Pros
Good job if you're going to school, they work around your school schedule very well. There is always openings for promotions if you are a hard worker or if there isn't anyone else to take them. The top out pay isn't too bad considering you are working in a form of retail, and the benefits although not as good as they once were are still very cheap and cover 80%.
Cons
Most people I have worked with don't like working for VONS(Safeway company). As long as you take one of the actual positions other than front end courtesy clerk, they give you job responsibilities and usually there is too much to do in the amount of time you have to do it and you probably won't finish. It's not a big deal for regular clerks because the responsibility of the work always lands on the department manager regardless if they are there that day or not. The benefits aren't bad because they are cheap as long as you don't go to the ER or something, the issue is getting them I believe now takes a year and a half of employment. The biggest issue I think is the pay, the top out is alright as 19.80 as a food clerk and 16.50 as a GM clerk. The problem with the pay is getting to the top I started at VONS when I was 16 unable to be promoted until 18 I started at food clerk at 8.90 from courtesy clerk which has very little responsibility at 8.10. It took 51/2 years to go from 8.90 to 16.50 then the last raise was 3.30 bumping me up to 19.80 it was kind of exciting but I wish I got that raise back when I was making 9 bucks an hour. If your a student there is no reason to get promoted out of the bagger position(courtesy clerk) because you have very little responsibility and just shy of the same pay as everyone else in outside departments. The biggest issue is that when you take a promotion to an outside department your pay will increase anywhere between 40 and 80 cents, but you will go from being one of the better courtesy clerks to being at the bottom again in a department which means you will get less hours and make less money. you can be the card board clerk that gets 40 hours a week making 8.10 an hour to become the liquor manager who only gets 24 hours more responsibility and an increase in pay of about 40 cents. The worst part I work the dairy department 40 hours a week 8 hours a day, but everyday i have at least 10 to 12 hours worth of work and only 8 hours to do it.