merchandiser

stocker

material handler

forklift operator

sales merchandiser

Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc.

I will start by saying; I worked for CCBCC only for a matter of months. My experience will certainly differ from those who spent years with the company.

Things start out very easy and you are eased into things slowly as you will train with another merchandiser for an entire month. During that time you may also get an expenses-paid trip to do further training at corporate. After you've completed training, you get set out on your own, feeling confidence which will quickly be crushed.

You'll most likely start out as a flex merchandiser, meaning you cover for the regular merchandisers on their days off. This essentially means that you'll be bounced around from route to route from day to day and week to week. Two days here, two days there, one day way over there and then next week will be totally different. This is bad for two main reasons; one, you can't get your own system going to make working the route easier because you might not even be back on that route next time, and two, you're often wasting time organizing and cleaning up the messes of the regular merchandisers, and/or getting blamed and yelled at by the store for their laziness. 

It's not so bad if you get routes without a lot of stores that do big sales (Wal-Mart and Target, for instance). However, if you get stores like Publix and Harris Teeter that like to run blowout sales and have big displays going up every week, it can be a nightmare. It's likely that at least once a week you'll have a day with three trucks to work and at least two out of four of your stores will have multiple displays for you to build, or take down, or move, or all of the above. It might not sound like much, but time gets away from you really quickly out there, and there's always a lot to do at every store you service. Store management will have no sympathy for the fact that you have three or more other stores to service besides theirs, resulting in your boss getting a call and you getting one in turn. 

In my experience, I was working on average about 11-12 hours a day, sometimes as much as 14 and very rarely as little as 6. On average I was working about 65 hours a week, which would be great if we got overtime. The standard in the merchandising world, however, is Chinese overtime, or half-time beyond 40 hours. Given that the company operates on a 10 hour workday (50 hour workweek), that means you'll always go over 40 and you'll always be working at a half-time rate at least a bit. While the pay is great for the first 40 hours, it's garbage for everything beyond it and it makes you question if it's even worth it. 65 hours a week with a schedule that changes from week to week (and sometimes even changes in the middle of the week) makes it extremely hard to plan things outside of work, like doctors appointments or family get-togethers. You can't plan things on days you work because you could be working literally all day, but won't know until you get out there and see how bad things are.

If you fall way behind and need help, you're going to most likely be out of luck. That's because most every merchandiser has such a heavy workload that they have literally no time to come help you catch up. Your boss likely won't be able to help either, because someone else inevitably called out and needs their route covered, which is difficult when you consider how short-staffed the company is already. It's a godsend when help is available, but you can't count on it happening.

Now, I gave CCBCC a 3 star rating for a reason. The company is very well run and my experience with both the company itself and management was nothing short of exceptional. My boss always did everything he could to make sure everyone was in the best position possible and would sometimes re-arrange things in an attempt to even out the workload. If someone (or himself) was available to help, he'd be sure to send them to the merchandiser in the deepest hole to help get them out of it, and would check in with those struggling to be sure they were okay. He had very little to work with but made the best of it that he could, and I didn't envy the position he was in at all. 

The company instills a sense of pride in their employees; the pride of representing one of the most popular and beloved brands on Earth. At times you'll feel like a superhero of sorts, pulling on the Coke uniform and having those around you exclaim "wow, you work for Coke!." It's a really cool feeling and offers some relief in times of distress. These are a few of the reasons why you'll run across so many employees who have been with the company for decades, some their entire adult lives.

I wouldn't take back my experience with CCBCC for anything, and I have no regrets having worked with the company. I learned a great deal about retail which is extremely valuable. I wasn't able to handle the stress of the job, but someone who has no problem working long hours and doesn't get stressed easily will excel with the proper amount of work ethic.

