Working at Aaron Bros. — Reviews by Employees

I was first hired as an ASM in a store that was 18% down for the year. There were many times for the next 6 months that I worked myself to death to meet goal. Our team was a hodgepodge of employees with no direction or support. They had seen managers come and go. There were several issues but I was hired to fix the store. We ended the year 9% in the hole. After 6 months I was promoted to GM. I loved my crew warts and all but by working hard and listening I was able to turn the crew around. I had the most loyal and dependable crew ever. My biggest gripe was with the upper management partly due to the unrealistic goals/sales/expectations that were placed on us.

Goals. I made them. We won or placed in every contest. Ended up 3rd in company. I had no life but at AB.The style of AB is so different that finding and training staff poses several challenges. AB sells picture frames, custom framing, and art supplies. WHAT type of employee do you want to hire? I'll let you in on a secret: If you hire the art type you will get great designs, knowledgeable about art, etc. BUT YOU WILL GET POOR SALESMAN. THESE TYPES HAVE THEIR STRENGTHS BUT YOU MUST ALSO HIRE RIGHT BRAINED INDIVIDUALS TOO. I was always pushed to hire the art type because they were good at art.

Sales. Time to set up was the hardest! We would get the sale set, changes would be made, we were to set up after close before store opened. Finally get set up and the fax machine would spit out more changes or we wouldn't have the product. The sale setups were unsafe or not clearly marked. Sale POGs were useless.

Expectations. I was led to believe that if we met our goals there was little chance of closing the stores. Michael's had a changeover many times and we were not given all of the information. Our store was 3rd in the company and our sister stores in the top 20 were closed. Shipping was too expensive.

When trying to get information from corporate, you would get more help from a cat. I received closing store papers less than a week before close. I had to fight for every nickel of our severance pay over the course of months. I had to practically harass Michaels DMs to pick up the transfers for employees. Michaels and Aaron Brothers corporate didn't appear to talk to each other. We were left stranded and were forgotten by the red tape between them.

In short, I loved my store, my crew, customers, and my job. I grew tired of the lack of communication from corporate and the misinformation when they did talk to us. Our DM was not helpful just spouted propaganda from corporate instead of getting us answers, supplies, assistance, support, etc.

During my time w/ AB I have had 5 DM's over 2 1/2 years. There has been constant turnover at the corporate level They talk about career growth but there is no follow thru. GM's are expected to run a big building (with a production area ie frame shop) on a two person coverage. Annual reviews are a joke, supervisors go out of there way to find reasons to lower review ratings to lower increase from 3% to 1%. Talking to HR is like knocking your head against the wall, all she does is talk down to you, she has know idea what the "field" people do. The whole corporate office treats the "field" people like they are idiots and it is there fault sales have been so bad for the last few months.

I worked for his company for five years and tried and tried to make it through everyday. I loved the customers and the framing but the coworkers and management were never good, and trust me I saw a lot of people come and go. They pressure you with sales and yell at you when you don't meet them. They are a very new and greedy company. They hire on people who don't know anything about art or framing and except management to do all the work. There ruck comes in the middle of the night and they except you to work the next day. Even though I did for the most part like working there because of he customers and working around art I don't recommend working here. It's very high pressured and not a secure job what so ever. It's a lot of he said she said which I personally hate. Try and find an independent frame shop before thinking about working here.