STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Kitty · Hermes

Question for those of you in retail!

HeatherLynn · Gucci

I don't know anything about this field, but I looked it up on salary.com and in San Fran (I believe that is where you are at) a retail assistant manager on average would make $45,000. I would assume an upscale boutique would be higher (probably in the 75 percentile and higher).

Retail Store Manager Assistant

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Location: San Francisco, CA 94159

10th

25th

75th

90th

$29,308	$36,406	$50,028	$55,331

HR Reported data as of April 2007			Methodology

Percentile

10th

25th

75th

90th

San Francisco, CA 94159

$29,308

$36,406

$50,028

$55,331

kenzie · Chanel

I used to work in retail management. Is the boutique a one-of-a-kind place or an upscale chain store found in a mall? That could make a difference? I would say an assistant at a chain store in a mall would make around $45,000-$55,000. But a boutique assistant manager might make less, just because it's not a large corporate chain.

-- Edited by kenzie at 06:41, 2007-04-30

Farrah · Marc Jacobs

FYI, one of my close friends was an Assistant Manager at Nordstrom for 3 years. She only made $45K when she left.

brazilian · Dooney & Bourke

Farrah wrote:

FYI, one of my close friends was an Assistant Manager at Nordstrom for 3 years. She only made $45K when she left.

Man, you would think Nordstroms would pay more. Especially for being there for a while.

Im assuming your interested in a position Kitty. Do you want to start there and then move up to manager, or another position besides management? If you want to stay in management, they might pay more if you have a degree in business management or something.

Kitty · Hermes

brazilian wrote:

Farrah wrote:

FYI, one of my close friends was an Assistant Manager at Nordstrom for 3 years. She only made $45K when she left.

Man, you would think Nordstroms would pay more. Especially for being there for a while.

Im assuming your interested in a position Kitty. Do you want to start there and then move up to manager, or another position besides management? If you want to stay in management, they might pay more if you have a degree in business management or something.

I don't have a degree in business management, but I have 4 years of marketing/business experience.

I'm just kind of thinking about possibilities...and just kinda exploring what's out there. I HATE sitting at a desk all day...so, i'm trying to find a non-desk job.

The job I saw online was for an assistant manager at a boutique and they also do personal shopping and help style their clients. I was thinking it could be fun. I really want to do something that I'm more interested in and where I"m not infront of a computer for 8 hours a day.

brazilian · Dooney & Bourke

Oooo. That sounds great. I would love to be a personal shopper/stylist.

I have always had the belief that you should do what you love, even if it means a smaller paycheck.

AllieGurl · Marc Jacobs

In san fran I would say an assistant manger would probably earn 40 - 45k a year. If the boutique is HIGHLY profitable ( does more than 1 million a year in sales ) I would say the job would pay 55k a year, with room for growth.

The job may not pay though based on just a base salary. It may end up being a flat base (like 20k a year ) with a 10% comission rate . Or something along those lines. If it is a busy boutique that does high volume , I personaly would want the commision plus base. You could make alot more money that way , especially as you build clientele.

Chain stores tend to pay ALOT less, (ex: assistant at nordies makes a flat $1200 a month plus comission, Victorias secret makes a flat 28k a year, Express assistant store manager makes 31k a year) just to give you an idea.

Kitty · Hermes

AllieGurl wrote:

In san fran I would say an assistant manger would probably earn 40 - 45k a year. If the boutique is HIGHLY profitable ( does more than 1 million a year in sales ) I would say the job would pay 55k a year, with room for growth.

The job may not pay though based on just a base salary. It may end up being a flat base (like 20k a year ) with a 10% comission rate . Or something along those lines. If it is a busy boutique that does high volume , I personaly would want the commision plus base. You could make alot more money that way , especially as you build clientele.

Chain stores tend to pay ALOT less, (ex: assistant at nordies makes a flat $1200 a month plus comission, Victorias secret makes a flat 28k a year, Express assistant store manager makes 31k a year) just to give you an idea.

Thanks! I was hoping you would respond. I'm not sure how busy this boutique is. I've only been a few times and I don't really recall how crowded it was. I'm assuming the store is doing pretty well because she just opened a new location last year. I definitely will have to ask about all these things.

AllieGurl · Marc Jacobs

Kitty wrote:

AllieGurl wrote:

In san fran I would say an assistant manger would probably earn 40 - 45k a year. If the boutique is HIGHLY profitable ( does more than 1 million a year in sales ) I would say the job would pay 55k a year, with room for growth.

The job may not pay though based on just a base salary. It may end up being a flat base (like 20k a year ) with a 10% comission rate . Or something along those lines. If it is a busy boutique that does high volume , I personaly would want the commision plus base. You could make alot more money that way , especially as you build clientele.

Chain stores tend to pay ALOT less, (ex: assistant at nordies makes a flat $1200 a month plus comission, Victorias secret makes a flat 28k a year, Express assistant store manager makes 31k a year) just to give you an idea.

Thanks! I was hoping you would respond. I'm not sure how busy this boutique is. I've only been a few times and I don't really recall how crowded it was. I'm assuming the store is doing pretty well because she just opened a new location last year. I definitely will have to ask about all these things.

If she is opening multiple locations in a city where rent is high (san fran) then yes the store is doing very well.

I would personally ask for a base + comission rate. For several reasons the employer should be on board with this.
1. She knows you will work harder to sell more if you get a portion of the sales. 2. Less out of pocket salary for just "being" at work.

So example:
Flat 45k a year. = $1875 BEFORE taxes 2x a month. Or $1312.50 after taxes. Now , as a flat salary you wont get overtime. So on weeks when your working alot, you could end up making as little as $15 an hour.

Ok, now instead take base + commision. 25k a year. = $1041 before taxes. (sound scary right) But if the store is doing at least 50k a month in sales (which I would assume she is) and you sell 20k (easy if your there full time) of that a month, that is an extra $2,000 a month on top of your base. So you end up making almost an extra $500 a month by doing a lower base + commission.
- If you are a strong sales person and you sell 40k a month , now your making almost 6k a month .

Let me know how it goes!