AutoZone Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at AutoZone part-time for more than 10 years

Pros – - Being able to assist customers with thier needs.
- Management being flexible with the schedule. Provided enough time is given to meet employees desires.
- Discount
- Learning about new vehicles that are on the market (hybrids, flex-fuel, diesel, etc...)

Cons – - There are not enough employees when the sidewalks roll up (usually after 6:00 pm)
  -- There is an "unwritten policy (?)" to minimize time out of the store (does GOTTCHA ring a bell?) when there are two employees in the store (usually after 6:00 pm) for safety considerations (primarily theft (shrink) both internal and external, robbery, accidents, etc...). Solution: have a MINIMUM of three employees on every shift at all times.
- Ridiculous "no cell phone" policy
  -- I personally know of a PSM who had several phone-in customers send him a photo of the item in question on their vehicles to assist in identifying the part that they needed to his cell phone. He received an "extra miler" nomination along with a "write-up" for using his phone while on the clock.
- Not paying employees what they are worth.
  -- I recently hired on to AZ again, and I bargained a halfway decent hourly wage (this time) because of my prior experience with the company. One of the reasons for such a high turn-over in personnel is that they are not paid a decent hourly wage. The annual wage increases are a joke! The most that I EVER received from an annual raise was 0.13 (thirteen cents) per hour. I was afforded one raise of 0.75 (seventy five cents) when I went from part time to full time PSM. A previous reviewer stated: "When you pay peanuts, you are bound to attract monkeys." It's so true!
- Customers who expect you to perform maintenance on their vehicles.
  -- Zoners can and are expected to install certain, low-risk parts; wiper blades, batteries (and some of those are getting ridiculous locations and work-arounds!), and light bulbs on occasion, depending upon accessibility.
  - Most customers are appreciative of the Zoners efforts, but some are just downright mean when you tell them that it is beyond the scope of your ability to __________ (fill in the blank) and that you would have to refer them to a paid professional. Some customers want anything and everything for free.
- Micromanagement
  -- Let the Store manager be able to manage their store without micromanagement from the DM and above!
- Eliminate the Checkout Challenge - enough said - if you have to ask, you are way out of touch!
- There is not enough time in the day to address further issues.

Advice to Senior Management – - Incentive programs should be implemented.
  -- When I started with AZ, I had the BEST Manager that I have worked with who gave incentives to employees who maintained excellent performance. If you meet three of four stars, he bought you a soda, patted you on the back, thanked you for your efforts and said try harder next time. If you got four of four stars, he bought you lunch, and told you to keep up the good work. And he did this in front of the other employees to promote comradery.
- LISTEN to your employees and ACT accordingly.
  -- The employees are the ones who are lining your pockets with profits. If the employees are happy, they will sell more parts and have more fun.
- Plan-o-grams.
  -- LEAVE STUFF ALONE! I have heard this on more occasions that I care to remember from customers. People want to come in, get what they want, and get out. I wholeheartedly agree. There are going to be accoassions where product does get phased in and out, end caps are rented by product "B" when product "A's" time is up. But moving stuff around so it will encourage customer’s familiarity with the store is insanity (Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.).
- The AUTOZONE cheer is dumb.
  -- Get rid of it.
- Offer benefits for Part Time employees as well.
  -- Part timers are about half of your employees, offer them some of the pie and they may stick around longer!
- (A reviewer previously mentioned) Undercover Boss would benefit the upper management a lot!
  -- Climb down from your ivory pillar and see what the actual employees are doing and talking about…you may be surprised.
- Listen to your workers and act upon ideas that have a chance at working. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "That's a good (great, fantastic, etc...) idea...too bad we can't act upon it (without DM or higher approval).

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend