Pros
Access to 401k. Good medical and dental. Vacation and sick leave. Union. Believe it or not, your union contribution helps you more than you realize. It’s possible to build good relationships with coworkers and customers. You’d be amazed of your customer clientele and who they are. They are regular people, like you, that enjoy conversation, networking and building relationships as well. I have found many opportunities there and have built many good relationships, but just know that REQUIRES good customer service. If you don’t have that, don’t even consider applying. Remember, when YOU shop somewhere, you expect to be treated nice and pleasantly as well, so do your family and friends. The friendships you can develop in a positive work environment are endless.
Cons
Well, I will respectfully say there are many. Many inconsistencies with policies, procedures and business models as with all business to a degree. The store you work at is only as good as the management system starting with the District Managers. They set the standard as that pace continues to the Store Directors. While many SD’s can absorb the pressure and redirect some of the negativity applied be the DM’s, they are human too and most try to manage their store well because when you do well, they do well. Not always the case as we all understand from the element of human nature but close. I have been with Vons for 20 years and was a DM for a major nation wide publicly traded company before I started here and I managed 26 SD’s, 26 ASD’s and roughly 125 employees at any given time so that should validate my statements. We were very successful because I understood the value of people and their roles in employment and other opportunities in their functions. The DM’s that I have encountered at Vons display skills yet to be desired, generally speaking. The demands place on sales, shrink, customer service, total market share and share holder value consistently rise as the economy gets tougher and tougher but the empathy for employees by upper level managers (beyond the store) gets weaker and is rarely addressed as any real negative or positive feedback from the store level gets beyond the DM level. I am honesty perplexed as to how some of those DM positions are filled with mediocre ability. I’m not saying those are “bad people” because I don’t know them, I only identify and mention the displayed skill sets. Corrective actions for policies and procedures can be inconsistent as the SD’s try to scale their operations to meet demanding criteria. The admin and “red tape” work is absolutely ridiculous. The redundancy of so many procedures is outlandish. Especially when the practice is abandoned so quickly just to adopt some other “procedure” and eventually the same procedure will circle back around. I think saving more payroll at the corporate level and redistributing it to the stores will yield better sales, reduce shrink, and increase productivity. A happy employee will perform FAR BETTER than an angry, frustrated, unappreciated, unproductive and otherwise unmotivated employee. The payroll is completely wasted in negative functions, sadly. The overall compensation is not as good as it seems. I’ve seen people leave here to work fast food at the CA $20/hr minimum wage, grind it out for awhile and make it to restaurant manager making $90k per year and up with fewer sacrifices in the long run.