Pros
- Co-workers (non-management) - Some customers - Convenience After working at Shaw’s I have to say some of the co-workers were awesome. Hey, we’re all trying to survive and when they see you in the same boat, hustling and working hard, it’s all good. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting some of the most interesting people in a supermarket!! Some of the customers were the same. Real cool. There were some really beautiful customers that I remember coming in through the doors. As soon as they did, every single person asked if they needed anything. And that’s a rarity. If you’re ugly, good luck finding help. But if you’re an 8 and above, you don’t even have to lift a finger. There are Shaw’s stores all over the downtown Boston area! Which is HIGHLY convenient for anyone looking to transfer and work close to school or home.
Cons
- Management - Other customers - Pay/promotion freezes - Cleaning - BUSINESS Management can be tough and uncaring and most of them are old unlike the young guns at Whole Foods Market. But the clerks working their butts off keeping the store alive are the real heroes. Pretty much because there’s a HUGE gap between payrolls. Managers can make three times as much as an ordinary clerk - $9.50/hr. As for STORE MANAGERS, forget about it! Unless you’re a part of the management family you won’t get far. Other customers can be nasty and blame you for their issues, even their personal issues. I mean come on. If you don’t have anything that they want, they will do anything in their power to make you look bad. The pay and promotion freezes are AWFUL. One of my co-workers said she was working at the store for the past five years and she never got a raise or a promotion. But she did see others reap those rewards after only two months of work!! The cleaning… If you applied to work at produce, grocery, OR the front end and beat out thousands of applicants for the job, you’d expect to do the job that you applied for right? WRONG. According to rumor, if you possess a weak, submissive personality management will have their way with you and make you clean the entire store, non-stop for the duration of your shift. If it’s not in your job description then why are you cleaning the store??? I remember my manager going on an impassioned tirade about work and almost telling me the REAL reason why I got hired. “You’re here to work. To help us work. To clean. That’s why you’re here. That’s why I hired… err, umm, yeah you get the idea.” LMAO!! Like I said before, there are Shaw’s stores all over the downtown Boston area! But I guess that business model has run its course. With increasing competition and the general public on a tight budget, the Shaw’s brand has taken a fatal hit. With Whole Foods taking over Johnnie’s and a Wegmans moving in, it looks like Shaw’s will possibly be phased out and absorbed by Star Market. Which means store closings in the near future. It’s hard to believe that simply working in a supermarket and climbing the ladder back in the day meant security and stability. But now, as the rug is pulled from under hard working employees people are seeing red. This possibly explains the sheer anger and bitterness coming from management.
