demonstrator

brand ambassador

shift manager

senior shift supervisor

locator

CDS (Club Demonstration Services)

*Hiring—First, I want to give the company props for the quick hiring process. I think it took me a week or less to get hired.
*Training- Training also takes not too much time, maybe 2 weeks if you work fewer hours, but this is where you start to realize working here might be one of the biggest mistakes you would make in your ever so short life. Training is honestly very disorganized, as usually you will be trained by some of your coworkers after orientation, The people are quite nice depending on the person, the problem is they don't set a specific person to be the trainer so you are either bouncing around between different people or doing other menial tasks that have nothing to do with the job (will reference later). Also, there might be a chance you aren't trained on all the cooking tools during your training period if a product that requires some of those tools isn't being demonstrated.

*Workday- The job itself is relatively easy. You check in,  grab your cart, and roll it to the location of the product you're demonstrating that day. The company buys a certain amount of products you can use and if you go over it you just count out how much more you used off the shelves so you can tell management and they buy more later. Then at the end of the day, you roll it back to the "office" to clean up and do the dishes. You sample different food products like snacks, pre-made meals, juices, etc. One strange thing is that you have sales goals for the products you are sampling, but you get no commission for it no matter how much you sell, even if you sell out all the products. They want you to make the goal, but there are no repercussions if you don't, so all that happens if you undersell is that management gets salty, and it's kind of funny to think about.

*Customers/Management- If you are making a popular product that day or maybe something that smells good, sometimes people line up or constantly come back around to check if they can get a sample before they run out. Most of the customers are nice and patient, but some of them have absolutely no decorum. They would whine to you about how it was taking so long for them to get another sample, how they didn't expect it to taste the way it did, or complain that you didn't make it the way they liked it, even though you can only follow the recipe the company gives you. Since demonstrators don't get tips or commissions, there is absolutely no point in going above and beyond except doing the job you were paid to do. Some of the managers/supervisors were nice and some weren't, it depends on who you talk to. I feel a lot of the job problems are caused mostly by the company and not by people in management, because from what I've seen they are also overworked and underpaid.

*Miscellaneous- Other things about the job that you wouldn't know about or be initially trained on beforehand are breaker or folding days. There's a chance you might be assigned as a breaker for a day, which is covering for people when they go on lunch or break. I liked doing this a lot as you would get to make different products and move around a lot the entire day. Unfortunately, management also takes advantage of people who are on breaker duty because they ALMOST ALWAYS make you work a few hours overtime that day, which can conflict with your schedule if you want to at the time you choose. Also, the company's broke and doesn't pay overtime, which I didn't know until much later, and wish I had just said no to the overtime. They also wanted you to tell on those who went a couple of minutes over their break ( which most likely happened because they went to the restroom or walked back to their station on the other side of the BIG Costco), which I never did cause I didn't see the point. They wanted to scold them later for being late and when breakers gave them they sometimes caused unnecessary drama between coworkers, which again was funny to watch but extremely inefficient. The second duty is folding duty which they assign to you if there aren't enough products to demonstrate for all the workers that day. You go to the clothing stations and fold clothes. That's it. Every time I got assigned to do this all I could think was just send me home :(

*Big Events/Holiday Rush Madness- I think some of the worst days working here were during these types of management. It gets extremely crowded, people line up and are more impatient than usual, and management will on the demonstrators more than ever. Also, hire-ups in charge of the region/county come to inspect on days like this, and they are some of the rudest people I have ever met. They treat you like you are meaningless, won't give you the time of day, and report people to their management for making the slightest mistakes.
* Overall, this is a very last resort job. I used to think dead-end jobs meant anything minimum wage, but after working here I know those are just regular entry-level jobs. This is a dead-end job. Good luck



To work at CDS is to say that you're desperate for money, for there is no other reason you should subject yourself to the environment just to make eleven an hour. The supervisor, the one I have currently is no team player and is even willing to demean you if it means better sales for the company or for themselves. For example, if you were accused of something, they will not look at the camera to check if you are innocent or not and will ascertain that you have done misconduct, just so that they will look good to their superiors.

There are no benefits to working there, none. Even with the eleven an hour salary, your hours fluctuate depending on how many staff are available and the holidays. Otherwise you can go from working from six days a week to none. At least the company is flexible with working with your schedule. You're not being paid commission either, so there is little incentive to actually do your job other than bonuses for reaching the sales goal for the product you are given, which are usually impossible feats to do.

