Retail Jobs in Illinois

Our Mission: Providing people with the skills and resources to become self-sufficient through the power of work.

Our Vision: Elevate people through the power of work and continue to be a leader in environmental sustainability.

Our Values: SERVE: Stewardship | Engagement | Respect | Visibility | Elevation

Job Title: Retail Associate

Department: Retail Operations

Reports To: General Manager

Classification: Non-Exempt

EEO-1 Category: Laborers and Helpers

Safety Sensitive: No

Authorized Driver: No

Supervises: N/A

Job Summary

Our Retail Associates are the face of our mission to our customers and the community. As such, we expect our Retail Associates to work with integrity and a positive attitude at all times.

Retail Associates are responsible for handling a variety of donated goods, collecting donations at the donor’s door, processing, pricing, stocking, merchandising, performing cash register transactions, and providing recovery on the sales floor. They are required to be customer/donor-focused, operate with minimum supervision, and understand business demands.

Essential Job Duties

The Retail Associate will be trained to perform any of the following duties and may be assigned to any store function at any given time.

• Provide excellent customer service to all stakeholders
• Performs all register transactions accurately
• Maintain cash register stock level according to standards
• Follow general housekeeping standards
• Demonstrate competency in pulling, pricing, rotating, sizing, and hanging clothing
• Understand and achieve quotas to meet sales goals
• Follow sales floor procedures, ensure high-quality output, and take action to correct quality problems
• Merchandise sales floor when needed
• Recovering to maintain sales floor product levels and to keep the store cleaned and organized
• Perform janitorial and housekeeping duties as assigned
• Ensure product is properly merchandised (Sized and categorized)
• Follow sales floor procedures, ensure high-quality output, and take action to correct quality problems
• Check, accept, unload, and process donations from the customer using GRATIS at the door
• Accurately maintain daily donation records
• Unload and load trailers and straight trucks according to standards
• Perform opening and closing donation door procedures
• Unload, inspect, sort, and process donated goods following the current LLGI SOP
• Grade by using quality specifications, sort into appropriate bins, price according to SOP, and assign to the staging area
• Transport stock to and from workstations
• Effectively manage time to ensure that work is completed efficiently and in accordance with production standards
• Assume responsibility and accountability for the completion of job duties to meet production goals
• Contribute to team success by involving others in work processes, decisions, and actions
• Assist processors in swapping full equipment with empty ones to expedite operations
• Help price furniture and keep it going from the door directly to the sales floor
• Assist in cutting cardboard and filling the cardboard gaylords
• Demonstrates professionalism, integrity, and ethical behavior
• Maintains confidentiality of information related to LLGI operations, financial matters, and personnel matters
• Follow LLGI safety guidelines
• Understands and follows LLGI policies and procedures.
• Embraces the mission, vision, and values of LLGI.
• Place product into proper containers for placement on the sales floor.
• Effectively pull product from the floor to meet specifications before transferring to the warehouse
• The ability to work in a team environment
• Other duties as assigned

Competencies

Adaptability

Managing Conflict

Stress Tolerance

Communication

Tenacity

Sense of Urgency

Education, Experience, and Credentials

• Must be at least 16 years of age

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Basic math skills
• Interacts with people with disabilities in a manner that enhances their dignity, privacy, and confidentiality
• Conveys information clearly through verbal communication
• Works independently while fostering a strong team atmosphere
• Demonstrates sensitivity and the ability to communicate with a diverse population, promotes diversity and inclusion throughout the organization.
• Interacts with people in a manner that enhances their dignity, privacy, and confidentiality.
• Requires a high level of professionalism, integrity, business conduct, and ethical behavior. Understands and follows LLGI policies and procedures.
• Requires the ability to be consistently at work and on time on scheduled work days.
• Embraces the mission, vision, and values of LLGI.

Physical Requirements

• Lift or move up to fifty (50) pounds of clothing and housewares safely on and off retail shelving fixtures up to ten (10) feet high, clothing racks four (4) feet high, and z-racks six (6) feet high
• Push and pull z-racks holding up to one hundred (100) pieces of clothing and weighing a minimum of 150 pounds
• Push or pull wheeled carts with an average weight of one hundred fifty (150) pounds
• The ability to bend and reach into gaylords five (5) feet high to remove clothing and housewares
• Manual dexterity to fasten and unfasten buttons; snaps and zippers; operate cash registers and tagging guns
• Stand for long periods throughout the day
• The ability to perform a combination of tasks for extended periods, such as stooping, bending, kneeling, crouching, crawling, lifting, reaching, carrying, pushing, or pulling objects, to sorting and hanging clothing, and placing housewares on shelves and racks
• Demonstrate visual acuity to evaluate donated items for quality
• The ability to identify smells to evaluate donations for undesirable odors such as mold, must, dust, bodily fluids, and/or urine.

Environmental Conditions

• Work in a light industrial/warehouse environment with exposure to heat and cold
• Subject to exposure to allergens, including dirt, dust, mold, metals, rubber, plastics, latex, and pet hair

Tools and Equipment

Cash register, credit/debit card machine, bar-code reader, shopping carts, shopping baskets, wheeled spring carts, wheeled deep carts, wheeled z-racks, handheld pricing machine, handheld tagging machine, pallet jacks, basic retail equipment, personal protective equipment, hand trucks, furniture dollies, 4-wheel metal/plastic cages, material lifts, furniture dollies, trash bin/can, bushel carts, trash compactor, trash dumpster, stackers (if applicable)

Regular Contacts

LLGI Staff

Volunteers/Community Service Workers

Vendors/Suppliers

General Public

Donors/Customers

Service Participants

Our Commitment to Diversity
LLGI recognizes our employees’ differences in age, disability, veteran status, ethnicity, national origin, language, race, religion, family and marital status, socio-economic status, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and other unique attributes. The individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, innovation, unique capabilities, and talent our employees bring to the workplace represent an essential part of our culture.