Vantaggi
They'll hire anyone (due to their high turnover) if you need some resume-filler, and pre-employment-screening/background checks are minimal, so if you want a job and drug tests are a problem, this is the job for you. Hours are pretty flexible - if you're unable to make a scheduled day, and you tell them promptly, they're good about working with your schedule, which is somewhat rare in an employer.
Svantaggi
Everything else. Even if you desperately need a job, this still doesn't serve the purpose. Even if you give them near-complete availability, you can easily end up with only 10-20 hours/week. The worst aspect is the COMMUTE COSTS - you eat everything - time, gas, tolls - out of pocket. Here is a typical day at RGIS: store is 30 miles (say 45 min) away - so 1.5 hours commuting and 60 miles total (which will cost you about $12 in gas/wear&tear). WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU is that the JOBS ONLY LAST 3-5 HOURS for that drive. So you'll get 4 hours' pay (for $36), and $7 goes to taxes, less $12 for the drive back and forth - means you get about $17 net pay for the day. But the 4 hour job takes you 5.5 hours with the long drive - so it's $17/5.5 hours - meaning your effective wage for the day is about $3/hour. Other thoughts - they relentlessly push "actions per hour" (getting the job done quickly), with the motivation of getting you to clock out as quickly as possible (which is the opposite of what you want, since you're hourly). In that, you're told to concentrate and eliminate distractions, and you get scolded even for making small chat with your co-workers. Since you don't get breaks on short jobs (ie, almost all of them), you don't really get to meet with or talk to any of your co-workers. The job is extremely one-dimensional. All you do is scan stuff and get sent home when the store is done. I was really hoping to get some experience learning how the stores place/stock their items or how they manage their inventory or how often they take it and why, but you get no exposure to that - you get your machine, scan your areas, and get sent home. You don't get benefits for 90 days. After that, they're so minimal it's not even really worth it - you can't afford medical care on this wage anyway. Overall, this job is as close to a scam as you can get without selling knives or insurance. During the scant few conversations co-workers have with each other, it's usually about them searching for better jobs. The "Blackstone Marketplace" (employee discount program) is a farce. They advertise that you can "stretch your paycheck" and "employees shouldn't have to pay retail" - but neither is the case. You'll see the Blackstone ad claim "20% off Nordstram for all Blackstone employees", but you open the newspaper, and the same store is having the same 20% off sale to everyone. As you move up the company ladder, you get more of the same treatment. Travel arrangements are busy/packed and your accommodations are only the cheapest. Typical travel day for middle management: Work a store from 6am to 10am, travel during the afternoon, do an in-store training session from 7pm-10pm in another location, spend part of a night at a cheap motel, do another store in the same manner from 6am-10am, fly home, then do another store that same night... even as you move up, still an awful schedule and an undesirable place to work. When I started, I was really excited to get into retail management, learn more about stocking and the supply chain, and to follow career opportunities all the way up. I was crestfallen when I found out the reality: the jobs aren't any better as you move up, typical pay is between $3-4/hour, and the work is unfulfilling.