replenishment associate

order picker

forklift operator

truck driver

maintenance mechanic

Coca Cola Southwest Beverages

You will pretty much know from day 1 whether or not you will plan to stay, as this was the case for myself. My very first "orientation" day I should have known to keep looking..Got there and NOTHING was ready for me. Log in to the computer wasn't set up, no welcome packet, basically I sat down and went over the policies and benefits by myself since she was on a conference call. I basically felt like an inconvience. 

Training period is about 2 weeks of riding with someone delivering to stores and restaurants, however if your permanent role will be on sideload delivery, for some reason managers train you with mini-bulk driver, which makes no sense because the way you do things is a little different. This is the part where you will hear a ton of negatives about the job itself and you'll see where there are issues that need fixed between drivers, salesman, and management. No one works together here, and blame gets passed on to one another.

Once you're finally by yourself managers will place you on routes in areas you are not at all familiar with (even though they ask what areas of town you are familiar with during interview.) Along with not having any idea where you are going, they will slam you with some of the larger case counts routes after about a week by yourself I guess to "test" you. This will put you at 10-13 hours per day easily with you being new and slower.  This is a VERY physical job and you will be out in the elements. You will want to quit at this stage.

If you stick with it it does get better and you do get a lot faster at stacking and better with the dolly and figuring out which stores you can drop and go at. You will also learn a lot more areas in the Houston area after awhile. You will HATE family dollar, dollar general, Walgreens, corner stores (some), and CVS's, and a few others with a passion because you have to stock EVERYTHING because their lazy workers won't do it. 

Some of my biggest issues with this job:

Junk Equipment-Be warned, this is some of the worst trucks and trailers I've ever seen/driven. Most of the trucks are 10-25 years old; most trailers are almost 20+ years old, except mini bulk trailers. 80% of the trucks either are not equipped with A/C at all, or it has an option for it but it simply doesn't work and fleet REFUSES to fix it. This is Texas...it's freakin' hot here. You will be drenched in sweat by 7am with zero breaks in AC all day. They also have absolutely ZERO extra trucks, so if something is wrong with your truck, too bad it's already loaded for a route so you'll be driving it. This doesn't even make smart business sense and I can't believe a multi-billion dollar company is this cheap and give the people who make most of their money day to day pieces of junk to drive. Unacceptable. If DOT stops you and does an inspection, I'm 90% sure you'd receive a ticket and possibly placed out of service. Not worth it.

No assigned trucks/routes/areas- Supervisors REFUSE to assign trucks, routes, or at least a general area. You WILL be in a different truck and area every single day. Other drivers will smoke and leave trash in trucks for you the next day to clean. Customers always will ask why it's a different driver every week. This should be a simple solution and its one that almost all of the drivers have asked about, yet we get told it's not possible.. how???

No one is held accountable: Salesman constantly over order on accounts which leaves us doing extra work for nothing just to have the customer cut it. It's out of control especially at CVS..will have a full pallet of 12 packs and they'll order more...WHY???? Credits are always a mess and not put together or right at all. 
If you take a truck to fleet for just about anything you'll get a jokingly response like "oh it'll be alright, you don't need that" or you'll get told they have to order a part. Next week you'll get the same truck and it still has the same issue. Must be nice to get paid to not do your job...

Low Morale- Every morning you'll get to hear people complain about their route, stops, truck and how much they hate this and that. No one is happy to be there and you feel easily replaced and like a number. 

No room to move up- There is drivers that have been doing the same thing for 10-15 years and have not been given the opportunity to move up? It's sad but you have to be close with the higher ups to go anywhere here. They could care less about your years of service.

Forced to deliver to places where trucks don't belong- There will be a lot of stops that are way too tight or don't have enough room to safely maneuver to even get the truck into the parking lot. Whoever sets up new accounts should be making sure trucks can fit and theres plenty of room to get in and out, otherwise, coke should send their order on a regular pickup truck. 

Entry pay is pretty good and you can live off of it and pay your bills, but is it enough for the manual labor and stuff you have to deal with? I'm not so sure.

Buckner location is a horrible DC To work for. Management are a bunch of little kids with power. The supervisors always joke around about homosexual activity and the managers try to act professional like they know what’s going on and how to run a company. Very unprofessional and if they don’t like you they are for sure going to run you down till you can’t work anymore and quit. They are the ones that name the routes everyday and have a big part on how much you go out with everyday on your route. Even though you have sick time they look very down upon that and will hit you with their heaviest route the next day your coming in to work to show you calling in is not okay. Even though you have sick time. Starting here you will have the worst shape equipment possible. Tractor might not have ac and you will have to find yourself a pallet jack. Get you a good one and you might find the lock cut into one day with your jack gone. Someone who will strive here is someone who doesn’t call in ever or uses sick time , someone who doesn’t get in a accident ever. And someone who likes to kiss butt 24/7. You can be a good worker and they will still punish you for it because your not kissing their butt. They punish you by not giving you a raise at the end of the year. And another bs reason for not getting a raise. If you get a bs supervisor (which u will) u cannot grade them how you feel because then their “yearly budget” shrinks meaning you get little to no raise cause you made a accurate report on your supervisor. This place is a joke. Beside the vacation time I wouldn’t recommend this place. Dealing with tippy toeing around people or you will receive backlash , getting paid biweekly , bad equipment , managing your hours , benefits aren’t cheap. There’s more Cons then pros. Everyone that applies thinks “ it’s Coca Cola I’m fixing to make great money “ then they come here and see for themselves. Management is running this place to the ground. When warehouse is short staffed and your route is not ready. Best believe u will sit around waiting for it WHILE NOT BEING CLOCKED IN or if you do they will clock you back out or write u up. Stay away 

