Pros
I personally find stocking to be fun. I get along well with my department mangers and other associates. Very understanding about days off and vacations. My managers are also very willing to work my hours around college/personal needs. My department managers will compliment if I do a good job, yet let me know in a non-degrading manner if I need improvement in other areas. Holiday pay is also a plus. Overall, a pretty laid-back job so long as corporate/store managers aren't bothering you.
Cons
Low pay, and low hours on top of that. You make 80$ a week at part-time, regardless if you work hard or stand around and do nothing. The union makes it impossible to get fired, which is a blessing and a curse. People who are lazy or have a terrible work ethic will find the union to be a haven, which in turn, makes it unfair to those who actually want to work. District managers and corporate have no sense of reality. For example, they make you carry around a clicker and count how many times you say hi to a customer. Very cheesy and inefficient in my opinion, as nobody is honest with their results. The saddest part of all is that people in corporate actually get paid to come up with ideas like these. They believe it will promote, "superior customer service", disregarding the fact that just about every associate knows it's common sense to be courteous to a customer. I find my store manager to be incompetent, and I'm not just saying that because she's my boss. I have no problem with someone telling me what to do, but the manner in which she approaches you is infuriating. It's one thing if they have to cut payroll/hours to maintain business, yet I find it very disrespectful when she's finding ways to keep payroll cut continiously. Then to add insult to injury, instead of complimenting you for working hard, she will ridicule you for the most minuscule errors. Sadly enough, the money seems to float up in the company. A recent president retired with an 11 million dollar bonus, yet our department can barely keep enough payroll to have us all work 12 hours a week. Overall, corporate is driving the business into the ground. I would not recommend this job to anyone for the time being. I personally hope they improve their business practices before there is no longer a chain of Jewel-Osco's, but rather a chain of Walmart wannabes.