Job Description

JUNK Brands is opening its first true flagship retail store in downtown Bentonville — built around our performance headbands, hats, apparel, and accessories.

We're looking for a Store Manager to open the store and build the operating playbook from day one. You'll be the first store-level hire, helping establish the floor plan, merchandising approach, staffing model, store procedures, and customer experience.

Once we're open, you'll own the day-to-day performance of the store — from sales and inventory to staffing, merchandising, events, and customer experience. You'll also help turn the physical store into a growth engine for the broader JUNK business: converting a tourist, cyclist, runner, or local customer into a repeat online customer and JUNK community member.

The store sits a few minutes from our Bentonville manufacturing floor and headquarters. You'll work closely with the President and teams across ecommerce, marketing, product, and community engagement to execute launches, events, and other company initiatives.

This is a hands-on store leadership role. With a small part-time team, you'll spend significant time on the sales floor, talking to customers, selling product, solving problems, and making sure the store looks and operates the way it should.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Store Opening & Operations

• Help take the store from pre-opening through launch, including merchandising, opening inventory, POS setup, operating procedures, and staff training.
• Establish and maintain standards for opening/closing, cash handling, cleanliness, safety, and loss prevention.
• Own daily store execution and ensure the customer experience consistently reflects the JUNK brand.
• Identify operational issues quickly and solve them or escalate them with a proposed solution.
• Develop and improve store processes as we learn what works.

Sales & Store Performance

• Own store-level sales performance against daily, weekly, and monthly plans.
• Manage controllable store expenses and labor to budget.
• Track and act on key metrics including traffic, conversion, average order value, units per transaction, labor, and sales by product/category.
• Provide clear, concise reporting on what's working, what's not, and what we should do next.
• Create a selling culture on the floor through active customer engagement, product knowledge, and coaching.

Product, Inventory, & Merchandising

• Manage receiving, cycle counts, transfers, returns, and inventory accuracy against Shopify.
• Own visual merchandising and keep the floor fresh, compelling, and aligned with current launches and campaigns.
• Merchandise a catalog that turns over constantly — we release new product on a bi-weekly cadence and carry licensed collegiate, pro sports, and entertainment product.
• Execute drop-day setups, including allocation, display, line management, customer flow, and same-day sell-through reporting.
• Flag slow movers early and coordinate markdowns or transfers.
• Maintain accurate back-stock organization so product is easy to find and replenish.

Team

• Recruit, hire, schedule, train, and develop a small part-time team (approximately 2–3 part-time associates).
• Set the customer-service and selling standard on the floor and coach to it daily.
• Build schedules around traffic patterns, race weekends, First Friday, launches, holidays, and other peak periods without exceeding the labor budget.
• Ensure every associate is trained on product, POS, inventory procedures, customer experience, and store standards.
• Build a team culture that is energetic, accountable, and welcoming.

Community & Events

• Partner with our Community Engagement Coordinator, who leads local event planning, to execute in-store events and activations.
• Own store-side event logistics, including staffing, product, setup, customer flow, and sell-through.
• Build relationships with nearby run and bike shops, race directors, athletes, teams, and downtown businesses.
• Look for opportunities to make the store part of the Bentonville cycling, running, and broader outdoor community.

Omnichannel

• Convert store visitors into email and SMS subscribers and repeat online customers.
• Handle in-store pickup and returns.
• Identify and facilitate custom-order opportunities.
• Partner with the ecommerce team to understand how store activity contributes to broader customer and revenue growth.
• Help create a seamless experience between the physical store and JUNK's online business.

Customization Experience – Launching 2027

• Own the in-store patch/customization experience and uphold quality standards.
• Train every associate to execute customization to spec.
• Troubleshoot quality issues and determine when a product needs to be remade.
• Track demand signals — which patches, blanks, and combinations are selling — and communicate those insights to the broader team.

Skills & Competencies

• Experience using Shopify POS and/or Shopify inventory tools.
• Consistently meets or exceeds its sales plan.
• Has strong conversion and average order value.
• Maintains accurate inventory and disciplined labor management.
• Feels unmistakably like JUNK every time someone walks through the door.
• Executes product drops and events cleanly and on time.
• Builds a strong local customer base and community presence.
• Converts in-store customers into repeat JUNK customers online.
• Gives the broader JUNK team useful insight into what customers are buying, asking for, and responding to.
• Experience recruiting, hiring, scheduling, training, and coaching employees.
• Strong customer-service and sales instincts; comfortable being highly hands-on on the sales floor.
• Comfort with POS and inventory systems; Shopify experience preferred.
• Genuine comfort with numbers — you can read a sales report, identify a problem, and tell us what you would do about it.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently and make good day-to-day decisions without waiting for instructions.

Education & Qualifications

• 3+ years of retail management experience, including direct responsibility for sales results and a team.
• Background in athletic, outdoor, specialty, lifestyle, or apparel retail.
• Personal connection to running, cycling, or team sports — you don't have to be an athlete, but you should be able to talk to one.
• Experience opening a new retail location or building store processes from scratch.
• Experience with visual merchandising and retail store launches.
• Hands-on experience with customization, embroidery, heat press, or similar in-store production.
• Availability for a retail schedule: at least part of most Saturdays, some Sundays, evenings during events, and holiday peaks.

Physical/Mental Requirements

• Must be able to stand and or walk (90% of the day) and occasionally reach, bend and move inside the facility to move product. May occasionally climb stairs, ladders or scaffolds.
• Fine motor skills: required using the wrists, hands, and fingers to pull and inspect orders.
• Regularly required to reach, bend, and move within the office; ability to move up to 40 lbs.
• Close visual acuity to perform computer tasks and distinguish colors.
• Ability to communicate clearly and exchange accurate information with internal and external customers.

Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.