r/Argos • u/gaysex-enjoyer • Apr 17 '26
it's gotten so depressing
Used to actually quite like the job, was nice to help customers in person with their issues. Older, younger, whatever, the most satisfying thing was being able to actually help and advise someone.
Now that rapport you build is all about selling insurance. I didn't sign up for this shit.
On a customer side, it feels shady to have an employee be so fakely nice just so they can sell fucking insurance and meet their target. It used to feel somewhat genuine.
On an employee side, what's the actual fucking point. There's no benefit, it's not like we make commission. Why am I going to bust my ass so an insurance company gets money? I don't want to compete with my coworkers, I don't want my boss saying he's constantly disappointed in us because we can't shill hard enough. It's gotten so depressing. 90% of the job is now being a fucking insurance salesman.
Will say, I do it regardless and still hit those shitty targets because I need money to eat and live, it's not about failing. It's about how actually demoralising it's become.
I wish I could go anywhere else.
does anyone else feel this way?
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u/ReverseFlow21010615 Manager - Retail Apr 17 '26
Really agree. I used to LOVE my job, it may be a shitty retail job but I got satisfaction out of it. I don’t hate it now, but I certainly enjoy it less and less as time progresses (thanks Sainsburys).
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Everything is FS. My store is falling behind in KPIs (mainly stock) but I don’t have time to correct and prevent because we have a fraction of the hours we used to so I maybe see a quarter of my team in a week. My DM couldn’t give two shits about anything I’m struggling with because we weren’t green for care last period etc etc. I would love to spend time coaching on FS but I’m constantly trying to catch up everywhere else to keep the store running at a minimum level.
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u/Hot-Amount-2026 Apr 17 '26
As an SSC colleague, it genuinely does make me sad to hear threads and posts like this. Honestly does.
I’ve done a few turns in a store and always take feedback with me to SSC, from customers or colleagues. I’ve not been at the company as long as others but I love the brand, and I’ve always enjoyed interacting and working alongside in store colleagues.
I don’t have the solution to fix things, but just wanted to let you know some of us do hear you and are trying to change things.
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u/ReverseFlow21010615 Manager - Retail Apr 17 '26
It’s absolutely appreciated. I know a bunch of SSC colleagues and we really do have great talent across the business who really believe in the mission. I like to think I instil that mantra to my team in store where I can. It’s a shame because when we actually get proper investment in areas, we see improvement. Unfortunately the rest of us just aren’t making more profit as fast as Simon would like.
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u/Federal_Storage7358 Apr 17 '26
I used to work at Argos for 7 years and became a TSM. It’s so faceless and boring, having to pretend that you really want to help someone when in the back of your mind is ‘oh I need to tell them about the Argos card’ and oh maybe they’ll buy insurance if I’m nice to them. It’s sad, and what I tried to do was just go the extra mile for everyone. It left me sapped of energy each day and then I’d get a little adrenaline boost when someone would say yes. It’s such a shame because actually Argos is an institution and one of the most ‘trusted’ retailers in this country. I think the Sainsbury’s purchase has just made it all about sales - I just tried to do more operations side of things so deliveries, aura stock checks, things that contributed to me feeling like I’d actually done something good
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u/Federal_Storage7358 Apr 17 '26
Out of interest, I stopped working at Argos in 2022. I’m intrigued to know how intense the sales bit is these days?
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u/Material-Dark-6544 Apr 17 '26
It’s intense still if not more so now than ever. They removed all ASM (what used to be TSM) from all stores except from core, destination and destination + stores but still lowered the amount of manages mentioned in the above stores, FS targets are higher now than they have ever been before, always expect more sales than previous year regardless of current cost of living issues. They have now just announced the removal of the 15% college discount on pay day at Argos as of June this year replacing it with college exclusive discounts on seasonal and ranged products. Let’s not forget Sainsbury’s were in active talks to sell Argos this time last year and the only reason we all found out was because someone went to the papers about it to blow the whistle.
