Pros
The food... The great, simple recipe ideas. Samples. Seriously, you are eating something delicious every day. Because we hire a broad range of diverse, engaging people, there are no better people to work with. People generally work hard, are friendly, and uplift and support one another. The benefits are pretty wonderful considering it's a grocery store.
Cons
I am a Mate, or Full-Timer. There is absolutely no way around it: Trader Joe's will take up every waking moment of your life. You work 50 hours a week and are expected to run every aspect of the store, from breaking down pallets, copious amounts of admin, HR... All while smiling and showing no signs of frustration and giving every customer a perfect experience. You will have no life. When you finally get a day off... Which will most likely be in the middle of the week... You'll want to sleep all day. Your second day off you will do your chores, errands, etc, and if you're lucky, maybe a friend will be up for dinner or something. Nothing too crazy though, because for everyone else, it's a week night. You'll go back to work the next day feeling like a social loser, still tired, and ready to repeat the process. You will get injured. It's only a matter of when. Every single person I know who works at Trader Joe's for any length of time will have back problems, repetitive motion injuries, especially us Mates who are typically responsible for breaking down the load every day. Your friends will NOT understand your schedule, and slowly you'll be written off as a social option because you are ALWAYS working... Or at least always working when they're off. If you are coming in from the outside and starting out as a Mate, you might receive a decent wage. If you're like me and you're promoted from within, your wage will be a laughable slap in the face for the amount of work you do and the amount of BS you put up with every day. With a smile on your face, of course. You'll be caught up in it all at first. You'll drink the Kool-aid. But slowly, over time, you'll see exactly why I've become bitter about Trader Joe's and cringe when I hear people say things like "Oh I hear it's such a great place to work! Everyone is so nice!!! Yay rainbows and unicorns and butterflies!!" Blerggggg.