Hey everyone!
Today I’m going over working where you buy a lot from. Whether this be a clothing store, fast food place, coffee shop, etc. there are pros and cons based on your spending habits.
This is a piece where I’ll be talking a lot about my personal experience opposed to hard facts. Everybody’s experiences are different, so don’t take my advice as the end all be all!
My goal is to show you how different jobs offer different benefits and effect your spending in different ways.
Will Working Here Increase or Decrease My Spending?
Before working somewhere you should see what the benefits are like. For example, Kohl’s associates get 15% off of everything and once in a while (like for the event Friends and Family) it will increase to 20% or 25%. On the other hand, Dunkin’ Donuts employees receive free beverages while working.
Out these two places I’ve worked, I’ve spent SO MUCH MORE MONEY at Kohl’s because I get nice clothes for cheap. I honestly didn’t even shop at Kohl’s before I worked there. However, I get coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks mostly every day, so working there saved me about $4 a day or almost $30 a week!
There are also places I’ve worked like AMC where it doesn’t increase or decrease my spending, but overall, it decreases it. I’m not a movie person (yes I know it’s ironic) so I don’t see movies a lot. However, if I do want to see a movie, it’s free. Sometimes we even have early employee showings! So while I don’t spend money at movie theatres as much as coffee shops, when I do I save a lot of money. (~$10 a ticket around prime time and I can have 2 people with me so ~$30).
Will I Get Sick of This Place?
Using my working experience as an example again; like I said, I’m not a movie person, but now I’m really not a movie person because I don’t want to spend hours where I work. Even if I want to see a movie, I’ll usually procrastinate until I have at least 2 days where I don’t work so I don’t feel like I’m working while I watch a movie.
However, I never got sick of Dunkin’ Donut’s coffee. Yes, sometimes I still went to Starbucks and certain drinks lost their charm, but I always made myself multiple drinks while I was working and I still go there now that I don’t work there.
Lastly, Kohl’s is always changing because of the merchandise always changing, so while I don’t like to visit the store on my free time, there’s at least new things to shop through (and I love to shop!).
Learning Behind the Scenes
The best thing, hands down, about working where you’re a consumer is learning all of the behind the scenes tricks (so I can post them for you, haha).
Learning things as an employee instead of a customer will always be more thorough and enlightening. The customer asks the employee questions, not the other way around, right?
You know for sure if you’re getting hoed at other establishments; for example if your coffee is way more expensive for some reason, or if your coupon didn’t go through.
Knowing the Coupon Days and Discounts
Just for starters: if you have a Kohl’s charge card and there are no coupons out you can request a scratch off coupon, movies are $5 all day if you have a Stubs card at AMC on Tuesday, and it’s worth it to have a Dunkin Donut’s rewards card if you spend money there anyways. I’ll do individual posts and link them here when they’re done!
Most places offer student, senior, or military discounts even if they’re not advertised, or at least have certain days for them. For example, Dunkin’ Donut’s has a senior discount and AMC has a student, senior, child, and military discount on tickets. There’s really no reason to ever pay full price for tickets. Check out my post on if AMC Premiere is worth $15.
Make Your Choice
When deciding to work at a place where you’re a customer, remember to really think about it and make sure it won’t ruin it for you. List the pros and cons and make the decision for yourself!
Xoxo,
Giada.
