I keep hearing tales of $29/hr+ paid for workers here and I visited it for the first time in Traverse City, MI while on vacation. I was genuinely impressed; workers seemed happy to be there.
Right now I am at my wits' end with my framing job owing to one person making it borderline unbearable. I frame for an ultra-rich clientele who are absolutely insufferable, and the person "in-charge" is a product of that world and I am nearing a refusal to be a party to serving that snobbish behavior and abuse any longer.
I worked for Hobby Lobby from 2018-2024, with multiple years of that as frame shop management, department, and assistant store management, so I'm no stranger to retail, but what I'm making right now ($25/hr) is what I'd like to equally make (or thereabouts, I could feasibly take a dollar or two paycut).
I also gave up 3 weeks of vacation a year at Hobby Lobby to take 2 at this place in exchange for the better pay, but as I like to travel abroad to visit friends, this is proving to have been a poor decision in that regard.
The 9-530 at my job is also nice but I could give that up if I had to, if it meant saving my mental health for a workplace that actually didn't grind me down and question my sanity. Hobby Lobby started to do that to in the end, and I'm hesitant to give up what I make now if there's little guarantee of it happening here, and if I end up working with equally miserable people.
TLDR, I left retail for a reason, but is Costco as good as they say for employment?