When I first started over 5 years ago this place was great, now it's a nightmare.  Our 8 hrs shifts went to 12s and now people are unsatisfied.  There is lack of manager involvement in my department because the current manager been at our location for a year and talks to our department as well as others in a bad way, people get bad vibes from this manager who takes 0 responsibilities for the departments actions but is quick to threaten to write up or take their work badges and walk them out.  Work life balance at 8 hrs was non existent now it is ok with 3 days off besides that it is still not worth it when departments all across the plants are lacking people due to pay, wanting degrees and lack of training.  There is 0 proper documented training all you go by is word of mouth and show and tell style training.  The machines break down so there is lots of down time and when production is good and hits their qoutas NO thank yous, no celebrations just more orders to run.  I would not recommend this place to someone who wants to be a lifer but to someone who needs a paycheck sure. I hate to see how employee moral and positive attitudes have gone down hill especially in the last year.  It's sad to see alot of good people leave due to managers and supervisors who don't stand up for their employees.  A BAD MANAGER can destroy a great team and leave the ones who stay less motivated.  My motivation was lost a year ago and it shows in my personal life and home life with the stress and anxiety I have.  Dont forget about applying to move up in the company because they hire who they want and its usually a supervisors wife or friend.

This is my first local job coming in as a CDL Driver/Merchandiser & it has been the most hard working, back braking, stressful job I have had so far. If your thinking your just gonna drive or your gonna just deliver pallets with a pallet jack no need to apply. Your gonna work, your gonna open all the product & put away by hand. On top of all the labor let's hope your hand held works & keeps a charge (battery dies with in an hr of use), your printer works, they remember to charge all the pallet jacks if one is available to use for the day & you will be driving very old, dirty no AC (cause they kept & still operating trucks since the 1900s trailers too) truck that day for delivery. As I rough it out & did my best (you will get better if you stay) with the tools they were given to me over time management slowly starts giving more cases & stops to deliver, only for them to call you & tell you "what is taking so long!". Management prints your route & it has how long it should take you to finish. With respect that printed route is completely wrong (always) cause it doesn't factor traffic, weather, customer having other vendors etc.... (so your being micro manage). By the way they recently put cameras in all the trucks but can't invest in buying newer & better trucks & equipment. For having a billion dollar reputation it was the cheapest company I have ever worked for. If I still haven't made you a believer notice that their always hiring every 3 to 6 months that's cause they have a high turn over rate.

I wish someone would have warned me prior to accepting the job offer. Where do I begin? The job itself is not that bad, however middle management makes things worse then necessary. Micromanaging is the norm here! It is not uncommon to receive an email asking “How come you only have 2 stores remaining” or a request to send a picture of you logging in to something as proof, as if we are children. Every part of your job is dictated to you. 

There is very minimal training upon starting the job yet you are expected to somehow know things that have never been shown. Every email is urgent. This becomes an issue because you are flooded with emails daily and still expected to perform the basic functions of your job. Although it is promoted that this is your book of business you have very minimal say in your day to day tasks. 

We are talked to in condensending ways and still expected to go above and beyond. You may start the job going strong but trust me, after the 3-4 month you will lose that spark. This is a what have you done for me lately business. Merchandising is extremely heavy. Often times you will find yourself  merchandising more than building rapport with the customer. Did I mention that micromanaging here is terrible???

Don’t bother seeking support from management on issues. You will just get hit with a rebuttal and somehow the whole thing will be your fault. The company promotes internally but usually among certain circles.  Customer Accounts tend to forget that you do not report to them, but for the most part they are pretty friendly once you get to know them. I could go on and on but just take my word. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

What is the best part of working at the company?
Lots and lots of overtime available

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Running up against your DOT clocks daily, routes having you at locations before they open which ends up putting you severely behind to other customer, pallets not wrapped securely and constant shifting of products. No way to get things fixed at route start times as no one from truck maintenance is available at that time of morning. As well constant truck changing with each one having its own issues from clutch not disengaging to trucks not wanting to go into gear. And last but certainly not least is the micromanaging with the camera system is severely out of control. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The people were good, and the work not extremely difficult in my division. Work environment is like any other, its work. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Start routes anywhere between 2 and 4am, get to warehouse and get route assignment sheets. Walk across the building to find trailer and truck for the day. Then find pallet jack that works (and is charged) and load into your trailer. Double check to make sure load is correct for your route then close up trailer and disengage dock plate. Go to your truck and do normal pretrip (trucks are usually pre fueled by mobile company that comes on-site)  and make sure your full of def. Hook up to your trailer and finish pretrip then head out to your deliveries.

