retail sales associate

sales associate

maintenance mechanic

sanitation worker

cutter

Omaha-Steaks

A majority of available careers are sales jobs in the inbound/outbound call centers or retail stores. I will touch on the retail stores.

In the retail stores there is constant pressure to up sell products. The training and coaching is geared towards high pressure sales techniques, and 'white lying' is encouraged to sell the product (most sales associates aren't meat experts, the product is not graded or labeled with popular convention, product experience is not genuine, etc). It wasn't for me; for the right person it is a living wage, if they don't mind trying to up sell senior citizens with 'creative' methods.

Compensation is a bit low for management based on the amount of pressure and long hours, bonuses are pretty lousy, and incentive programs lack any ability to motivate. Benefits are fair for a retail position. Part time employees are paid about average when you factor in incentives. Part time employees are eligible for benefits and bonuses, though the option is expensive.

Culture is that of a small company. There is no working feedback loop for employees. Cronyism is evident yet doesn't provide many benefits since there is a lack of advancement opportunities. Management gives free reign in each individual store yet micro manages from afar. There tends to be too much focus on small issues with little concern for long term vision (think nit picky and small minded).

Job security is typical of retail. Sales jobs tend to have high turnover and that feeling of constantly being on the edge of employment was constant.

Work life balance is rough. You are on call 24/7 and can expect to work well over 40 hours a week.

The WORST part of the company is how much they push their employees to get customer information to spam them; you will hear it from customers, who sometimes snap with all the pushiness...
Ironically, you as an employee will all of a sudden start getting spam in the mail and over the phone from Omaha based companies (First National Bank of Omaha for example, who confirmed I was receiving their mail because of my association with Omaha Steaks).

The most enjoyable part of the job is some of the solitary you can expect during the day. It is a great opportunity to do some homework or reflect on life while you clean up the store.

To conclude, other than providing some income for a year or so, I did not gain anything of value from my employment at Omaha Steaks. I did learn a few things about meat, but nothing that has benefited my career since. It was just a job... if I had a choice I would probably choose a different company. But if you need income, and you don't have many options, Omaha Steaks probably beats out McDonald's.

I am NOT one of those "complainers" that makes everything into somebody else's fault.  I have 16 yrs in Retail including 5 in Retail Management & have received many awards in that time.  So this isn't "sour grapes", it's just what I experienced during my tenure at Omaha Steaks.

Keep in mind that Omaha Steaks is first and foremost a MAIL ORDER retail business.  The actual 70+ stores they have are treated like "second class citizens".  So they get almost no investment from Corporate.  They use DOS based computers, hand enter sku's from products, and the ordering system is dinosaur.

At interview in Sept. of 2017 I was told I would receive 30 days training at another location; it turned out to be 14 days & covered less than 1/2 of the topics. A "Corporate Operations Trainer" that was supposed to spend a week with me in my store was pulled after three days with no explanation; A "Corporate Sales Trainer" that was supposed to come out and spend a week in my store left after three days.  I was told at my interview that I had a fully trained staff in place however I had two people that had only completed 35% of initial training after 6 months there, a new part timer with no training, a 12 hour a week part timer, and one full timer with 7 counseling forms for tardiness, sales performance, no call/no show, and violating dress code. I was expected to fully train my staff when I had less than 50% of the knowledge. 

I was told by an employee at my training store that I had better keep my resume up to date because I would be gone after the Holidays. Apparently the D.M. was running the store I was hired for and he wanted to get somebody in there to get them through the Holidays so he could tend to his other stores in his District.  I laughed it off--until I was written up for dress code violation due to a wrinkled shirt.  Then a write up for gum chewing, then a write up for smoking within 300 feet of the store entrance.  I started receiving write-ups for things i was never trained in like Inventory Management (creating orders), and Violation of Product Storage Policies. 

Then in January, (yes right after the Post Holiday 50% off sale) I received a write-up for "General Violations of Numerous Policies" with a caveat attached that "any additional violations of any type would result in termination".  Exactly 6 months to the day of my starting, I reported to work and was terminated.  

BOTTOM LINE--IF THEY HAD JUST BEEN HONEST WITH ME AND TOLD ME IT WAS SEASONAL & I WOULD BE DONE AFTER THE HOLIDAYS I STILL WOULD HAVE TAKEN THE JOB.

