meat cutter

deli associate

replenishment associate

cake decorator

baker

Marianos

I got hired before the store opened in May.  I had no grocery experience and was hired as mid level, level 3.  that was because i worked for the federal govt and was responsible employee.  Majority of those people with no exp. would have been hired 4 or 5.  level 1-2 are management.  The store was a mess, produce what Marianos is known for, by far the worst management in that department.  They hired all these people, picked a location not big enough for their business, former dominicks store.  Location made money, but was not booming like locations where they built the building for Marianos like in VH/Libertyville.  So they cut employee hours to make a bigger profit margin for the store.  All those people basically quit, because lack of hours or none at all.  Produce was the worst department, second shift was a bunch of millennials or high school/college kids.  They had no supervision, so they pulled out produce, bullshitted around, did no work, did not put their stuff away and left a big mess fro third shift to put away just so they could do their work. First shift worked but, made the freezer a mess, so everyday you had to clean it up and reorganize again, just so you could do your work.  Doesnt matter how many times and how nicely you asked they would keep messing it up. Produce department is the hardest to manage since fruits and vegetables don't last forever.  Had four mangers over 2 months, kept hiring guys who decades with grocery experience, but had no clue of what they were doing.  They ordered way too much, to make it look like they knew what they were doing, but ended up throwing out large amounts of produce because it went bad.  the fourth manager was the worst, he would not even rotate the fruit he put out on the floor.  He woukld yell at employees for his mangerial short comings and bad decisions.  Final straw for me was he would order 12 pallets of produce, schedule me 4 hours ALONE and expect me to put it all away myself.  Not happening.  talked to the third shift store manger about him, got a couple helpers, I managed, to get the work done.  Produce manager and asst, kept brushing their work off on others.  Inventory, etc.  Only thing they would do is write the schedule so they got the hours and days they wanted along with time off.  they started reducing my hours from 40 to part time, So i got a full time job elsewhere and quit right away.  it was a no brainer.  they said store wasn't doing well and had to reduce the hours, but they never reduced the size of the orders?!?!  So who is going to do all that work????  8 months after the store opened I saw they had a job hiring fair, pretty sad they lost that many people after the opened so soon.  Just in the two months I worked there they lost over 2/3 of their staff, more like 75%.  I am sure the produce manager was demoted or fired since i left.  they failed self imposed health code rule enforcement.  if you shop there make sure you wash your fruit or vegetables!

It was pretty good at first,  tiring but not too bad. I didn't believe when other coworkers said  it's horrible.  Worked for a month and realized how bad it is. If you put availabilities as all they are going to make you work closing shift every time. Dont even try to change your availability online since they will decline it anyway. They put it as a part time job but give you up to 40hr a week. No overtime pay. 

If the managers don't like you, every problem you face they will blame you for it.  And if they do like you by any chance, you are luckily going to be treated with actual respect. The training of newbies are inconsistent,  some are being put on register by themselves on their first day and was taught to do everything within a week while others don't even get a chance to be on register until a week later, not to mention they will probably not going to teach you anything else until much later, and will make you feel incompetent because they don't want to teach you anything new. Actually,  they barely teach you anything themselves and just let other coworkers teach you instead. Many of the managers will get annoyed when you ask for help ex: machines not working, difficult customers,  override, etc. It's to the point where employees would rather ask their coworkers for help than the managers. And the problem with difficult customers is just to give what ever they want. It's the "customers always right" mentality,  which means the employees will always be wrong when dealing with difficult customers.

The management of everything is a mess, most discounts are not registered in the computer nor are many produce. So it's a daily occurrence that the customers will tell you that  you're wrong and you will just have to manually change the price for them.  Many items in the store, especially hot foods and bread, have no barcode on it what so ever and you have to ask customers what the price is, which most of the time they don't know either.  Most Items with discounted price on will not cover the old bar code, which means is often that you will scan the old barcode instead of discounted one, especially when it's busy, and that's another lecture from both the customers and managers. 

They are always understaffed to the point where you are often one of the 2, if not only, cashier working register without any baggers. on top of that, you get no discount on anything,  you pay the same price as normal customers and go ahead and spend half of your short break waiting in line like a normal customer. 

No wonder everyone look like they want to die, any enthusiasm you have in the beginning will be completely drained by the end of first month. 

