Store director vs general manager

The differences between store directors and general managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a store director and a general manager. Additionally, a general manager has an average salary of $71,581, which is higher than the $56,596 average annual salary of a store director.

The top three skills for a store director include payroll, store sales and food safety. The most important skills for a general manager are customer service, cleanliness, and food safety.

Store director vs general manager overview

	Store Director	General Manager
Yearly salary	$56,596	$71,581
Hourly rate	$27.21	$34.41
Growth rate	6%	6%
Number of jobs	225,468	442,690
Job satisfaction	-	4.25
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	6	6

What does a store director do?

A store director is in charge of overseeing overall business operations, ensuring everything is running smoothly. Their responsibilities mostly revolve around setting goals and objectives, devising strategies to increase sales and brand awareness, liaising with key suppliers and vendors, managing the employees and all hiring processes, supervising the inventory, and monitoring the progress of sales. Furthermore, as a store director, it is essential to lead and encourage the staff to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does a general manager do?

A general manager is responsible for handling the overall operations in the business. General managers manage the staff tasks efficiently, monitor the productivity and efficiency of the work environment, implement new strategies to improve the business performance, recognize the team's best efforts, and effective allocation of budget resources. A general manager must have excellent communication, decision-making, and critical-thinking skills to identify areas of improvement in handling customer complaints, connecting with vendors and other lines of businesses that will direct the company towards its successful objectives.

Store director vs general manager salary

Store directors and general managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Store Director	General Manager
Average salary	$56,596	$71,581
Salary range	Between $42,000 And $75,000	Between $40,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Delaware	Hawaii
Best paying company	Tory Burch	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	Retail	Manufacturing

Differences between store director and general manager education

There are a few differences between a store director and a general manager in terms of educational background:

	Store Director	General Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Store director vs general manager demographics

Here are the differences between store directors' and general managers' demographics:

	Store Director	General Manager
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 71.9% Female, 28.1%	Male, 70.7% Female, 29.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.1% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between store director and general manager duties and responsibilities

Store director example responsibilities.

Maintain, control, and achieve all KPI set weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
Develop and implement strategic merchandising plans to achieve revenue objectives and reduce expenditures while ensuring payroll remains within budget goals.
Ensure safety and cleanliness of work / customer environment, arranging necessary repairs and upkeep of internal and external property.
Maintain excellent store conditions through dynamic product presentation, organization and store cleanliness.
Participate in the development and implementation of a company wide labor scheduler payroll budgeting system base on actual work content.
Develop innovative marketing materials and create free weekly seminars in basic pet discipline development skills to increase training program enrollment.

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General manager example responsibilities.

Generate positive EBITDA and improve cash flow by managing costs and inventory.
Manage all recruiting and training efforts, and develop systems to track ROI comparison results.
Work as a FOH AGM and train to manage all staff functions including training, hiring, food and labor controls.
Develop yearly budget for multiple hotels that include revenue, labor, fix and variable costs to achieve overall EBITDA goal.
Task primarily with building logistics infrastructure, managing operational expenses, and supporting start up strategies.
Train and manage FOH staff and improve overall quality, organization and professionalism of restaurant and bakery.

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Store director vs general manager skills

Common store director skills

Payroll, 12%
Store Sales, 9%
Food Safety, 7%
Customer Service, 4%
Sales Growth, 4%
Cleanliness, 4%

Common general manager skills

Customer Service, 20%
Cleanliness, 18%
Food Safety, 7%
Guest Service, 4%
Payroll, 4%
Math, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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