associate

meat cutter

frontliner

produce associate

team leader

Sams Club

Working at Sam's Club is a great source of introductory retail experience, with plentiful opportunities for advancement and intra-club position mobility.

**Note: Since the period of my employment, the Walton corporation has rolled out a standard $10.00-$11.00/hour minimum wage, so you should expect to be paid this salary or your state-mandated minimum wage; whichever is greater.**

However, I would encourage any prospective applicant to exercise caution if they elect to apply to be a cashier. As is standard within most sales-based positions in the U.S., you will spend a lot of time on your feet, and you will likely not be allowed to sit/lean while at the register unless you have a legitimate medical reason for needing to do so. Pressure-absorbing pads are provided at each register, but owning a pair of comfortable shoes (optionally with in-soles) is a must. However, unlike many retail positions, Sam's Club hasn't a mandated uniform policy - aside from wearing your Sam's Club vest and any task-appropriate PPE, you can be assured that you will be able to wear clothes that you find to be comfortable.

By far, though, the hardest part of the position was the rigid (and arguably unrealistic) sales requirements. My club required that each cashier achieved two member promotions (from a "basic" membership to a "Plus" membership) and two credits (two lines of in-store credit opened with your referral) per day that you worked, no matter for how many hours you were scheduled or during what time of the day you were scheduled. Just to be clear, no cashier that I know could do this - partially because whether or not a member decides to upgrade is entirely beyond your control; although sales tactics and information given during computer training sessions account for failure, corporate sets guidelines that they see as unwavering and must be met. If you are fortunate, your department manager and supervisors will be understanding - and will only oversee that you discuss the prospect of either/both forms of member advancement during transactions. (Despite the fact that, as they will know all too well, no member wants to hear this information if they have heard it before. Ever.) If you are unfortunate, you will have a supervisor with little tolerance for failure and continuously coming up short of your sales 'obligations' will result in "coaching". If you continuously require coaching (equivalent to support/re-training) - my Club had a three-strike rule - you will either be terminated or, if applicable, be relocated to another position within the Club. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Aside from those aspects, the day-to-day dimensions of the position are what you would likely expect them to be. Be forewarned, however, that your fifteen-minute breaks and mandatory lunch (if you work six or more hours in a day) will be timed if you are a cashier - and you must take them when you are scheduled to do so. You may not have consistent break times depending on how busy your club gets - my club struggled from understaffing at the front end, and finding someone able to relieve you to use the restroom or go on your break was often a chore.

Your schedule will be provided for you when you join - your first three weeks are hand-scheduled by Human Resources to conform to your availability precisely. After that, you will be subject to a computer-generated schedule that will often (but may not always) meet your availability. If you are a student, this can be a problem as you may be scheduled to work *during* your classes. You can submit a request slip to have your hours changed, but you must submit one request per day you would like changed, and each request must be approved by your department supervisor. Requests must also be made one week in advance, per retail courtesy, so that someone can be found to fill or trade for your hours. You will receive your schedule in three-week chunks, however, with your schedule and every other employee's schedule available for view in the break room - so you have the ability to make these accommodations if necessary. Also, you may find yourself asked to assist in closing the store (for me, it was helping to fold clothes in the center section) provided you have not worked many hours that day - even if it requires you to stay beyond the hours for which you were originally scheduled. If you have worked several hours, you will likely be excused from this duty - but, regardless, you will always receive compensation for helping. However, as a result of retail workers' union negotiations, you will be disallowed (but also protected) from performing any task pertaining to the Club once you have clocked out for the day.

Overall, though - if you manage to meet your sales targets - you will likely find the position to be enjoyable. Your local club will probably run competitions between the departments or among cashiers to get the greatest sales - resulting in prizes purchased for you from store management. At any retail position, you will inevitably have to service customers/members that are rude or insensitive - but you are instilled with the right at Sam's Club to refuse service to a member that blatantly engages in some form of harassment toward you. The odds are that your coworkers, supervisors, and club management will support you - and, through it all, you will gain a greater appreciation for everyone that has worked or currently works in the customer service industry; a trait which you will find to be exceedingly valuable no matter whether you decide to pursue a career at Sam's Club or use your experience as a foundation for pursuing a different one.

When I first got hired, I was simply happy to end my year-long work hibernation; or simply put I was excited to finally have a pay-check, after spending day after day on various job posting sites. So for the first few months, I was content on pushing carts for 4-8 hours a day, and more so now that I had money rolling in. However, once I made the mistake of actually trying to move inside the store, I saw the flaws that, are currently, bringing down the store I work at more and more.

I stuck through my job for three months, trying desperately to ignore the fact that I, a cart pusher at the time, made the same as the women who sit at the door and look at cards/receipts. Completely ignoring the fact that my position, one that was the physically the hardest within the building, was grossly underpaid compared to everyone else, I pushed through (pun intended) and became a dependable worker. Through hot and cold temperatures, and being called in every week to work full time hours, I kept on slogging through.

 After my "Ninety Day Evaluation", I was told my various bosses that they loved my work ethic and would be brought in the store ASAP.

 After waiting another three months, despite being told every day that I would move into the stores by different bosses, I went onto our computers and saw that there was never a "rec" open for any of the positions I was promised. Not one. Although I knew I was being lied to the moment they opened their mouths, it still was a tad bit annoying.Eventually, I grabbed the gas station when it opened up, being told various times nothing else would ever open up and after the first day of settling into my new job, I was informed that a position I had been waiting to open up for months, had finally done so. Someone was interviewed over me, without any word being passed along to me and when I finally figured it out and asked my boss, he pretended he did not know I wanted it, nor that he even knew the position was opened.


Perhaps it was my fault for not waiting things out and grabbing the position I desperately am a good fit for, but how could one blame me when the bosses I work for not only tell different stories, but will flat out lie to your face? Granted, my job isn't horrible up at the gas station, it's just really, REALLY boring. Other than occasionally cleaning and filing paper work, you're simply sitting there for eight hours in a metal box. You are not allowed a game, or a tablet, or even a book to read, and their reason is "It will interfere with doing my job." Maybe if they gave me the reason that they are not paying me to play on my tablet, I would fully accept that. But what is really going to interfere from me simply sitting there, with a bored, dull look upon my face?

And thus I approach the biggest flaws of the place. The Bosses simply either do not communicate with one another about anything important, or they are so two-faced that they can no longer tell when they are lying to get you to go away, or they simply don't know the answer. If that is not bad enough, I have witnessed them clearly lying to customers and to each other, and I cannot help but wonder why honesty is not being enforced? As with the cut hours, I am at a loss on why my locations hours have been cut TWICE in less than a month, especially seeing as we hired someone who is getting ten or more plus memberships a day; one might think our sales would be up with so many new people coming in but, according to our bosses, we are CONSTANTLY in the negative in terms of money. Now I am no businessman or record-keeper or anything like that, but how can that be possible? How are we spending so much money everday, despite our member count increasing?

Maybe there is a good, concrete reason why our hours are constantly being slashed, but the truth is, we are never given a set answer. It is always changing. Now every single department is vastly understaffed, and members are not only getting annoyed with the lack of help, but also with the new plus system being shoved down their throats every time they shop with us (it's borderline harassment at this point), especially by the aformentioned worker that is getting them all. (He is lying to the customers, we all know he is, but the bosses don't care)

I think the biggest reason why our department store is so un-fun to work at is due to all the reasons I mentioned above. Nothing is getting done to alleviate these problems, and they only seem to get worse as time passes. Hours being cut for the hard workers, the slackers get their hands held and never once fired, and the smiles, the ones that are now being trained due to exhaustion, are gradually fading, and all for what? Just so the bosses above me can line their pockets with their bonuses? (Which, according to rumors are pretty high up there)

When I got hired, the place was fun, or at least some people tried to make it that way. Perhaps it seems like I did nothing but bash my work place and to that point, maybe I am. I rather like my work place, and want to help those that are being over-worked, but my bosses won't bring me inside, and maybe that's why I sound bitter? All I know is that, though I am happy to have a job, mine is sucking the fun out of me, and until something new arrives, I will stick with it.

This is the worst low-paying job that I have ever had. I knew that I was and never would be anything but a number going in, so my expectations were completely fulfilled.

