Pros
Overall, I've been very happy with my position at TJ's primarily because of the fun, supportive work environment and really fair pay. I had no prior experience in retail, but they started me off at $11.50 an hour, which is certainly not bad for a grocery store! Every six months, there's an opportunity for a pay raise if you get positive reviews from management and don't have any negative write-ups. In turn, the managers' own pay also depends on our reviews of them, so it's a very fair system that, for the most part, I think encourages everyone to treat one another with respect. Also, the mates (our managers) feed us a lot of delicious food for free, partly so that we can expand our knowledge about the store's products, but also just because they're thoughtful and nice! This is certainly a job that keeps you on your feet, which I actually quite like! I don't enjoy all of the roles that we have to play in the store, but, I love that the job generally keeps me active and moving around all day. However, if you tire easily or can't do heavy lifting, then there are also quite a few positions around the store that aren't quite as labor-intensive. Scheduling can sometimes be an issue too, but there isn't necessarily much that can be done on that front. I am almost always on closing shifts and often work weekends since that's the time when the store needs workers the most, but this schedule makes it incredibly difficult to find time to hang out with friends. I do think the mates are understanding about this, though. They try to vary the schedule a bit so that you get some reasonable free time. And, of course, they're generally flexible and try to accommodate your preferences whenever possible.
Cons
At the end of the day, it's a retail job, so you get a lot of retail problems, most of which stem from difficult customers as opposed to the company itself. The difficulty of the clientele can vary widely from store to store, so the degree and frequency of difficulty may be relatively high or low depending on the location. I suppose the store where I work falls somewhere in the middle, though there are certainly days when it feels like all of the worst people decide to come in at once. There are two main things about the company itself that actually really bother me. First, I don't like how secretive it can be about the sources of its products. I just wish there were a bit more transparency with respect to information about suppliers. And second, I absolutely hate how much excessive packaging there is for so many of the products and the lack of a more comprehensive vision of environmental stewardship and sustainability. It is absolutely absurd that the store I work for, which has been around for over a decade, only just recently got a large recycling bin. And even with it there, I still see my own coworkers routinely throwing recyclable plastic bottles and aluminum cans into the trash. Additionally, I don't think that the cups at the demo station used to serve food and beverages are recyclable, nor am I certain that they are sustainably sourced. If at the very least the cups were made of a plant-based plastic, I wouldn't be quite so annoyed with how much they contribute to the waste the store produces. At least the cardboard and most of the plastic wrapping from packages is recycled, but the ideal would be to not even have so much of it in the first place by simply reducing the unnecessary quantities used to package the products.