The work environment is not that good. Aside from the co-workers, people there are just unfriendly often and will even become unruly and even hostile. The environment is also very disgusting. Lots of times the dishes aren't fully cleaned, the equipment doesn't work properly due to lack of maintenance, and the whole job is just unsanitary.

A day at work would be to come in, wait for the boss to tell you everything you already know, with no love or passion for the workers, and tells you to hurry up onto the floor. There is also constant pressure from the supervisor and the occasionally mystery shoppers that review your performance. Problem is they base it of one instance of your work instead of your whole overall performance. So you could do fantastic throughout the rest of the day but mess up in one particular instance in front of the mystery shopper and they'll assume you did terrible the whole day. It's also stressful when the supervisor constantly walks around the floor to make sure you're not goofing off, but it already puts more stress on the workers than needed.

Management is really bad. Sometimes things break down, or more product and materials are needed, but often the manager will just outright forget or get someone else to do it. Worst of all, the supervisor will not even get around to that until the very next day.

The coworkers are fun to work with, but the interesting thing is that the general demographic for people working at CDS is people in there 50s and higher, or young people in their 20s, like me; more often though it's the elderly. That's because, again, these are people who are only working for class, but there are no benefits to this. For the elderly, they work there because  often they have no choice and they have to make a living somehow since they don't have a retirement plan, and  young people because they need cash more than they need benefits, and these are kids who are desperate for finding a job. Usually they don't stay too long since once they find a better job, they'll quit CDS.

If there is anything I've learned from my job is how to be excellent in customer service, patience, and working in retail. For if you're going to work at a place like CDS, you're going to need all the patience you can possibly get. I constantly have to interact with people there at CDS, so it has definitely improved upon my people skills as well, and it gives me a better understanding of the people I'm dealing with and how the product I'm demonstrating relates to them and their needs. 

Overall, CDS is only a place strictly for financial means and not much at that. It's a place if you're desperate enough to make money, but there is no room for expansion, and there is a lot of stuff one would have to put up with. It will test your patience a lot and with little benefit for doing so. IF there is one word to describe working at CDS is "unfulfilling." In the end, all the work is trying to drive the sales of a company, that don't even care about your well being, by selling products to often unthankful customers just to get by financially. There is no room to grow in it, it's stagnant, it's monotonous, and unsatisfactory.

Our Location Has Friendly Considerate Close Knit Staff 

Most of our staff are retired people who work for something else to do. We help each other. Our boss recognizes that some of us can't work all of the time. She works with us if we have medical needs or need to visit doctors for appointments. Our group is friendly and we get along. Most of us have been there for years. 

The downsides are that if we wanted to work thirty hours or more we aren't allowed to do it because the company DOESN'T WANT TO PAY FOR INSURANCE OR ANY BENEFITS. CDS / Advantage Solutions IS SUPER CHEAP. No pay raises in over two years. Our pay is below average in our city. We bring value to products and cause sales to go up. It is a skill. If we work hard and reach our sales quotas for 28 days they give us $40. That's $1.43 more for each day we met or exceeded our quotas. Pfffft. At least it's something. They give us sanitation rules to follow that can't be followed. Otherwise no work would get done. Here's an example; Every time we change gloves we must wash our hands. It's a rule we can't follow. That would mean leaving the cart. We're not allowed to leave our carts. In special circumstances we can leave our carts. To do so, skillets and ovens must be unplugged and cooled. Then put away. All samples must be put on the shelf in the cart. The cart must be turned so the open side is against a wall. Then we can walk away. We change our gloves twenty or more times a shift. How long would it take to put away the cart every time we changed gloves and had to wash our hands? How long would it take to reheat the skillets or ovens to wash our hands twenty or more times per day? No samples would be given out if we followed the rules. We wouldn't have time to get anything cooked. 

