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Albertsons Companies

Engaged Employer

Humiliating - Retail Associate Albertsons Companies Employee Review

1.0
Dec 20, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Paid weekly and the checks don't bounce.

Cons

In short, with the exception of being arrested and thrown in jail, my 10 years at Albertsons was the most humiliating experience of my adult life. Stifling suppression and discouragement of innovative and creative thinking by micro meddling managers in fear of better ideas by people under their supervision and compelled by their personal insecurities and egos to impose their own will no matter what. A toxic and oppressive atmosphere, incomprehensible incompetence and lack of accountability, double standards and hypocrisy, favoritism and nepotism. Inadequate communication among peers and non at all between upper management and us lower tier drones. "Need to know" information depensed reluctantly by power tripping managers only after a crises occurs because we weren't told in advance. Most feedback is negative. Hardly any positive reinforcement nor encouragement. I received no performance reviews in 9 years and only 2 thereafter. Motivation by intimidation and threat of termination. No Human Resources presence at the store level. Definitive written policies & procedures have been hard to find for lower tier retail people so they don't know when their rights and priveleges are being abused. Corporate personnel were often in the store but they might as well be in another world walking around distant and aloof, dismissing us hourly workers as peons. Ludicrous policies & procedures mandated by clueless corporate clowns with no regard to the operational nightmares they created on the sales floor that actually aggravated the customer experience. Schedules changed every week and every day of every week and posted in as little as 36 hours in advance. "Full Time" doesn't mean 40 hours/week, as little as 30hrs/week. With few exceptions only management and associates with decades of seniority can expect 40 hour weeks. My accrued vacation hours disappeared after Albertsons merged with Safeway in 2016 and neither management nor Human Resources could or would fix it. My experience at Albertsons bespeaks a company that will treat their retail grunts in the trenches like trash and arrogantly presume we don't have the courage, will or savvy to challenge them.

Explore other reviews about Albertsons Companies

5.0
May 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good discounts, a free item every week through the app, hardship fund if approved, option for stocks

Cons

Not enough hours/pay to pay bills, odd hours makes it almost impossible to work a 2nd job

2.0
Mar 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good pay rate, associate discount on groceries, mostly good techs

Cons

Zero work life balance, unless you live to work. "Training" screams of "I don't care". They brag about how GREAT their pharmacist training is, but that was 20 years ago, today their 4 week great training has been shoved into ONE week of on-the-job training with zero follow up or concern that you can't possibly learn all you need in that time, then they shove you out the door. Training during a cyberattack that has nothing working? That's fine, you don't get any extra time despite the fact that you can't learn on a non-working system. Management BS is deep, such as "we want our employees to know why decisions are made" then no way to ask and none of the low level managers has any freaking clue as to why changing an address in the database was changed from just overtyping it to a 5 minute process of logging into a poorly written website to update - and you thought we were bad about it before! And they ask for feedback an entire ONCE a year, with no way of providing it before.

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