Pros
1. I enjoyed the clientele that the company attracts. 2. The products they sell are exceptional in quality and price. 3. I enjoyed cooking “the spread” for the taste testing. 4. The benefits are excellent. 5. They throw GREAT parties. 6. They pride themselves on their honesty (corporate level only)
Cons
1. I find them to be ignorant of even the most basic of management practices (hiring/firing/training/project-managing/time management/P & L, to name a few). 2. The company does a very poor job of training their supervisory and above levels ( i.e., worked with people that had been in a supervisory role for 10+ years and were highly ignorant of crucial, good-food practices). 3. The store was consistently poorly cleaned (the meat cases were not cleaned for many months, the cold cases were filthy; when this was brought up to higher management you were then, from that point on, “black-balled”). 4. The relentless lack of consistency and professionalism on the management level (captain/first mate/supervisory levels)were amazingly bad. Favoritism ruled (good ole’ boys club)! I was constantly amazed of the promotions that were given out like candy. 5. The company wastes an ENORMOUS amount of money on the Trader Joe University jaunts. The people teaching them MUST be related to corporate -- for they are clueless. The company possesses exceptionally poor training methods throughout all levels of the company. Small example: While at the store, if you can grab your teaching literature and hide somewhere on the premises without being seen, you can try to read a paragraph or two (which MUST be accomplished) before you must return to the floor to work -- there is no structured time allowed to study…NONE. 6. You are more than likely to be injured on this job. I will truly say, if you do NOT go to the gym 3 times a week, avoid working for this company. Not so much for the actual lifting, but the extreme demand on the few people that actually do work, (while the rest of the “divas” stand behind the desk/hide and goof off--YES,I am referring to the middle management/upper management). Many of the loading docks and lifting equipment are in questionable shape, just inviting daily injury. The stores are crudely put together allowing for easy injuries of the employees (most stores are a “throw-togethers). The cash register areas need to be upgraded immediately (this area alone allows for so many preventable injuries). W/C must be just loving that area. 7. They waste an ENORMOUS amount of money on doing the hand-lettered signs in each store. Translation: hemorrhage. 8. All of the input for ordering is done by actual body count and entered with pencil into a notebook. (For goodness sakes --the technology/software exists -- BUY IT). Again, due to the lack of training, there is an enormous amount of waste of perishable products (YES, even when the management was ordering). 9. The store I was run as if you were seven years old, with a group of your little friends, and a “Let’s put on a show!” mentality. The management was utterly clueless. 10. The supervisors have zero quality of home life. After being worked to death during your shift, you would be scheduled to return in six hours and work another ten hours. 11. The district management never looked at the store, or spoke to the other employees, he would go and hide with the manager and chat happily. All the while the store was unsanitary, with heavy losses, an untrained staff, and theft (Yes, corporate was aware of this). Nice. 12. Oh, the list could go on, and I have heard that the company has now started to slide harder. It really is a shame.