Working at Marianos at bucktown was a good and bad experience. The company has gone downhill.When I started there was alot of problems but there was some form of professionalism compared to the state it is currently. Management believes in going by the book but clearly going by the book has only resulted in the loss of many great workers. The meat department here in particular is a joke. They want to cut our hours yet they call us when there is no one. I understand the company has a set a rules on the amount of hours to give but whats the point of wanting to have someone work if they have to do the work of 4 to 5 people let alone the department is big in comparison. Its not a hard job its actually easy but management makes its a problem where it’s difficult to do.If you are trying to go to school or just looking for part time temporarily its not bad job for that. An issue is just the understaffing and the constant yearn of workers to do the work of someone else who doesn’t get disciplined and gets away with not doing their work and leaving without checkout. But someone who works hard and refuses to do extra work thats not even in their job description gets disciplined. My biggest issue was the constant struggle of guaranteed hrs I was lucky enough to get 30 sometimes but it was frustrating because they barely put anyone to close . For closers you had to endure the mess like
Garbages filled up that daytime workers would leave or the butchers one in particular who got paid for being a butcher but all they did was organized prepackaged meats literally never went back there and the manager had to do the work of the butcher because apparently it was too cold but isnt that the whole point of being part of a butcher. So they let him get away with it meanwhile a level 1 entry level is busting their body for low pay. There have been instances where people would get 5 hrs. Like seriously 5 hours for the week that’s illegal but the management is the biggest issue at the moment. As long as they get their bonuses thats what matters at the end not the good workers who are willing to work hard for them and make business. The Kroger company will always be okay since it makes alot of money but if anyone interested for a long term full time position don’t apply at bucktown or any other marianos because even if you level up its only a merely couple cents of raise its not worth the stress at all.

     The Bucktown Mariano's location has been an interesting place to work for the last 5 years. The workload for back-end employees is consistently overwhelming and often demoralizing because the compensation doesn't come close to matching the level of physical effort one has to put in to actually complete all of the necessary tasks. This is mostly a result of store being very high volume and the overnight stocking crew consistently failing to finish their task, which has been an issue for the entire 5 years of my employment. The goals set in place by upper management are impossible to reach with the current amount of man-hours so almost every day consists of stocking the freight that was supposed to have been finished the night before. Then the middle management questions you about why all of their goals aren't met even though you are putting in insane amounts of work for the lowest possible compensation.
    Another massive issue is the training system. The online lessons literally do not cover the necessary content and even go totally off topic. I was forced to sit through about 3 hours of a dry, poorly executed tutorial video for a particular web application, only to find that the "exam" I was to take afterwards had absolutely nothing to do with the 3 hours of videos I sat through. This applies to most of the training, so essentially you just have to get a manager to tell you the answers at the end for certain courses, which literally defeats the entire point of the current training system in my opinion. It's really quite infuriating that someone is getting paid significantly more than the base level employees to make totally derelict "training courses."
     The benefits are decent at best, with the best part probably being that the company will match 6% on your 401k as opposed to the standard 3%.
      I've always liked my coworkers, good managers do come through, and the environment is pretty chill. After working there for a couple of years you get 2 weeks of paid vacation and some other personal days. It is also unionized. It is a very secure job but the hours are mostly inconsistent until you either get a higher level position or "earn" it by doing a back-breaking amount of work. Overall would not recommend it but I suppose it could easily be worse. If the management and company overall put more effort into the training system and gave their employees the means to grow, the business would probably be overall in much better shape.

Overnite Donut fryer/baker
Marianos - Chicago, IL
December 2013 to Present
Responsibilities 
Upside: overnites no ones really hounding you everyone has their flow and does what needs to get done for the nite without being babysat. Pretty fast paced unless you get stuck with someone whos slowwwww. Sunday premium pay gets $10.60 per hour on overnites. Regular overnites gets 9.20 per hour. I have been getting overtime pay bc my parttime shift is too short to complete all tasks.  Day to day basis came in broke down boxes from both freezers of muffins and donuts for the days production sorted everything on racks proof fry/bake decorate. Refill equipment. Alot of heavy work on your feet luckily im in culinary school so im already somewhat accustomed but still draining. On the second day with only one day of "training" i was scheduled alone because the girl hired w me had already quit was stuck alone frying racks of donuts with no foundation on the quantities. Very unorganized needed to ask for help and no order to a standard things are run. A kitchen needs a system or an order in order to run smoothly and i feel here like everything is up in the air. The numbers constantly change in quantities especially when orders come in ontop of your production. Just makes me feel really scattered....Scheduling also awful expected to take on large productions and never finish on time in a part time 5 hour shift and also clean after expect to never be out on time. Will most likely quit once culinary school begins again if they dont work around my schedule the load isnt worth it. Alot of my coworkers complain the scheduling is awful alot of people quit often and they expect the ones there to take on the extra load constantly and after talking to the manager last night hearing her say the goal soon is to only have one donut fryer/baker per nite proofing frying decorating over 300 donuts all alone and over 50 muffins for 9.20 an hour just isnt worth it. Talk about milking your workers! 
 
