Costco Wholesale Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Great pay (11/hr) to start
TIme and a half on Sundays and overtime
Lots of overtime available and offered
Nice management and staff
Very straightforward work
Casual Dress Code

Cons

Customers can be extremely rude
Lots and lots of heavy lifting

Advice to Senior Management

I was very pleased with the management at Costco in Merrillville. I really have nothing to say.

Pros

The benifits and pay are very good. Flexible sched for those who are going to school or have another job.

Cons

Hours of work are not consistant each week. No set sched. which i know comes along with retail but they are still very bad. Employees are treated very poorly by managers. Most managers talk to employees as if they are not real people. Most managers will not listen to anything an employee has to say. Some departments are required to take on the work load of other departments along with their own without any compensation. So you are doing double if not triple the work of a normal employee without any extra pay or even a kind word. The fact that costco pays better and has better benefits then most retail jobs is constantly thrown in your face by managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Send someone to each store undercover as a new employee to check up on how management is treating their hourly workers. You would find out that most employees are treated terribly and that your management is made up of yes men who kiss the feet of the wearhouse managers. You would also see that the managers spend most of their day on their cell phone making personal calls. Also I don't think you would be happy to know that they are talking on their cell phones while driving fork lifts.

Pros

The pay is high for the industry and benefits are available to part-time workers.

Cons

Schedules vary greatly from week to week. There is little work/life balance. The most significant downside of working at Costco is the poor management. Managers always assume negative intent on the part of hourly employees, even seasoned employees who have demonstrated ability and effectiveness. Managers talk down to employees daily and there is little to no respect. Feedback is largely negative.

Advice to Senior Management

A confidential companywide employee satisfaction survey is very much needed. I am confident that if Jim Sinegal really knew what was happening in his buildings, he would be appalled. I also recommend sending H.R. reps to various buildings across the country and conducting confidential interviews with hourly employees from various departments. I know this is costly....but I also strongly believe that it's necessary. Finally, be picky when hiring management! Some education, training and people skills should be essential. Demand mutual respect and consider a 360 appraisal system. Cultivate real leaders.

Pros

One of the many reasons to work for Costco Wholesale is by far the benefits package and the hourly wage/salary. Wall Street has complained and dinged Jim Sinegal in the past but this company takes care of it's employees and the employees in turn care about this great company. I've had a few jobs throughout my lifetime and I can honestly say that I truly enjoy working at Costco and look forward to waking up each morning and going to work. The people that I work with whether it be hourly employees or members of management all have them same attitude and outlook towards the company and their respective careers.

Cons

In my opinion the only downside I see of working at Costco Wholesale is the attitude our members have with employees. A lot of our members have the attitude that they own Costco due to the fact that they have a membership and they can talk to or treat the employees like dirt. The Executive Members are by far the worst. People need to understand that whether or not you pay a membership fee to shop at a store or not, it's a matter of human dignity, and no one deserves to be treated a particular way. I believe that management senior management either has lost focus or touch with this side of the business and that it affects the morale of the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

In my time with the company we've come a long way, but there is still a lot more to learn and room to grow. The company has taken steps towards ensuring equality in regards to advancement and promotions, but has also made some mistakes. I believe they should take yet another look at the equality issue for advancement and promotion of not only women but minorities as well.

Pros

The pay and benefits are good for retail. My retail-working friends were especially upset when they heard about my paid holidays. You don't need an education to go far if you're willing to play the game; one of the assistant managers of my warehouse only has a high school diploma. You can actually move up pretty fast, too, if you'd like. Some of the people I work with are genuinely happy with their jobs, others are trying to move up because they have families to support and need the money. If you're a student there is decent flexibility, but if you're one of the few "below part-time" employees you will lose you benefits. There are enough shifts at the warehouse that it's not difficult to get your 25 hours in and still make it to class, though.

Cons

Cognitive dissonance runs rampant throughout management. You'll try to enforce a policy that they've put in place, but when a member complains management will "take care of the member" and you'll look like the bad guy. Again and again and again. They try to run a lean payroll, occasionally to the point of understaffing the warehouse, but pay for an outside company to come in and clean the warehouse when corporate bigshots come into town. Employees lack equipment and tools necessary to do their jobs (lack of funds), but management is happy to buy gifts for some of our big spenders (convenience stores and the like). Certain favored supervisors and managers are disrespectful to employees but those employees' concerns are brushed off. These problems may be especially bad at my warehouse but from talking to employees of other warehouses I know the problems aren't exclusive to my location.

Training is very limited; you mostly pick things up as you go and ask your coworkers lots of questions. Sometimes the whole thing seems a little cobbled together; many day-to-day policies have no basis in writing, they're simply agreed upon by management.

If you're a supervisor and you like your job, wait six months or a year and you'll be rotated to another department. You liked closing? Well, that's nice, we'll see you at 4 A.M.!

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that we really are all on the same team. I know I'm a lowly hourly employee but when I call a buyer to inform him/her about an issue I've noticed about a product, I'd prefer not to be treated with disdain. I know that Costco U trains mangers not to perform tasks that hourly employees should be doing, lest that employee see and decide he never needs to do that again. That's a ridiculous attitude; nothing inspires me to work harder than seeing managers helping out with grunt work. It's also more efficient when they help (since we're all about that). Expecting 110% sounds like a great idea but it's pretty silly when an employee actually is giving 100%.

I have never met Jim Sinegal but I am insanely curious to find out what kind of distance (if any) there is between his ideas and the way Costco is actually run. He's definitely on my top five list of people I'd like to meet.