We paid decently for retail. It was a few years back, but it looks like they pay about 40-50k now for floor-level staff. It's not amazing, but way better than others.

What hurt more with the corporate buyout was the number of employees let go and the end of some truly great perks. Manufacturers had programs to get us credit towards free products in return for selling their stuff, and since almost all the companies had the programs we didn't even have to shill one brand over another.

My better salespeople bcame experts in their products because they didn't just see all the products as things they'd never be able to afford, which helped both our sales and helped inform the customers. And they'd get 10k+ of high-end products a year. In my best year as an underling, I got over 20 grand in freebies. But the new corporate overlords banned employees taking part in those programs because they were afraid staff may sell the freebies on the aftermarket.