I was originally hired to perform in a special area and was given a higher pay rate because of it. I was given the same training that all cashiers receive and was never given any training or even any information about the specialty before being told to open it up on my first day after training. There were forms and regulations that I knew nothing about and I had NO training whatsoever before being thrown in to the lions. While Sam's is very big on training their employees about things that they are never going to encounter, they don't give them information or tools to actually perform the work that they actually do. Why is a guy who sells and installs tires being trained about the proper temperature of roasted chickens? Seriously?

My primary duties were as a cashier. We are operating in the hottest part of the store, especially in the winter. There are overhead heaters that I heard one cashier call 'Cashier Cookers.' She was right. Those things bring the temperature up to the upper eighties in the winter. After moving several 50 pound bags of salt for customers, you are ready to die. The sweat is just rolling off and the ice cream is melting. Then the next guy with more salt rolls up...

The cashier's primary job is to force people to spend an extra $60 on a little scam they call the Plus Membership. It's worthless! They carefully explain how you will receive coupon savings on the kinds of stuff you buy all the time. That is only partially true. The scam is that the coupons are NOT for the same BRANDS of things that you usually buy, so they're usually useless. If cashiers can't sell Plus Memberships, they're fired. If you have never had a cash shortage, but you sell PMs, you're not a good employee.

They have cashiers doing stocker's jobs and customer service and sales and credit card pushing and janitorial work and folding clothes and all sorts of stuff that shouldn't be in their job description. It really sucks to have all this other carap thrown at you when all you want to do is YOUR job and then to go home at the end of the day. Why should cashiers be stocking paper towels and water and helping in the bakery? They don't get paid to do those things at the same rate that stockers and bakers get! This is really not fair.

Recently, corporate has mandated that the clubs get rid of the old timers with lots of seniority. They make the payroll too high and their shares of the "bonus" are too fat. Full time employment used to be possible with Sam's, but no more. Why anyone would want to spend more than a few hours a week with them is beyond me, anyway. Besides, retail opportunities are almost exclusively part time employment.

Customers are not stupid and they do not like being treated like the idiots they are perceived to be. Sam's does really stupid stuff like hiding items for customers to find. Are you kidding me? Why would you do that? Don't you WANT it to sell? Idiots. Every notice the fans near the strawberries or grapes or other fruit? It's infested with fruit flies and the fans blow them away. Duh... Prices are not always the best, either. You can buy at least half of their stuff elsewhere for less.

The worst part of working there is that there are too many cooks ruining the broth. Too many bosses. Every boss is approachable. You could have three or four of them involved in some petty problem that should have been handled by one person in the first place. The rules and policies change daily. The right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing. One day your manager tells you that you have to make sure you don't work over 28 hours and by the end of the day, another manager is asking you to stay for an extra eight hour shift. Policies change all the time, too. Make sure you get a manager's approval on a TV price and the next day they say that it's changed and you don't have to do it. Or some cashiers NEVER have to follow policy. Good leadership is non-existent.

One last comment. I will never forget the comment made to me when I interviewed with them for the first time. I was told that Sam's Club was one of the few places where someone with nothing more than a high school diploma could reach the higher ranks of management. At the time, I thought that this was pretty special. By the time I quit, I had realized that the entire place was run by a bunch of people with nothing more than a high school diploma.

I've worked in retail and business sector for over twenty years with numerous recognized multi-national companies without any major issues whatsoever.  Before working with Sam's Club I had a negative perception of Walmart due to stories, articles, and a documentary pertaining to some of their business practices and treatment of their employees.  Against my better judgment I applied anyways because I needed the job at the time.  Getting the job or the interview wasn't the problem.  Sam's Club (Walmart) issues lie with the fact that they don't value their employees or barely staff their stores.  Their negative reputation, attrition rate, and putting profit over their employees welfare and health contributes to their negative perception.  This by far was the worst experience I had with an employer.  If one coworker calls out, or has an emergency this act alone cause coworkers to have to cover other departments which contributes to why their store struggle.  I have talked to employees that work and manage Costco.  Costco actually cares about their employees and pays them fairly.  They even give time and a half on Sundays with bonuses twice a year.  Sam's Club touts quarterly bonuses, but figures out ways to say they didn't meet their metrics due to complaints to short-change their employees.

I worked full-time there for four months.  I would like to think I have a strong work ethic - first one in, last one out.  I used to work 90 hour work weeks running off 5 hours of sleep.  I'm not the type to "silent quit" and do the bare minimum.  However, standing on your feet for 8 hours on concrete is unbearable. Having to spend money on gel and memory foam insoles that only last a month doesn't help. Listening to my coworkers lament during our lunch breaks is heartbreaking that Sam's doesn't pay enough is something else.  In addition, coworkers lament that they can't save money whatsoever is the reason why people quit there and therefore can't find affordable housing or buy a home even if they and their significant other both work full-time due to cost of living issues.

Store staffing issues contributes to their issues.  Even customers would complain to me that we're short staffed.  I was hired in as an cashier, but I was working in almost every dept within the store aside from the pharmacy or optical.  They would probably work employees there if they could.  Good luck asking for a paid time off.  They'll ask in the beginning if this is job or career.  They don't mean it.  All their flowery words and training videos are contrary to their actual working conditions.

The corporate culture and political correctness there is something else.  They can't even maintain their own policies.  They ask employees to check every member that enter the store, but when you do what they ask and someone complains that they don't want to show their card and march right into the store, management approach you because it hurts their metrics and write you up.  Let me get this straight, you ask me to check for membership cards, I do what you asked, but if a customer throws a tantrum because they don't feel like it or show a copy of a card because they're obviously sharing a membership with someone else, or files a complaint online it's somehow my fault and you write me up.  What the heck?  They used this as a justification and my lamenting to my coworkers during my break as a pretext to terminate me.

I was injured at worked due to repetitive motion.  I mentioned my injury to my direct manager and this lady had the gall to say, "if I could fulfill my duties as a cashier, they might terminate me."  I filed a workers compensation claim.  Her antics is obviously against the law.  Shortly thereafter, I was falsely accused to taking longer breaks that allotted despite me using a timer during every break and my coworkers observing me doing so.  I would not recommend this company for anyone looking for work.  If anything, whenever I see anyone at Walmart or Sam's Club I feel bad for them.  Don't mistreat these people.  Most of them are just trying to get by and endure unfair working conditions and don't complain because they need to pay their rent.

I worked at the Sam’s Club fullfillment center. While working there during peak season Although they pay biweekly the money was fairly decent. But the hours were rough. When I originally was offered a job they told me 10hr shifts 4 days a week with 3 day weekends . $2 more for night shift and weekend shifts. Of course once I started we moved up to mandatory 5th day. They have a ridiculous point system that will get you canned if you’re not careful. Every employee starts with 0 points but the maximum amount of points before your fired is 5. Points accrue by being late or absent or leaving early. And each point accumulated falls off a year to date. Every two hours counts as a 1/4 of a point. Although the job is a 10hr shift or longer . They give you a 5 minute grace period before & after your start time to clock in but any later counts as 1/4 point up to 2 hrs . More than 2 hrs late and up to 4 hrs is 1/2 point. And so on and so forth. This goes for leaving early as well. And the same point system is accumulated. It’s totally up to you to remember EXACTLY when u called in so u don’t think you have more points to spare and you really don’t as well as knowing when a point drops off. I’ve seen many employees walked out because they thought they had more points they didn’t have. 

When you start the job they ask if you prefer to pick or pack. Picking is walking about the giant warehouse order filling customer orders. You will walk 10miles or so in a 10hr shift. Great cardio. But by that 5th day if you aren’t wearing comfortable Sketchers that hard ground will be unforgiving! Each picker has production goals that you MUST achieve each week. But each day is accumulating the weekly quota. (Bigger orders = more production)
Packing is literally standing in one spot at your packing station 10hrs a day packing customer orders one after another . I’ve been told that packers have production goals as well although you’re not in control of what order will be brought to you to pack your production goals still MUST be achieved. (Bigger orders =more production)
In either position if you don’t meet the requirements, management starts the corrective process. If and when you don’t meet production after that, you will be terminated. It’s not hard to meet production but it’s very easy to not meet production. 
They have a No cell phone policy. U can have your phone on you to “check the time” here or there but if somebody from management sees you then you are terminated on the spot because your “fair warning “ was during orientation. This is another thing I witnessed first hand to employees.

