sales merchandiser

stocker

route sales representative

merchandiser

sales

Pepsi MidAmerica

All the stories about this company are true.  They lie to no end, send you to random out of the way places and claim you never turned in a gas expense report, daily timesheets mysteriously vanish and pay gets deducted for recon, with no explanation as to why.  You always have the burden of proof on you to defend yourself and seek the pay that was stolen from you.

Besides problems concerning pay, management is by far the worst compared to any company I have ever worked for.  They are always on the chopping block, so they will all lie to you and tell you anything you want to hear to keep you from quitting.  One of my bosses even sent a text to the wrong person saying to lie to anyone about their job, that was intended for an HR employee.

This company works people to death, I personally work an average of 72 hours a week, and everyone is salaried.  Commission is near impossible to get, because of their unknown commission formula, so expect base pay.  I personally know a driver, who at the beginning of November showed me that he only had 19,000 net and he'd worked for the company for 21 years!

None of the trucks could pass a DOT inspection, yet you are always forced to drive them.  I've personally been in too many trucks that have broken down to count, and this should be a rare occurrence, but I have accepted it is an every other week occurrence.

Not a single driver in the depot is not looking for another job.  They will hire Sales reps of merchandisers with no experience at all, to get their cdl and drive trucks.  This is the one job you DO NOT want if you want to make 6 dollars an hour.  

This job is tough on families and the Crisp family refuses to address any problem, because Pepsi is a product that will sell itself, and thus they will keep looking at the bottom line and making money in spite of themselves, continually ignoring the problems that persist.

This company is by far known as the worst vending company in Illinois by a wide margin and it's really sad considering how good it could be if corporate gave a rat's behind about any little aspect of their employees.

[This is a comprehensive review of my time working for Pepsi Mid-America.  It's very detailed.  Blame that on my period spent at college writing term papers:) ]

During my time with Pepsi Mid-America, my typical work week as a store merchandiser was as follows:

Work days: 
Saturday and Sunday:  6 am - 5 pm (1 hour break mid-day).
Monday and Tuesday: 7 am - 6 pm (1 hour break mid-day).

In the mornings, I would "clock in" via pay phone in town.  Specifically, this required calling an automated service line which electronically recorded your starting/ending time by dialing in a personal pin #.  

[You NEVER clocked out for breaks.  The system would automatically deduct an hour for any shifts that exceeded (I believe) 5 hours.  So, in my case, 1 hour would be deducted after an 11 hour day, notifying the payroll dept. that I worked 10 hours for that shift.]

On the weekends, I was assigned 7 stores in town to rotate and stock Pepsi products.  While this may sound like an absurd number, 4 of the stores were actually smaller accounts which rarely required my staying longer than an hour or so.  The other 3 were larger grocery chains which took up the majority of my time.

For these larger stores, there were a number of different sections that required immediate attention once I arrived.  For example, I began at my first stop (Kroger) by stocking the 20 oz. coolers located next to the checkout counters.  These were considered "big ticket" sellers due to their visual proximity (think subliminal advertising.  Admit it, how often during a steamy summer day have you given in to the temptation of adding an ice-cold, refreshing beverage to your grocery list once you've reached the checkout counter?).  Afterward, I would then proceed to stock every shelf space leased to Pepsi throughout the store.  This, by far, took up most of my time.  All of those 12-packs, 2-liters, and various-sized items had to be properly stocked, displayed, and rotated.

[to be cont...]

