Costco Wholesale Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

Great pay, fellow assistants for the most part are very friendly and helpful, all cashiers have done front end work and they completely know what you're going through so most of them will give you advice or help you more than they have to, free membership

Cons

Only four hours of training, a lot of learning on the job so you never know if you're doing things the right way until the employee review, extremely fast work environment and lifting those bulk items for four hours is not easy! Some managers and cashiers seemed to have forgotten how physically demanding the job is and will berate you or glare at you in front of customers.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember what it was like working the least respected job in the warehouse. Everyone has been through it and management needs to respect assistants more. Give more training to new employees. Four hours is not enough to learn everything there needs to work efficiently. For example, teach new assistants how to repack a basket. It is overwhelming and teaching assistants how instead of expecting them to learn instantly will make things easier.

Pros

Good Benefits, Variety of cross training opportunities, good people, very decent pay for the job

Cons

A lot of politics, depending on your store and department. Extremely strict policies regarding write-ups (also depending on store)- tardies, absences, failing to sign timecards, being more than 3 minutes late coming back from lunch...

Advice to Senior Management

Promotions based more on performance than internal politics.

Pros

Good pay, management will take notice of hard workers and work to give them more hours, open door policy, fellow works were all really nice and friendly.

Cons

Costco is not the best at giving people days off. It takes a while for you to be able to successfully get a day off. Advancement can be confusing.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing store walks, it forces everyone to stay on top of their game. The college retention programs is great, look for ways to keep college grads involved.

Pros

We have good benifits and above average pay

Cons

Long hours and not paid for overtime

Advice to Senior Management

1

Pros

The start pay for inexperienced employee is exceptionally high. Good place to build your resume and start a career.

Cons

Costco Wholesale is run by a union, meaning the least competent employee in the company may have power and will have better benefits over new employees just because he/she has worked there for a longer period of time. Managers does not know how to treat new employees humanely.

Advice to Senior Management

Micromanagement is key to creating a lasting firm.

Pros

Costco is very performance oriented which means if you work hard you will get rewarded. Managers treat workers with a lot of respect which is likely due to the fact that the managers were once one of the workers themselves. Costco likes to promote from within the company. This is good as employees know there are always opportunities for further advancement.

Cons

Depending on the job you get you will be working non-standard (9-5) hours. This can be a good or bad thing depending on what's going on with your life. Work is done at a fast pace so if you're a pretty laid-back type of person this might not be for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to do what they espouse. Treat workers fairly. Pass on any savings to the customer.

Pros

good benefits, career advancement, 401k. It takes about five years to get to full salary but it is well worth it once achieved since you also get bonuses twice a year as well. There are also many departments to choose from and working all of them can really help when becoming management since they want all managers to have lots of experience.

Cons

not enough hours for part time, manager leadership can be very sub-par. I have had great store managers but now we have one at the Tigard, OR Costco location that doesn't know the basics about management. In the sales department he is always watching the salesmen wasting his expensive time and doesn't think they are working when they are since he takes short glimpses at the department and assumes. He also does many store product moves that don't make any sense. I love Costco but I would love to have a store manager that know common business sense.

Advice to Senior Management

most management does a great job but there are store managers that shouldn't be a manager at all.