Some customers are rude. Many customers are idiots and reach into our food preparation areas. We're not allowed to openly get angry at them. Yet when they do that, all of the food and utensils in the prep area must be thrown away because of contamination. On some demonstrations it takes quite a bit of skill and time to combine three ingredients on a cracker in a way that is presentable. Throwing away a nearly complete tray because of an idiotic customer is infuriating. When we do tell customers that they can't do that, they look at us as if we just insulted them. MORONS! Fortunately in our town most people are considerate and friendly. Some parents let their little children run around unsupervised. Some parents get mad at us for refusing to serve children that are alone. EVEN THOUGH THE SIGNS SAY PARENTS MUST ACCOMPANY CHILDREN RECEIVING SAMPLES. The kids run back to their parents and complain about not being served. Then the parents come and complain to us or the managers. Unfortunately the store managers tend to coddle the parents instead of asking them why they let their children run around without supervision. At the store entrance it is posted on the wall that parents must accompany children at all times. 

This is a physically easy job once it is learned. Selling is a skill that takes time to master. Fortunately our job instructions tell us everything to say. So everybody can do the basics and get results. We add value to the products that are promoted. We need to earn a competitive wage. Many of us are looking for other things to do. In this good economy several people have already left for other jobs with better pay. They'll lose many more if they don't bump our pay another two dollars per hour soon. 

December 2019

Management is for the most part, fair.  They will work around school, family, medical problems, and vacations.  The work wasn't hard, not physically demanding except for standing in one place for 6 hours except for a 15 minute break and a lunch, but too much standing at a time without moving around too much in my opinion.  They will sometimes give you chair to sit on if you have medical issues, but still, I would prefer a job where I got to move around more even if I was tired at the end of the day rather than falling asleep half the day if you don't have a busy demo/busy day.  Work wasn't too hard to do, unless you were cooking or it was really busy.  You do food demos for another company which you work inside of helping to "sell" a product.  You will stand for 5 1/4 hours of the workday in one place, doing the demo they give you for the day.  CDS and the company that we work inside of, was fair for the most part, but pays too much attention to seemingly lackluster and sometimes plain whiny customer complaints that should not have been uttered or be taken as seriously they do.  They both try to be professional and fair, but pay too  much attention to the "customer is king" belief/methodology.  This creates and created a problem in that if a customer complained to management for something very small or something that I said honestly as much as I could while trying to be tactful in response to a question such as a negative answer about certain products, etc. as happened to me several times, I got in trouble for what should have never been officially recorded or had any real follow-up. This resulted in the feeling that if I said anything other than pretty much exactly (I am paraphrasing here) "Hi, how are you doing today, would you like to try a sample?" or "Try it and if you like it, buy it and have a good day", I got in trouble.  ANYTHING other than pretty much exactly that(or at least it felt like it) and  I got in trouble, resulting me feeling like I almost didn't dare even open my mouth for fear that someone would say something that would get me in trouble for really nothing valid or actually wrong and I would get suspended or fired.  Now, I should say here so I am being as honest as possible that I don't have the best amount of intuitive people skills, but to be fair I tried.  I got in trouble for being "a good salesman but too enthusiastic in the customers' opinion with selling products" or trying to be honest about a products worth.  Not "They dropped curse words in front of my kids".
 
Maybe it was just my bad experience or slight lack of skills at the time and not realizing what to do at the time that got me in trouble.  I am just trying to give anybody approaching this job a fair view of what happens/might happen in a job like this.  Other than that it was a good job mostly.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It is the perfect job for those of us who like flexibility in scheduling, personalized attention, and a leadership second to none. While other jobs also claim a non-discriminatory policy, CDS applies it. There is respect and appreciation for all, regardless of our age, background, even our special needs or requests, the company accommodates a healthy variety of people who end up staying and being loyal to CDS. After a lifetime of several jobs I have taken, this is the one where I would like to stay infinitely, because age does not seem to be a problem either. You feel welcome and encouraged by management and coworkers alike.
I am grateful to finally experience teamwork at its best, positive feedback both from the company and the general public, Costco members we serve.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Beyond the positive excitement that characterizes our job daily, there may be some stressful situations during major holidays, when our store can get quite crowded. We are taught techniques to deal with a busy environment, training always ties to our needs. Online and in person courses are very useful as they update best work practices, procedures, all we need to know to be successful.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Our work environment is cheerful, team members are very supportive. Nobody is judgmental not just because it would be against our rules and agreements, but because we get along very well. Our diversity seems to be key to develop empathy toward one another that we carry over to our customers who represent just about every culture in the US.  We welcome and serve anyone and everyone, do our best to encourage them to enjoy their Costco shopping experience by introducing them to many new and unfamiliar products, help them to make educated choices that are healthy and attractive to even the most selective customers. Closing the sales makes us very happy, while welcoming and embracing different cultures and ideas also shape us and provide us with valuable insights during our product demonstrations.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day starts with a short training session when we prepare for our assignment. We can ask questions; answers and help are always there to support
our work. We learn about the product we demonstrate that day, best practices in food preparations or how to present and make our demo attractive to instill sales.
Our supervisors are there for us to encourage and support us while coworkers often suggest ideas that made them successful when performing similar tasks. It is team work, we never feel alone the entire day and do our best to set up for upcoming shifts to make their work easier.  All for one and one for all!

