It's a sad skeleton of what was an exemplary retailer in how to treat and retain customers and employees.
Pros
As a company, Trader Joe's has not yet found a way to control the thoughts of individual employees. So, you can still think what you want, but your opinion is not welcome (because Kaizen is ancient history.)
Cons
As a company, the Trader Joe's I was hired by no longer exists. The culture we once embraced is gone. The employees have been smacked in the face with the new reality but the customers are just beginning to figure it out. Benefits and pay raises have been slashed, any perk available on the store level has been cut, no incentives for employees or even a thank you at the end of the day. There is a universal feeling that management is gunning for highly paid and/or older workers- hiring lots of youth and making life difficult for higher paid established workers. Store management is in complete turmoil, running scared of the corporate drones. The product quality has declined to the point where there is not any consistency from one shipment to the next. Trader Joe's is always looking for a cheaper way to produce a product and most of the time it comes in reductions in size or quality. The labeling errors are at best hideous, and at the worst, legally actionable. We say we don't add MSG to our products but that's only because we can call it 50 other things to try and fool you. There is no safety equipment in the stores so the injuries to employees from repetitive stress injuries are rampant. Scheduling is spotty, full schedule one week, no days the next. Take a sick day? Uh Oh, the next week you find few hours. This reeks of punitive scheduling practices. The CAPTAIN of the store is the one in charge and to whom the middle managers answer. This is the individual who has a finger on the pulse of the store and controls the total environment- for the crew and the customers. A great Captain will run a tight ship with high standards, clear expectations, and a happy and productive crew. These captains are few and far between because of the pivotal shift in the direction of the company. Overall, the morale of the employees company wide has taken a nose dive from the days where we had great benefits at 20 hours a week, decent raises based on performance, and wonderful retirement. That's all history now, and it shows on the face of every employee who experienced the decline. Customers are seeing the new culture now, employees are not as happy as they used to be. Management is unprofessional. Managers are inexperienced and misdirected as to what management really means. It doesn't mean being the company cop, or gossip facilitator, or the one who hangs out in the back doing nothing for hours. It means LEADING A CREW TO ACCOMPLISH A GOAL by mentoring rather than standing around talking with their fellow do nothings. Crew working with management on this level is frustrating and unproductive. It is a wide spread problem. Favoritism and gossip being spread by management is rampant. Not a favorite- better watch your back and every word that comes out of your mouth, as your semi annual review will be written by someone you don't work with and will be based on gossip. Have a difficult customer? Be prepared to defend every word you said to them, because if a customer is not happy there is a crew member to blame and if you are the daily target, it might be you. Top management in the store fails to lead, perpetuates negative morale with out of place and sometimes public employee reprimands, and has trumped up issues to collect write ups to force employees out the door over minor issues that do not lead to firing of all employees, just the ones on the hit list (older and/or highly compensated). It does appear to be a company wide trend to force out the high wage and/or older employees... .