Was hired on as a "management trainee".  I later understood this was a way of monitoring new hires to see if they would buy into the hostile, unethical, (probably illegal) and disfunctional Pepsi MidAmerica  regime.  Turnover there was the worse I have ever seen.  17 people quit in one day;  just walked out.  No one saw this as unusual.  
  Unless you want to be a robot, not to think for yourself, take initiative, question anything, or follow rules that make not sense, DO NOT take a job a PEPSI MIDAMERICA!. (This is not the same as Pepsi in other areas of the country.)
   My professional career included 35 years of long term, upper-level management positions with a high degree of responsibility.  But, Pepsi MidAmerica determined after just a few days that I was not a "good match" for their company.  Reasons given: I took short breaks on occasion to call Dr.s offices to arrange appointments.  I occasionally took 5 minute breaks to get coffee or soda from the break room.  I was once 5 minutes late coming back from lunch (which I later made up.)  In the hiring interview, I told them I needed training in a certain area.  I was never provided with training for specific skills, but was told I did not have these skills as a reason for termination.
   Co-workers were great, worked very hard, but under a great deal of stress and had no respect for their supervisors, managers or the company.  It was not unusual to see coworkers in my training area crying because of the maltreatment and stress.  When questioned about unethical practices, no one could tell me why things were done as they were and it was obvious no one dared to question those practices.  
  Pepsi MidAmerica has a terrible reputation in Marion, because of their long-term abuse of  employees.  My brief experience there showed me why no one stays there very long.

This company is apparently trying to tell all of its employees that their company is family oriented but if you are in sales or delivery they don't care about your home life. They want you to work 12-15 hours a day and then go home and answer your phone after words as well. They don't care if you request days off they continue to call or try and contact you. The management above you is clueless because they hire people off the street and don't train them. This is why they continually have to rehire and retrain. They need to promote from within when possible because you have done multiple jobs within the company you can see issues arise and will know how to handle certain issues.  But when your upper management doesn't care or doesn't know the process you will mess up alot of events and orders. The route salesmen (delivery guys) don't make enough to live off of. They work 5 to 6 days a week and 14 hours a day is ideal for them. The end of day paperwork is crazy. The company wants you to mess it up so they can charge you for what you already delivered. Their comission scheme is  weighted which means they can't tell you what you make on any one product. They have not come to the 21st century when calculating this. You may sell 5000 cases one week and make 700 dollars and the week after  you sell 6000 and won't make over your base pay. Most of their equipment is over due for maintenence and when they do proper maintenance it's done very very sketchy. They don't replace bald tires they don't work on their lift gates and alot of the time you can send a truck in to get fixed and it comes back with the same issues as when you sent it down.

Pepsi Midamerica would expect you to beat last year’s sales even though prices have increased and the warehouse didn’t/couldn’t load product onto the trucks from April 2021 to the present. Pepsi MidAmerica would be better off if they sold to PepsiCo. It was always a nightmare to deal with customers because of the shorted product. Fortunately, most of them understood how bad the company is.

I worked for the company for 4.5 years. It started out okay, but got progressively worse as time went on. The pay was poor compared to Coca Cola’s. The benefits and vacation time were terrible. You max out at 2 weeks. They started adding convenience stores to the dedicated merchandisers and drivers just so they didn’t have to pay the TSR more money in commission. Pepsi MidAmerica would always screw people on mileage and pay raises. They would only pay 30 cents a mile, but wanted you to deduct 30 miles from your day each day. There were a few times that I wasn’t making what I was supposed to be making. Also, you’re not allowed to have a beard, but allowed to have a creepy mustache.

I worked at the Poplar Bluff depot when I was there, which is one of the better depots. The local management was pretty good and understood what their workers went through and most of the time made an effort to help their employees if needed. Most of my coworkers were decent, which helped me stay as long as I did. I just hope some of the ones I became pretty good friends with see the light and get out before they waste their life away.

It is really a hard company to work for. Our customers are honestly the least of our concerns. We have a failing warehouse and shipping department which costs the company many potential sales. The sales are drastically being reduced by the inability to consistently deliver quality product (i.e. out of stocks, disgusting packaging) in a timely manner. Most days are being spent re-ordering product that was not loaded on days previous truck or was loaded but covered in other product. Upper management has so far refused to address this issue (probably because of nepotism) but rather reprimands lower level workers for not achieving sales numbers due to this.  It is not for everyone and you must have the ability to constantly make apologies to your customers. There appears to be no real training for management and therefore are relegated to micro-managers. Be prepared to have someone over your shoulder daily and for policies to change to fit the need of the day. Customers requests are routinely ignored and replaced with what PMA deems to be necessary so that the dwindling workforce within are put under immense stress and frustration. A word of caution to all new applicants, be prepared to be angry at work, belittled by management, and disappointment from a very patient group of customers.

