Retail Assistant (fixed term)

Closing date: 10:00 Monday 26 May 2025

Interview date: Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 June 2025

Start date: Thursday 24 July 2025

End date: Friday 29 August 2025

Location: Based in our central Edinburgh office

Background

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.

It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2024, 3,745 shows took place in 296 venues across Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

We are looking for outgoing and motivated Retail Assistants that want to provide great customer service to visitors to the Fringe so they can have the best Fringe experience possible.  The Fringe shop during August is an exceptionally busy hub selling merchandise and also providing information to Fringe visitors and often it’s the first-place visitors to the Fringe come.

Role and responsibilities

You will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• Successfully assisting customers to purchase merchandise and giving first-class levels of customer service
• Understanding our merchandise range and their selling points to help customers find the perfect souvenir to take home a piece of the Fringe
• Ensuring shop is tidy and well maintained and that all products are displayed to maximise sales
• Assisting with processing stock deliveries and organisation of stock and stock room to ease shop replenishment and ensure sales are not lost
• Ensuring that all who engage with the Fringe Society have a positive experience and are given accurate information in an efficient and helpful manner
• Providing an accurate and efficient information service to the public and advising the public on general ticketing, programme and venue enquiries.

Person specification

Essential

• Experience working in a busy environment, particularly in retail or hospitality.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to interact with a wide range of people, including all ages, nationalities and those with access requirements.
• Ability to listen, engage with a customer’s needs, and respond concisely and helpfully.
• Adaptable and able to pick up new information quickly.
• Willing to learn new procedures and new systems.
• Ability to maintain a calm and steady demeanour under pressure, while maintaining an efficient and effective service.
•  Attention to detail, with good numeracy skills and accurate cash handling.
•  Good command of English.

Desirable

•   Experience of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe or working within a similar festival.
•   Local knowledge of Edinburgh and the festival season.
•   A knowledge of manual handling techniques.
•   Foreign language skills in any languages, but especially Spanish, French, German or Italian.
•   British Sign Language skills.

Rate of pay and benefits 

The rate of pay for this post is 12.60 per hour.

Normal working hours are six hours per shift, between 09:00 and 18:30, Monday to Sunday. Your working hours will be organised according to a rota system which the Society will notify you of in advance of the Fringe.

Three different contracted hours are available:

• 30 hours worked in 5 shifts

• 24 hours worked in 4 shifts

• 18 hours worked in 3 shifts

Please include your preference within your application.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process. We are unable to offer remote working for this position, however we can offer flexibility in the contracted hours per week.

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team. 

The Fringe have identified six pillars of commitment around the sustainable delivery of their work, are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.