store director

deli associate

cashier

pharmacy technician

bakery manager

Acme Markets

Acme Markets is a simple job at first glance. You may run a cash register. Prepare baked goods. Cut fresh fruit. Trim and prepare various meats. Load and unload trailers. Break down pallets full of product onto u-frames and carts. Stock shelves. Clean up cardboard and trash. Bag groceries for customers. All of this to provide food stuffs and product to the general public. Your experiences with the company will greatly vary here depending if you are a corporate employee or a "unionized" meat or grocery one. 

Acme Markets has a unspoken about commitment in being the standard in unprofessionalism. When you are hired by Acme Markets you not told what you are entitled to as far as your weekly hours. How your "part time" vacation(s) work. Your benefit package (health benefits take five years to get). Union dues and the entry fee. Worker rights and protections. What promotions are available and also what you are ultimately getting paid. Understand Acme Markets is a minimum wage employer. You will never make more then few dollars above the minimum wage,  even with a full-time promotion your wages are heavily capped depending on "rated" and "unrated" positions throughout the stores and company. 

Acme is the pinnacle of an entry level job, you are highly expendable though often kept regardless of your performance and attitude. You will find there are employees of Acme Markets with a number of years, who's wages are guaranteed to be significantly higher then yours along with promised days off. This is due to past tiering of agreed upon past union contracts. Your union representatives do nothing to explain this difference. Nor do they truly fight for much needed higher wages during contract negotiations. They only will provide you mere cent raises or even at best a dollar "cost of living" raise per renewed contract every four to five years. 

In the work place you will find yourself in many unjust and unfair working conditions that will either have to overcome or be subjected too. Abuse. Spite. Discrimination. Gossip. Inequality. Racism. Favoritism. Bullying. Also outright violence in the stores. Your managers will ignore any and all requests to deal with a situation between you and another employee(s) much less a customer related issue should one arise. If "Loss Prevention" is for some reason notified they would rather see both "problem" employees be terminated regardless of context. However with the power of collective bargaining (union) you may be able to transfer to another store and or possibly get your employment back. Should you be unfairly suspended or terminated, depending on the circumstances.  

Acme Markets at best could be a good employer for those seeking a very short term, in-between jobs or high school aged person needing minimum wage money. However I would advise finding employment else where if you are a individual who truly cares and takes pride in what they do as you find this is not the place for you. If you someone who doesn't care about their work, much less perform it. Calls out excessively. Causes chaos and drama in the workplace Acme markets will provide stable employment for you for many years to come at the expense of other the employees well being. 

Overall I would say if you plan to work here, I would advise considering the corporate end of employment as they seem to value their non-union work force more oftenly. However I would still advise going elsewhere where where you can find an actual valued career path with a company that wants to see you grow. Use this company as the standard of what not to seek in a employer along with it's employees and move on from there. 


This job was overall a great experience as a first job:

- They gave decent hours even though I was one of the younger employees. They tried their hardest to give consistent schedules. Every once in a while they would ask me to stay after my shift and work for regular pay, but they allowed to me deny the offer if I wished. 

- I completely understand why the pay was so low. The store was small, the job title I started with required not skills at all, there were employees in the store who needed pay more than I did, etc. But if you are looking for a job with amazing monetary gain, this might be the wrong place. As a sophomore in High School, the experience of earning money with labor was better than anything I had ever done, the amount of money did not matter one bit. So this is a good first job. One of the benefits of working at Acme is a discount card. 4 months of a perfect attendance record and hard work and I never received this benefit. I will not go into detail, but if this ends up happening to you, take my advice: be assertive when bringing this up with management. I was firm, but I never really grilled management for this error and as a result, I just got the run-around of "call this number" and "ask this person." 

- This was by far the greatest aspect of this job. I came into the store as a bagger, the entry-level position, and left as a fully trained cashier with a once a week position alongside it. After only just a week and half of working as a bagger, a front-end manager offered me a once a week position as a tagger (on Thursdays I would walk around and replace tags for items that were going on sale and ones that were no longer on sale). It was an incredible opportunity and I cannot put into words how grateful I am. After working another month or so as a bagger, I was again given an amazing opportunity to become a cashier. I do not, to this day, know why they chose me, I just know that this opportunity was incredible. There was no pay raise, but the work was a lot more engaged and interesting. Keep in mind, I was a Sophomore in High School, so I was the youngest in my training session by about 10 years. So no matter how young or old, if you work hard at the store, people will take notice. (Side Note: I was part of a small store, so results may vary).

- The management was nice and fair. The higher ups were energetic and extremely pleasant to converse with. As a bagger/cashier, I answered mostly to the front end managers. They were a mixed bag. There were about 7 or 8 people who rotated through the position and I only ever had a problem with one. The rest of them, I cannot say enough about how nice they were to me. One even offered me an opportunity for a once a week job that had just opened. Keep in mind, this was only my second interaction with this front end manager.