My first thought when working for Coca Cola, or CCBCC, was that it was a great opportunity. I'm surprised that a company as known, worldwide, and seemingly organized could be handled with such immaturity and disorganization. I started working for them in May of 2015 and offered them my full availability. Starting off you need at least 2 weeks of training with a full time employee. The employees I met and trained with and worked with throughout my time there were all great. The problem is the management. Working out of the Roanoke, VA branch in the NRV area made it convenient for me to pick up a route in different towns around there, however even with having my full availability I was quickly put just on Friday and Saturday night and Sunday morning. I thought this was fine considering I was part time and I could get another job during the week. I called out 5 times between mid May and the end of December. Once was for a hospital emergency, 3 sickness, and 1 injury on the job/not feeling well. 3 of those call outs were during the summer around the same 2 weeks and after that management took me off the schedule without notice. I texted, called, and emailed the 3 people I knew of who were my "superiors". The company had just switched who the main supervisor was so while training the new supervisor two others were delegated with some of his responsibilities. After 2 weeks there was a meeting that I attended in Roanoke for the merchandisers and was outright ignored with every question I had. Another week passed and after calling HR 3 times I got a text that said I was to work the next day at 5am with one of the Supervisors. While working with him we talked about why I was taken off the schedule. After calling out for an emergency, one day of sickness and an injury on the job I was told I was "un-reliable and not committed to my job". So I explained to the supervisor why I had to call out and that I was dedicated to do a  good job and he decided to "give me another chance". Everything goes fine and I don't call out at all for a few months and things get back to normal in-fact things were going great with the 10-20 hours a week I was getting. The job is actually really flexible with how fast or slow you can work based on how many stores you have to do. In December 2015 I called out a Friday night and then that following Sunday morning because I was not feeling well, while working the Saturday in-between. Upon receiving the next weeks schedule, I was not on it at all. I contacted the supervisor who was responsible for the schedule and he said "Idk ask the other supervisor". So I contacted the other supervisor and he asked if I got a doctors for the past weekend. I said that I didn't go to the doctor and just took stomach medicine and got some rest. I was then told to talk to the first supervisor again because apparently he took me off the schedule because I didn't have the doctors note. I was also told I "called out a lot and seemed to have a problem every week" which I guess would be me asking questions to get the best quality for the stores. So I contact him again (this took over an hour of texts and un-answered calls between the two of them). On top of not being on the schedule on the work phone I was given I didn't have my new route sent through the company app. My shift was for that day and the next morning. So after not replying even further I sent a text to the supervisors quitting and explaining how ridiculous and immature it all felt to me for a company of this magnitude. If you can get a full time job with CCBCC I'm sure you could have a great time, but if you want part time then go with Pepsi or A&W because they seem to have it more together after talking with the other vendors and get paid significantly better on top of doing better quality work. I'm really disappointed because I had to quit since I thought this job might turn into something better. It also makes me sad because I was told by all the full time employees I had been doing a great job, and the meeting I attended I got called out for having been so good and picking up the slack in the NRV. I have yet to hear back from the supervisors and will be contacting the HR headquarters in Charolette, NC. I can't speak for every part of CCBCC but I do not recommend getting a job out of the Roanoke, VA branch.

I worked for this place in Tn multiple years.  The work, depending on what your job was as a merchandising person or delivery guy, or in production like me, some days weren’t too bad.  Notice I didn’t say good?  The paycheck for 40 hours wasn’t bad, but over time upper level management, I.E. (overpaid Charlotte desk workers) found that working you well over 40 hours meant you were working for free for the company.  Your hourly rate drops for every hour over 40 and when you hit 56 hours a week,  your making under minimum wage!,,,  Sounds great huh? NO... this is why I left.  The company would like you to believe that because they get nice bonuses at the end of the year and you don’t.  No overtime pay, no job security, constantly looking over your shoulder to see if your job was in jeopardy.  Don’t get me wrong, everyplace has plus and minuses, and I was a top notch employee and performance was never a issue.  But I watched good people come and go who either got fed up with the culture , tired of the lies, or simply let go for sometimes little reason.  I’m happy to say I was not fired but moved on to better. Eventually most everyone gets fired so don’t expect to retire from here unless you drink coffee by the gallon which means you know everything and haven’t drank a sugary coke in years.  They claim their motto is make, sell, and deliver better than anyone.  It should be ask you to do more than yesterday,  believe it’s better for you,  and high five each other behind closed doors.  Don’t ask about or joke about a union, you will be fired!  Because they fight for better working conditions and then you would be fairly compensated for a fairly tough week at work....Do you want to be paid every week? Don’t apply here because to save a few nickels, now they pay you every two weeks, and again this is better for who? #not you.  It’s why they have trouble hiring quality people to work there.  Profit margin is put above all else.  If a balanced home life, or if your marriage means anything to you, run don’t walk away from this place.  Don’t buy the family first approach or miss a day of work, they make you feel guilty.  Investing in employees instead of sucking up new territory to conquer would be a fresh start and you wouldn’t meet so many people on the street that says,,,,I USE to work there.  Good people you work with, but not good people to work for is my memories.. when I use to work there. As real as it gets from the horse

