merchandiser

route sales representative

maintenance technician

production helper

production worker

Lewis Bakeries, Inc.

The bad things:  When you work there you will hear the phrase "bakery life" being thrown around, what that means is very simple, the bakery is your life. The jobs are not hard however some a very physical and very heavy. The concrete and brick are not soft on your feet or knees. You will stand for the entirety of your 10 hour shift and all 6 days a week. They are strick on some rules, on others they are lax. Favoritism is rampant from management, the union contract only applies to you if you aren't in the supervisors click or friend. Some get away with murder, others get fired over being 1 minute late. (Depends how hard you wanna be a suck up)  There is a review I read that said "you won't see your family" and that is the most accurate statement made about working in production, shipping and some people in sanitation. You will see your coworkers more than you'll see your family, thus causing many to get divorces and struggle with their spouses. 

The good things: 
The pay, good wages for production workers.
The health insurance. You won't find one better for a job where you don't need any education besides high school.
Vision is okay.
Dental is amazing.
(Thanks to the union) 

Overtime, there is no such thing as volunteer overtime everyone works 10 hours 6 days a week, MANDATORY. There is zero flexibility, if you miss a day you are fired when you are on probation. We have a point system once you are hired, but when you get into the point system it is extremely hard to get out of it and that is how 90% of people lose their job at the bakery.

Management: a complete and utter clown 🤡 car. My best advice is, don't do any favors for anyone as they will not touch their hearts when they have to write you up or fire you. You will not be treated like a person here, you are just a hot body. Some supervisors have zero respect for individuals and they will yell at you with zero repercussions for them, potential termination for you if you defend yourself. 

To end my review I will say; if you love life, seeing your children grow, not being tired all the time, having a social life, having time with your spouse to have dates, or go to your kids events DO NOT WORK HERE.

However;
If you are a miserable workaholic who loves working 20 hours overtime every week, every weekend of the year and every holiday except Christmas. Then apply immediately you won't regret it.

Lewis Bakery
Long hours (off at 2am), intense fast pace work for not enough pay. Dealt with extremely hot metal pans with thin gloves provided. Managers had the attitude that they weren’t considerate about the employees’ requests and needs. Example: I’m on my feet for 3 hours at a time pulling 100-150 stacks of metal bread pans on carts. The weight of the metal was heavy and I had to drag carts from one side of the building to the other and kept doing this over and over. The person who was “above” me had just the same amount of rank but had worked there longer. He was inconsiderate, demanding, told me to do one thing while often he would mess around doing tasks less burdensome. Working for hours straight on your feet without consistent breaks will make you need to sit so you can recover. The pain from my feet, knees, and lower back was harsh and I would come home after working 10 hours and go to bed aching all over. I’m only 23. When I told the managers that I needed more breaks to be able to keep up, their answer would be dismissive. “ill get back with you” or “ill let you know.” When I spoke to the person above me about everything he was unfairly having me do, he complained to a manager and I got reprimanded for giving “lip.” All this could have been avoided with a simple sit down to talk and work things out. The final straw was when one of the managers had me and 3 other people walk outside to the trash and attempted to have me shovel rotting bread into a bin for animal feed. I was done before I even took one scoop. The temperatures from the oven in that warehouse got to be pretty intense. That combined with the demanding labor made me sweat a lot. I got the feeling that things were outdated there and while they did have some modern machinery, it was combined with 50 plus years of past work ethic and routine. The building was dated and we were tasked with doing too much work with not enough structure. Basically they work you hard not smart. I started with $13.75 an hour and was not there long enough to see a raise. To me the pay wasn’t worth the labor.

If you are single and don't have any children and just want to grind and make some money to put away, it may be the place for you.

During peak season there's a lot of overtime, and I mean alot! Soo much that you are required to work it or else you're fired as if you not working there at all is better than you only working 40-48 hour work weeks.

Temperature in the summertime is insane. Your clothes will seem as if you showered in them and your eyes will burn. And you will be forced to work overtime in these conditions.

Nothing is set in stone. Your days off will be changed to match their demand, same as your hours and shifts. Some weeks you will be forced to work 6 and a half or 7 days, often recurring. 

Benefits are not offered until after 60 days of employement, whereas most other employers offer it after 30 days. This is because their turnover rate is insanely high. They will try to find reasons to fire you or get you to quit before the 60 days. They expect you to be out of there before the 60 days.

No work/life ballance. Your schedule can literally get changed from 1st to 3rds without a notice with your first 3rd of the week being your only day off from 1st. 

If you try to bring up any problems or let management know you cannot work the crazy hours or shifts they will give you the cold shoulder or tell you there's nothing they can do about it (which there is). 

Only good if you are single and want to spend all your time at work to save some money up and then dip. 

