Trader Joe's Reviews

Pros

There is a lot of heavy lifting, but the fast paced nature of the store and assignment rotation keeps things from getting stale or too strenuous though.

Cons

The occasional bad apple, pardon the pun, but all in all an A+ work and corporate experience.

Pros

Health insurance and 401k match are great. Many of my co-pays were $10 and insurance was accepted widely. Definitely the best benefits package in the grocery game. I believe the minimum hours worked to qualify for bennies are 30-ish hours a week.

Cons

No sick days and very little holidays provided. You accrue time off and will have to use that if you are sick and it accrues quite slowly. Pay per hour is pretty bad even though it's above industry average -- still puts you right at poverty line. You get a "raise" once or twice a year and it is normally just 50-75c and the company acts like they are saints for it. However, the management at my store looked for any excuse to not give it to you. They also looked for any excuse to fire employees that were connected to forming a union. Bad look. Also, I led the produce team and wrote the orders for inventory and got zero pay bump for it. You do not get financially rewarded if you lead teams but they will make you feel bad if you don't agree to...almost like they want you to do more work than you're paid for...hmmm.

Pros

- Kind and fun crew members and even mates - Great team environment - Flexible schedule - Accommodating work place - Decent pay and PTO for a retail job

Cons

- Not much room for career advancement - The "customer is always right" attitude you need can get annoying at times when certain customers are blatantly wrong or disrespectful **However mates will help out and take over if any customer is making you uncomfortable and you are worried about keeping your cool - Management and organization of products can be hectic in such a small location, especially on days with massive orders

Pros

Great work life balance/ amazing benefits/ and as other reviews mentioned gets lots of opportunities to learn tons of different skills. Display building/ having development chats with crew/ HR etc

Cons

Trader Joe’s promotes hard workers into the mate position with or without manager experience. This is a negative because then you’re trusting someone to lead who may not know how to lead or even have the awareness this is what the job entails. This would be ok if there was proper training in place but unfortunately there is not! This position is not for the faint- you take a lot of hard knocks from crew for some of the dumbest feedback I’ve ever heard! Trader Joe’s teaches mates to lead but don’t manage. It’s a fine line to balance. What I mean is instead of being able to say “Joe I asked you to do X why is it not done?” Crew Will complain to the captain that your micromanaging or overbearing instead you’d be encouraged to phrase the question “ hey joe I just wanted to see how you were doing working on X”. I’ve seen many mates be ruthlessly used by crew because they want to be everyone’s best friend and I’ve seen mates who work hard being penalized by crew because they hold others accountable. Your experience largely depends on you region/ captain/ and regional! In addition it is extremely physical and often you are doing the work of several people. Trader Joe’s doesn’t give raises to mates solely based on work ethic. It’s extremely bias and very much a favorites game and based on seniority over ability! As other reviewers stated, often you’re making the same as those you lead unless you stay with the company many years.

Pros

Coworkers are like your second family (a “dud” or two in the bunch, but most are fun, funny, friendly, very helpful, etc.) and I look forward to seeing them each shift. It’s a VERY inclusive setting. TJ products are awesome and we taste-test them frequently. The day moves quickly because you’re always busy and you switch tasks usually every hour (e.g., dairy for an hour, register for an hour, etc.). Since TJ has a cult-like following, most customers are happy to be there. Dress is casual, and the pay and benefits are great.

Cons

Not every customer is a delight, but that’s normal everywhere. Because you switch tasks frequently, sometimes you’re just getting into a ”groove” while doing something and it’s time to stop and go elsewhere. Training is informal which is a pro AND a con: Pro, because it’s hands-on from day one with actual workers, as opposed to a boring classroom setting with a clueless instructor. Con, because everyone teaches differently, and there are a lot of nuances/details that are easy to forget. And, if you need to be coddled in that regard, you’re gonna have trouble! If you can think on your own, you’ll love it.

Pros

All my jobs previous to this have been massively draining and I always had to take work home with me. At TJ's, no matter what the day has been like, I always go home happy. When my shift ends, my work ends, it's glorious. My Captain is the absolute best and the environment there is ACTUALLY FUN! I can genuinely say I 100% LOVE my job. I highly recommend working for TJ's. And you even get to decide how long of a lunch break u take everyday..30min, 45min, or an hour. Starting pay is $19/hr in CA with an additional $10/hr if u work on Sundays (at any TJ's). They also offer a lot of other perks as well and benefits once u qualify. All staff in the country even got a $50 TJ's gift card recently because we won over all best customer and product satisfaction over all other Grocery stores including Whole Foods, Costco, and Vons! You also switch what u do every hour so the day goes by very quickly and there's no hiring manager....Yes! You WILL see your Captain slinging groceries at the register! This job is great for all ages (16+ yrs old) and any previous work experience!

Cons

The only thing I can think of is I wish we were scheduled for 8.5hrs instead of 8hrs so if we decide to take an hr for lunch, we still get 7.5hrs instead of just 7hrs for the day

Pros

This is the only job I don’t dread going to work. Management is great. In my experience this is a low stress job and if you like talking to people this is a good job. Sometimes I am not having a good day and go to work and feel soo much better . The energy in this place is great. Everyone is nice and it’s a great place to work at. You get 20% off your purchases. Health insurance is good.

Cons

The company is okay it could be better when it comes to accumulating more AR (vacation, sick time). If you get sick and you use your AR you can’t afford to take a vacation because most of the AR is gone and have to wait another 4-6 months to accumulate one week worth of AR. The management and work environment is great. Also the hire rate goes up but the veterans don’t get a raise. Some people are stuck getting paid less than new hires .

Pros

If you’re willing to buy in to the ‘we’re not corporate’ corporate attitude, it’s a good place to work. The people are generally cool, it’s fairly laid back and sometimes they feed you.

Cons

Some locations are great to work in, some are awful. It depends on the manager and how much you’re willing to put in the work to get the trucks done. The more you want to get things on the shelf and the better you are with customers, the easier your life will be.

Pros

This is a very good company to work for. I would not think of working at a grocery store for any other company. The culture is very healthy and respectful of their employees.

Cons

You deal with the whole general public. Good and not as good. Not so much a con as a warning that it can be very draining at times.

Pros

The staff was always wonderful to me. The highlight of going into work was seeing my coworkers. The management tried to be as accommodating as possible with my schedule and needs.

Cons

It was a lot of physical labor and sometimes difficult to deal with entitled customers.