i’ve been working there for a while. So let me run down a list of what’s wrong with this place. Respectfully from my POV and anyone at my job could say the same. 
1.)  This requires a lot of bending and lifting the cases. Your lower back starts to hurt even if you do proper position of picking it up since you are building 300-1000 case products a day. 
2.)  Be alert and careful when walking or driving the pallet jacks because there are a lot of times you will get a close call hit or even get injured...
3.)  One of the forklift operators whose job is to dropped pallets always gives us nasty attitude and sometimes even fusses at you for no reason.
4.)  The manager is okay just know there may be bad blood now and then...
5.)  They need new pallet jacks because few don’t work, are dangerously to ride, and there are not a lot so people have to scavenge for one. 
6.)  The work system feels wrong. They have a system where they set between red and green marks  ie. (need 150 case per hour) you need to hit your numbers by building and it can get into people’s head even sometimes complain about other builders who are not building hard enough or building at all. 
7.)  There are no benefits. 
8.)  There are favoritism. 
9.)   Work environment is not that great sometimes. 
10.)  Barely $13 wage. If your an order picker/logistic operator your hourly wage is not going anywhere even after a year or two. Of course you get a raise, but it’s barely a 35¢ raise each year and this is a fact. What’s even more sad is the “checkers”,different job position, who basically tells you if you missed an item that you need to grab it asap or if pick the wrong item you need to fix it asap yet they don’t have to do any excruciating physically activity, but get to be on their phones AND get paid a lot more than order picker/logistic operator along with better raise. 

Don’t get me wrong I don’t know if working at coca-cola company is the way to go. I do know that this warehouse job/position is not worth taking 
 the risk and its pay after everything you been through and especially working hard while maintaining your positivity. 

● Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Coca-Cola Consolidated is  pretty much non existent you work until the job is done and even if you finish in under 8 hours they still force you to stay under threat of job abandonment, average shifts are 10 to 12 hours 6 days a week with minimal overtime pay. On holidays you work either the Saturday before it for 8 hours or the holiday itself and get the following day off, holiday pay is 8 hours for that particular day, you get 2 vacations a year and they have to be put into the system the week you get them and each week has to be used all at once, fmla is a hassle to get and bereavement is basic, you also get 1 call in a month and everything after is a write up.

● Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Coca-Cola Consolidated are barely over average and still under the poverty line and bonuses dont exist, they keep saying they're gonna give us 2 dollars more but it's not gonna happen.

● Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Coca-Cola Consolidated, I think its hit or miss once you start slowing down or speaking out about the struggles you'll develop they'll start to find reasons to remove you,

● Management
In general, managers at Coca-Cola Consolidated again are hit or miss some leads are very competent and want to run things smoothly but ultimately the higher ups like supervisors and managers override most decisions involving getting done smoothly and quickly.

● Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Coca-Cola Consolidated is good but we got burnt out easily it was rough and tumble and when things were changed and we were told we were staying late morale dropped to zero and no one really cared the amount of disrespect and mistrust between supervisors and hourly is always at an all time high.

● Overall
My experience working at Coca-Cola Consolidated was not good at all by far the worst job I've had between long hours, minimal pay and strenuous tasks that take a toll on your body, and the amount of abuse and mistrust received by the higher ups made me leave, I heavily regret working there.

Highest turnover rate I have ever encountered. Longest working days and ridiculous drives with little compensation for mileage after you pay for gas and insurance. They told me I would get my own route and be working out of Knox for when the truth was that I was working in pigeon Forge in Gatlinburg most of the time and never got my own route because they don’t have enough employees due to their turnover rate.  They lie to get you in the door about the hours and pay and then you see the real deal. Management does not care about you as a person.  You are just a warm body to put Coke on the shelf. Most customers and staff at all the grocery stores are extremely rude and disrespectful. You work a 12 hour to 14 hour day on average and pay averages out to about $10-$12 an hour with the Chinese overtime. Definitely not worth the money or your time. Extremely hard and physically demanding job. Merchandisers from other companies and Coke had nothing to good to say about it. They expressed that they would never work there themselves after witnessing what we went through every day.  You are never off on Saturday or Sunday and they will move your days that you are off during the week randomly and not let you know about it. You are never off on any major holidays except for Christmas day. Long story short, I made about $500 a week for working 60 hours a week and having to be there at 4 AM every day with no weekends and a randomly moving set of days that I was off. The management that was assigned to me seemed depressed with their own lives and couldn’t care less about mine. I had twins and he acted like it was a pain to give me two days off unpaid and didn’t even ask about them whenever I returned to work. The guy reminded me of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Do not work here unless you were absolutely desperate for a job as they are desperate for employees for merchandising. I’m surprised they do not hire felons from the style of hard work and the minuscule pay. You would be much better off working construction.

