order picker

warehouse supervisor

refrigeration technician

trailer technician

forklift operator

C&S Wholesale Grocers

5 years ago this was the primary warehouse of a cooperative grocery distributor that had been around for well over 50 years...... then they went bankrupt and a company named C&S bought it in a courtroom auction.
Now it is the equivalent of a single blueberry on a mediocre bush in a field full of blueberry bushes that are owned by C&S wholesale grocers.

As a former employee that worked through the good times and the bad, let me tell you the one thing that has always remained true about this place and the 'picking' profession in general... you will work hard or you will be fired.  And the job got even harder after C&S took over.  If you can't reach and maintain a 100% production rate by the end of the training period, you will be fired.  If you get too many disciplinary letters for not maintaining a 100% after your training period, you will be fired.

The starting pay was around $15.50 when I started in the 2000's, and with the periodic union contract raises I reached a little over $20/hr just before the company went bankrupt.  The health insurance coverage was incredible, and workers had a pension...... but that's all changed or completely gone now...
You'll be making around $14.68 to start.  That's right, you'll be making a dollar less when you start than I did when I started at the same warehouse over 10 years ago (meanwhile cost of living has increased).  And it will take you at least 3 years to reach the top pay rate which is only $17-$18 and some change now.  The older employees from the old company will always get paid more than new hires because an agreement was reached with C&S when they took over.  Can you handle working next to somebody who is doing the same exact job as you but making $4-$5 more per hour doing it?
Don't buy into the 'incentive' ads and the "$5,000 sign on bonus!" pitches.  Both are contingent upon you picking at an insane amount of speed for consecutive weeks.  Let me reiterate... this job is difficult.  You will find it hard to even hit/maintain a 90%, let alone the 100+ it will take it reap those rewards.  I'm just being realistic with you.  Let's be honest, nobody gets paid a $5,000 bonus just for accepting a job offer except for the most skilled professionals who can negotiate their value (doctors, lawyers, etc).  C&S has the money and know-how to have figured out how to dangle those things in front of you like a carrot that you just can't seem to reach.  The truth is that the company has become a revolving door of employees coming and going; and C&S has had to actually create a 'bonus' and 'incentive' program in order to attract new employees.  The fact that they offer a $5k sign on bonus in their warehouse employment ads should worry you, not excite you. 
The health insurance here did a complete 180.  The coverage use to be amazing, everything was just co-pays and there was no deductible. $15 here, $25 there.  An emergency room visit might be $35-$50.  Now they only offer the high deductible health care plans, where you pay more money towards the premium for less coverage.  You may have to spend as much as $2500-$5k before your plan actually kicks in and starts helping you pay your medical bills.
The pension is gone. 401k only now.
The work week here is not a guaranteed 40 hour work week.  What I mean by that is that if the work is slow one day, or it runs out (which it frequently does), you will be sent home early.  Let me be a little more clear about that, you won't be asked if you want to go home early... you will be sent home early, whether you like it or not.

The current company only has a fraction of the clientele that is use to.  It's future has become dimmer and dimmer over the last 5 years.  If you're looking for a place to plant your feet for awhile, this probably isn't it.

The reason I'm writing this is to warn people.  I've seen so many people who were tickled just to have been hired for a measly $14/hr job, only to be crushed by stress and anxiety when they found out how difficult and awful it actually is.  Read many of the other reviews on here and under 'Robesonia Logistics' (same place).
At one time, it was kinda sorta worth it.  Nowadays I honestly can't say I'd recommend this job to anybody except for maybe a kid who is fresh out of high school and not sure what he/she wants to do yet. 
 Low pay, bad healthcare, back breaking work, pressure, stress.  Not a good place to work if you have a family to support unless you're truly desperate in my opinion.  Best of luck to you.

You ride around on an electric pallet jack up and down the warehouse aisles, searching for, grabbing, stacking, packing, and wrapping up the orders on your hand-held lists. After each order is complete, you slap it down at the loading docks, label it, record it, and leave it. After that, you cruise around, scavenging for half-decent pallets to snag up and use to dive on into your next order. That's it, all day long, at least for the main warehouse order selectors.

