Vantaggi
You get to somewhat run a store, somewhat on your own. Not like you used to though. Relationships with your employees; seeing them work hard for minimal reward and salary, knowing they'll probably be gone in a year. The relationships are good nonetheless.
Svantaggi
Ever notice the great reviews (4.0+) are from "anonymous"? There's good reason why, and that reason is called "SW Human Resources Damage Control". No store manager or store employee, and most likely no sales rep, would rate this company a 4.0 + at this time. I've been around a long time and this is the worst it's been. This company is ruled by district managers who actually develop opinions on their managers and store staff based on RUMOR and GOSSIP! You won't know about it until your appraisal but it's all true. There's also no loyalty in this company. Do a great deed for your store - like use your own vehicle to make a delivery to a contractor who forgot to order that one extra gallon of paint, or better yet the 20 extra gallons you need to now cram into your little car....why bother because it'll go totally unnoticed. Or how about work all weekend on a sale that you devised....why bother because if you don't hit or exceed budget, you are still a failure. And for most stores, an extra $1500 on the weekend will do little more than make your job harder next year during the same weekend when your district manager will pull out a report and wonder why you didn't hit last year's numbers. There has been a great detachment between the stores and upper management, and it's causing a major rift at the store level. Corporate level management needs to take a close look (like Undercover Boss Style) and see what's really going on where the metal hits the meat -- in other words, at the stores. Because things are bad, and the core is rotting away while the window dressing set-up by district management continues to veil the decay. But eventually the rot will rise to the surface and by then it'll be too late.