Savers reviews

The store I worked at was FILTHY. There were huge spiders and rats.The lunch room was the place where people were supposed to relax and eat, but there were lots of critters in there and no one cleaned up after themselves. There is also an incredible amount of dust, since they don't ever vacuum or have a cleaning crew. They have a plumber who apparently comes once a week to clean the customer bathroom, but I've seen all of the employees clean the bathroom 7 days a week. Expect to clean the bathroom if you work here. The toilet is almost always clogged. The bathroom is also the site of some drug use, as well as the changing room area. On a few occasions, my co-workers found used needles, feces on clothing and in rooms around the store, as well as blood. We were expected to handle this material and throw it out, with or without using gloves. Appalling. The work here is incredibly hard, both physically and mentally. The physical work consists of carrying out clothes and racking them, sometimes for an entire shift. The clothes can be anywhere from 1-10 or 15 pounds when carrying, so you have to be fit enough to work at this job. Value Village puts out hundreds (if not thousands) of new merchandise a day, so people are constantly working. The morning shifts start at 7 and it is a long shift. There is a lot of prep work and then the crowd comes in and ruins all of the work you just put in. The vicious cycle of cleaning after others and then watching them mess it up again is something that will happen every single shift. The company is basically a huge con, as they take in donations and only pay some of the proceeds to charity. A store manager lied to me and said that the majority of the money was being paid to the charity, but they were too cheap to provide the staff that they supposedly valued with any necessities. The soap was always out and the hand towels were infrequently filled. The store is so filthy that one of my friends working there had her asthma come back. I had allergies the entire time I worked there, and got sick more than I ever did when I was not working there. The filthy conditions lower your overall well-being, and since Value Village doesn't pay for days off, it also chips away at your salary. There is a huge possibility for mold, as the store I was working in had water leaking into the basement and around and inside the bathroom. If you work here, expect your respiratory tract to become infected or inflamed at some point, since everyone working at this store should really be equipped with a mask (and a possible hazmat suit). Value Village is extremely unorganized and is late on any type of new technology that would make the job easier for staff. Many of the cash registers never worked, and scanners and debit machines would embarrass staff in front of customers because of how cheap and unprofessional the management and company is. The customers are also one of the worst parts of the job. They abuse employees because of how cheap the company is. There were frequent complaints of the stamp card promotion being a scam, since it pulled customers in but gave them a deadline to receive their discount, which most of them missed. Their stamp cards were never honored past the deadline, which made the customers angry and many of them took it out on the employees. The customers also frequently complained about the rising prices (which is justified), because Value Village has priced used items more than new items would sell for. The company has raised the prices significantly and the customers, again, take their frustration out on the employees. The managers never do anything about it, and one told me not to take it personally when a customer berated me for something I never controlled in the first place (the stamp cards, merchanidse or the prices). Basically, the employees take the brunt of the anger that should be going towards the company's ethics. The schedule is also a problem, since managers easily make mistakes and schedule people when they tell them they're not working. Shifts were always a problem at my store and even though I gave them my school schedule, they scheduled me during class for at least 2 months until I forcibly talked to them multiple times. Many of the staff also received little shifts, since the store tries to make 3 people do the work that 5 or 6 people should be doing. The store is understaffed, so they make part-time workers work full-time without receiving any benefits, raises, or bonuses. The cheapness of this company creates a lot of work for the staff that is bordering on abuse and misconduct. Almost every closing shift, my coworkers and I got off much later than we were intended to, and were not always paid for the extra time. Closing could last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour overtime, and the managers are shady about paying people for that extra time. They always claim that it should only take an hour to close, but when they under staff, it easily creates a situation where employees stay late every night. At some points, I started work at 3 pm and didn't get home until midnight. No one did anything to remedy this, and it still goes on to this day. Many of my co-workers were also treated unjustly, as they didn't get raises when they were supposed to and were also cheated out of their vacation pay. Apparently, Value Village does not give out vacation pay unless the employee is actually leaving the city or the country. Strange. The management also makes a huge deal about taking time off for trips, school or appointments. They don't hire enough staff because they're too cheap, so when someone has a sick day or needs to take time off, they don't have anyone to cover. The sales day at Value Village is the craziest event. It's worse than boxing day. The mess is absolutely horrendous, and of course, the employees stay behind to clean (which takes much more than an hour). The customers don't respect the staff because the company doesn't, which means that people toss everything around and don't care who cleans it up. If the store was more respectable, I doubt this would be the case. Picking up hundreds of pieces of clothing constantly made my back hurt, though I'm fit and young. I've seen pregnant coworkers picking up clothing. The situation is completely disgusting. Working at Value Village was the hardest job I've done because I was paid minimum wage, and was only supposed to get a raise once I worked there a year, though I was one of the most hardworking people. I tried to stay because I loved my coworkers, but the job is so filthy and demeaning that I had to find something else---and almost anything else would be better. Working here is like being an ant that doesn't matter and is only expected to do all of the physical labor. They don't care if you're an intellectual, or if you're smart and interesting. They hire people often because they need bodies to do the work. Oh, and in case you were thinking of working here, take note that in the year I worked here, I had to call the cops multiple times. Many people who have substance abuse problems shoplift because of their lack of income (which is usually not their fault), and the employees are expected to handle it. The workplace is unsafe, especially when the company must know about the illicit activity that happens in its stores. The employees need back up, just for their sanity and their sense of safety at work. it's a retail job----why did I feel like I was on the police force? The sad thing is that I know most of the management meant well (I was friends with all of them), but they couldn't do much because of how cheap and limiting the company is. They couldn't bring in more workers because the store manager wouldn't allow it and was too cheap to pay for them. They couldn't change the conditions because, again, the store was too cheap to get cleaners in or to pay for maintenance. The store was just too cheap, yet they raise prices and pay employees minimum wage. The question is: where is the money going? Not to the charities, or the hardworking people that make this place run. If you want to work here, find another thrift store that is actually connected to a non-profit organization. Don't spend time in a huge machine that benefits no one, except the executives and the top managers.