Pros
weekends off (except holidays), Sick Days (not heard of in most other route sales jobs) The company really has a good heart, but has completely lost it's focus on core items.
Cons
lost focus, poor marketing, awful medical benefits, poor work-life balance, miserable pay, trying to build their business on other people's products which are only approved in crappy accounts. These guys just don't get it. They spend more money and time worrying about small accounts which will make $10 a week than spending that money on promotions where the product will sell. The competition is promoting the heck out of their products, and building scan based data to gain space, while we sit on usually some of the highest retails and then jam the hell out of accounts that will not turn the product, or get you market sales data. The constant push to sell things you know won't sell in your market, then the ear beating you take because the same items became returns is almost unbearable. I have been in this business for a very long time, and sadly, have watched Herr's market share consistently go the wrong direction. Space in the busiest accounts on the market either doesn't exist, or continues to shrink...but there is plenty of space in the drug stores, which stale as much or more than they sell. I truly liked this job, even with the horrible hours spent selling to every pizza shop, beer store, and gas station but the situation is getting very grim.. There is more gas, stale, and time spent servicing these accounts than the said benefits being reaped. Turn over is very high, and the managers are always glorified route runners. I wouldn't take the work load that they have to deal with for $100k a year. The guys manage to stay positive, somehow, but work basically every day of the week, including Sundays and holidays. The upper Management seems to have blinders on, and want to blame everything on the lower managers and the route people. Although we are considered Sales, the reality of this business is you are a rack jammer, as fitting 20+ accounts a day takes any chance of you coming back to talk to a manager, PLUS, most corporate accounts have space allocated thru corporate, which the key account people never seem to manage to land those allocations.