- I am not sure what job culture means exactly, so I will refrain from answering.

The only reason I worked here was because I needed a part time job while in school. It was close by to where I live and I could work after school. There is no future for new employees at Acme.  I work in PA and the minimum wage is $7.25, which is virtually nothing, and I was started off at an hourly rate of $7.75.  You receive a 25 cent raise every 6 months until you cap out at $12.50, after which your hourly rate cannot go up any further.  You do not receive extra money for working Sundays, only holidays or overtime.  Working more than 6 days in one week, over 35 hours in one week, or over 8 hours in one day is considered overtime, where you will get paid time and half.  There is no set schedule which can be stressful.  My hours are always different every week in the amount I get, what times I am scheduled, and what days I am scheduled.  One week you may have 25 hours and the next you only have 10 and many times, at my store at least, is based off of whoever the person making the schedule likes more.  They get more hours even though you might have more seniority, which is not how it is supposed to work.  Almost all the people that have worked there long term, about 10 years or more, call it a prison and wish they did not have to work there constantly blurting out throughout the say "I hate this place."  The work is not enjoyable or satisfying and is mindless.  The only good thing about it is they have very good benefits since it is a union.  However unless you are full time, which is incredibly difficult to get (there are people who have been working there for more than 10 years and have not received full time status and many people who work here either work at another Acme or have another job), the benefits take 2 years to kick in.  AND you need to have at least 20 hours a week to keep your benefits, which is never guaranteed as a part time worker, so one week you might have your benefits and then you won't have them the next.  It's honestly ridiculous. 

Overall I would definitely not recommend working at Acme if you could work somewhere else, you won't make any money, certainly not enough to live on, and there is to much bs going on with the people in charge for it to be worth it.

"Labeling this position as 'Manager' is a stretch; 'Traveling Workhorse on Demand' hits closer to home. The role essentially consists of ping-ponging between understaffed stores, striving to help them get back on track. The elusive 'home store' they tout? It's a myth. You'd be fortunate to spend a week there monthly.

The rest of your time, prepare to be shuffled around at a whim, often with pitifully short notice. Sometimes, you're informed with less than an hour to spare. The managerial title is ironic since the core of your duty is shelf-stocking. The hours are grueling – 10-hour days are considered a break here. However, when the higher-ups decide to drop by – which happens with alarming frequency – your day can easily extend to 16 hours.

These visits from upper management are part of the problem. With an overcrowded roster of higher-ups, many seem to pop in routinely, wielding extensive checklists to affirm their roles. The result? Longer hours, more stress, and a sense of never doing enough despite your extended efforts – all without overtime compensation because your salary supposedly covers it all.

This excess of management also means constant nitpicking and never-ending 'to-do' lists that paint every effort in a negative light, driving you to work even harder for the same pay. And with the continuous travel, often in your own vehicle, you face delayed reimbursements for gas—not to mention the toll it takes on your car and, frankly, your morale.

If you relish the thought of being overstretched, under-appreciated, and perpetually critiqued by a conga line of upper managers looking to point out flaws, this might just be for you. But if you're looking for a job where you're valued and respected, seek opportunities elsewhere – this place isn't for those seeking acknowledgment or a work-life balance.

Seemed promising at first, i was in college at the time and the hiring managers said that i could change my schedule easily with my changing class schedule from semester to semester. That wasn't the case at all. I would inform my manager when my class schedule was set before i started classes and they would TELL ME i couldn't have off these times and days. They would always fight me about it, every semester. They would schedule me for times they knee i couldn't come in and would always call me 10 times if i could come in to cover a shift when they knew i was in class. I also got hurt at work, some things in the bakery freezer fell on me and everyone complained when i used the workman's cop for my doctor visits for it. Everyone knew about it and everyone i worked with told me i should stop because I'm costing the company too much money!!! I got hurt!! Everyone gossips, management encourages it to no end. I had a fellow employee (someone who i thought was a friend) "rat" on me to the store manager that i wasn't in class that day and could work but i was actually in between classes and went somewhere off campus to get food and i get reprimanded at work over it at my next shift. Not to mention everyone blames everyone else for their mistakes or when something bad happens, no one takes responsibility for anything they do! Also if it snows like a blizard be prepared to have to find a way into work when you get called in or else you'll never hear the end of it from not only your coworkers but also management...

Don't waste your time and energy working here because,

• It's a toxic work environment that won't respect you.

• Managers exploit younger/inexperienced employees to do things for them.

• The company typically calls its employees into work on days/times they're not scheduled to work, and they do this by pressuring their employees to say yes whenever someone calls out of work on short notice.
 
• Unpredictability is common at this workplace and usually not in a good way.  

• Store equipment, products and the building itself are falling apart, and the company has no interest in dealing with these issues unless it's clear that inaction hurts their profit.

• The company did not pay me for overtime until I spoke to the union.

• Managers were constantly blaming me for things I didn't do and often did so in front of customers.