A usual day at work for me depended on the days of the week. Weekends were quite busy as were the afternoons. I actually ended up learning quite a lot with this job, such as people skills and how to train the newest employees. What I learned most however, was math skills. Counting the bread every night, with each variety of bread stacking as it's own specific numbers on each tray, helped me to memorize my multiplication quite fast. The workplace itself was the Kroger that I vended at. It was a typical grocery store that I myself didn't find an easy time working at but Lewis Bakeries was a very nice company to work for. My bosses were both very polite to me. Always checking up on their employers to make sure they weren't low on product or if they needed assistance with anything. When I left due to personal issues, they were incredibly understanding, which I appreciated more than anything else. The hardest part of the job for me though, was the schedule. Twice a day, everyday, for nearly two years. The store I was assigned to was about twenty minutes away from my house and got stressful after driving there so often. I worked seven days a week so it was difficult to make plans with anyone or do any activities outside of work. My brother and sister are currently employed at Lewis and I was the diver for all of us. They both worked separate stores on different parts of town. The most enjoyable part of the job, oddly enough, was getting so much better at my math. It's always been something I had little confidence in and the practice of it every night helped me greatly.

This place is garbage. Not only will you always work 6 days a week but your hours will vary from 10-12 hour shifts. When first starting on the job you are considered a floater, meaning they will pull you to any shift they want until you put a bid on a job(and get that job). The training is complete trash, it's new people training new people. The upper management do not care about any issues that someone might be having unless it's affecting their numbers for production/waste. The only good thing about this place is the fact you'll make enough money to live comfortably plus the insurance is one of the best, but you hardly ever get the time to use either one. If you miss a day, request a day off, or take a leave early the management team takes it personally and will change their attitude towards you. I would not recommend working for this place unless they change 90% of the management including the plant manager, and start working towards a better work/home life balance for all employees other than the 1st shift team.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Good part time opportunity. In and out of every location in 45 minutes or less. No one is hassling or micromanaging. They simply allow you to do your job with little pressure.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Your footage in each store is usually filled with merchandise from other departments including meats and produce. But even then it's not that stressful. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It is  an extremely independent job. And outside of the area supervisor you don't have coworkers per say. But there are DSD associates and every store and they are usually friendly. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Because of the independent nature of the job you set your own schedule. All orders are due by a certain time depending on region. So you can start as early as 1am at most locations and 4am at others. Which allows you flexibility for a full time job.

I would come in three days a week and count how many throwaways and how many items were on the shelf.   I would unload a truck and take the bread racks out to the floor to work up.   I enjoyed the boss I worked with.  I felt like I could talk to him if I had a problem.  The hardest part was sometimes when the company would send way too much Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns especially on the 4th of July.  The most enjoyable part of the job was not just how simple the job was once I learned it, but having a great boss, and then getting to do the job by myself, but I had no problem working with the boss or someone else if necessary. My biggest complaint was at the time there wasn't enough stores in my hometown to do bread and I didn't get enough hours, other than that it was a great job to work.

The upper management could careless about you much less speak to you. The human resource department is no better. You can call and leave them messages and will not get a response. You can send them emails and the same thing no response. They frequently do not pay the premiums on the health insurance so the claims do not get paid. They have no time for you. They treat you like something that they would wipe off of the bottom of their shoe before they walk in the door. There is absolutely no work/life balance when you work here. If you want a life and this job forget about it. The most important thing to this company is their bread even when their employees are in the hospital with life threatening injuries from an accident sustained while on the job. 

I was a merchandiser for southeast Michigan and the manager was really bad. He constantly ordered the wrong type of bread. I was only supposed to work 5 out of the 7 days a week and the other days someone else was supposed to work but no one showed up. The product in the back was the same way the way I left it the time before. The delivery drivers make the stacks way too tall I hurt myself trying to get the bread down a few times and my manager didn’t seem to care. He also kept blaming me for stuff I didn’t do and that the people that were supposed to come on the other days could have done too. The pay sucks they claim you get paid for miles but I only got half a miles check for two months and when I tried to get the money before I left they put me through a lot of hoops. The tablet that they use to clock in and out is sucks it never holds a charge. I had it on the charger for six hours and it only charged to 76%.

This merchandising job only pays $10 per hour and is only 10 hours per week. The manager does not tell you how much your pay rate is upfront. Another part the manager doesn’t tell you is that you have to work 5-6 days per week to get 10 hours per week. So, you are basically working almost every day and only bringing home around $75 per week after taxes. Lastly, be careful taking this job. It is a merchandiser position where you are putting orders away when they come in. You don’t do any ordering or any negotiating with displays, bunkers, or endcaps. The area manager does all of that and places all of the orders in the stores. So, if your sales are down, you automatically become responsible for low sales. You are paid as a merchandiser. Your pay is not based on sales. There are plenty of merchandiser positions in the area that pay $13 per hour. Do your research.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Merchandiser 247 salaries reported	$15.33 per hour
Route sales representative 1 salary reported	$329 per day
Maintenance technician 6 salaries reported	$28.32 per hour
Production helper 14 salaries reported	$20.98 per hour
Production worker 2 salaries reported	$21.77 per hour

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