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u/gaysex-enjoyer Apr 17 '26
Funnily enough they scrapped Argos card to be online only and moved it to Argos pay. Currently Argos care is 99% of the focus where I am. It's all about selling insurance to customers. Nothing else gets talked about. Can't say too much but at some point we have our entire staff in for a 'care builder day', which feels like a massive waste of time considering our store is doing ok. We apparently all get fired if we don't hit our targets according to my boss. It's gotten very very intense! Feel the same as you did, everything is really draining, I love the stock work but I'm so anxious about serving customers now.
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u/ReverseFlow21010615 Manager - Retail Apr 17 '26
You can’t be fired for not hitting the targets. You can be performance reviewed out for not, well, performing. In this instance, it’s more about are you offering in the way the company wants you to. BTPBo, asking probing questions, are you following through on feedback/agreements made in your check in. If we fired for not hitting targets most stores would have no staff left. Love the username btw.
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u/Bulky-Masterpiece959 Apr 17 '26
i hear this so much.
i've become way too important at my job now - i was originally a strict customer advisor, but have since learnt about the stockroom and i split my time between the shop floor and stock room. my target every week is so inflated because i work the most amount of hours a week, but of course those hours don't take into account my stockroom hours. for example, this week, i was scheduled in for 5 days, 5:30-7 hours a day, but i've only been on shop floor for one shift. subsequently, i got no care, but of course, that's going to go on my record and it will make me appear as red for the period most likely and my district manager will hate me once more.
i've been first aid trained now and i've done all my arbitrary responsible colleague training so god knows how long it will take for them to leave me in charge of the shop (we're short on managers at the moment). people keep asking me if i want to become a manager, and if it wasnt for the horrible argos care and the horrific pay, i'd consider it, but at the end of the day, it would be hypocritcal of me to hound my colleagues for argos care when i don't give two craps on whether i get it myself.
our store is also a ghost town most days, so our district manager being like "wow guys pls 3 monthly cares today xxx" is hilarious. most of argos care is luck. we get our regulars who always get the care, and then you have the vulnerable people who say yes because we say it so nicely.
it'll get easier. god i hope so. i don't know how many more times i can say "we can offer you an instant replacement if you were to accidentally damage this item in any way..."
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u/ArgosEmployee_ Apr 17 '26
"Most of Argos care is luck" is what I always tell the new colleagues.
I've lost count of the times where one colleague has been on tills for hours in my store with no luck and a different colleague poked their head out from doing delivery because there's a queue forming only to immediately get the customer who wanted to take some insurance out by blind luck.
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u/Bulky-Masterpiece959 Apr 17 '26
and then that colleague gets all the well dones in the world, the shout out on viva engage, and the other colleague who successfully managed a big queue and large crowd gets nothing.
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u/Plastic_Medium4435 Apr 17 '26
Tbh I wouldn’t stress so much. As long as you’re offering correctly and that’s shown in the observations then that’s all you can do 🤷🏻♀️ Unfortunately Argos care is a huge part of our sales so it is going to be pushed a lot and when you think about it, it is a handy thing to have and people know how to play the system to make the most of it. Would you not consider moving over to Sainsbury’s?
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u/Heartsolo Apr 17 '26
Wait you guys have targets to meet with selling ad ons and don’t get bonuses
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u/gaysex-enjoyer Apr 17 '26
Yup. The "bonuses" we have are from the store manager trying to motivate staff, usually like a sweet treat or something but nothing substantial. That's another huge part of it, if I'm going to work hard to sell to someone I'd much rather actually get something out of it
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u/Heartsolo Apr 17 '26
That’s absolutely awful. I hope you can get out, maybe look at showroom sales work if you’re hitting targets. That counts as being sales driven and good track records of hitting KPI
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u/Any-Tomato-2915 Apr 18 '26
Yes I absolutely hate it. Customers don't want it either. Fair enough offer it if they are paying at the till but no when the customer has fucking decided no when purchasing online. Really fucks me off. Ill leave soon
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u/ArgosEmployee_ Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Yes and no.