Repack is a smidge different. Repack is candy and spices and cigs in a cage. You creep around on the short jacks to pick and pack inside the cage. People from the loading docks, called "runners," come to get your finished orders. I didn't like being glued to the cage. I wanted to ride the open rows.

Picking and packing is "incentive," which means the more you pick, the more money you make. I couldn't go very fast, but the lowest hourly rate is still pretty darn good. 

In spite of the incentive base, the environment is pretty relaxed; even more so than many other warehouses I've passed through over the years. You can make it fun if you want. However, beware the caged women in repack, as they do get into little spats here and there. Even so, we weren't doomed for it because I surely never had a problem with any of my girls. As I said, you make it what you want it to be. Of course, the "work" part wasn't super fun, but I felt at home in the entire warehouse. The environment was mine to mold. 

The best part, though, was the very open and lengthy main middle strip leading from one end of the building to the other. Heightened vigilance & jack masterage are VERY important because safety always comes first. Those machines are no joke. They have heavy-duty damage potential, so beware. 

And I was aware. Old jacks can be slow and bumpy, but the brand-spankin' new ones were phenomenons of speed and grace. The strip was often fair game to fly on through to the other side, wind in my hair, body and mind straight ahead and soaring. As a female, I often got to grin at double-takes from random male admirers while breezing by. I felt majestic and sexy while floating at full speed. I had power beneath my feet and I was in control. 

What's more, mastering the corners are a-whole-nother thrill indeed. Eventually you get good at it, really good, you start to feel like the machine is part of you. (Unless your load is large and/or wobbly,) you don't waver or snail around corners anymore.  You just whip it and weave, swivel and glide. And it feels oh-so good. Your machine goes wherever you will it to go; it follows your very core. Literally. You steer the whole thing with your core. And your core gets STRONG. 

Strength and confidence increase on the daily. You're getting paid to work out all day every day. You get fit and toned and feel lighter and swifter and all around lively. Eat whatever you want because heck, you'll burn it up that very day. Oh, what I wouldn't give to look and feel like that again. It was so so lovely while my body lasted. 

Unfortunately, warehouses can beat up the best of us, including myself. The Borders warehouse gave me carpel tunnel at age 25, and by age 27, Repack at C&S was ripping my wrist and heavy-duty wrist braces to shreds. Karate killed both my knees, but pivoting all over a concrete warehouse floor didn't do me any favors (keep in mind, great shoes are more valuable than gold in this biz). Now, at age 29, I have a very untrustworthy knee & the other kind of iffy, 1 very screwed up wrist & the other slightly screwed, a fluid-filled foot, & a faulty ankle that can't run or jump. 

Warehouses can be fun, but they're not practical for long-term. College or other brain-oriented paths should be in your long term plans instead of physical labor forever. The body breaks and it breaks hard, but the brain will only grow.

Management are typically a bunch of young guys who started this job at a young age and are cocky with their attitudes towards others  or majority have the Military mind set on how you should work and you never amount up to their standards no matter how hard or fast you try to do your work. Management does not really care of your personal issues of trial tribulations you go through in your daily life with family matters outside of the company as long as you get to work on time and focus on work like a robot without feelings or to have a brain as long as you are a work horse that doesn't want to stop. If you commute far from home to work and have to commute back home after a long night of being over worked, freezing, exhausted, frustrated and mentally shot, your drive home is that the same of escaping  a tornado . Supervisors write you up for the smallest stupid things that are drawn out to be far more intense than what they really are. No matter how hard you work your never good enough cause they use someone else whose less than half your age as an example that they do more than you so their expectations of you are far more than you can imagine. 

I work there and can barely afford to feed my family after the gas expense I shell out once a week to get there and back. It adds up to one of my entire paychecks a month! So I pretty much work for 3 paychecks out of a 4 week pay period therefor, less money to buy food for my family or clothes for my children. It is very difficult at times to work in this environment  especially when you have very little food to feed your family with not enough funds to buy the things you and your family enjoys to eat from time to time and have to work in a warehouse wrapping, receiving and hauling food you cant afford to buy as simple as meat, butter, cream or candy. I don't understand how a company that provides food for America as they claim to do can have NO concern or  for their own employees who struggle with trying to provide food for there own families with babies and children?

