Went from cool job to depressing and greedy and mismanaged
Pros
Generally your coworkers are nice when they don’t have to compete for hours. Store discount and food is pretty good. Used to have decent benefits but have gone downhill and are more difficult to keep and receive.
Cons
Trader Joe’s has taken a tumble the last few years and if you sit and read through many recent reviews on various sites you’ll see the same phrases repeated like bad management, favoritism, sexism and racism! All very true! Of course not all management across all stores can be bad but those who are more recently being promoted up the chain especially to captain seem to do so through that favoritism & sexism more and more! And once you are placed in a management position it’s hard to be fired, you can do no wrong no matter how many complaints they get! As long as these new captains cut labor cut insurance and keep hiring at starting wage keeping them $$$ rolling in nothing else matters. Some more proof of change and not for the better, five years ago if you walked into almost any Trader Joe’s (unless just opened?) and asked how long all the employees had been with the company it seemed everyone kept this job and many would say years! When I first started the majority had been with the store since opening or even before transferring from elsewhere which was a comforting feeling like you have something stable. They also put more energy and effort into training because hey it’s for the long haul. That is not the case today I dare you walk into any Trader Joe’s and ask employees, more and more are new hires mostly because the changes have become unbearable. Another reoccurring statement you hear is not getting paid for extra work which is incredibly true! You have section leaders and order writers that don’t have any benefits other than more work and possibly more stable hours but even that is in question. If your desire is to move up in the company then I supposed that is expected of you to try your hand at the orders, yet there are many I’ve seen that are great at their job so continue to be made/asked to be an order writer some that even do desire to move up in the company but hey back to that favoritism will never be promoted. There have been several times at my store recently it was difficult to find people to be order writers for this reason. And since you can’t force a crew member to take on an order they were hiring more newbies (while simultaneously cutting hours and claiming not enough work to go around??) just to write the orders which has led to some serious under and over ordering of products due to inexperience or lack of care. Now COVIDWISE. The store briefly had hazard pay and we’re more lenient on absences due to sickness. Yet that’s all gone! All the while more crew are sick than ever and still coming to work even when ill because they can’t afford not to with the little hours they are getting not to mention trying to keep insurance since that’s a balancing act all on your own. They have taken down all plexiglass and all forms of covid precautions including not enforcing masks. Another thing that was bothersome early on in the pandemic Trader Joe’s was one of the last companies/ grocery stores who did anything about covid even though majority of employees were voicing concern. They seem like a more liberal and inclusive company but that is no longer true. Corporate corporate corporate is the new name of the game. Another thing about management. There are some that are always gone! The benefits you get at the top in terms of paid time AR and more are very generous. At my store current captain is on “vacation” at least once a month for days or weeks at a time! And when you have newer mates they don’t want to make decisions or don’t feel comfortable a lot more falls through the cracks. I know majority of the mates are frustrated by this but are afraid to speak up and especially when making the schedule captain has final say and reviews the schedule so it’s hard to work with crew on any changes when the person who gives the okay is gone for 10 days at a time frequently! I don’t get how this works and is okay?? There’s so much more that could be said. But truth is if they don’t make some major changes soon nobody will recognize Trader Joe’s as the friendly great products great Custer service and great values small neighborhood community driven store. Even as a customer in my store or others the vibe the customer service and that special something that made shopping a unique fun time is gone. I know grocery stores and the service industry in general are not the most fun to be right now but go in to any of the 6 competing grocery stores down the road and I’m greeted with more smiles and better energy than any Trader Joe’s right now and that just makes me sad as it was a stand out working there. And to all those writing 5star reviews recently; I know you feel grateful to have a job and some security and it may be better than your last awful job but they are anti union anti change just like most in charge in this world today are feeding you just enough to stay “happy” or feel desired or accepted when in reality you don’t matter to them. I had a captain tell me and overhear say to others more than once “well sorry if that bothers you…sorry you think we should be helping more…sorry can’t give more hours…sorry I know it’s frustrating… but in the end I can always hire new people the company has a good reputation we will always find someone to do it some newbie to hire the company will always be fine no matter how many of you have issue. “ This mentality needs to go!