The shop is poorly furnished, generally run-down, and very small for the intended application. The PM's appear to have a long pattern of being pencil whipped. The work pace and expectations seem to be pretty laid back. Due to the small shop size, most of the work is done in the parking lot, amidst busy lot traffic at times. The lot is replete with potholes, hills, cracks, etc.The software system for tracking equipment repairs and maintenance seems archaic and not user friendly. Getting parts in a timely fashion is usually an ordeal, leading to equipment sitting for extended periods in areas already limited in space. There is very little accountability for equipment being abused or damaged, which can either be viewed as job security or waste, depending on perspective. It seems to be a place to earn a steady paycheck for the individual who is sated with the position as it is offered. It's not a great environment for those looking to expand their industry knowledge, or use the most modern techniques, software, and repair information to diagnose and repair more complex issues. Honestly, I expected a more professional work environment from a company with such a large market share. On a positive note, they start employees off with 15 days of paid vacation, to be prorated for those starting mid-year. Additionally, they have sick days, bonus days, and floating holidays. It's almost like a government job in many respects. The location and start dates I listed had to be generalized and modified to protect my anonymity.

The friends u can make in this job is what make the job fun cause u will see them daily alot of the time But the work can be very physical especially in holidays u gotta pull heavy pallets of soda with a old pallet jack that cant roll properly so it adds extra stress on your body and even if u can handle the job and like it like i did u gotta deal with the terrible hires that dont understand how to be organized or make a proper order so than u end up with extra backstock. Which easily builds up in backrooms especially in stores with less room for stock. than u gotta deal with extra pallets of unnecessary amounts of product after u come back from your week vacation and managers or leads like applying pressure to order extra to reach volume goals no need to order extra product if it aint selling. The pay is i guess somewhat decent compared to alot of these other terrible paying jobs so there goes that. Its been 2 yrs since i worked there a old friend said the job has been much slower in sales so seems like its less work now so prolly a lil easier since everything more expensive and food stamps changing its rules with not allowing people to buy process foods anymore.  Ive been offered to go back since i was very good at the job but honestly theres other things i can do with my energy. I do miss some moments like i would say one nice thing about the job was just chilling and talking to other workers and not having my personal manager watching me or being on my ahh like if i were working at the store itself.

When you first start, leadership makes you believe in the company and makes you think that you’ll be promoted within two years but promotions for merchandisers are few and far in between. 

A lot of it is based off of favoritism and which manager you get along with vs how hard you work.

Certain managers show favoritism and can be difficult to work under.

Dealing with the various personalities in the stores can be annoying as well.

A lot of the stress can come from your coworkers. When they call in you have to pick up their stores, or if they don’t finish their job, that’s more work added to you.

The pay was OK but certainly not enough for the work we did( they didn’t pay us hazard pay during Covid like the other vendors did).

The company is constantly short staffed with a high turnover rate and they can take forever to hire more workers.

3 weeks of vacation was nice. Benefits were decent too. 


This company constantly restructures routes and when they do, a bunch of merchandisers leave.

That’s what happened most recently, big changes came around April that caused a large amount of merchandisers to quit the job. Eventually we were working 6 days a week which was very overwhelming.


All in all, this is a hard job that will pay your bills. If you have a great work ethic you will be fine. If you don’t, it can be a difficult road for you.

Before the covid crisis came about Sales was only 1 aspect of what made your team great. Other main goals consisted of being team player,(if a teamate had to work late due to late delivery teamates would go help), focus on culture priciples,  transparency, good communication and excellent quality work that represented the company well asthetically and professionally. We were all trained to take pride in our work, while at the same time keeping our stores happy with full shelves all faced and fronted daily, and a well organized back room all striped and always kept inventory ready. Now it seems all they want is more sales more volume, forcing us to feel like we must write a larger order than our stores need in order to make our team look good and win incentives at any cost to our relationship with our customers. Goals have changed and we are losing focus on quality, culture, priciple, and transparency. Volume and more sales is all this company cares about today, Greed is best word  to describe corporate Coke. They only want to make more money and care less for employees putting in the work to produce. No matter if you are the best you will not see more than a 4% raise for the year guaranteed, no changes will be made to consider cost of living they do not care and most only see a 2% raise for a year of hard work. 


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Replenishment associate 926 salaries reported	$21.02 per hour
Order picker 327 salaries reported	$18.14 per hour
Forklift operator 336 salaries reported	$19.59 per hour
Truck driver 181 salaries reported	$26.65 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 70 salaries reported	$29.37 per hour

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