Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Reviews

Cons

Hourly wage is not as high as some comparable jobs, but the benefits and culture are the best.

Cons

Management in store has little power

Cons

The management in my store is extremely disorganized and unable to write a functional schedule. Natural Grocers won't pay a competitive wage so professional, hard working people don't apply and the store is run by 20 year olds who quit after a couple of months. They won't hire enough people to stay fully staffed, so when someone quits or calls in, which is most days, it is an incredible hardship on everyone else. They have their cashiers giving out at least 4 different handouts to every customer and have a long sales pitch that goes along with it. On the case of those handouts, the company doesn't even have a paper recycling set up and wastes pounds and pounds of paper per week printining fliers that didn't get read.

Cons

The upper management is terrible and the company has quickly gone down hill. Store managers now have virtually no control over their own stores and act more as figure heads while home office calls the shots. Working there was amazing initially but eventually I couldn't stand it and had to move on. If you do decide to work there, don't plan on making it a career. It will drive you crazy. You have very little control over anything and it's to the point where ever customers can tell things aren't going well. Also the work/life balance is horrible. To work there they expect your 100% dedication and won't work around your other life commitments.

Cons

Gestapo management. Never work for this place. Everyday is a different work schedule, they watch you ever min of the day. There have cameras in the store to watch you work like a dog. Very negative management. Production environment you must work at the 110% level all of the time or get fired. Culture & Values are zero - work like a dog or leave. Low pay 10-12 per hour. Slave labor employer. Draconian work place.

Cons

They initially come off as a wholesome company with their five founding princes which include work/family life balance but it's really just a facade to draw customers in. The grocery discount is also considered to be a plus but in the end it's totally not worth it. They've stripped employees of all dignity including removing their measly discount with a sale item , or getting a full NPower discount because your not a customer. I worked there for 3 years, never sick, never late, traveled to help different stores, came up with brilliant money making ideas and was totally browbeat by a kid that manages vitamins. I've had cards sent to the store from customers sharing how happy they were with me and never received recognition from anyone. Don't drink the organic koolaid, it's a joke. If I could give this company no stars I would.

Cons

Becoming more "corporate", disregard for loyal employees' treatment, difficult work life balance for some department managers and upper management.

Cons

Nearly everyone at Natural Grocers is overworked, especially store managers and home office employees. How do you plan on building a successful company if you have unrealistic expectations of what your people (your most important assets) can do? The sad thing is that most people working in the company want to see Natural Grocers succeed, but end up burning out. That just creates a vicious cycle of turnover because 1) people either don't want to put up with being taken advantage of or are untrained so they leave and 2) the people that replace them with go untrained and end up burning out.
It would be great if someone in upper management would admit that there are major problems and then come up with real solutions instead of pinching pennies on every last little thing.

Cons

Favoritism and disconnected from results. Decisions made on personal relationships and not on results.

Cons

As soon as the company went public things changed. The growth came fast and furious. Management lost touch with it's employees needs. The IT department was grossly understaffed and only got worse. Hours were extended to accommodate different time zones this stretching the IT department. We were not given any extra help but the issues just increased exponentially. The outsiders they brought in from other companies had their own agendas and didn't care who they had to climb over on the way up the ladder.