A&P Reviews

Pros

No pressure, respectful, close to home

Cons

Salary, not good benefit, secure job

Advice to Senior Management

I think Management is doing a great job now, but I don't know if it is enough because the company is in bad shape.

Pros

Medical benefits are good, although the co-pays have gone up recently.
Non-management workers are down to earth and good people

Cons

I don't even know where to begin. I work in a department where theres alot involved, and also requires much physical labor, i would say 50 times more then any other department in the store. Its also responsible for over half the store's incoming gross. Yet none of upper in-store management has a lick of experience in this department. This results in horrid discrepancies not just on a daily basis, but an hourly basis, and naturally results in alot or irate workers. In the last 5 years, the alotted budget for this department has decreased, and many workers who quit or left have not been replaced. It seems every month I'm finding new meanings to the phrase "Slave Labor". If your looking for a company where it exists, you'll find it in these stores. It doesn't exist for every worker, but there are workers who get kicked around to the point of injury or quitting, and its becoming more and more routine as time goes by. These aren't lazy or bad workers, but good workers who are milked and harrassed for what they can muster. If a job used to take 3 people to get finished, now they expect it to be done with 1. If you do a good job they expect a little more the next time, and a little more after that, and on it goes. And its done with total disrespect and lack of intelligence and/or experience. While this goes on for 1 worker, there are plenty of lazy workers in other departments who are left alone (why). On top of all this, the company routinely issues down new and innane rules to management that seem to be designed to rattle and annoy its workers. Many other headaches ensue as well. For example, every week my department manager issues a schedule for his workers. Before it gets posted, the store's head manager goes through it and slashes hours of the part time workers without the department managers knowledge. When the department manager sees the posted schedule and new changes, he "writes in" what he originally had scheduled, because thats what is needed to get the job done. Some of the workers don't come in on those days, because they are sick of being winged around.. in the end, the department suffers and the head manager will do it again a million times over. This is the tip of the iceberg of problems in this cesspool. As the saying goes, it starts at the top, and the top of this place is down near hell.

Advice to Senior Management

I feel its hopeless to offer advice, but I'll try anyway. In-store managers should have at least 1 year experience in all crucial departments, especially the one that grosses over half what the store brings in. Most of them can't even differentiate between a useful worker and a useless one. Learn to identify whats truly going on. Put an end to ass-kissing, productivity should be everything. Stop overkilling good workers. Put money into store safety. There are some extremely unsafe working conditions going on, my store would probably be shut down if reported. Reverse what was taken away in the latest contracts. That was extremely greedy, heartless

Pros

The really only pro is it's unionized so you get decent benefits.

Cons

Don't expect reasonable hours. Holidays you're going to work to 10 pm latest. They think saying open really late on holidays is going to help out of their financial debt. Your paychecks are going to be reduced 3% because the corporate people need bonuses so you pay for it.

Pros

was near to home, thats why i took this job, I learnt retail industry, developed apps for user who loved it

Cons

middle mgmt, they think they own the company. They look down on you. Funny part is they do not say the word "Thanks" intead "Ah huh" :)

Advice to Senior Management

they filed bankuptcy, now stock is in pennies, and same old it middle manament still ther now occupying offices sad for the user who i supported.

Pros

- Reasonable compensation (no bonuses though).
- The non-management level employees are very down-to-earth, sincere people.
- Casual dress code.

Cons

- Terrible mid-level to senior-level management in some groups of the corporate office. Very political environment with mismanagement of projects and employees (expect to be assigned new projects at all hours of your evenings and weekends due to mismanagement or miscommunication between managers. Almost every project assigned is done so at the last minute and due as soon as possible = same day/night, even when it could have been easily avoided). All subordinates can expect to publicly take the blame for their managers' mistakes (e.g. giving subordinates inaccurate directions in completing a project) during meetings with senior leaders.
- Lack of respect or loyalty to the employees. My experience was that non-manager mployees, experienced or associate level, are expected to give up their personal lives, including family obligations.
- Lack of willingness to adjust management styles/office rules to improve employee efficiency or the working environment. In addition, many employees are advised against giving honest, constructive feedback to their managers, even when asked for it.
- Severe micromanagement (be prepared to have a manager sit on your desk almost the entire day).
- Depending on your group, attending training sessions may not be encouraged.
- Inadequate technology to complete projects.

Advice to Senior Management

1) Value your employees - many of them have been working hard for you for many years and truly care about the company.
2) Improve the lines of communication with each other, especially when you're working on a project together.
3) Eliminate incompetent managers - encourage feedback from your employees.

Pros

easy, laid back, and very flexible

Cons

Customers are dumb. Management couldn't walk straight at times.

Advice to Senior Management

More micromanaging, and make people care about working there.

Pros

You get a lot of hours if you want them.

Cons

Low pay, not much respect from management or customers.

Advice to Senior Management

Paying minimum wage isn't much of an incentive to keep employees.

Pros

It was an easy job. Gave me a source of income during the summer months since I had no school.

Cons

The job is very repetitive as any other cashier job. Made little money while working there because of union dues.

Pros

Great working environment here. Thank you.

Cons

Location is not the best.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work.

Pros

Health insurance, high chance of good co-workers on the same level as you, meet a lot of interesting people (good and bad)

Cons

Management is awful, promotions aren't based on merits and are based on who sucked up the most, you are expected to give up your personal life, disrespectful and condescending management, rude customers who view you as their slave

Advice to Senior Management

Work with your employees, reward them for a good job instead of punishing them for it, look for employee feedback on management to keep management in check.