deli associate

bakery assistant

front end associate

barista

associate

Kowalskis Markets

I worked in the bakery department at Kowalskis for 10 months and absolutely loved it in the beginning because we had a full crew of people working in the bakery. My job was preparing bakery products to be baked the next day, to stalk the floor, to assist customers at the pasty case (a case that sells bakery goods that are designed by trained employees that can make cheese cakes, tiramisu, cupcakes, ect) and to assist in taking cake orders from customers. 

Orders were always messed up, nothing was ever organized and the bakery  manger was hardly ever there to assist with the unorganized mess.  
    
After Christmas most of the crew members quit or got terminated. It become super stressful for myself and my remaining co workers, due to the short staff in the bakery and in other departments in the store, everyday I was doing 5 peoples jobs in one shift with no help, my coworkers didn't help me at all when I had asked them to do so. I reported this to my department manger  5 times and nothing was resolved. The best part of the job would have to be the other workers from other departments, and tasting bakery products.  

The store management was the only great thing about the store. The store management actually took their job seriously and wanted to keep the store clean, keep the floor faced, and help my department as much as possible.  The store management is awesome! 

Another plus in working at Kowalskis is being paid weekly (every Friday) for the previous work week hours, although the paychecks aren't a lot of money compared to being paid every two weeks, it  depends on how many hours you work in one week. 
 .

The good stuff first- they have very fair compensation for the work, plenty of departments to work for, and overall a great place if you want some experience in customer service or just some extra money.
If you have good problem solving skills and good head on your shoulders it should be easy to advance over time depending on the department you work in.  
My biggest problems were certain people in management that were toxic, condescending, and shirked off their responsibilities on others and took no responsibility for their own stupid actions. Even that though I could handle, but what did it in for me is that you can show up on time and deliver results and they'll just use you and not listen to what you need. They also love to complain about employees but won't do anything about mistaken behavior and go on passively aggressively handling the situation. 
I do need to stress though that this was based on just my location, and most of my issues were with one management personnel in particular. Overall Kowalski's isn't a bad company to be employed for and I would suggest it.

Working at the deli overall was a negative experience for me personally. First, the management is very poor. I was second 1 PM to 9 PM which is the closing shift and throughout my over a year of working there the longest a manager has stayed is 6 PM. I found the managers to be downright uncaring and disrespectful, discrediting all the work. Some people put in not properly, listening to the feedback from the workers and under this management, I felt like they didn’t care about me as a person they only cared about me for the work I did. Which brings me to the second point the union. I’m genuinely pro union but this stops the management and the store manager from properly giving the workers a reasonable bonus/raise the built-in union bonus is used as a scapegoat to give workers a actual pay increase. For instance, I was doing supervisor work for a base salary wage I requested an increase in pay multiple times and I was told no because of the union pay increase. The customers I’d say 8 out of 10 times is a negative experience. I’ll just leave it at that.

Context: I worked part time through college so was in it mainly for the convenient commute and the employee discount (which helped me a lot with groceries.)

We got automatically enrolled in the local workers union and had our worker's rights explained to us along with the union's resources. Generally company seems to be very sensitive to worker's rights issues which is always a plus. 

Worked 6 hour evening (closing) shifts which was great for balancing with school. Learned everything on the job which was stressful at first, but turned out to be just fine. Grateful to have had that experience during pre-adulthood. Teaches on the fly learning and being flexible. Was also my first experience doing customer service.

My management was always kind and respectful. I really enjoyed the company of all my co-workers.

Its still food service and the hours on your feet and constant customer interaction can get tough. 

In general, though, I consider myself lucky to have had THIS part time food service job.

When I started I felt like I would be there until I retired. It felt like home.

Unfortunately - HyVee came in and took customers and instead of the owners or managers taking a cut in pay to help the stores out, the lowest paid employees (the ones who need it the most) had their hours cut and cut and cut. In 2017, I only worked my available hours 5 times.5 weeks of 52 I was paid my full check.

The changes the owners and managers are making are tearing their staff down, the managers pick and choose who to get rid of to lower costs and pick at them until they leave.

If this store changes managers again - it may be a good place to work again but don't expect any thank you's or bonuses for going out of your way to do extra and dont expect management to help you with coworkers.

Do not eat a grape as you walk past as they consider that stealing.

Management is either hovering or not there at all.

When I first started at kowalskis it was going under construction. with that being said it was finish in the inside where costumers are wanting to get food, but in the back like the break room, it was completely and utterly destroyed from the construction and it looked awful! and yet the table to eat on was really dirty and the floors had spillage on it and it was just unsanitary! Definitely not a place i would want to eat and at least try to relax in. speaking of relaxing, I couldn't. Break time was 15 minutes. and from when I went to go get my items to try to enjoy a snack on break, I already used up atleast 5 minutes trying to get in line to pay for my items, and when I arrive in the break room i had only 8-9 more minutes to even finish my food and enjoy the rest of my break time if I had any.

Working as a Deli Assistant is a very busy and fast-paced job where customers always come first.

I have learned so much about food safety, presentation, customer service and how to do production and time management at the same time. This job has also made me a better cook at home.

The management and workplace culture is a civic organization that teaches all employees to recognize needed problem solving and how to make improvements and processes to do so.

The hardest part of the job sometimes is during peak busy times to be able to get everyday production done.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the customers who become good friends and feel like family.

This is a fantastic company. Great training program, you will not regret applying for a job with Kowalskis. I promise.

Typical day at work: Includes cashiering, talking to customers, taking a 15 minute break every 3 hours, maybe lifting boxes, taking out trash, handing out balloons, refilling sample stands, etc.

Management is very respectable and I love working under them. They are good, honest people who will help you do your job to the best of your ability. They do not micromanage, but they do give you the tools that you need to get your job done.

Coworkers are great, they are relatable and friendly!

Hardest part of the job is standing for several hours and smiling all the time because the people are so great.

Terrible management, got talked down too and was treated horribly like I was less than my other co workers and management. Co workers who have been there longer they give no time for training only got two shadow days with staff helping then send me to the work myself. you can’t make any tiny mistakes like I did (because I was new) or else you will be heavily scolded, and they will make fun of you infront of others that’s what happened to me it was awful. they also fired me after I said I had a learning disability and am high functioning and wasn't learning fast enough bc of the disability so they are not inclusive at all to the disability world would not recommend worst experience ever.

I loved working at Kowalskis. The environment, the quality of the food, the variety of tasks. I appreciated the presence of the owners showing their interest in their people and and showing appreciation for their hard work. Their active citizen policies are really interesting and empower the relationships through accountability and responsibility. Unfortunately their is also very poor management with people using the company’s policies as it is best for themselves instead of being fair and applying rules for everybody the same way. Lies, manipulations, triangulation.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Deli associate 44 salaries reported	$19.58 per hour
Bakery assistant 50 salaries reported	$17.66 per hour
Front end associate 37 salaries reported	$17.54 per hour
Barista 28 salaries reported	$16.95 per hour
Associate 15 salaries reported	$16.88 per hour

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