Pros
Great place to work - aside from my long list of cons/short list of pros, I love the company. I am currently considering moving up in the company as soon as I obtain my degree. Plenty of room for advancement - If you have a good work ethic, they will be begging you to accept promotions. Flexible schedule - I have never had a problem with them working 30+ hours around a full-time college load and another job. I fear this might be changing (see cons about scheduling).
Cons
Understaffed - Management sees the bottom line of expenses, not that it takes money to make money. There isn't a day I clock in that some (if not all) areas are understaffed. Mismanagement - When a shift could not regularly complete a simple task (whether it be due to laziness or lack of staff), the problem was not corrected. Instead, the responsibility was moved to another understaffed shift that already has a tiring list of responsibilities. Fully stocking shelves during open hours - This is actually against company policy, but the club I'm in does this nightly with paper goods. Having aisles shut for half an hour to retrieve the merchandise from the steel and congested for another hour to stock the aisle annoys members. This is a cause of loss of memberships and low morale among employees. This responsibility should be left for the night crew. Stocking during the day should only take place when the shelf/pallet is completely empty. Overnight Stocking strategy - The old strategy of 'stock the shelves completely' was thrown out the door. Instead, a list is made by night crew supervisors and management of things to stock each night on what they think will sell well the next day. This leaves the burden of stocking regularly while the store is open. The occasional pallet of water or other high selling item during open hours is expected, but stocking half of the store should not be. Scheduling done by a computer - I understand the potential in this technology, but so far it simply does not work. I just worked Memorial Day weekend with 3 closing cashiers. We had lines of about 15 people at each cashier trying to checkout for 2 solid hours (and well after the club was closed). The system schedules due to last years sales of that day, so it does not account for holiday weekends, first weekend of the month, etc. that should consider the necessary extra staff. Mediocre benefits - They should bring back profit sharing. It is hard to convince myself to continue my job into a career when a company doesn't provide profit sharing, even if they limit it to full-time associates. Even mom and pop retail stores offer profit sharing Also, part timers have no access to dental or vision. Working my way through college on my own, I had to find my own assistance with dental and vision. It cost me more than my medical coverage through the company.
