Many years of wonderful experiences
Pros
Worked for this company many years, from high school through college to full-time job first few years in working world. Was on night crew for five years with two stores. Have had countless experiences positive, mainly with customers who you are trained to go above and beyond for. Was one of the greatest experiences in my life to connect with many customers at my most recent location, a major university city where a large portion of customers were college students and so there was always someone new walking through the door to get to meet along with regulars who you got to know as good friends. One of the best companies in the world in many regards--one of largest employee owned private companies in US, great diversity with variety of backgrounds/walks of life in workforce, multiple opportunities for growth and advancement, numerous opportunities to perpetually learn and grow as retail/grocery industry is awe-inspiring and constantly changing like other industries. This is one of the companies that will say they treat employees as family and mean it, from annual holiday parties to events recognizing years of service. Also customer service is awesome and among best anywhere, employees are expected to go above and beyond for customers and make a difference in their lives.
Cons
Umm, things that should not happen at any workplace that made it impossible to do my job. Thankfully behind the scenes so customers did not realize. Every place has its fair share of disorder and frustration and stress. But come on, if it's unethical or illegal it should be NO TOLERANCE. I'm talking about things like managers bragging about going to a bar after a long night's work and coming back to a morning meeting(this leads to very bad modeling when months later my night crew coworker was terminated for the same thing). Wages are often pretty good, but go fast if coworkers "borrow" large sums of money. Usually places have a "no call, no show" policy like three times and you're considered willfully leaving job. Well if you are sick and call in with no message being relayed by overly busy day managers you might get called at home ten or twenty times though you are home asleep trying to recuperate. (Please note these things did not all directly happen to me, but I was firsthand witness or experienced some). Hours can be very unexpectedly long. Overtime is a great perk/incentive that employees should take advantage of in numerous jobs. But if you are at a retail location that frowns upon overtime and the extra hours are always following a "it's going to be a long long night 'cause three people called in sick and we've got a super large truck and you don't have to stay but really you SHOULD," it is really going to do a number on your morale and personal health after a couple years. Okay, didn't realize bad incidents would take up that much room(easy to see why I had to quit), but please pay attention to pros for every company has its ghosts in the closet and I know that if I had worked harder to address these issues to managers they would have been taken care of.