If the shoes and tables were turned in my opinion to someone who within the company at a high level and they had to experience this way of living life, I am sure then they would feel the frustrations, anger , sadness and exhaustion that some as myself and my family goes through.

I ask honestly, Is this fair?? ................Is it right?

Can someone who I hope reads this make a change for others like myself who are hard workers and strive towards goals to make enough to support and care for their family ???

You know its kind of funny cause the majority of CS management is based and ran by ex Military guys and I know that Military people are very strong on family values and American way of life so why show no compassion? 

Well, to any and all who read my post, thank you for taking your time to do so and those of you Managers from the company who read this, please keep in mind that people are not robots first off, second thing is, I hope you can understand my frustrations and concerns with this over all review. Im just a guy who is willing to make changes and continue to work for CS as long as I can not for a new pair of gloves or a sweatshirt that says 180 safe cause those things I cannot feed my family with. Food assistance  and a reasonable pay rate for even an hourly waged person at any C and S Location would be  a positive step in the right direction for C & S workers. 


Humbly Yours, 

a GOOD Person who works there

If you're going to work here, be prepared for being patronized by your trainer and being told one thing in training and expected to do another when actually working. A.K.A. getting a safety talk by the safety manager saying he doesn't want to see anyone running in the warehouse but him during an emergency, but if you want to get incentive pay you're going to have to run, FAST to make 100% pick rate because a 4 minute assignment / long picking Bay = you better run if you want to make your time. 

Have legit overhead other workers say when getting off break " time to go back to picking cotton" 

Be prepared to be told the same thing multiple times and to be expected to do more than others if you are naturally responsible. 

Be prepared for mandatory overtime and not being allowed to leave until all of the work is done. And even then you might be required to stay later especially if you work hard and don't fool around / chat with other employees instead of working. 

HR office and supervisors / managers offices are in a locked office so good luck trying to get ahold of them. If you're going to talk to them it will probably be on the floor while your time is running and if you don't keep track of it yourself, your pick rate goes down. Corporate HR is not responsive. 

Be prepared to keep close track of the hours you work and even though you're using a punch clock after you get your ID your paycheck is still short time that you worked. Overtime is NOT time and a half either. 

If you don't like people in your personal space, don't work here. Mornings consist of a long row of people picking and everyone trying to keep their speed up and slamming totes into each other and overcrowding from the amount of new hires they have due to high turnover. Very frustrating to voice pick with multiple other people calling out numbers and picking in the same Bay as you. People don't put items back in the right place / shelf stockers stock the wrong items in the bays and if you get errors because of this, it can keep you from getting a raise even though it's not your fault.  Be prepared for sweating a lot and sore feet and probably no sleep if you try to keep up with their system. 

Also, be prepared to deal with having things dumped on you from levels above you, (coffee, shampoo, etc) and dealing with all kinds of horrible smells from air freshners and highly scented personal care products, shards of broken lightbulbs, and very dry calloused skin. 

Not my cup of tea. I feel like the incentive pay was over exaggerated and you'll never really know what time you're going home that day. 

For a single person this might work if you don't mind the chaos and you like working hard. For a family person I feel there are better ways to make money and the stress is not worth it. 

Overall, the workers themselves are nice but it's hard to be nice / like people when picking because it's very competitive / uncomfortable / crowded.

Had hard times since the beginning and nobody cared checks were scheduled to come on Wednesday couldn’t even get my checks because they kept sending them other departments that I wasn’t in or even applied for and they had me off Wednesdays and Thursday night so I would drive a hour and 10 mins to come Thursday morning to pick up my check and on three separate occasions was told my check was locked in an office and that’d I have to come back tomorrow I would go almost all the way till next pay period before receiving my previous check for the previous work week  Management doesn’t care about anybody I was set to graduate and become an incentive selector but 2 supervisors asked me to help in a different department so I asked would I still graduate on time since all my percentage and performance was up to date they told me yes my graduation was as locked in so I agreed to help out in the freezer for the rest of the shift the next day I’m told I’ll b put in the freezer all week when asked for freezer suit I was shrugged off and had to work the whole week in the freezer without proper attire and so I asked again if I’d graduate on time and again I was assured that I would so at the beginning of the next week I was approached by a trainer and was told I would not graduate which I didn’t for another 3 weeks then when I did graduate on the 2nd month I didn’t get any of my incentive pay till almost the end of the 3rd month and several other trainers and employees told me this is normal that if you don’t stay on management they won’t take care of you and let things like graduate and incentive pay slide unless you brought it to their attention my 3rd week I asked for some time back because another employee hit my pallet and knocked it over when I asked for my time back and explained the situation I was accused of damaging product and I was told that by management “it’s not my problem” the job is great and pay is great but management brings everything down majorly I asked my manager to help set up direct deposit thru the workday app and said I couldn’t that I’d have to call HR for help with that so I called every number given for HR and even went on the home page to try and find a number and I never got one answer or a call back after leaving several call back messages so finally I call the employee resource number to set up my direct deposit and she tells me to right into workday and set up my direct deposit I told her my manager said I can’t set it up through there and she told me that’s the only way to set up my direct deposit was through the work day app her and the lady’s in the front office knew my manager when I said his name they both replied almost the same saying yeah he’s manager but doesn’t even know his job cuz I’m far from the first person to come with these problems it was the absolute worst work experience I’ve ever had in my life due to all the unprofessional and lack of understanding within the management department 

I loved this job.  A typical day included arriving at work at 6a.m., picking up a terminal that would load assignments for the day.  The terminal or "Jennifer" (an automated computer program) would ask you to complete the daily, pallet jack, equipment checklist.  Once the checklist is complete, Jennifer would then announce the first assignment.  She would tell you which aisles the assignment starts and where it ends, how many items in the assignment, how many slots, and how much time is allowed for said assignment.  I, in turn, would announce that I am ready to begin my work by saying "ready to go."  Then Jennifer would tell me, for example, "go to aisle 80 slot 04-02 grab 15."  Next I would drive the pallet jack to the slot and repeat to Jennifer, "grab 15."  Then Jennifer would announce the next slot and quantity of items and so forth until all cases have been picked.  Now let's say this assignment were to take 60 minutes to complete.  If I complete the assignment in exactly 60 minutes, my productivity would become 100%.  If I complete the assignment in 30 minutes, it would become 200%.  My goal is to complete the assignment as quick as possible, thus resulting in higher pay.  Base pay is $15/hr.  At the end of each day, each individual may check their average percentage for all assignments for the day.  Normally, about 15 assignments are completed by each worker per day.  At the end of the week, whatever the average of your percentages for each day total, you will get paid for that overall percentage.  For example, the percentages for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are 120%, 115%, 130%, and 118%.  The average for those 4 days would be about 120%.  This number would mean that for this specific pay period I would have earned $18/hr.  The rate is about an additional $1.50 for every 10% above 100%.  This way of payment gives the employees incentive to do their job as best and as quick as possible.  Once the daily quota is met by the company, generally from 160,000 to 200,000 cases daily, everyone may go home.

The pay and benefits are good but all thier standards are based off of production and speed and lacks pretty much everywhere else. Co-workers will steal equipment from other co-workers while they are on break, incentive selectors have assigned equipemnt yet as a trainee you have no idea which ones are assigned because the company does not bother to ethier have designated parking for unassigned and assigned equipement or have simple labels that designates it as assigned which leads to wasting a lot of time when there is confusion. The only part of the training process that was superior to other places I have worked was training on equipment. As far as being trained on everything else you will recieve conflicting information on how to do pretty much everything, some trainers will even tell you to do things that are against correct procceesess, one trainer will suggest you do something one way and another trainer will disagree. They dont like giving delays/downtime for anything, you have to argue for it. Thier safety record sucks for a reason. Its not enough that the voice picking system is a headache but if they run out of the bigger unit batteries you will most likely get stuck having to change the battery every 2 hours and they dont like giving you downtime for changing the RF battery.

If you happen to value the standard of basic repsect and also value the quality in your work and you are not a confrontational person this place is most likely not for you, at least not as a selector.

Aside from down time and not holding a higher standard to thier employees for respecting thier fellow co-worker management isnt that bad, they are understanding and will work with you.

thier inventory HAS to be a mess!

there are so many SIMPLE things they could do there to make it more efficient and if they held thier employees to a higher standard of integrity you wouldnt hear so many stories about arguments.

Each day was different but this is general: set up the first billing for selectors to pick from to load trucks to be shipped out. I would brake the loads down into shots to fit on pallets for the selectors. I would take in the load sheets back in to close them out making sure that all the proper stickers where on the load sheets in their proper places to be sent to the trucking company for their drivers to take the loads out to be delivered to stores. I would answer phone calls from customer service or transportation for paperwork related things such as adding a handbill for a customer that needed something else added to his truck for a special item.
I learned to work alone but fast and the supervisors depended on me to make sure the office ran smoothly and efficiently, I could manage several phones at the same time, I ran 5 machines at the same time off and on when it was required, I managed my time to my fullest fitting in everything that was required. I worked 3-14 hour shifts sometimes running over. Overtime was never an issue for me.
Co-worker were all guys on my shift. even the supervisors. But they respected me and I them. I had a great working relationship with all.
The hardest part was working everything alone. But if I needed help my supervisors were right there to pitch in and offer me brakes if I asked them. 
The most enjoyable part were the guys. They were a quirky bunch and made me laugh a lot. But every once in a while they knew when to let me be. They understood my position and what it was I did for them to make their work night run smoothly. 

I worked for this company for 4+ years and as a selector you will be working the night shift. Comings in new  you will be trained how to ride an a electrical pallet jack. After learning how to operate the jack correctly you will be tested on how well you can maneuver between cones and if no cones are hit you pass this test and will able to start working in your department (perishable, Grocery). You will be trained by someone knows how to select fast and consistent learning how to properly place cases in different bases. These people get easily frustrated and will talk behind your back every chance they get to management. As a male dominated workplace the environment is different for everyone who isn’t familiar with being around a certain type of co workers. As a result to never leaving until the work is done some nights will have you working 12,14,15 hour shifts and be expected to return to work tomorrow on time or will be written up for calling out from exhaustion. Coming late is a problem at times because from the lack of employees willing to show up on time overworks the ones who did show on time. This is a self motivated place don’t expect to have any pats on the back or be appreciated for a job well done. All in all if you aren’t going to be ok with missing family on holidays or seeing them as much and beating your body down on a consistent basis for decent pay then this isn’t the place for you. 

C&S is the kind of place you go to work when you need a solid paycheck and good benefits before applying for the job you *actually* want. The hours are long, the pay is decent, and they really do have a great benefits package. Additionally, among low-level workers, there is a pretty strong sense of community.

The culture isn't toxic, per se, but rather just... sad. Everyone you work with is worn out, angry, depressed, worried about losing their job to another round of layoffs or some offshore contractor in India, or all of the above. It often feels like nothing you do matters, and you're just another cog in a machine designed to print money for the children/grandchildren of the company founder.

C&S is without a doubt the most top-heavy organization I've ever worked for, and I've worked for the US government. For every office worker who is actually producing real work, there's like 5 managers and 3 executives. 

The office environment (and all departments in those offices), are highly siloed, which results in massive inefficiency and absolutely mind-boggling levels of wasted money, time, and resources. Upper management tends to respond to these huge budget overruns by cutting the best and brightest (and usually highest paid) members of already severely understaffed departments, resulting in even worse inefficiencies, causing more staff cuts; it's a self-propelling issue.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Order picker 39 salaries reported	$27.37 per hour
Warehouse supervisor 19 salaries reported	$70,368 per year
Refrigeration technician 15 salaries reported	$29.67 per hour
Trailer technician 2 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour
Forklift operator 2 salaries reported	$21.75 per hour

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