Accomplishments 
I gained more experience i guess... 
 
Skills Used 
Baking decorating consistency speed
Education
BCertificate baking pastry arts in Culinary - Chicago, IL
2013

Honestly, I have an extensive list of criticisms. The job tasks alone weren’t really an issue at all —I actually quite enjoyed the job tasks, responsibilities, and a lot of my interactions with customers— but pretty much everything else was of great disappointment. While the place truly has a lot of potential, the management and workplace culture was absolutely horrible when I worked there. Additionally, the pay was very low (even before accounting for the fact that you must accept being part of a union and pay union dues, or you’d get a lower base pay). While the union makes sense for those in higher level management positions and individuals with disabilities, all of the lower-end/entry-level positions suffered. The hidden employee (and management) sentiment was often “make it look like you’re busy but do the BARE minimum”. In-person training was a complete joke and those training me didn’t take it seriously; rather than describing how to do job tasks, they focused on describing the best places where I could “hide” to avoid work. Hard work and task completion wasn’t really valued. Once I thoroughly finished my tasks and additional tasks I requested upon completion, I was laughed at when I asked how I could be of additional help that day. I was gaslit and manipulated into doing some of my boss’/supervisors’ tasks while they took “breaks” and frequently “hotboxed” their car with other employees. There was a high employee-turnover rate, and those that stayed often had negative attitudes that further soured the overall experience. Everyone seemed to dread coming to work, and it truly showed. Some positives were that there was some degree of scheduling flexibility (as long as you were able to request changes weeks ahead of time), there seemed to be considerable diversity in the workplace (especially including individuals with disabilities), and there were opportunities to transfer to different roles/sections if desired. It is my hope that things have vastly improved in the time since I worked there years ago.

Was never a fan of the uniform...wearing a tie as a woman who was not used to it isn't comfortable, although they do look nice and professional to customers. Scheduling was inconsistent and given out, I believe, a week prior. 

Training for the job itself is good. It covers most points and different occurrences that an employee might come across.

For the most part, customers were great. They were primarily pleasant people who would offer light conversation while having their things checked out unless they were in a hurry.

The supervisors for the most part were great and responsive, but the managers above them were...eh. I've worked in customer service for a long time and have NEVER had a customer make me emotional. The one time it happened in front of the one manager who always somewhat disliked me for whatever reason I was never aware of, she did nothing! This customer took some unnecessary digs at me, and I know how to handle difficult customers because I understand every one has bad days, but it was completely humiliating! Not only because she was verbally attacking me in front of other customers, but also my manager! I was speechless the entire time until I actually teared up a little. My manager was standing two registers over and watched the entire ordeal without moving over to help. Then she has the audacity AFTER the customer leaves to come over and offer comfort before asking me what happened...even though she saw the entire assault unfold! The only person who defended me at all was the customer who was checking out after the difficult one. Not only that, but I tried to change my availablility on Sundays (still leaving open availability on Fridays and Saturdays) and the same manager told me that I couldn't do that because, "Sundays are our busiest days and we need you here". Again, not my first rodeo in this type of business but I've never been told I couldn't change my availability--especially when I was one of the few employees actually willing to come in at 6am most mornings. 

Other than those things, the job was actually pleasant. It's not a long-term job at all and the pay is fair for the type of business, but management was terrible.