Costco needs to reevaluate its partnership with Advantage Solutions (owner of CDS). Costco knows how to keep their workforce happy and motivated. CDS doesn’t cultivate the same work culture. Employee retention strategies, like benefits for part timers, competitive wages, guaranteed hours, raises, etc; are NOT practiced by CDS. Moreover, unlike Costco, CDS has no interest in eco-friendly policies or sustainability goals.

CDS relies on retired or unskilled labor to execute product demonstration (sampling) for various Costco vendors. They employ one full-time salaried event manager per location. Subordinates under the event manager- supervisors and associates, receive a fixed hourly wage (no possibility of a raise) with NO benefits or PTO (unless required by state law). HR is completely remote so all conflicts funnel through the event manager.

Upper management at CDS primarily obsess over business analytics and rarely prioritize interpersonal relations. Also, since they work from home there’s a strong disconnect between labor & corporate management. Weak connections are made during “gotcha visits,” email chains/cascades, and weekly virtual meetings. Visits from corporate management revolve around policy/compliance, numbers, and glib pleasantries.

The event manager works Tue-Sat, while upper management works Mon-Fri. Meaning, lots of emails come through on Mon, and no one’s immediately available on Sat. If you can find good supervisors and train them properly, they handle duties on Sun-Mon. Unfortunately, because they’re part time supervisors, they have little incentive or motivation to faithfully support business processes. Therefore, salaried event managers are expected to be readily available on their day(s) off to come in or answer questions.

Compensation is inadequate, turnover is high, so recruiting is on-going (at capacity, 35-40 workers). The event manager is actually a general manager responsible for sampling, food safety, hiring, training, firing, field activities, PML, scheduling, numbers, etc. It’s difficult to develop talent, because the only promotion available for part time associates is the event manager position. And there’s little upward mobility for event managers. Many associates, especially young talent, end up working for Costco because it’s a better company.

A cost of living raise doesn’t occur annually, so expect inflation to slowly erode your salary. PTO doesn’t rollover or payout. Yearly bonuses depend on opaque criteria internally discussed by upper management. And policies abruptly change when they implement new or “creative” ideas. All in all, there’s a lack of appreciation for labor and the event manager is expected to maintain high morale.

I do not recommend working for CDS.

After clocking in on the tablet you would receive information on that day's product demonstration, which would change daily. Set up carts with that day's equipment whilst either receiving updates or reviewing company policies from the event manager or senior shift supervisor, general chit chat with fellow coworkers, or exchanging feedback with event manager or senior shift supervisor. Then steer demo cart to sales location, and proceed to interact with Costco club members and demonstrate, give samples, and sell that day's product for roughly 5&1/2 hours, during which one receives one 30 minute and one 15minute break. About 20-15 minutes before one's shift ends, steer demo cart to back room and clean, sanitize, and put away equipment in an organized manner. 

I learned a lot about different customer interactions and sales procedures, increased those sales skills as well as my multitasking skills when having to prepare food items over a hot portable griddle while selling items, directing, and answering club member concerns, and keeping a clean working area. 

Management was fair, during my time (2&1/2 years) we cycled through three different event mangers, and two district managers, we mostly worked under our event managers directly. Lower tier was the Senior shift supervisors, who were more present than the event managers, which occasionally lead to some slip ups involving scheduling and work supply stocks (sample cups, sanitary gloves, etc.). The schedule was incredibly flexible, anytime off request was granted almost no questions asked. 

A good amount of my coworkers only stayed with the position for between 2-4 weeks, the ones that stuck around were a friendly, hardworking group that enjoyed working with. 

