Trader Joe's reviews

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.

-Schedule is bad, you'll be working most of the time early am (like 4am) or night (until midnight or later). If you have friends and family look elsewhere -You have to move to a different store temporarily when promoted to manager -It's retail and repetitive even if work is broken down -Managers have to work 10 hours -Customers are unusually needy at this store, they think Trader Joes is there to caress their ego -No union, that explains a good amount of the above, for example mates working 10 hours. Labor movements fought for 8 so it looks like we are going backwards. -No consistency with managers, you'd think your working in two different stores -Micromanaging, usually done by the subpar managers or the people that don't do anything and think that's something -One of the few places (or only) that makes you raise a paddle to call a customer to your register. On top of that you'll have some managers tell you to have your paddles up every 2-3 seconds (usually the ones who micro manage). -Pay is terrible, what else can you expect from a private retail company owned by a capitalist -I know at least 2 people who make more than me who came after me (and around same age and education level) but because of the wage increase they can in very close or more to what I make.