A typical work day for me would be setting up anything that I would be using for the day, before beginning my task at hand. Some days I would have to work on the sales floor, and prepare the displays. A usual day for me would be me having to come in and be a juicer. My duty would be to provide customers with freshly squeezed juiced in a timely manner. I would have to often take customer request and special orders on how they wanted their juices made. If a customer needs assistance finding an item I will walk them over to the the item, I never point and direct. The main thing that I learned is that customers are always right no matter what, and that I always have to put them before anything else. Once that customer is taken care of; i will then go back to completing my duties for the day. I learned that good communication helps that day run a lot more smoothly. when my co-workers and i are on the same page and cooperate, then things get done a lot quicker.  The management can be very unprofessional. They tend to use unsafe language for any work environment. They usually have negative things to say about employees as well as other managers in the store. There is always a lot of micromanagement. The managers at Mariano's will take off work for consecutive weekends, which are the busiest days in this type of business, but they are unwilling to give employees days off that they request. My co-workers and i get along very well. The majority of the people that I work with get along and are very kind to one another. Everyone is very willing to help each other and give constructive criticism. The hardest part of the job is when someone calls of or comes in late. Whenever this happens; I am expected to do my work as well as the person's job who is absent. The most enjoyable part of the job is getting to work with kind and fun co-workers. The people that I work with make the time go by a lot faster.

So,I got hired to work 3ed shift....that was cool but after being hired my 8-month nightmare started.
Training, Let's talk training Or lack of training. I was given a list of courses I had to do via the PC. Was given no time to do any of the training, Then also was handed a sign off sheet that the head of the department had to sign off on that I was trained on. He never signed off or EVEN TRAINED ME!
My first night was Mis-communication via Managment, No one knows where I was to be placed. So I was trained in the wrong spot.
The next night. I was trained by one of the two Other overnight people in the right department. But I was really not trained at all,It was a simple. This goes here, This goes there...Now shut up and get to work...And I'm not joking. It took me close to 3 months to learn where everything went, Due to no one would tell me things till I'd do something wrong. 4 month's into the Job one of the overnight Quit, So we were down to 2. only Pro was I got more hours for a little bit....then 2 months later,I was the only overnight as the other was fired for theft. They only had me down each night working 5 hours, But I'd end up there for 8 Putting things away. And each day the department manager complained I was too slow, And told me to take short cuts to get my job faster...With I did not do.
The last straw was when they hide product on me that came in. When I left after 8 hours and gave all the info of what was done and not done to the Department people Like I did every night. The department head pulled the product out of nowhere and claimed I did not put it away and it was tossed away...So I was written up, I left the next day with zero notice due to the Content Backstabbing, The Hours that were cut...I went from 40 to 20 to 8 in a span of 2 week's(and the guy who they put in my place did not do his job right...he refused to date the food and rotate, So i was finding rotten food everywhere.) 

If I was offered a job there once more, Even at 2x the pay, I'd not take it till the Department head was fired.
I could do a better job than him. And Have in other job's.

There's a lot of cons bare with me. First off, the pay was way to low for what your asked to do. Number #2. They did not promote from within. And to even get promoted was impossible. Only the favorites were given time to use the computer during the day. The others had to use it at night after an full shift of hard work. They would also bring a person out of the blue to take your job instead of promoting from within. They played favorites with whom they promoted. They would promote workers who did little to no work as opposed to the people who actually worked the hardest. They would promote these managers out of left field wondering where did they get this guy from? Where did he earn his stripes? They didn't care about your health. Your were harassed if you were going to get a drink of water or use the bathroom. If you got hurt, they would try and rush you back to work like your playing in the NFL. Managers would harass you and try and rush you back to work even if you weren't healthy. You can't switch departments like they claim you can. They would switch certain people but other's were discriminated against. At the end of the day, if they didn't treat their employees like cattle they might be able to run a successful company. Also, there is no such thing as seniority. You could work their your whole life and your still doing the grind it out work when you started. If they pay was higher, the juice would be worth the squeeze. Also, its a rigged system as Donald Trump would say. They hire their buddies from Jewel or Dominick's and if your not one of their "click" good luck. You might be stuck working as a general your entire life. All I got to say is don't do it. Work for a company like Southwest Airlines. At least they pay for your shoes when they get worn down. Trust me. I had to work barefoot during a whole shift because I couldn't afford shoes.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Meat cutter 6 salaries reported	$24.13 per hour
Deli associate 25 salaries reported	$15.78 per hour
Replenishment associate 7 salaries reported	$16.49 per hour
Cake decorator 24 salaries reported	$17.59 per hour
Baker 20 salaries reported	$17.93 per hour

Working at Mariano's: Company Overview and Reviews

Mariano's

Mariano's Ratings

Popular jobs at Mariano's

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected