Pros
It really depends on who your store management team is, but I've found in 8 years of service to TJX Companies, that if you work hard, do your job, you'll be rewarded in some way. People are too quick to complain about the changing hours, pay and customers. But that's the job. Retail has those hours because we all like to shop at those hours. The pay is lower, because there are really no special skills REQUIRED. If you don't like retail, don't work it. And if you can't get a job doing anything else, go back to school and specialize. I worked this job through school, knowing that I would leave it for better things. I "took care of them" and in return they took care of me- I recieved raises when money was available, always the first to get extra hours, and a very flexible schedule. They trusted me to work hard without supervision and be there when I could if they needed me. There was a mutual respect that was earned.
Cons
My biggest complaint was simply my co-workers. Lazy people that abused the system. And you can't fire everyone that does that- you'd have a skeleton crew left. I'm sure the starting pay has a lot to do with the type of young people that are hired, but from a bigger picture standpoint, I wouldn't want to pay anyone the most I could to start only to find out that they do a 6.50/hr job.