I'm rather excited, as you can tell. My starting wage will be about average for retail management and low for this general area, but it's higher than I expected since I know bookstores operate on tiny margins. It's a little lower than my current hourly rate at RHA, but that's OK. If I'm promoted to Store Manager at the end of the year, I'll definitely make more per hour; if I'm not, the pay raise program they have set up (5% raise for every 1000 hours worked) guarantees that by the time a year passes I will be making more than at RHA. More important than the hourly rate is the number of hours worked, and I'm looking at full-time employment. Yes please!
They can't offer health insurance, but they'll give me a stipend to go toward my health care coverage. It won't cover the whole cost, but it's better than nothing, and more than they're offering to any of their other employees.
So of course I said yes. Well, officially I said I had promised my husband to review the offer with him first but that I had no reason not to say yes, and then when I got home and talked to him for like two minutes I shot them an e-mail that said YES WANT JOB THANK YOU.
I don't know exactly when I'll start, but it should be pretty soon. Just as soon as I get through my two weeks at Village House of Books. I'll still be at RHA for a few months, so that I can save on the health expense for a little while, but I don't plan to stay there past the holiday season because if I'm the store manager I definitely won't have time for RHA anymore.