I worked as a prestige beauty advisor at Ulta for just a couple months before I moved across the state. I've worked in retail before but something about big corporation customer service truly just brings out the worst in people.
Working the register is by far the worst part of the job. You're trained to get people's personal info by any means necessary if they don't already have an account. It's uncomfortable to have to pry and the customers get understandably irritated when you make up excuses for why you need their home address (for shipping reasons, coupons, etc…). If you don't get every piece of info for account setup it shows in your log and you have to have a “talk” with the manager about the script you need to follow to basically trick people into thinking they can't check out without them giving up their personal information. On top of that you have to push customers to apply for the Ultamate Rewards Credit Card. The whole checkout process takes way longer than it should because we're not supposed to take “no” for an answer. People have just stopped responding to me altogether because they're so fed up. It's so awkward.
The way upper management treats you is just shitty. I asked for just two days off during the three months I had been working there and the GM made a big deal about it, saying that I was to be available basically 24/7 as that was part of the reason I was hired. You have to wait for a manager to check your bag before you leave your shift (so they can make sure you didn't steal anything) and they mark all your personal, expensive makeup with a marker. There is only one single chair in the breakroom and one in the manager's office and you have to be on your feet 24/7. You're trained to literally never leave people alone, and some customers get really annoyed with that too. I've had people literally scoff at me for offering them a basket to shop with. The one and only complaint I got (and was chewed out for) was from some lady who went through all the effort of submitting a form with my register info to give me a bad review because I “didn't ask her how her day was”.
So to anyone who's thinking about working there for the employee discount, let me just say that it's not worth it.