Vantaggi
As long as you work hard you never have to worry about job security. Any hard worker is valued. The company does make efforts to figure out if employees are satisfied- there is an anonymous survey that everyone has to take twice a year. There is also a hotline to call if you feel unsafe telling management about a problem you have.
Svantaggi
It is very, very dependent on what store you work in and who your management is. I worked at three different stores and had wildly different experiences. My first store was horribly run, I was treated terribly and got only 4 hours a week. (This store has since had a management overhaul- every manager I knew has been fired.) The second store I worked at was amazing because my head manager was such a great guy. Loved working there. It tends to be high turnover- typical for retail- so you start loving managers and they leave. It is difficult to raise higher than a sales associate. They do NOT want to hire people full time and pay benefits, so they avoid it at all costs. They won't generally promote anyone from associate to manager. They prefer to hire outside the company rather than take a great associate and make them a manager. This is a huge failing of theirs, and they lose great employees doing this. Anyone worthwhile who finds they cannot advance leaves for better things.