Pros
-> Great co-workers. --> Friendly customers for the most part. ---> Easy as pi. --> Good benefits! Better than where my friends work anyway. -> Great first job, regardless of how bad it is. Just don't get stuck here.
Cons
-> Look at the union pay scale and you'll likely be severely disappointed. No pay raises for us courtesy derps -- ever. OK, maybe a whopping $0.05 increase after 1000-something hours... but that's like $2.00/week more. WOW!!! .... and that's all she wrote --> The customer service expectations and secret shoppers make everything painfully phoney. ---> A lot of customers are complete @$$holes. Can't count the number of times I've had to bite my tongue to keep this pOs job. --> Meh training program. It's mostly on a computer. It showed me the 'proper' way to bag groceries, but so many of their techniques are awful. For example, they suggest you lay bottles on their sides facing opposite directions.... the idea is to increase the surface area of the bottom to give the bag more stability or something.... well it does just the opposite. The plastic is thin enough without being stretched apart by heavy bottles. Even when double bagged and not at risk of breakage, it makes for an awkward bag of groceries. I hate giving customer's an awkward bag - one that's too pointy, or the items weren't placed close enough together, or they're long and skinny so their hand has to stretch just to hold it, etc... - because that's something I'd personally hate to receive myself. -> Checker's obviously aren't trained to bag? Maybe they are, and the checkers at my store just refuse to do it properly... I'm so sick of having to take meat out of the veggie bag, cleaners out of the bread bag, etc... I'm sure the more lucid customers aren't too impressed either.