I was excited to begin a temporary position working from home for Omaha Steaks in Inbound Customer Service.  The first week included a three-day self-guided online training course consisting of 19 modules.  This training was well organized and I completed it feeling like I could easily navigate the software when it would come time to go live on the phone taking customer calls.  So far, so good, right?  The first week also included a 4-hour zoom training meeting.  There were over 40 participants training in the session, which was conducted by a series of managers who all got on the meeting one at a time and pretty much droned on and on about the importance of attendance and punctuality.  And I'm thinking, okay, but shouldn't we be role-playing taking customer calls?  Shouldn't we be discussing how to deal with commonly occurring customer scenarios?  But .... no.  On to the first week of actually being on the phones:  in my first (and only, as it turns out) of being on the phones, the software crashed 4 out of 5 days, not allowing me to clock in on time, or taking away time out of the middle of my shift, so I wasn't making any sales.  When the software wasn't crashing, and you were actually taking calls, there were dozens of scenarios where you had no idea what to do (Example:  Can you look up my order from last year?  Well no, nobody showed us how to do that and darned if I can tell from this screen where to begin to look).  They have a chat using Teams where supposedly you can get help if you need it, but nobody actually responds to any questions posed in the chat.  The worst part??  If you couldn't clock in at the beginning of your shift due to their software issues, it was counted against you with a "points" attendance system.  You were to call into a "Work from Home Help Desk" when experiencing software issues logging in; then you would be on hold for at least a half an hour before someone answered, and they would count THAT as the time you spoke to the Help Desk instead of the time you actually called -- even when you emailed them screenshots of your phone of the time you called in.  All in all, I believe I would have been successful in this role, if their software wasn't so glitchy, if their software issues  weren't held against me for attendance recording, and if I had actually been trained on common customer scenarios.  One week of trying to do this job was enough for me.  

A typical day at my Omaha Steaks home store in San Jose, CA would include a strong level of inventory control, seeing what sold, what hasn't and whether we can better highlight products not normally given the attention they deserved. 

I was given complete autonomy over the choice of products my stores carried, provided they were sold, once we brought them in. Never carrying too much of any one item, while balancing the limited freezer space given to all products.

My visits to other store often entailed conversations about the feedback on various food items, by customers and employees alike. Selling what we knew, and how it tasted, was always the key to the growth of my stores. I prided myself on giving such attention to the often-neglected products found in other stores, and conveying the best was to introduce this to a customer.

Work hours were very appealing, with stores closing at 7pm each night, and closed on Sundays.

Upper management, and fellow managers alike, were the strongest plus of my time with this company. We all had our own styles of management, but found many way to learn from each other, and enjoying the times we rarely got to spend together.

The products were delicious, and it was greatly satisfying to find a company that allowed the freedom to succeed or fail on one's own terms. Latitude was given to operations and inventory, but our personal responsibility to 'make it work' was expected. And I always delivered.

I also happened to create a cleaner, more organized form of pricing in our stores, much in the form of a 'menu' that could be flipped through in-store, with pictures, prices, sales, and dinner combos by category. This was never the company's practice, but the success of this idea led to it being utilized in many stores, even to this day.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Excellent leadership, great work-life balance, chance to work with a team of highly highly intelligent and skilled teammates who are always willing to share knowledge and get the job done, and the company really takes care of their employees. I intended to retire there but had to leave for personal reasons/move out of state. Loved working there and would recommend to anyone who is looking for a place to work that'll make them smile everyday. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The only stress working there is good stress. The company is always challenging its employees to be innovative, efficient, and to be on the cutting edge. It can be stressful trying to learn new things and stay ahead of the game, but all the teammates in the IT dept are the best at what they do and are always willing to share what they know, so it may be stressful but every day working there you go home knowing more, and being better at what you do, and that makes it worth it! I left there after a little over a year a much better engineer than when I started, and it has helped me immensely in my career. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment is great, and the culture is phenomenal. Omaha Steaks is always doing team building exercises and finding ways to keep their employees happy. We even had an "IT Fun Committee" that all team members took part in being apart of and who's purpose was to make work fun and to show appreciation to staff. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
When you pull up to work at Omaha Steaks you don't look at your watch all day waiting for your shift to end. You enjoy what you're doing all day and when the end of day comes, you can't believe it's time to go home already.

I worked at Omaha Steaks in a retail setting for over 2 years and I can tell you that I started out as a sales rep and then moved into a key holder position. I had way too many responsibilities in a day and had to sell to the extreme in order to not hear anything from management for the day, which was an impossible task. I learned that being pushy with sales comes off as aggressive and if you don't enjoy faking that everyday while at work, than this is not going to be the job for you! I learned that females do not get treated equally in this company and harassment takes place more than what is mentioned by the company because they have fancy lawyers to take care of that problem. Management was overbearing and unconcerned that you have a life outside of work that doesn't involve being "on call" for the company and bending at their every will and need. This company plays "favorites" and that will reflect in the way that you interact with your coworkers. In a sales environment, it can mean that you make more enemies and people trying to "one up you," more than likely than friends. The hardest part of the job is lying to people about everything and having to take management junk about your performance, even if the company had a "bad month," it is still reflected on you and you can't make someone buy something you know. The only good thing about this job is the money per hour is decent and they offer commission on certain products during the month if you sell enough of them. I worked at the Omaha Steaks in Cranston, Rhode Island and unless you enjoy being harassed I would stay far Far awayy!!!