The worst part about working here was the break and lunch schedules. First of all there are NO LUNCHES ! I guess they justify this by saying they pay you NOT to take a lunch. They give you two 20min breaks in a 10hr shift. You aren’t allowed to leave your work area until the break starts . And the warehouse is so large it takes you 3 mins just to get to the break room as well as the same 3 mins (power walking ) to get back from break. Then u MUST be back at the huddle to regroup with your team on time or you face a write up.. management literally stands guard with pen and paper to write down names of employees who were late coming back or left to break earlier than allowed.  So really u have 14 mins of a break to finally sit down , eat,  or check your phone. If it takes u 3 mins to warm up your food then u are waisting precious time. If you smoke you have to walk to the designated smoking area that’s obviously outside down the long walkway from the entrance which again is wasting precious time. So really it’s not 20mins after all . More like a solid 10 mins after all things considered. All after already having walked around because it’s your job description to walk around and pick orders. 

I almost forgot to mention the 20% off you get at Sam’s Club or you can elect 10% off at wal mart . But u can’t have both. 

If you are unemployed something is better than nothing & a job is better than no job but if you have options or a skill set to do other things I wouldn’t work there. Wal-Mart as a company is ok but just ok. The are too many other companies in the DFW area out there these days to waste away in a company like this. But everybody has an opinion.  

A typical day: you clock in, there may or not be a radio available. You do need one and if there isn't one its your fault, as far as management is concerned. You go outside to collect carts, unless you're being asked to help a member load their stuff, or being called in to get an order, or being told to give gas station their break/lunch which they will be very late coming back from it. If the gods favor you today, which they won't, there will be plenty of carts in the vestibule or in the checkpoints outside. Since the gods don't care though, most of the time the vestibule is near empty and if its particularly busy all the carts are inside being used. Management does not find this answer acceptable and will yell at you repeatedly for your failure. If the gods smile upon you and I will be generous they sometimes do in this instance, few members will need help loading things and you can focus entirely on carts. If instead you have angered the gods, several members will need help. Probably back-to-back. And because of this, you will fall behind and be yelled at by your super or management. Your one respite is both are inattentive and may not notice for awhile, giving you a chance. However,  you've yet to take your break, you might be yelled at for this depending on the mercurial whims of your superiors. In case you do decide to take your break when busy, you will likely be yelled at for doing so; barring one of the supervisors telling you to take it while busy. If you managed to acquire a radio at the beginning of your shift, during all this you will have to deal with listening to half of your coworkers getting interrupted by the other half of your coworkers. Arguments will happen, some of them multiple times across different pairs of people as they come to the exact same issue. People will ask questions that have been asked several times, sometimes in the past minute. No one is listening to anything said over the radio unless it is from an interaction they started or are directly a part of. You will be told to go to your break before and after, because none of the supers have bothered to communicate with the others that you went to break. If you come back too late, you will be yelled at by someone that also comes back late. Gas station's break/lunch always comes first, even if you got there a full hour before they did. It is time for you to go home,  depending on the time, you might have to wait before the only other cart attendant gets back from their lunch or gas station's because your superiors will not send someone out to be there unless under threat of having to pay you overtime. Speaking of your hours you might have far too few or far too many depending on how your manager feels and I'm gonna be honest I have no idea what ritual they use to decide. Note: by "far too many" I mean as much as they can give you without giving you 40. If you go above 30 hours too often, you will get in trouble. Even if you were just working the hours they scheduled you. When leaving, if you encounter a member that needs help,  you are expected to help them. Even if that happens multiple times in a span of minutes,  causing you to leave several minutes after you were supposed to. When leaving, it sometimes occurs that you will be expected to come back within less than 8 hours of leaving, no, this will not be treated as weird by anyone but you or your fellow rank-and-file. Interspersed through all this is management regularly taking the time to belittle and denigrate everyone but those they have favor for. You will be yelled at, you will be insulted, you will be treated like nothing you do is enough. 

What I learned: that even the tiny smidgen of power that is being a sam's club manager can poison some people. 

