Store Manager

Essential Functions

The Store Manager is responsible for leadership and management of employees while ensuring all necessary functions are executed in a manner that leads to customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and achievement of business objectives.  The Store Manager will also be working in coordination with Marketing, Visual, and other departments to achieve sales goals.

• Embrace Al’s mission to be a great place to work by maintaining a positive and engaging work environment for employees through motivation and teamwork.
• Promote and maintain an outstanding customer experience that can only be found at Al’s Garden and Home for all guests who enter the retail location.
• Foster an environment that promotes “the good of the whole business” mentality.  This can be done by building good working relationships and collaborating with all departments including the growing operations and store locations to develop and/or achieve sales objectives and goals across all areas of the business.  
• Work in coordination with the Director of Retail Stores, CEO, CFO, COO and CGO to develop a strategic plan to achieve net profit goals.  This requires a clear understanding of cost of goods sold, margin, shrink, GMROI, and other accounting elements.
• Coordinate and facilitate the general objectives of the store relating to marketing, advertising, sales and product mix in order to meet the desired ROI.
• Review staffing levels and department schedules continuously to ensure appropriate staffing for each season.
• Identify and develop high potential employees to fulfill leadership roles (i.e., Assistant Store Manager, Store Lead, Keyholder, etc.) and build succession plan.
• Conduct regularly scheduled department meetings to disseminate around customer satisfaction and feedback about products and services.
• Facilitate employee training and new hire on-boarding to establish uniformity in product and service.
• Work with store and department leads to provide training and education to further develop each staff member in good business practices.
• Continue to improve the level of customer service by providing ongoing and frequent employee training and instruction relating to customer satisfaction.
• Responsible for the overall appearance and functionality of the retail location.  This includes allocation of space, facility maintenance, landscaping of the parking area, overall cleanliness of the retail floor space and the quality of all items sold. 
• Ensure accurate signage, labeling and pricing of all products so that the customer is able to view the price in a convenient manner. 
• Embrace a safety culture of injury and accident prevention through training and communication of all employees and maintain safety committee with the retail location.
• Develop and maintain a systematic approach to the care and maintenance of company assets; such as motorized equipment, buildings, plants, shopping carts, merchandising props, etc.
• Learn and work efficiently in the POS system while able to troubleshoot and creatively solve any problems that may arise.
• Create and maintain opening and closing procedures for your retail store and ensuring all keyholders are trained in the execution of the procedures.
• Ability to speak to the product that Al’s Home and Garden carries at all times which includes but not limited to plants, dry goods, garden accessories, pottery, patio furniture, etc.
• Effectively use and understand customer loyalty program(s).

Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree in Horticulture, Business or related field preferred but not required; or a combination of education and experience.
• 3-5 years previous management experience required.
• Proven track record of driving profitable sales.
• Experience in retail garden center preferred.
• Ability to analyze data and make decisions.
• Excellent negotiation skills.
• Advanced knowledge of Excel and other Microsoft programs and POS systems and/or the ability to learn about them.
• Valid driver’s license and the ability to be insured by Al’s motor vehicle insurance.
• Ability to operate a forklift and/or Kubota preferred.
• Customer focused, team oriented with strong interpersonal skills (i.e. effective listening and clear communication skills)
• Flexibility and adaptability to work weekdays, evenings and weekends.
• Travel locally required to attend meetings and/or trainings

Physical Demands

This job requires the ability to occasionally lift products up to 50lbs.

Work Environment

This job can operate on the sales floor, indoor and outdoor, and in an office environment as business requires.

Other Duties

Please note this job is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.  Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.