The tasks of the job involve a lot of physical labor, working anywhere from 600 to 1200 cases to store shelves and then trying to figure out how to fit the rest in the back. Success at the company is measured by volume rather than revenue, so salesman are encouraged to drown the frontline workers in product or they won't meet their goals so often times a significant amount of time is emphasized for inventory management. Pay is done by the day, so any overtime is significantly paid under market standards, for hours past 40 it is paid at a half rate of what your daily pay would be hourly. The system for OT is designed to work at 6 days at exactly 48 hours, anything straying from this results in pay variance but the job expectations is that everyone works over 8 a day to meet goals. 6th days are also assigned at workplace discretion so good luck planning anything. Vacation can only be taken in week increments as well so you burn it quickly. Any direct route for promotion out of the merchandising role had recently been eliminated as supervisors of the roles have been consolidated into the sales team to reduce salaried roles. This is not a good place to work if you are looking to build a career from merchandising, especially since worn culture is centered on how favored you are. Positions also rarely open up because people are comfortable in the easier roles. Breaks/Lunches are discouraged due to the pay structure as the merchandiser seeks to be done with the work day rather than get underpaid hours perhaps by design. To sum up OT here is worth less to CCBCC than clocking out and working fast food. Look elsewhere for entry level work, at least Pepsi pays time and a half for OT.

The job itself isn’t bad but the days can be really long 12-13 hour shifts. 

It feels like you’re expected to show up to work everyday work your shift and not complain about the long delivery waits (can be as long as 4 hours your just sitting in your car waiting for a truck). It doesn’t matter how many hours you work they just want you to live and breath coke.

The scheduling is horrible. Opposed to servicing stops in the same area the schedule will have you driving back and forth from one area back to the one you where just in then all the way back again.

There is no communication and you just kinda have to figure out everything on your own. And if you are given an information it’s inconsistent and different people are being told different things so no one can ever tell what’s expected of them or what they are actually suppose to do. 

None of upper management are on the same page with anything and the how the other does their job so it’s difficult for anything to get done or information to be properly relayed to the workers 
      
There is no work life balance and because the pay is a day rate don’t expect to make a lot with all the overtime you’re working because it only averages out to $7-8 and hour. Work 50 hour work weeks for an extra $80 and that’s what you’re expected to do. 

The whole branch needs a total shakeup from the top down with people who actually value their employees and want to pay them a reasonable wage for everything they are expected to do on a daily basis. Opposed to just looking at the numbers and wanted to be left alone all day well the people they are suppose to be supervising are out on the front lines figuring everything out on their own

Would be a great place if they just cared about their employees a little more 



What is the best part of working at the company?
The role of a Manufacturing Operator can be very challenging due to inconsistent scheduling and limited job security in terms of guaranteed hours. Management communication is often unclear, and the work environment can feel stressful, especially for new employees who may not receive enough initial training or support. Overtime opportunities are not always available, and expectations can be high even without proper guidance. Overall, it may not be the best fit for someone looking for stability and strong team support

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part is the lack of consistency and support. Work hours can fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult to plan financially and personally. New employees may be expected to handle responsibilities without enough training, and there is pressure to keep production running even when issues arise. Communication from management can be limited, which adds to the overall stress and uncertainty

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment can be challenging and fast-paced. Management often communicates indirectly through supervisors, which can create confusion and misunderstandings among employees. Work hours may be shortened unexpectedly, and it’s not always clear how schedules or pay are calculated, which can be frustrating. Occasionally, small gestures like ordering pizza for the team occur, but overall the culture feels hierarchical and can be stressful for operators

Not to many negatives. With a name like Coca Cola you would expect more. Good work environment. Production can push out alot of orders in a week. No incentive or reward for job well done. No bonuses or anything for hard work. Nothing for Christmas. All we got was a Christmas card with nothing but a code to access free online books. Operations have no bonuses. I was told they did until a few years ago and it was around the time the Top guy received a higher salary. Coincidence? I don't know. They also like to claim to be a Christian company when they don't have those same values. I hear managers still get there bonuses. I've worked at places that were not a house hold name that had bonuses.
December there time keeper went out and lost all track of hours worked. So not only did we not get a bonus for Christmas, we didn't get any overtime owed for the holidays. Its now the end of February and still haven't been paid the overtime owed. Christmas,  families spent what money they could depending on the overtime since also there is no bonus. Time worked and money earned but was not paid for it and still waiting. No incentive for the wait on the overtime pay. Basically not getting paid for overtime and no compensation of the inconvenience of not being paid when we were suppose to. Working six or seven days for a 40 hour check until they get the system fix. All we're going to get is what is owed and nothing for the inconvenience of a 2 month wait. That money and time could have been the difference from someone needing to pay a bill, move, medical expense so on and etc....

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Merchandiser 2189 salaries reported	$33.09 per hour
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Sales merchandiser 1088 salaries reported	$55,860 per year

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