When I got hired 3.5 years ago, I took a pay cut to work at Trader's just to try something new, and I've never regretted any decision I've made in my life more than taking a position there.
The Management are cruel, spiteful and petty... lies on your reviews are pretty common, and they have fostered a canniballistic environment wherein your friends within the store will tattle on you like little children just to curry favor with them. On top of all that, many of them are barely compentent enough to know what's going on around them, with each giving you conflicting orders, which can lead you to look foolish because one of the three Full-Timer's requests didn't get finished.
Favoritism is rampant, and blatently obvious to anyone that pays attention, especially if you're not a "If I put my head in this sand, I won't get hurt!" type of person, or a person that benefits from said system, which many people do. These guys are far less likely to see any error with the things that go on around them.
Also, you get obnoxious customers with a sense of entitlement that lets them think that its okay to treat you like you're "The Help", and not even talk to you when you say hi to them, but instead do that finger-pointing gesture that says,"Shut up, peasant, and bag my groceries!" I've never treated people like that in my life, but I'm told that you're not allowed to say anything, which is pretty screwed up.
It's the only job I've ever had where I can go home feeling exhausted after a long day of hard work, and know that I will get some insulting comments from the Managers the next day. They rely on the Part-Timers doing an excellent job on a daily basis while undercutting them verbally and psychologically. I don't know what's worse, the comments, or that creepy corporate Robo-tron smile that so many of them have glued to their faces while they do it.
I was hired for my original sense of humor and odd outlook from my varied life experiences, and the company apparently doesn't want people like me working for them anymore... since most of my contemporaries have been either fired or forced to quit.
If you work for Trader's, I have a question for you: When's the last time you remember those funny posters the company would make for the break room, with the assorted cheeses on it, that said they like their employees to be a little different? I miss that stuff, and the company stopped doing it years ago... maybe it's because that's not the kind of employees they want anymore.
And the criticism is something that you can rarely defend yourself from, since a majority of it is all in the Full-Timer's heads, and has no basis in reality.
