Fred Meyer Stores Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

Great benefits. Great pay, if you get journeyman.

Cons

No set schedules. Doesn't allow for having a family

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your leads

Pros

Most or all of the positions are unionized and you're treated really well by the management. Fun place to work and feels like I'm doing something good on a day-to-day basis.

Cons

Working in customer service is tough and sometimes the policies that are set in place by the store as far as returns, etc. are subject to change based on how customers act.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employees on what works or what doesn't, they're the ones who are there to see if it does, so take our opinion into account.

Pros

A place to work and have co-worker friends that support each other.

Cons

Arrogant and self serving managment people.There main interest seams to be in promoting themselves no matter who they step on to get there.
No cost of living increases. I am payed only 0.40 cents an hour than I was nearly a decade ago. With the cost of insurance, taxes etc. I take home less money now, while the company braggs to us on a regular basis how our hard work keeps increasing there millions in profits. We are the ones making them there profits, not the managers, PIC's etc.. From my experience most of them are very lazy.
Continual cuts in employees and work hours puts more stress and work on all other employees and we are expected to maintain the work load and managments expectations no matter how insignificate they are. I contiuually here managment people, from store directors to PIC's, talking down customers. Seams to be in complete opposition to the "Customer First" "policy" they talk to us about. Fred Meyer for myself and the majority of my co-workers that I speak with, is a very stressfull place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay us a living wage! Treat us as intelligent human beings!

Pros

Employee discount, fast paced, convenient locations

Cons

Just a number to them, long hours

Advice to Senior Management

More employee recognition

Pros

Gain valuable experience and insight. Good people. Opportunities to be promoted to higher levels within company.

Cons

Pay scale could more at assistant buyer and planner level. Many assistants take their great training to other companies that off higher pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase salary at assistant level to keep the talented assistant buyers and planners from leaving to companies that offer better wages.

Pros

Good Benefits, stable industry, area institution, store discount,

Cons

Salary is low end of industry standard.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work.

Pros

Pay is decent for a grocery store
Management is pretty good about getting you vacation if you request it far enough in advance
Easy to excel if you work hard

Cons

Hard to get a set schedule
Difficult to get a full time position at the highest pay grade
Expect to work holidays and weekends

Pros

Pay is okay for a part time job. Many of the co-workers are really nice.

Cons

Management writes up employees for petty stuff. Customers are petty also about complaints and clerks are held responsible for it. The problem is these big corporations have become un-American. There is no respect for the employee. They get treated like doormats. Some customers come in to take advantage of the store and are allowed to get away with it so the honest customers pay higher prices to compensate for the scammers.

When management wants to fire you they will cook up ways to do it.

Advice to Senior Management

Re-join the American culture and un-join the big corporate socialist mentality. Big corporations are socialistic in nature and are inclined to oppress those at the bottom. The United States will not survive as a nation when all there is are big corporations.

Pros

Great job for an unskilled worker
Person in charge (PIC) has useful advice, positive attitude
No manager on duty to watch over you
Given a generous amount of hours even as a new PT employee
Co-workers all have a good work ethic

Cons

Hard work will most likely go unnoticed
Advancement is slow
Job is very hard on the body
Management uses fear mongering to keep employees on edge, creates stressful environment
Large company policies
Must join a union, which doesn't offer much to entry level employees

Advice to Senior Management

Surprisingly, one of the managers cared more about the shelves looking pretty than how much freight was pulled in a night.
Don't understaff and expect a perfect job.

Pros

The culture at Fred Meyer is really great, they really respect and value their employees. Everyone, from management on down, seemed to enjoy working there and seemed to be in a good mood the majority of the time. I only worked there on a temporary basis (summers during college) but I very much enjoyed it and I would recommend it to anyone. I've heard of much, much worse retail work experiences.

Cons

The only downside was the schedule--as a new hire I often had to work the closing shift, which was 2 pm to 11 pm, and often weekends as well. But I should add that everyone had to deal with the crazy schedules, not just those on the bottom of the food chain. The only person who never had to stay late was the head manager--he generally worked about 9 to 5--but even he would stay late if needed, i.e. if the relief manager had an unexpected emergency or was sick.

I suppose another downside is that Fred Meyer employees are union-represented, which means you have to pay about $40 to join the union, plus monthly dues, and (at least as far as I ever saw) you don't really reap any benefit from it. Plus, the union status means that once an employee is hired, it's very VERY difficult for them to ever get fired, even if (frankly) they should be. As an example, my department hired a guy who was very nice but amazingly incompetent (I mean really, it doesn't take a lot of brain power to do this job, yet he had difficulties), yet he stayed on because he would have had to do something really grievous to get fired.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you're doing. The culture at Fred Meyer is very healthy, and the employees feel valued as individuals. But get rid of the union if at all possible! Your employees would be better off without it.