I would recommend to anyone who is looking to work for Mountain Warehouse to really research the company and their products to ensure it's right for them.

Only paid minimum wage for sales assistants and only around 40p an hour more for Supervisors. Management get paid depending on which store they work at and is far too low compared to other companies. Working 40 hours as a supervisor doesn’t seem to pay much less than a 40 hour Assistant Manager role in some stores.
The training process is almost non-existent, simply given a bunch of stuff to read and learn and then just have to get on with the job.
Everything is extremely disorganised, stock levels all over the place, deliveries unorganised with items just thrown into boxes in no particular order and too much emphasis on getting KPIs (asking for emails from customers and having to sell items on offer round to till to hit targets) means not having much time to help customers with what they need. 
Management get lovely bonuses for the hard work of the staff but the staff just get more hard work piled on.
Very little support is given by store management or area management for staff members and they seem more concerned with hitting the targets so they get their bonus.
The highest people in the company, including the owner, do visit stores, which is a refreshing change. However, this just puts more pressure on staff to keep busy, make the store perfect, plaster on a smile and just kiss their butts during the visit.
I would only recommend working at this company as a stepping stone. If you have no job experience then it’s worth working ther for that or if you’re trying to work your way up in retail then getting a management role can help you move onto bigger and better companies, which is probably why the staff turnover is quite high. Otherwise, I would advise looking elsewhere unless you’re desperate.

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