technician

pharmacy technician

baker

food clerk

barista

Haggen-Northwest-Fresh

Worked as a bakery clerk at the Woodinville location. Management is totally uninvolved and have way too much time on their hands. Stand around talking with each other, dragging their feet to receiving, walk around with zero urgency, on their cell phone seemingly every chance they get, and: gossip, gossip, gossip. Incredibly immature as well, really embarrassing to be talking to a customer and their children while your manager is cursing loudly in the back. The communication is the worst I've ever experienced at a job, or rather, haven't experienced. I've never worked a job where I am never introduced to current employees in my department or new hires.  My hours were consistently cut with zero explanation. The production from the bakery is so up and down and never explained to the front end clerks. We are the ones having to deal with customers asking questions about why we don't have x,y,z and never having a sufficient answer for them makes us look bad and unprofessional. If you have a simple question, you will be given one answer from someone one day, and the next day be told it's wrong by someone else. I was hired on for full time and never once saw 40 hours. You're just expected to deal with it, God forbid you can't pay your rent at 20 hours a week and say something. The bakery lead told my manager I was considering quitting because my hours were cut down to 20 one week, and she actually said, "Why?" As if I'm not an adult with bills. They think everyone they hire can be treated like 18 year olds still living at home who don't know they're being screwed over, and love to put on a show like employees standing up for themselves or asking questions are somehow "difficult". The lazy, rude, bully attitude is what seems to thrive and be promoted here, and I do not think it's a coincidence when it's visible from every department. Oh, and you have to love the older gals throughout the store, who are the biggest martyrs I've ever met in my life. Everyone here loves to pretend their job is hard. The truth is, this job is incredibly easy. If you can put up with the BS from upper management, giving part of your paychecks to an utterly gutless  union, annoying/bullying coworkers, and basically shut off half your brain while on the clock, then I'd say it's the job for you. 

A typical day at work starts in the office with making sure we are hitting our sales and labor budgets. Then I plan out my day according to the store conditions, personnel training, and directing our employees to reach the goals of our company. 
I had the opportunity to grow within Haggen while attending school. During this time I was able to utilize lectures at a personal level in budgeting and operating a business. What I learned from the experience more than anything though was how to manage people. 
There have been some great managers that I have worked for and I was able to learn a lot from them while working with them in the stores. I believe that if you are willing to keep you mind open you can learn some new ways to leading a team or just getting the job done. 
My co-workers are great. I manage between 60-120 employees and each of them taught me something. They have been a great team for many years and I had the great privilege to work with them. 
The hardest part of this job is trying to balance labor budgets with conditions and sales budgets in lower volume stores. To reach a certain percentage of labor to sales can make it difficult to keep the store conditions up when you are dealing with a store that is lower in sales volume. Over the past six years I have been working with lower volume stores. 
The most enjoyable part of being a manager is watching people learn and succeed in the business. Every teacher that I have known are proud of the people that they saw learn from them and I believe that managers have that same opportunity with their employees.

As I walked into this company years ago, I found it to be a nice place to work; over time, I quickly learned that my perception of the company was and is very different. I found that they are very (per what I had been hearing) a great company to work for; and while I agree with a few things they do, I've come to realize, they tend to think solely of themselves, and it's all about keeping the management in their position, whether they are right or wrong. From my experience here, I've seen them (more than not) say one thing, and do another. I've found in my years here, that I am more of a "tool" than an employee, and when you as a company say that you treat your "employees" well; my question is to you, do you have employees? Or just "tools"?. While this is a review; and not just a place to make a statement, I find that while Haggen, Inc/Top Foods, may be great to work for, I've found it to be quite a different story told. When you have a poor idea of morals, and don't keep even your own set standards all that well, I find that it's a very self minded mindset, rather than a team effort, and mindset going forth for a much greater purpose. How you treat someone, is how they most likely will treat you. Being ignorant of those who make your position possible, should not be grounds for disrespect. How you treat your employees, (tools) will be how it will show to your customers. We as your employees are your backbone, not just a number and a face. Treat us with well, and with the respect you yourself want, and see how situations change, and how much more happier your employees (tools) work to keep (even) you in your position.

As Grocery manager my day would begin at 10pm with me getting the back room and sales floor ready to recieve the evening frieght load. I would recieve the load then stage it on the sales floor. I would then break down the load to the respective ailes the product belong on. My crew would show up at 12pm and we would throw the frieght. During the am hours i would check in and recieve any orders from other vendors that came to the recieving dock as well as build and rebuild displays to our display plan. Then I would write the order's for the next night frieght load while my crew was facing the store. We would reopen the store at 7am and finish any tasks left over i.e. working thru backstock and organizing the backroom. I would also go to my office and pay the invoices from the night before and once a week write the schedule for my crew.

I learned that I was an effective leader with the skills and knowledge that I have accuired in my 24 year career with Haggens. 

In my time with Haggen I worked with alot of different Managers and took from them what I saw as their best qualities to use in my managment of my employee's and departments.

My co-workers were the best in the industry and took to my managment with zeal and efficency.

The hardest part of the job in my career was laying off some of my employee's.

The best part of my job was being able to use my knowledge and skill to train my employee's to succeed.

