merchandiser

route sales representative

retail sales associate

bakery assistant

shipping and receiving clerk

Franz Bakery

Extremely fast paced very physical position. Being my first management experience Franz offered both good and bad examples of management skills to learn from. Admirable from a very few incredible leaders as well as some that are not as desirable from the others. I worked with a very small team of incredibly dedicated hard working people in the store.

Every day offered opportunities to multiply- task cashiering, rotating products from the highest volume of route returns in the division, staying in communication with the sales team to track trends for ordering, filling orders for restaurants and events, accounting, banking, reports, scheduling, maintaining (or arranging for the maintenance) the building as budget allowed, building displays, offering specials as they became available, placing and adjusting orders a week in advance and handling purchased products to make available for sale.

Being able to serve a multitude of wonderful customers with a smile made the work lighter and the days brighter.

While strong core values are preached, they are difficult to find in upper management positions. Expectations placed on lower level employees are, more often than not, unrealistic, placing employees in a position to make the choice they know may result in disciplinary action either by working off the clock or not getting the required work done. Managements only concern seems to be getting the work done, and not how it gets done or the physical repercussions of the demands of jobs demands. Upper management needs to "walk in these employees' shoes" undercover boss style for more than just a few hours.

On a typical work day with Franz I would arrive at the Depot where I would clean up the loading area from the morning shipments of product. Break down boxes, organize product and general cleaning of the area. After that I would load up any product that needed to be taken out to specific stores that might be short on something and head out for my route. I would drive around to local grocery stores "within a 20 mile radius or so" such as Winco, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Walmart, Costco and refill and rotate their shelves with any back stock of product left over by the sales representatives from earlier in the mornings. I also unloaded and delivered any product I was instructed to bring with me either from my personalvehicleor if available a work van or box truck. I needed to communicate with management at each store to make sure all of  their needs and concerns were met and also so i could pass any information on to the route drivers for the next day. I frequently had interactions with customers to help them find what they needed or answer any questions about our products. At the end of my 8 hour shift I would head back to the depot and do any further cleaning that was necessary, leave notes for the sales representatives about any issues or concerns at their stores and clock out.

Extremely fast paced very physical position. Franz offered an opportunity to learn management skills that were admirable from a very few incredible leaders as well as those that are not from the others with a very small team of incredibly dedicated hard working people working in the store.

Every day offered opportunities to multiply- task cashiering, rotating products from the highest volume of route returns in the division, staying in communication with the sales team to track trends for ordering, filling orders, accounting, banking, reports, scheduling, maintaining the building, building displays, offering specials as they become available, placing and adjusting orders a week in advance and handling purchased products to make available for sale.

Being able to serve a multitude of wonderful customers with a smile made the work lighter and the days brighter.

While strong core values are preached, they are difficult to find in upper management positions. Expectations placed on lower level employees are completely unrealistic, often forcing employees to make the choice they know may result in disciplinary action by working off the clock. Upper management needs to "walk in these employees' shoes" undercover boss style for more than just a few hours.

What is the best part of working at the company?
You've got great people of all genders and nationalities working together. I actually really miss a lot of my coworkers...

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The physical aspect. If you are not fully mobile, don't even look at this.

I've been quite athletic my whole life and got Shin Splints a month in. Got over that, learned how to move my body more efficiently, got appropriate footwear, etc. 

Keeping up is not a problem if you can move well.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Clubhouse.

I was given nothing satisfactory as to why I was fired except "productivity."

I never produced a single thing... I was only ever told to move finished product, which I did. And my suspicion is that there are crummy union ties that are very slightly mafia-esque.

Asking a guy who does his best to NOT help anyone in a bad bout of production to actually help his crew may have rubbed someone the wrong way, and my union didn't care.

Be careful.

