Verbally abuse our employees at Publix and you walk out the door with free items!
Pros
Starting pay is a lot better than most comparable places. The hours are flexible and they are willing to working with school and other job schedules. Good benefits such as tuition reimbursement and stock.
Cons
Management picks favorites. You tend to see people undeserving of positions being promoted while people who have been in the company for years, and are very qualified and deserving, have not been offered any promotion even upon showing significant interest. The stores allow the "Publix Promise" to be severally abused. Customers can act completely classless and belligerent and are almost guaranteed free items. This company is a huge pushover. Customers will literally come up with a completely ridiculous "error" (Claiming signs said the item was on sale when it was clearly marked for certain varieties only or a different product altogether, etc.) and management just lets it slide. That is why they always come back and do it again, because they know they can get away with it. The system for getting full-time is ridiculous. They require you to crosstrain in multiple departments. A friend of mine who was trained in both Customer Service and Produce asked for full-time and was told by the store manager that she would need to train in a third department because she could be made FT. She was promised it would only be temporary and she could choose not to work in said department if she ended up not liking. After significant time in the new department, she was asked if she be moved back completed to Produce. Her request was denied by the SM, even after his assurance she would not be required to be in the department permanently. She is still stuck working in that department two days a week. Another friend of mine had been working at the store for several years. He was promised full-time, and agreed to being cross trained in another department. As time progressed, he kept being persistent and asking, every time being reassured they were "working on it". He eventually got fed up with waiting and being lied to and transfered to a different store. We had a very irresponsible and unprofessional Assistant Department Manager who was reported multiple times to both the SM and HR. No disciplinary action was ever taken against him, seemingly because his father has a lot of status in the company. I feel as if corporate is never on the same page as the stores. The members of corporate who would come in regularly always had an "I'm better than you" attitude. Many of the policies at this store are ridiculous and they are not willing to make any reasonable exception to said policies, unless you are a "favorite" of course. My SM never wanted to hire anyone. We were always understaffed the whole time I worked there. As a result, there were always unrealistic expectations set and pissed off customers. Associates were expected to pick up the slack they truly should have been covered by more than one person. Throughout my time at Publix, I constantly ran across scenarios that my training did not even begin to cover. I always had to figure everything out myself. I never felt that I was properly trained to carryout my job duties. Upon asking someone higher up, my questions were never answered. My biggest issue with Publix is that their open door policy is a huge lie. Your opinion is not valued at all unless you hold a "significant" position within the company. In all, I feel this company is not at all what it strives to look like from the outside.