• The company expects you to handle multiple things at once due to poor communication, inconsistent workload and not enough people to get the job done.

• A positive thing about this company is that most of the people you work with are nice, helpful and understanding which makes easier to get through stressful shifts. 


This is coming from someone who decided to quit this job suddenly after spending 13 and a half months working for this company. My biggest regret was not quitting sooner because this job was negatively affecting every aspect of my life and it only got worse over time. If you do decide to work for this company, I wish you the best of luck, you'll need it.


Ive been here for 3 years. Starting at 17 years old. It was very fun as it was my first job and i loved making money for myself. The coworkers are amazing. They were all kids around my age who make it very fun. Sometimes wed just joke around at night and do random things like ordering food together and just literally throwing cards around the store. But the more you work there, the more you see its not fun anymore. The problem is its repetitive, and not rewarding. Ive seen many turnover of kids working here. They work for around a month and they leave. Which i completely understand. Just after around 6 months ive felt the desire to find a new place. The management is not very good. Especially from corporate or higher ups that work there. Sometimes they pressure you to work more hours or they're way to serious about everything. Im a cashier and ive done carts, lifting things around the store, shelfing, very little customer service if they really needed me in that hour. When you ask for hours to be changed, youre lucky if its perfectly to how you want it. I would tell them over and over again that i wanted the schedule right. They would still find a way to get you mad about it. They say theyre flexible with hours but you work the same hours a lot. Or theyre so random you cant plan anything during the week. A computer mostly generates it for the scheduler. Even after 3 years however, the coworkers are still the same and great people ive worked this. So really i stuck around just because theyve became great friends since i was a teen. But in the end, i always say to myself before work in the parking lot, i wish i wasnt here. 

I've worked at ACME for 11 years before the new manager took over after the previous one retired.  Ever since, the new manager has made the job much more stressful.  He would constantly use micromanagement and would put pressure on you and demanded things get done with very limited amount of resources and time.  I highly don't recommend working here as dealing with this new manager for three years nearly caused me to have a stroke. Because of him, I suffered and experienced my first panic attack.  The work consisted usually of emptying the trash cans, filling up the registers with new bags and receipt tape, then cleaning the bathrooms.  Once the manager came in, he would give me assignments to do that would usually consist of nearly impossible tasks that required manually hard labor with very limited resources.  This would also coincide with my usual assignments given by my department manager.  In the morning, most of the employees don't have the same work skills I have under my belt because they are disabled. So it's usually me doing most of the work such as pushing carts and cleaning while the disabled employees only bag groceries.  Because of this, usually it was choosing one assignment over another due to time constraints.  Supposedly after I left, I've heard rumors that the new manager has mellowed up a little.  I guess he finally got the message that he should probably lighten up a little and just trust in his employees.  Nobody likes a manager that constantly micromanages and doesn't allow an employee to give their own input.

I worked for this company for roughly 11 years. I was fired when I had a customer spit in my face and I defended myself.

This company does not believe in defending or protecting their employees on any level. They would sooner throw you under the bus than protect you as a loyal employee.

Alot of issue is the management being way out of touch. Alot of these individuals are career Acme people and alot that I met did not have children or not young children so you work life balance basically means nothing to them as your job is to take priority over your children. Again majority if management I met during my time had no children. The management tends to play favorites very often. I have seen numerous times where a employee is skilled and works hard and will be denied a promotion in place of another employee who has a lesser skill set or knowledge and will demand the employee capable of the promotion that was denied to teach said person who didn't have the knowledge required for promotion. Promotions seem very gatekeeper locked if that make sense. Basically if you don't butter up a manager don't expect a promotion.

The company isn't all bad there are a good few decent managers and upper crust in the company but....they are far and few.

Basically either get on someone good side or expect a rough time for a long time 

At Acme things were very great. my pay rate and benefits were amazing. but a typical work day basically consisted of going in and depending on the day I would I there wait on custom while I prepared things to close and things ready for opening the next day. on other day I would do inventory and stock as an opening manager. the management was always a strong staff I could go to with any problems and they would all do their best to make sure that issue was resolved. My direct manager was an amazing hardworking individual who amazing worked around ny work days I needed off for college purposes and back then I did appreciate that. the coworkers were very diverse but I have been at this company since 2005 till this June 2013. I have seen many come and go for many different reasons, only a select few have been there as long as i have or longer an those people I consider nearest and dearest friends. For most the hardest part e job was dealing with the different personality's of customers the rude, the sad, the angry and the happy people but, I have found if you respect and give a positive genuine happy outlook as you help these customers e you receive the same type of response. The most enjoyable part of the job was working  with a family basically and knowing that  when I go back  to this  place I can once again be greeted by familiar faces.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Store director 6 salaries reported	$96,965 per year
Deli associate 1 salary reported	$16.74 per hour
Cashier 4 salaries reported	$14.38 per hour
Pharmacy technician 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Bakery manager 4 salaries reported	$20.50 per hour

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