Total Wine & More Reviews in Potomac, MD

Current Employee – been working at Total Wine & More full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company holds high expectations for its team members and rewards those who meet them. Supervisors are committed to training and developing team members so these high expectations are clear and attainable. Growth is encouraged so they often promote from within. The company is growing so fast so lots to learn and room to move up. Management really promotes new ideas from all levels of the company

Cons – Because it is a young company things can be hectic.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Decent employee discount for certain wine, spirits, & beer. Free parking since all locations are in shopping centers. If you don't mind sucking it up in exchange for job stability then this is the only reason to work for the Trone's.

Cons – Forget about work life balance unless you're part time. This company will suck as much time out of you as possible, particularly if you are on salary. Only covers 50% health insurance costs. Given the high profits and growth of the company year over year the 401k match is only 25% of first 3% which is low. Owners & Senior mgmt outlook is that if you don't like it get lost, there are lots of people looking for jobs.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More full-time for more than a year

Pros – Only thing I can come up with is Wine for Life and learning about wine.

Cons – See my review. Hard to find anything nice to say.

Advice to Senior Management – Don’t go there!!!! Run!! Take every bad review on here and magnify it by a million and that is how awful it is. I was an experienced manager but treated like I had never worked a day in my life. Micromanaged every single second. Work hours is 50 hours a week (mandatory) for all managers and above. So, you get a half hour for lunch and you are at work 10.5 days Monday through Friday. Now, everyone knows that as a manager, you don’t always have an 8 hour day but when you HAVE to be at work 10.5 hours a day every single day, it wears on you. Listen to this, I was given the opportunity to work a ‘normal’ 45 hour a week like everyone else below the manager grade BUT with a reduced salary. Yep, so even though I was salaried, HR was going to reduce my salary if I went from a 50 hour to 45 hour week. I used to love the Total Wine stores but since my corporate experience there it makes me not even want to go to the stores anymore. I cannot even believe that this type of management is still around. Oh, and don’t think I am afraid of hard work. I just finished a 4 week stint working 7 days a week and 11 – 12 hours a day to finish a project at work. I didn’t mind it at all. Here’s the difference, I am appreciated where I now work, I can think on my own, I am valued – makes a big difference. However, change starts from the top down and I am not sure there will be any for a very long time. Owners wont even acknowledge you. HR could be instruments of change in an organization but they breed this contempt. Get a clue!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Growing company with some good employees; some of the stores have congenial employee atmospheres despite the hard work and low pay

Cons – Micromanagement; authoritarian; abusive treatment of employees; obsession with money often creates "penny-wise pound foolish" decision making; no bonuses, profit-sharing or equity participation (owners do not believe in sharing in the company's huge financial success). If you are considering working here, turn around and run (don't walk) away.

Advice to Senior Management – Go public so that management will be accountable to all of the company's constituencies

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Total Wine & More full-time

Pros – To say you worked for a growing billion dollar company.

Cons – Managers promoted with zero management experience or skills. Mandatory 45-50 hour work week, ALWAYS expect to work more. No work-life balance. Very few holidays, very low PTO. Work here if you want to give up your life working your tail off to just get yelled at by six different managers at the end of your excruciatingly long week.

Advice to Senior Management – At least pretend you value your employees. There are much more successful companies out there that people actually enjoy working at.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More full-time for more than a year

Pros – wine knowledge, discounts in stores

Cons – EVERYTHING. How long do you want me to make the list?

Advice to Senior Management – These bad reviews are right on target so I wanted to chime in too to let people know this stuff is true. You cant make this stuff up. The snow storm and power outages made me laugh when I read that review. It is TRUE! It’s not just disgruntled employees! I left there at the end of last year and I was one of those people who had a mandatory 50 hour week. Yep, you HAD to work 50 hours a week. Throw in a half hour for lunch and your day every day was 10 ½ hours. A very long day! Employees in general work more than 40 hours but most companies trust you that some weeks are busier than others and you do what it takes to get the job done. What actually happens is that you get so tired at the end of the day that you are not effective the last couple of hours and you clock watch. For the non-managers, you have to work 45 hours. Who does this now of days? Well, TW, I guess. Bad, bad atmosphere. Negative. Managers do not trust you. I can only speak for the corporate office but I hope that people read these reviews and stay away from this company. There are much better companies out there. The owners need to get real and act like they care. You ask any employee and you will overwhelmingly hear that the owners do not care. They will pass you in the hall and not even speak. I always thought that they could at least ACT like they liked you and not just ignore you. This was the strangest place I have ever worked. DO NOT GO THERE! If you do then dont say you were not warned.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More

Pros – Product - selling wine is great, people love to shop this product category. When the economy is down, people drink. When the economy is up, people drink. Recession proof business model.
Margins- TWM focuses on the private labels that provide much higher margins and this company is a cash cow
Leverage - TWM is not at the level that they have huge leverage with suppliers and wholesalers so the low price concept will just continue to become more relevant
Market - this company is truly creating the market for big box wine retailers and it is fun to be apart of changing a market (think Amazon and ebay in the early days)

Cons – Leadership - family run company with all intent to pass the business onto their kids , not much room to move up except in title
Culture - not the most positive
Opportunity - if you are a family, family friend, or "favorite" of one of the owners your chances are great

Advice to Senior Management – Grow your people with the same focus you grow the business.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Total Wine & More

Pros – Solid 401k and health package. Also, enjoy the wine and beer tastings.

Cons – Required to work 45-50 hours per week.

Advice to Senior Management – Be receptive to store employees and their concerns.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Total Wine & More

Pros – 30% discount on winery direct products and gifts. 10% discount on national brand items. Depending on where you are in the company, you have the potential to get to learn a lot about wine and the alcohol industry. Working here will make you appreciate the next job you go on to and realize that the last one wasn't that bad. You also learn to work with difficult personalities and get experience working in a family run business. Many of the people that work here are very nice and normal, just not any of the managers. Not sure if they still do this, but they used to give wine classes at corporate occasionally after working hours.

Cons – Leadership was poor. None of the managers know how to manage people. Overtime was expected, even if you are already working 45-50 hours/week. Performance was not measured against anything concrete and managements' opinion of you changed day-to-day without any evidence to back it up. Turnover is very high at corporate and in the stores. It was not uncommon to have people get so fed up that they would quit and leave the same day in the corporate office. Owners are very distrustful of the staff and it shows in their treatment of employees. Many of the family members work for the company and there was always fighting between the brothers and disagreements on how things should be run. Management gives employees a hard time for taking paid time off. They will try to tell you that they encourage a work/life balance, but this is definitely not the case.

Advice to Senior Management – Send managers to management training. Change performance reviews to include measureable expectations. Encourage work at home and other work/life balance activities. Don't treat employees as though they are expendable. Encourage job skills training for all employees at corporate. Don't put people in charge of things that have no experience unless you plan to train them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend