Assistant Store Manager - Portland Street Stores (Downtown & Hawthorne)

Job Description

Job Description

Tender Loving Empire operates 7 brick-and-mortar stores in the greater Portland area + online, curating a collection of goods and music from hundreds of independent makers for people who want to support their creative community, surround themselves with beauty, and live wholehearted. TLE has been part of the creative community in Portland since 2006 with a simple, three-part mission statement: empower and support creatives, enrich and fulfill employees, and to delight and inspire patrons. We truly believe when you live wholehearted you are an optimist and a do-gooder, a dabbler and a dreamer; you go after your dreams and help others succeed in theirs; you understand that small businesses keep our communities from being boring, homogenous, impersonal, money-over-people type places. Applying to work at Tender Loving Empire is a choice to support hundreds of makers, musicians and small businesses. Together we can make our communities more vibrant, creative, compassionate, and connected.

Job Summary :

The Assistant Manager (ASM) set the tone for the store team and help bring the TLE brand to life for our customers and employees  This leadership role is critical in supporting the execution of the store’s objective to achieve performance goals and drive overall profitability through all aspects of the store, including: customer service, operations, merchandising, training, and talent development.

Schedule: 
This job is for our Hawthorne and Downtown location, 3x a week at one location 2x a week at the other Sun-Thurs. (Fri+Sat off.) 

Primary Role Functions:

• Lead the sales team to exemplary customer service at 
• Ensure store’s profitability is a frontmost priority at all times
• Recruit, hire, and develop talent to drive a culture of excellence 
• Seek opportunities for efficiencies where possible
• Trains and develops the sales team in ways that exemplify the TLE brand

Responsibilities:

• Onboarding New Hires and assist in training of current staff on knowledge gaps
• Dissemination and communication of pertinent updated policies, news, and TLE happenings to their teams during in-store interaction, Slack, touch bases, meetings and otherwise
• Assist Store Manager and be point of contact for Inventory Management and tracking, having grasp of inventory counts and adjustments, negatives, Lightspeed reporting, and how to track all adjustments
• Stay up to date with Slack posts, tagging team accordingly, engaging in positive ways and being active in all applicable channels
• Gathering, documenting, and depositing weekly cash deposits and assisting in resolving any Lightspeed issues encountered at applicable locations
• Assist with staff reviews, adding any info gathered during touch bases and in-store interaction
• Curate and check applicable store notes to keep updated on store specific issues or needs, to add any tasks or reminders, and to ensure everyone is adding applicable info
• In concert with the buying, warehouse, and merchandising associate, work together with all to address courier issues, ensuring quick and accurate distribution of shipments to the sales floor, and merchandising items upholding the TLE operational processes and merchandising standards 
• Assist in cultivating environment of creativity with help in organization and planning of in-store creative events

Customer Experience

• Goes above and beyond to connect and engage with customers and consistently sets the tone of excellent customer service to the team. 
• Shares the TLE story to all customers, actively engaging them in fun ways.  
• Has superior product knowledge that is shared with the staff in fun and creative ways. 
• Helps train staff in ways that embody all the TLE core values and leadership traits.
• Delegates projects and tasks in an effective manner making sure the priority is always on our customers first. 
• Remains calm and stable in challenging situations, able to take responsibility to best support the team and our customers. 
• Trains team on Loss Prevention techniques, store blind spots, how to use Nest during busy times. 
• Makes sure all customer service situations are handled in a timely and professional manner. 
• Leads by example in creating customer profiles to ensure repeat business.  

Operations

• Uses time management skills to work quickly and efficiently.  
• Ensures stores open/close keeping in mind flow of traffic and sales goals for the day. 
• Encourages detail oriented and focused performance from their team.
• Makes sure the store is open and closed at scheduled times, ensuring all tasks and day to day operations are completed and communicated properly. 
• Manages all cash handling/payment processing without error, minimizing profit loss, correctly documenting any errors, contacting the needed people (Lightspeed) to correct any discrepancies in paperwork.  
• Helps enforce company standards for team in regards to cash handling, merchandising, and our outstanding customer service expectations. 
• Partners with store merchandising associate to ensure standards are being met. 
• Consistently maintains and modifies merchandising based on skill and performance level.
• Helps coach team with merchandising basics. 
• Completes change order and deposits on a weekly basis for their location. 

