🧼 Now Hiring: Retail & E-Commerce Associate

Part-time • Primarily Medford • $16–$19 per hour
Required schedule: Full-day availability every Saturday and Sunday
Customer connection • Order fulfillment • Hands-on making

This is not your average retail job.

Em’z Blendz is a small, family-run soap and skincare company that has been making products in Southern Oregon since 1998. Our products are made locally in small batches, and our Medford store shares its space with the studio where we make soap, candles, lotion, tub truffles, bath bombs, and more.

There are no corporate scripts, layers of management, or aisles of mass-produced products here. This is hands-on, varied work where the details matter and you are trusted to use your judgment.

One moment you may be starting a conversation with a customer, figuring out what they need, and helping them confidently choose a product. The next, you may be packing an online order, trimming and wrapping soap, updating inventory, restocking a display, cleaning the store, or helping make a batch of products. You may open or close the store independently, and you will often decide what needs attention next.

A quiet store does not mean downtime. There are always online orders, products to prepare, shelves to restock, inventory to check, surfaces to clean, and details to improve. We need someone who naturally keeps moving and looks for the next useful thing—not someone who waits to be managed.

Because this is a soap, bath, and body company, cleanliness is part of the customer experience. People should feel completely comfortable touching, smelling, and exploring our products. The store, studio, restroom, displays, tools, and work surfaces should feel spectacularly clean and cared for.

If you like connecting with people, being trusted to work without someone watching over you all day, learning how a small business really works, and doing work you can see, smell, and feel, this may be a great fit.

🌿 What You’ll Actually Do

  • Start warm, genuine conversations with customers and make them feel welcome
  • Learn our products and ingredients well enough to recommend the right products, answer questions, and close a sale without being pushy
  • Operate the register and handle purchases, returns, and customer questions
  • Fulfill Shopify orders for shipping and in-store pickup
  • Pack orders accurately and make each package feel personal
  • Trim, wrap, label, box, and prepare locally made products for sale
  • Merchandise displays, restock products, and help maintain accurate inventory
  • Open and close the store independently as scheduled
  • Keep the storefront, work areas, counters, sinks, floors, restroom, tools, displays, and product-preparation spaces spectacularly clean
  • Use quieter moments for online orders, product preparation, restocking, inventory, cleaning, and improving the store
  • Learn hands-on production work such as candlemaking, soapmaking, bath bombs and tub truffles, and lotion making as training and scheduling allow
  • Move between customer service, detailed projects, and store operations throughout the day

✨ You’ll Probably Thrive Here If You

  • Are naturally warm and social, and are comfortable starting conversations with all kinds of people
  • Can listen, read a customer’s cues, make a persuasive recommendation, and confidently ask for the sale
  • Are dependable and protective of your commitments—the rest of a small team truly feels it when someone is frequently unavailable
  • Notice what needs doing, keep your own momentum, and take initiative without waiting for a task list
  • Take real pride in cleanliness and notice smudges, clutter, spills, dust, crooked displays, and anything else that makes the space feel less comfortable or cared for
  • Can change priorities quickly when a customer walks in or an order needs attention
  • Care about accuracy when handling orders, labels, inventory, and money
  • Are comfortable using everyday computer systems and learning Shopify, printers, labels, and related technology
  • Enjoy both creative, hands-on work and repetitive tasks that require consistency
  • Can work independently while also asking good questions when something is unclear
  • Are comfortable being on your feet and lifting up to 40 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation
  • Have reliable transportation and can work primarily in Medford, with occasional shifts in Ashland
  • Are curious about handcrafted products, natural skincare, and how things are made

✅ Required Qualification

  • High-school diploma or equivalent

⭐ Preferred Qualifications

  • At least one year of recent retail or customer-service experience, including experience using a POS/register and everyday computer systems
  • Shopify or comparable e-commerce order-fulfillment experience is strongly preferred
  • Fulfillment, merchandising, craft, food-service, or light-production experience is also valuable

You do not need to know how to make soap—we can teach product knowledge and processes. What we cannot teach as easily is warmth, reliability, work ethic, personal initiative, and the desire to help people buy something they will love.

📅 The Schedule

  • Approximately 15–30 hours per week
  • Regular availability for at least 2–3 days per week
  • Full-day availability every Saturday and Sunday is required
  • Approximately 80–90% of shifts are in Medford, with occasional Ashland shifts
  • Dependable summer availability is especially valuable

Students are welcome to apply. We are looking for someone who can make a steady commitment to the schedule, communicate early about planned time away, and be someone the team can count on.

🎁 What You Get

  • $16–$19 per hour, depending on experience
  • 40% employee discount on Em’z Blendz products
  • One free Em’z Blendz product each month
  • Hands-on training in customer service, fulfillment, inventory, and locally made products
  • Opportunities to learn candlemaking, soapmaking, bath bombs and tub truffles, lotion making, and other small-batch production
  • A down-to-earth small team without layers of corporate management
  • Independence and room to use your judgment once you are trained
  • Work that is local, tangible, useful, and rarely the same all day

💌 How to Apply

Email info@emzblendz.com with:

  1. Your rĂŠsumĂŠ
  2. Confirmation that you have a high-school diploma or equivalent
  3. Confirmation that you are available for full-day shifts every Saturday and Sunday, plus your exact availability on other days and whether it changes during the summer
  4. A brief summary of your recent retail or customer-service experience, including any POS/register, computer-system, Shopify, or e-commerce order-fulfillment experience
  5. A few honest sentences about why this mix of customer service, fulfillment, and hands-on work appeals to you
  6. A brief example of a time you helped a customer make a decision or turned an uncertain customer into a happy buyer
  7. A brief example of a time you noticed something unfinished, disorganized, or unclean and handled it without being asked

Bonus question: If you could turn any scent into a soap, what would it be?

Please do not call the stores about the position. Local applicants may also drop off their materials at:
Medford: 232 E. Main Street
Ashland: 77 Oak Street

Em’z Blendz welcomes applicants from all backgrounds. We care about the person you are, the care you bring to your work, and the way you will contribute to our team.