Pros
- The best group of coworkers I've ever worked with. The friendly, relatable, caring, grounded, passionate, hard-working crew members always significantly outnumbered the obstructive coworkers who usually filtered themselves out over time.
- Moderate labor expectations that are fairly easy to pick up, but also leave room to refine, master, and teach others.
- Solid benefits, good healthcare insurance, and best hourly rate in the industry.
Cons
- The worst management I've ever worked with. The unprofessional and outright worker-hostile upper management demonstrated every trait managers should reject. They actively filter out any new managers who aren't complicit over time.
- Favoritism is the main method of progress and overrides any measurable performance indicators, both positive and negative.
- The store I worked at had an average turnover rate of 1+ employee per week. The arbitrary reasons management provided for firing quality employees indicates that management's goal is to replace experienced workers with new lower-cost labor that is continuously rotated out over time.
- Local store management teams are actively engaging in anti-union tactics. Trader Joe's as a corporation is currently working in the courts to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board by claiming it is "unconstitutional" to justify the tactics of their stores.
- The "crew or management" store structure means that management is the only career path. That paired with ignoring internal promotions to management in favor of hiring outside managers conveys the lack of career opportunities.