Leadership + Talent Development

• Has a team-minded mentality throughout the day and with all interactions
• Models the TLE leadership traits by being benevolent, intuitive, steady, being fearless, truthful and celebrating all the teams successes
• Looks for fun and creative ways to encourage and inspire your team
• Routinely communicates in an open way the team, keeping staff and management informed of any relevant TLE news
• Ensures staff is engaged and participates in promotions
• Is an effective and constructive communicator 
• Proactively addresses and relays any issues, concerns, or ideas from the team to the GM
• Conducts staff reviews and coaches team members regularly
• Projects professionalism and encourages the team to do so as well
• Stays calm and helps diffuse any tricky situations that may arise, using solution based methods

Sales and Financial Performance

• Keeps the team motivated to increase sales with focus on relevant KPIs.
• Has an eye on slower moving product lines and collaborates with the merchandising associate and buying team to help increase/maintain profits in departments. 
• Keeps up with damages and negatives to ensure all inventory counts are accurate. 
• Ensures the stockrooms are clean, organized, and all product is represented on the sales floor. 
• Works with port CRDC to ensure stock is making it into stockrooms.  
• Offers incentives and promotions for full staff participation in meeting sales goals.  
• Does year to date comparisons on store departments to compare against current numbers and spot any departments that could use an extra boost in product, or an extra push from sales floor team.  
• Keeps up with teams KPI’s to further help develop the team.   
• Runs and analyzes reports on store performance to help provide insight to store operations and the buying team.
• Communicates regularly with buyers to ensure stock levels and department profitability is up over last year.  Helps buying team find potential growth opportunities in departments based on prior years performance and stock levels.  
• Helps run store inventory annually securing accurate reporting. 

Employee Conduct

• Embodies all of the TLE core values 
• Maintains a strict no drugs/alcohol policy at work
• Makes sure internet usage is for store purposes only
• Keeps all talks with team confidential, only talking to the Store Manager to address issues that may affect the team
• Upholds company dress code
• Is a true ambassador for the TLE brand as well as our vendors
• Makes sure they lead by example, arriving to work in a timely manner and making sure team members are taking meal breaks/breaks in the time allotted
• Is compliant with all store/company policies at all times

Key Relationships: ASM + Store Manager (SM)

• ASM reports directly to SM
• DM and ASM co-own the sales floor experience, making sure customer satisfaction is being met, along with sales goal and merch basics

ASM + Merchandising Associate (MA)

• ASM + MA should be in regular contact regarding merchandising updates and/or moves (featured products, marketing initiatives, window displays, etc.) Partners with SM + MA for any merchandising projects

Direct Reports Store Leads (SL) + Sales Team Members (STM)

• All SL and STMs report to the ASM and SM
• ASM oversees delegation of task and responsibility to SL and STM, ensuring all tasks point to customer experience.
• ASM provides SL and STM guidance on hitting sales goals for the day, as well as going over merch basics

Our Ideal Candidate:

• Helps the company achieve its big picture goals by maintaining store standards 
• Take initiative and has a competitive drive
• Stays focused on results, while also being adaptive to the stores needs
• Manages team in fun and creative ways
• Is a firm, goal oriented leader that motivates their team keeping them engaged and enthusiastic
• Builds relationships with team members, customers, and vendors 
• Is able to delegate tasks to team in an effective manner
• Is good at doing routine work while also staying adaptable to the needs of the store
• Acts independently and maintains a sense of urgency with tasks
• Is results driven and utilizes systems to achieve sales goals 

Benefits + Perks:

• $20.92/hour/Salary (non-exempt) - full-time (40 hours/week)
• Health + dental plans available in addition to HealthiestYou
• 9 Observed holidays- added as Flex days for use
• Front loaded Vacation (80 hours) + Sick Time
• 401K with up to 2% company match on one year anniversary 
• Generous employee discount
• Occasional show or event tickets provided 
• Working with a group of kind, hard-working, hilarious, value-driven, talented humans

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