Pros
The fellow employees are great, some of the nicest people I have ever worked with! Very good profit sharing and pension.
Cons
Local management is too hampered by directions from the headquarters in St. Louis. Upper Management is out of touch with the local market place and the local management spends way too much time fighting with headquarters to make positive changes. Sales people are charged a truck fee for every delivery to their customers, isn't that supposed to be part of operational overhead? No other distributor charges their sales force to sell products. This charge comes right out of the sales person's gross margin thereby reducing their overall profit percentage. All salesmen lose money on the company car, they are not reimbursed enough to cover gas expenses. Base wages are poor for the inside staff, there is no incentive for them to excel and other than the most dedicated employees they are all clock watchers waiting to retire. The very best employees are paid only slightly better than the underachievers. Many very good employees are overlooked for promotion because the managers often promote their favorites.