On paper, Pepsi looks like a solid place to work. The pay is competitive and the benefits are decent. But what isn’t talked about enough is the mental health impact of working there.

The environment is high-pressure to the point of being unhealthy. Chronic understaffing, constant breakdowns, unrealistic production demands, and shifting schedules create a culture of sustained stress. You’re expected to operate in crisis mode daily — not occasionally — daily.

Work-life balance is extremely difficult to maintain. Shift instability and last-minute changes make it hard to plan anything outside of work. For employees with families or existing mental health concerns, this environment can become overwhelming quickly.

There is a heavy emphasis on productivity, but very little meaningful support for the people expected to carry that load. Mental health conversations feel surface-level, while the operational structure continues to generate burnout.

There are hardworking, skilled employees on the floor doing their best under intense pressure. The issue isn’t the workers — it’s the system.

If you can tolerate constant stress, minimal predictability, and a culture that prioritizes output over sustainability, you may succeed. But it comes at a cost.

I will never go back to this company again. First off, even after you apply online, and do their assessment, you still have to fill out a paper application, as they tell you they like the old fashion way. So why fill it out online? Next, they lie about the positions they post. If you see they are hiring for an HR secretary, they are not. As soon as you interview, they ask if you are open to working in other departments. During the interview, you are asked if you have kids or if you are married. Pretty sure that is not allowed. Most of the staff is hateful and have no problem being rude. They do not offer dental or vision and the health plan is way too much. 
Management is always going against one another. They have no problem being two faced to one another. You have to be careful who you befriend there because it can bite you in the end. The hardest part of this job is believing anything anyone says. The most enjoyable part of this job was leaving it with some of my dignity still intact. This company does not care about their employees. You are there to work for them and they truly believe the small pay, the high insurance, and one personal day is more than enough. If you are just looking to make a paycheck and not advance or go anywhere in a career and not looking to be noticed and are okay with not being appreciated as a human being, then this job might be for you. 

Your local supervisors may vary in quality; but the regional and higher up positions are fundamentally disconnected from how the entry-level positions work it's almost comical.  Fun fact: a non-standard pay raise for an entry level position has to be approved through every single upper level of management, even past the president,  right up to the owner of the company.  This is not a joke.  Most of the route drivers; semi or otherwise have strict times they're "allowed" to return to depots, regardless of the day's workload.  Back too soon?  Dealbreaker.  Back too late?  Better hurry up!  This is frankly ridiculous for any job that isn't paid hourly.  This sort of macro micro-management bleeds through the entire culture of the company as well, from uniforms, to performance reviews, to hiring standards.  It's a shame they're not better at it; for the amount of everyone's time they insist on wasting. 

The pepsico in marion, awful place to work. I was nightshift 12 hour shifts. You get a mini 30 minute break about halfway through. The machinery is broken as far as their fail-safes, ran over my leg multiple times and eventually twisted it pretty good. Watched people get hit by forklifts, as well as product teeter tottering on the top rack when its placed up without care. Management? whats management in Pepsi? I watched my manager pick up a pallet and throw it across the factory into one of the shelves because he lost his temper. I  told my managers multiple times about the broken brakes on their machinery and nothing came of it. Talked to one of the employees that has been there longer than i was, and he told me that they don't want to spend the money on making sure their equipment is safely operating. As well as what they start you as, is about the only raise you will ever see working there, there has not been a "raise" in a few years from what i heard from the older workers. The company truely sucks, management, safety, cleanness of environment (watched multiple rats ontop of product) makes the Marion PepsiCo one of the more dangerous, as well as stupidest places to work around..

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales merchandiser 478 salaries reported	$18.12 per hour
Stocker 42 salaries reported	$17.94 per hour
Route sales representative 91 salaries reported	$49,977 per year
Merchandiser 103 salaries reported	$18.05 per hour
Sales 64 salaries reported	$45,486 per year

Working at Pepsi MidAmerica: Company Overview and Reviews

Pepsi MidAmerica

Pepsi MidAmerica Ratings

Popular jobs at Pepsi MidAmerica

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected