Weighing a contract offer against waiting after 8 years as a store manager

I got a contract offer for 8 months as a store manager and I am unsure whether to accept. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I would gain recent experience. Did a contract become permanent?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.