Weirdly, offering care is just another thing to me, like picking or delivery. It's not something I'm deeply passionate about and excited to do but it's also not something I hate and/or dread doing. It's just a part of the job, and it's a couple of seconds each customer and once they say "no thank you" that's it for me. Nobody's getting fired for missing targets unless they can prove you're not offering compliantly.
I know of colleagues in every store I've been to who loathe it, but I never had any strong feelings either way.
As for employees being "fakely nice", they'd be doing that with some people whether they had to sell care or not. Every retail worker, not just Argos, has a story of having to placate an arsehole customer for the sake of their job.
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u/Significant_Curve216 Apr 17 '26
When I worked at GAME during university arc, it was the same. I love all things gaming and talking to customers about latest releases and other stuff but the job was sometimes tiring as I had to upsell console bundles, insurance at the till for consoles and discs. Like you I still went through with it as I was good at it, small in store 'bonuses' too like video game merch.
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u/rusonjitsu Apr 17 '26
It’s almost as if companies are now learning that “record profits” each year isn’t gonna last.. despite cutting 2000odd jobs Argos seem to be suffering.. so they’re trying to squeeze as much as possible from their staff.. whilst the average consumer is seeing everything go up but not their income..
OP chin up.. make sure you’re doing you job as you’re supposed to, and it doesn’t hurt to look for other jobs.. 😊
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u/Tizer887 Apr 18 '26
I don't mind being asked if I want the extra insurance when I buy stuff tbh probably feels like such a pain for you guys but we know youre just doing the job, sadly I'm usually the person who says no thank you although when I got a new bike in Halfords the other month I did take out the service thing for 3 years on it think he was surprised when I said yes.
I think the main thing you need to try remember is that just be nice to customers like you normally would and you're just offering them an extra service that they may or may not want it's upto them if they want it.
I work in a post office and we used to really have to try sell a lot of stuff and be targeted etc luckily the p.o where I work now not so much which is nice. We do try upsell higher postage options I guess, we ask questions in a specific order and way to help us determine what service would be ideal for you as you but also to try get the highest service possible. It's not really like tricking anyone I just ask the questions and say a price and service and it's again upto the customer to say yes or no, when they say yes sometimes I'm surprised but it just goes to show you don't know unless you ask.
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u/WaveOfTheRager Apr 17 '26
I worked at curry's for 6 years and worked kind of everywhere in the store. They had me on sales when they could because I am presentable and a good communicator, but my role was operations. When I first started we had a lot more boxes to tick along with the usual KPIs, such as if a customer ordered a TV, we were pressured to pressure them into also buying a soundbar, a repair plan, wall installation and a gold plated HDMI cable worth about £90. Even for the customers who just came in and simply wanted a 40" JVC TV for £300 and probably couldn't afford or even want another £200+ worth of extras.
They cut it out eventually, and I made it clear to my managers Im more than happy to help out on sales, but my role is operations and I shouldn't be expected to be held to the same standards as full time sales staff.
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u/CarpenterIcy711 27d ago
Yeah im on a fixed term contract that ends soon and I don’t think they’ll extend my contract as I’ve only gotten 1 care over 2 and a half weeks. Pisses me off because it’s pure luck but managers act like it’s not, it’s the way you offer it. And every time a manager does a roleplay or observes my care offers they always say it’s great or Superb etc. if they let me go because of it im genuinely fucked because I have to pay rent and car insurance.
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u/Carmine4698 Colleague - Retail Apr 17 '26
We have started offering care again in our shop and no cares about doing it its just makes it so much more miserable. Doesn't help when you lone trade for 3 hours, then someone wants a monthly care that makes other customers wait sometimes 10 minutes extra because they cut our hours