I first worked here seasonal and decided to go for pt. The calls are back to back with no commission. They have way too many KPIs to the point I was in two groups and only 3 people were making them in each group. They hired me under a supervisor who wasn't even there so I had a stand in who had no clue what she was talking about. She didnt even know how the KPIs were determined...as a supervisor. Don't bother trying to sell more than one add on for the orders as it only counts 1 towards your KPI not all of them. They require everything to be pretty much form related which started getting getting mixed up on what form goes with what if you didnt have them all written down. The trainers were nice but this is the 2nd time I've had a supervisor who didnt really help just made things worse- to the point I got written up by following what she said. PT barely gets any benefits. They'll advance you to the next tier even if you aren't making the minimum KPIs. The KPI system needs a rework if they want to actually keep people. The amount of people I saw leave was very concerning. The coworkers were nice but there was definitely some who would get upset over questions. They took away help desk which was a helpful tool so then you ended up having no choice but to bother help desk if you couldn't find the information which counts towards your KPI. The systems are easy to learn but need heavy updating. 

I have worked here 4 seasons now. The previous 3 were in Customer Service and Sales. I prefer working in Order Corrections. Both roles have unrealistic standards for their employees. The training is highly unorganized and ineffective and the trainers assume all of the trainees are rehires for the same position (which not everyone is.) I frequently asked questions during training that got ignored. During my shifts actually working, I sometimes get smart aleck responses from supervisors, and although they mean well, it's not professional. The entire order corrections team recently got an email with our new productivity expectations which are entirely unrealistic and we have no way of viewing our stats. We have no job aids, we only have a chat to ask for help. Sometimes we do not get replies for 5+ minutes which will cause us to lose productivity time. Sometimes we don't get a reply at all. I would love to work this job role year round but the supervisors and those in charge of assisting us in our role, due to the lack of adequate training, need to do better. They also need to communicate more professionally. I am not stupid and do not deserve to be treated as such. If I say something is not showing on my screen, I do not need a supervisor to screenshot theirs to show me it is on theirs in a team chat. That is demeaning and rude. Do better. Be better, you are the entire team's role models. Act like it.

I applied for the position thinking it's seasonal customer service-based, but I was surprised to learn I was hired for sales. I have no experience in sales, but the company didn't care which I guess was nice. However, we had around 5 days of training (four hours each day) and that wasn't nearly enough time. My fellow trainees were overwhelmed with the information, and we were all very nervous to be put on the phones since we didn't have enough training.

The trainer actually spent most of the time hammering into us how important upselling to the customers was. In fact, we were REQUIRED to offer FOUR different "bonus buys" which really didn't help the conversation flow with the (mostly elderly) customers. Many of the customers were getting irritated at the constant upselling, but we had to push through it regardless. And all for low pay that does NOT get any sort of bonus compensation for upsells.

My suggestion to Omaha Steaks is to either provide more in-depth and hands-on training before throwing us to the wolves, be less strict about upselling when there's no commission involved, or pay more in general. There were so many people who quit within the first two weeks for various reasons, so I get that the turnover is very large, but at some point you have to ask yourself... why?

I can't even begin to tell you how greedy this company is. Corporate and upper management have ZERO clue as to what goes on at the store level and don't care to know, even though we are dealing face to face with their customers. Prices on food continue to go up for no reason other than greed (NOT shortages), quality goes down. If you want to quit they will gladly show you the door, no interest in employee retention whatsoever. Store employees are started at a dollar or two over minimum wage, after a year I got a 1% raise, 13 cents. The "bonus" they tout is a joke. If you sell sell sell you can earn up to a maximum of 40 cents extra per hour as a bonus. That's only if you can reach their unattainable sales goals. They also hire new people at a higher starting pay than what current employees make, employees who have been there for years, and try to keep it a secret. Marketing department is full of clueless people who can't do their job correctly. The employee discount (the ONLY thing that's good about the job) has also gone up considerably. I can find cheaper prices for better quality meats at Whole Foods, I did the math. I've never seen such an out of touch company! My store was filthy in the back because the company didn't want to let us hire someone to clean the floors professionally. Dingy, water stains all over the ceiling. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Retail sales associate 23 salaries reported	$15.09 per hour
Sales associate 35 salaries reported	$15.06 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 10 salaries reported	$27.50 per hour
Sanitation worker 3 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Cutter 14 salaries reported	$21.89 per hour

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