The hardest part of the job was feeling like there was no advancement opportunity, and that when there was one it seemed like a selection from superiors that didn't work within our location or among the employees in our location, based on only seniority and not performance or recommendation from our location managers and supervisors. Unruly, beyond rude, club members where also difficult as well. 

The most enjoyable parts of working with CDS were being able to sell and converse with regular club members and employees, having a new set of tasks everyday, challenging sales goals to meet. The scheduling was more times than not very accommodating.

To be honest, CDS is a great place to work, if you intend to transition to a new job. On a typical day at work, you are assigned a demo, and you are responsible for your demo. Hence, most of us have some autonomy over our job. However, every time you work (with exceptions), you have to attend a meeting, that tells you the same old rules over and over again. It is a great place to work, if you feel bored; it is not a great place to work, if you are used to being busy.

CDS is actually quite good to work at; it taught me to value customer interactions very personally and well. Unfortunately, we are assigned seemingly random demos every time, causing some confusion in the process. Furthermore, the "flexible schedules" are extremely confusing, so that even management is quite inefficient.

However, the workplace culture is not exactly the best. I honestly enjoy being with some people, but not others. In fact, I enjoy interacting with customers, more than interacting with my co-workers, because customers seem better-behaved than my own peers. The hardest part of the job, then, is really the atmosphere of my workers; most of them, despite having a great job, do not seem to appreciate the job. Another hard part of the job is the lack of consistency in schedule; although I have clearly requested that I can work Monday through Saturday, but NOT on Sunday for church service, I end up having to work on Sundays. Hence, the term "flexible schedule" is not exactly accurate.

Bringing to a conclusion, the most enjoyable part of this job is interacting with people. If you love to talk to people/customers, this job is great. It also helps me to develop skills needed to get out of the restaurant business, and transition to better-paying jobs. At the end of the day, working at CDS was relief, but it is something I do not intend to stay.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at CDS are your co-workers and the people in the store. They are always there for you. People enjoy trying or tasting the products, which makes the job fun. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Scheduling, which includes weekends for everyone. Its hard to work your activates around the work schedule especially weekends. And it seems if you're not in good graces with management, your stuck on the late shift. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment was good, but as indicated in the question prior, it could be stressful. Most of the time friendly, but sometimes the culture was very strict. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You would come into work and find your work cart in the CDS area which you would have to read about the product and what is necessary to demo it. All needed items to demonstrate are on the cart. If anything missing you would need to find it. Your product would be on the cart, as well, or in the refrigerator or freezer where you would stop and pick it up. You then find your station area and set up you demo cart with possibly an oven, frying pan or pot, if needed. You'd set up your trays for demo once your product was cooked to the right temperature or if chilled it would be demoed into the proper demo cup or parfait paper cup. You need to rotate your tray filling with product when tray empty, and continually making trays, so they are there when rotation is needed. When shift finished, you take cart to the CDS area and clean all your dishes, trays and utensils with the team. Rotating taking turns rotating days between cleaning dishes/trays and cleaning carts. Timing is important. All has to be completed within your shift hours.

I have been working at CDS for a while now. The pay is not bad for what you have to do. It is, however, not for everyone as you can imagine. First of all, standing for prolonged hours and talking incessantly is demoralizing and repetitive. If you have experience with customer service, you know how rude and demanding people can be—you see it in this position on a daily basis. Another issue that affects “employee happiness” in this position is the relationship with Costco employees; some are nice individuals while others are mean and arrogant (usually the managers). If you are able to be indifferent to these things and get past them you will be able to handle this position—the job is easy.
Now, let’s talk about CDS management. Presumably, this will come down to personal opinion and experience. So, my manager is infamous for being mean and disrespectful; this comes from coworkers, Costco employees, “roadshow” people, and customers alike; all I have to say about this is that there many people like this in the world—you just have learn to work with them. Also, the manager sometimes fails to do his part and this trickles down to everyone else. For example, failing to supply Sales Advisors with product and equipment makes the team inefficient. On the other hand, to be fair, the manager is flexible and understanding when it is necessary; he is able to communicate on goods terms. 
Coworkers. The type of coworkers you see will vary obviously. I mostly have young coworkers going to college or university and older retired folks; they have a wide range of personalities.
What I appreciate of this job is the flexibility and the pay. As well as, the lack of drama and the environment—everyone seems to get along well. I would certainly recommend friends.

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