My ex left Lowes in Anderson, In in early 1999 and she sold kitchen cabinets. The three in cabinets made a good hourly rate, commission along with other benny's, like employees had the first option to buy merchandise at huge end of season discounts and closeouts before offering to customers.....
SPIFFs and Commission went away in 2012 also, at the beginning of the Fiscal 2012 Q1 (pay period starting 4 February).
There were replaced by an allowance, that was supposed to be for as long as the associate remained an hourly associate in a store.
They added up all the SPIFFs and commissions one earned over the course of 2011, cut that in half, divided by 26 and that was the resulting "allowance" each pay period. Lowe's said it was to bring more certainty into the associates finances, not feast or famine. Notice given was; "By the way, at the end of this pay period..."
That forever allowance was eliminated at the beginning of fiscal year on 1 February. Lowe's did give several months warning. We lost a lot of experienced people over that. Allowances I heard about from folks ranged from $3000/year to $19,000.
SPIFFs and allowances are financed by kickbacks from the manufacturers. As far as I know, the kickbacks did not diminish as compensation for employees did.
I was never in a position that made much more than a few dollars on occasion from either SPIFFs or commissions.