Haggen's is a great place to work. They're a union company so you have the extended benefits, fair expectations, & security in your employment that the union brings along to the position. You get to pick the schedule you want to work (although this is determined by seniority so the newer you are the more shifts have been already selected by the time you get your picks) & they offer premiums of 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents an hour & even up to a dollar extra an hour if you choose to work different less desirable hours like any shift after 6pm, then again after 9pm, every Sunday shift & anytime you have to work a 6th day in a row which can really make a difference to your check. You also get a 5% discount on any national brand purchases & a 10% discount on any of their store brand items at any Albertson's brand stores (they own 30 different store brand including Haggen's, Safeway & Vons to name a few). Plus over the holidays they give you increased employees purchase discounts & $30 dollar gift cards along with $5 discount coupons given out to recognize your work randomly. I'd have to say the very best part of working at Haggen's though it's the customers that come in the store are on average more patient, kind & polite than type expect at most grocery stores. They've developed a strong brand loyalty with their customers that translates into the employees being treated with more respect than I've experienced at any job I've ever worked at before which seriously makes every day a great day on the job.

Unfortunately, Haggen closed several stores in Southern California and other states. I first worked for Albertsons as a courtesy clerk, I helped bag groceries, clean our floors, restrooms, breakroom, help stock or help in the office whenever we had slow days at the front and cleaned as well. 
I was then promoted to bakery after our store switched to Haggen. 
I was responsible for our morning bake those days I worked early, I cleaned and made sure our section was up to date, restocked, baked cookies and other desserts as I needed too. 5am-2pm or 9am-6p were my shifts. Sometimes I would help out at the front whenever they needed me too or help the deli side. Our work environment was great, never stressful. Our management was hands down the best, very experienced and I aspire to be like them. 
Thanks to my manager in the bakery department, I learned how to take better inventory, work independently most of the time and to always manage my schedule.  And may I also add there was only two people working in our bakery department? that's right! just me and my manager. It was an incredible experience! I think the only hard part about the job there was the baking and making of our famous cinnamon rolls. It got easier within time!

I quite enjoyed my jobs, the few months I was there. My direct supervisor was helpful, my coworkers were (mostly) cordial, and the customers were by and large nice. Days were fast-paced but enjoyable; I never got bored.

However, I was let off shortly after the 4th of July (which I had originally been assigned, but was later told to take the day off) due to apparent cuts being made to workforce. It's been a while so I don't remember if it was store-wide or just for my department. Either way, I was laid off due to drawing the short stick. I consider myself just average; I'm not and don't want to be a top performer. All I care to do is what is expected and asked of me. So, it's not entirely a surprise, since I'd heard Haggen has high expectations of its employees.

While I wasn't ever specifics as to why I was laid off, I do suspect part of it had to do with how I never accepted overtime. I worked every shift I was given without question, including holidays and weekends, but I declined to take overtime the few times I was asked. The main reason behind my suspicion is that I was told to take a shift off (for the first time) a few days after an in-person refusal of overtime, and the next time I came in I was let off.

I could be wrong as to why I was laid off, but it's all I can go by due to being told very little.

A normal day at Haggen for me is not usually the same. The reason for that is because I worked in the deli for 10 months and when I was begged by our front end manager to come be a checker they offered me two other jobs as well. Those jobs include being a weekend book keeping and a back up receiver for when Haggen's receiver is sick or on vacation. So therefore I have experienced what it takes to take care of all documents and money with in the store. Also have learned about how to receive in product and how to send out product ect. Management at Haggen is amazing! So loyal and understanding of there customers and there employees. My coworkers are a team, very fun to be around, and not selfish. Hardest part of the job was learning three new departments in 3 weeks. I made it through all trainings exceedingly well and have had multiple compliments from my manager and coworkers. My job is enjoyable in every aspect. The regular customers especially are so fun to interact with day by day.

I can't speak for every store, but at the Downtown location there was no feedback or evaluation of my work.
I was let go for lack of speed, but that was never expressed to me and my reasoning is because I was always fixing others mistakes.
At least 3x a week I would find expired items in the back of the aisle, meaning someone was not rotating, someone always overstocked so I had to remove items to fit-in the items I had to stock. Customers always misplaced things or I would find empty food items, mainly in aisle 1 I had to take to the trash or expired/damaged goods. However all this was fine to them but since I was a little slower for doing my job thoroughly and diligently they let me go for lack of speed. I have never been told to speed up and this has never been an issue at any other job I've had. 

Also typical old school mentality. Can't have a beard, have to take ur breaks and lunch at a certain time, no earbuds in even though it's overnight and u are stuck listening to the same 100 songs on rotation. So if you love poppy love songs on repeat, this job is for u. They don't even provide paper plates or plastic ware in the break room. U have to pay for everything yourself. 

Expect work to be just physical choars such as sweeping the store, bathroom cleaning, and pushing carts, with extra choars if you were the first or last person working. Be prepared to do anything suddenly asked of you on an intercom.

I learned what a job exactly was and the requirements it took to hold one, i learned to be prepared to pay taxes to a union and to the IRS at the end of march. I also learned to work with costomers and to accomedate my time to best finish the work asked of me.

As for management... i'll let you ultimently decide, but i've had my fair share of run-in's that i wasn't so releived about. I enjoyed some management and hated that of others. Learn how to use a union and be prepared to back up claims if need be.

The culture was amazing, people working there were often very kind and talkitive. I made friends of just about anybody i talked to.

The hardest part of the job is night shift, a 6-9 shift the shoves all the chores and cart-backlash on you, expect no extra help or compensation to be stressed out for a whole 3 hours.

Lastly the most enjoyable part of the job was the culture, i really enjoyed just being in the store. 

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