Meijer Reviews

Pros

When I worked for Meijer in the offices, it was a fair company with good benefits. Some overtime required. Reviews were for the most part fair.

Cons

As I was leaving to have children, the employees had just voted no to having a union. After that, we started to have meetings where management would say 'only new hires will be paying part of their benefits. You get to keep yours'. 2 -3 months later we were too. They took sick days, benefits, etc.

Advice to Senior Management

Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Everyone deserves benefits & enough hours to support themselves and their families. Don't 'follow' the others. Have character.

Pros

We had fun while we worked.

Cons

Management would go off about stuff that really didn't matter. An example...you must be angry you are hitting the keys on the calculator hard. Um, what?

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

1. It's a job- you work, you get paid.
2. Regulated hours- you'll always have a certain amount of hours per week.
3. It's an easy, entry level job.

Cons

1. Management takes the word of irate customers over that of employees.
2. Pay could be better.
3. Managers can be stubborn about feedback- The managers I had cared more about the "Friendliness Rating" of the store than they should have. 8 customers who did the survey DO NOT represent the thousands of customers that came in every day.
4. Management does not listen to employees about issues or problems.
5. Their disciplinary policy leaves much to be improved upon- At the store I worked at, more than a dozen employees were unjustly fired for nothing. Management simply twisted situations to make it look like a violation.
6. The union, UFCW does nothing to protect employees from contract violations.
7. It is frustrating to explain confusing promotions to customers, especially the impatient or dumb ones.

Advice to Senior Management

Hank Meijer, listen man, I like Meijer stores. I really do, but the company has some issues... big issues to work out before you can truly claim to be better than your competitors. I, as a former employee who worked directly with customers day-to-day, can tell you a thing or two to help improve:

1. Your managers need to start treating employees with respect. Meijer stores are quickly gaining a reputation for being an unfriendly workplace to the common red-shirt employee.
2. Do not administer employee discipline to the opinion of an irate customer. Irate customers do not care about your business. They only want to get a good deal, even if it means an employee losing his/her job over a customer complaint.
3. Trust your employees. It's why you've hired them in the first place. Yes, there will always be a bad employee or two, but when it comes down to it- give your employees the benefit of the doubt.
4. Stop the confusing marketing techniques. Promotions that require customers to buy this to get a discount on that are stupid. We employees suffer in the end by having to explain it to customers who are frustrated by it, and then they take it out on us.

At the store I worked at more than 10 cashiers were lost in a single month simply because they couldn't stand management anymore. And they were good, hard workers. Some had worked there a few years, others had put in 20 or more years.

Pros

hours, dont have to go far when you have to go to the grocery store, request time off was good.

Cons

sarcastic management, uneducated, do not think they are EVER wrong, Make team members service coordinators when they have only been there around 3 weeks, while others have been there for long time.

Advice to Senior Management

Your kidding right?! You are the most uneducated people i have ever met and the most sarcastic. You think we owe you something like we cant find another job.

Pros

-Employees get automatic raises throughout the year
-Employees are offered a reward program after 3 months that gives back a percentage of the hours they worked in a given quarter; the percentage level is based on certain standards across the store
-Certain part time positions are given 40+ hours
-Business is run like a union without a union; overtime is given for 8+ hours in the day or 40+ hours in the week
-Employees who work over a year receive 1 week paid vacation
-Employees receive a discount card and special offers around the holidays
-Store rewards employees for meeting sales goals or in celebrating holidays with free meals

Cons

-Management is very stubborn when it comes to hiring new employees; they'd rather work the current set of employees harder than hire someone new
-Some upper management have absolutely no respect for their employees; pure arrogance!!
-Stressful work environment when constantly pressured to work harder; some stockers had to run up and down the aisles to meet case counts
-Employee recognition is scarce

Advice to Senior Management

-Management must develop a greater respect for their subordinates!!
-See previous!!!
-Reduce case count requirements
-Hire more staff
-Stop cannibalizing sales by offering Meijer brand sales when name brand sales are occurring; alternate sales weeks
-Focus on maintaining a better inventory; store is constantly depleted of merchandise
-Take pride in the store's appearance; clean the store better (sugar, flour, canned fruit to name a few key areas)
-Customers comment negatively on store cleanliness not because of the floors but because of the dirty shelves ALL AROUND THE STORE
-Focus on endcaps; product often in stock in aisle but not featured on endcap; avoid stockloss
-Do a better job of sorting the back stock carts: it's all about RESPECT; one shift should work harder to help the next shift and so on; TEAMWORK
-Adopt a more long term focus; one shift could take longer doing a task so that way future repetitions will be smoother and faster

Pros

Pretty good pay during tough economic times.
Get breaks and lunch every 8 hour shift.
Easy to get alot of hours.

Cons

10% discount to everything BUT food.
Management do not want to hire enough people.
Produce dept. only has 1 person on 2nd shift.
since most of the time you'll be alone you wont get to take all breaks.
union doesnt do S*** but take more $ from your check.
most managers are shady, since you cant be fired they'll screw you over on scheduling.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more people.
CEO should try to work a shift to see how bad management is.
Your core values are just lies.

Pros

You work with some good people.

Cons

Management is out of control. They are very disrespectful of team members. Verbally and mentally! There are so many reports against them, yet nothing ever gets done about it.

When you want to take a vacation or personal day, forget it; you are fought tooth and nail. If you do get it, then they mess with your schedule.

Need to hire more people. They keep cutting labor, yet they still act as though you have a whole team working the floor. When in realtiy, you're lucking to have 2 working the floor. Usually it's one person.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being bullies! You want your team members to be 'friendly", why don't you try being friendly to your team members!

Pros

most co-workers very nice, some could actual have fun and laugh.

Cons

to many tattle tales when asked to help another co- worker. union sucks!!!!!! management very rude to labor people. we stock the shevles to make them the money and they just yell for more.

Advice to Senior Management

go undercover to one of your stores to see what needs to be done.

Pros

Friendly coworkers and competent, understanding managers. 401K retirement plan, paid vacation, medical/dental/vision insurance, paid holidays with time and a half pay if you work on the holiday.

Cons

Pay is not very competitive with similar jobs elsewhere. Can't be more than 2 minutes without getting written up, 8 chances and you're fired.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the TMAG system or make it more flexible so you are not firing good employees just because they are a few minutes late to work.

Pros

Great atmosphere and very friendly and loyal staff. The company takes care of there employees very well. I have worked for another major retailer and the care level at Meijer is top notch.

Cons

Old equiptment makes some areas look dirty. More money budgeted towards repairs.

Advice to Senior Management

Abl needs a lot of tweaking. It takes away from on depth cleaning that is much needed in the fresh food areas. Budget more towards repairs and upgrades as equiptmeny in a lot of stores looks like a low end budget grocery store.