If you want to succeed here, I assume you need to keep your lips sealed.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It was like a workout at the gym, which honestly felt great

A typical day at work was from the time I clocked in I stayed busy all day long. I would unload fresh product onto the shelves,checkout customers,answer phones. I collected and accounted for the daily profits with zero discrepancy and made deposits to the bank. I ordered special products for customers and helped the salesmen when they got phone calls from restaurants, schools and etc. I learned that I could run the front and back of the store and then I was put in as manager for 3 months and our sales increased over that 3 month period. This job was a very physical job we were constantly lifting and bending. We lifted anywhere from 5 to 50lbs of bread everyday. I took pride in the store I always kept the product faced and the store cleaned and the shelves stocked. The hardest part of my job was I was doing the for 2 instead of one. The most enjoyable part of my job was my customers I had good relationships with them some would only come to the store if they saw that I was working. I loved my customers they made my day.

please read resume lots of examples listed 
Have fun while you work never bring outside problems into the work place
Don't jump into things address the situation see an overload trip don't just resert it find out why it tripped
management likes it better when you find a poroblem and you know what the solution was overload was tripped bad heater or perhaps conveyor was bound up problem solved not it tripped so I reset it tripped so I reset it agan tripped now motor is burned up
co workers I generally get along well with all types of people I like obtaining knowledge so I mingle with those best who like passing info on as I like to obtain info and pass info on as well I believe in making the co workers stronger as the co workers obtain more knowledge this helps the company grow less down time less production loss etc etc etc
People and Politics
Every day you might get faced with new challanges

I was a merchandiser for only 3 months until I found a better job. What I enjoyed most about the job is being able to work on my own. You are given your route and you stick with it. So once you get used to it you tend to figure out the best path to take and which stores you will be at the longest. It's not easy work, a lot of pulling of tall heavy racks of bread product, a lot of stooping and kneeling. I would recommend knee pads and gloves. Every Merch. has a few shifts that will be 10-14 hours long, but they don't like you getting over time so they balance it out with shorter shifts to prevent it. Sometimes you will be called back to make special deliveries.  You have to drive a good size truck, and you will be driving a lot, sometimes long distances just to work a 15-30min store. I didn't hate the job, and everyone was nice for the most part (as long as your do your job well). But def. expect to be thrown to the wolves.

Underdeveloped management with outdated skills. Uneducated and mostly promoted by nepotism.
Stressful and unsafe work conditions. Fast paced with no time to rest. Working weekends. 
Old ancient machinery constantly breaking apart. Modified to process unfit products.
New employees working few days a week or more than 12 hours per day sometimes required to be back in less than 8 hours after relieved.
New employees only on call list never sure when called to work on what shift and how long going to work.
A lot of work done by hands, manually in slave like conditions.
Most of the employees are not fluent in English and Spanish is used to communicate. Gossip and backstabbing.
Most overworked and bitter waiting for retirement.

While working for franz I learned that they honestly don't care about you or your family. They only care about the all mighty dollar.  They will tell you one thing and in the blink of an eye you did it wrong. They will take full advantage of you, change your schedule multiple times in one day. The management is POORL ran and shows HEAVY favoritism to the one they like and are buddy buddy with. You should never make plans since you will NOT have a set  schedule or time to spend with your family. The "work place culture" is very poor and even if you report issues going on they will sweep it under the rug. Some manager's will tell you that your only a number. You are NOT valued in their eyes.  Plus if you are a favorite person you get handed everything even if you just started.  So I can say DO NOT WORK here. On a final note I have seen many marriages end because of this place.

Start times between midnight and 4am, the management prefers you to start earlier but when you do you don't get to meet with managers at stores and then you don't get to build a relationship with your customer at our first few stops.  Management wants you to push 24/7 at the stores to build sales.  Great pay great benefits, 50 plus hours a week, most guys work around 60 hours a week.  I loved working for this company but working for some of the management was not ideal for my family because they didn't care if i seen my family, this manager just cared about sitting behind his desk telling people what to do even though he had no idea what he was doing.  He was a extreme micro manager.  Not all the management is like this.  I would see this manager bad mouth his own wife in front of other employees,  it was very uncomfortable.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Merchandiser 5 salaries reported	$22.80 per hour
Route sales representative 2 salaries reported	$540 per week
Retail sales associate 2 salaries reported	$17.30 per hour
Bakery assistant 2 salaries reported	$23.97 per hour
Shipping and receiving clerk 1 salary reported	$19.00 per hour

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