Management: constant refusal to accept responsibility; verbal abuse; favoritism; ingratitude; refuses to pay for required equipment. 

Workplace culture: most of my coworkers have sad eyes and are so tired. 

Hardest part of the job: yeah. 

Most enjoyable: those rare few members that are genuinely kind, and sweet and talk to you as if you're the best person they've met today for helping them and by the gods I wish I could be the person that they seem to think I am.

For 25+ years this poor club has been trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Ive only worked for the last 2 of these years
The club was suppose to be some where else but they messed up the paper work and have been stuck at there current location. 
Home office refuses to upgrade us even thou we are the top 20 clubs out of 2-300 clubs in the US They just barely granted us a new roof this year that was 8+ years out of date and leaked like a cive when it rained.
All of our equipment is overly out of date but as of right now the current GM is getting things slowly but surly up to date. But with a cost. Our numbers have gone up in sales but employee haplessness has gone down quite a bit (alof of that is a mix of home office and new GM's idea that he owns the place and can do what ever he wants). If your going for a job here, apply at the night shift or floor jobs. There you have the most freedom and less problems to deal with. Where as being a cashier or even a door greeter you will be forced and challenged to work a commission job with out commission pay. You will loose hours if you do not sell enough memberships with in a week and meetings normally end up having one crying person. (over what im not sure i have never gone to them)
Its sad to see Sams club over all just going down hill, its getting to the point you can actually see it and cant ignore it anymore. Im not sure if its just my store or club wide? Im sure its club wide.

When i started in 2012 it was the best job i had so far. Alot of freedom there so long as you got the job done and done well, everyone liked you and you got no problems. Now everyones allowed to slack off because no one cares anymore. Everything is some one else jobs and every thinks some one else will pick up after them. Ever sense Febuary2014 the mass layoff of managers, our club has just had no reason to care. At lease thats how i feel everyones thinking. Why care when your once secure job will just fire you in mass in order to save money? What benefit do you have other than making THEM money. The feeling of being expendable i think did alot of veteran associates in, making them now more anxious and not so easy to work with anymore. (i had to leave day shift because of this) 

Not only that i have been trying to become a team lead for the past year now, one finally shows up and no one asks. Thats fine, my fault for not speaking out. Now we are in a need for another one here soon because a old team lead is on leave for the past few months and they shoulnt be able to be guarantee there position at this point, but still aloud to come to work. I want there job and no ones making the move to open it. Heck they have a hard time hiring anyone let alone move them up. It takes them 3 months to finally start looking for people after we have been needing it to be filled all that time.
I have tried everything to move up, i dont want to be a manager but i would like to be a lead. Im not sure if its sams club or just the place im working for but they do not like people moving up and just slack off so they dont have to be bothered with making it happen. 

Over all i made this place sound bad but its really not, if its your first job dont work here because no one will be willing or want to bother training you. I spent most of my time self teaching. But if you have worked in retail and just would like a place to have a little bit more freedom, everyone a little nicer and a bit more pay. Then go here. Because they do pay you alot more than some stores in the area and a good chunk of the people are nice and will help you a little bit if you ask. But be expected to self teach yourself how to do alot of it.

Honolulu Sam's Club is one of the highest grossing clubs in the nation. This can be contributed to the club's central location on the third floor above Walmart and by being in a major tourist area by the popular Ala Moana mall and Waikiki. What helps as well is competent management but probably what helps the most is a team of very long time employees, from team leaders, coaches, to other merchandisers and associates who've been employed at the same club for more than fourteen years. They actively support new workers and even new coaches and new club managers. They work together but also keep each other in line.

I've been employed here as a merchandising associate for the duration of the corona virus pandemic. During this time the attendance and points infraction system has been suspended. Much of management is in some disarray and there's no real HR department to orient members as much is actually needed. Also training is not much at all, but fortunately the work is simple enough to be learn on the go, and coworkers are helpful. 

A plus side of being hands off is there's not much in the way of micromanaging. Workers are able to take their breaks (two 15 min paid) and lunches (30 min unpaid) at will and even all together. 

However workers must keep watch on their overtime or be asked to take longer lunches or arrive or leave early or late to compensate for the extra minutes. This does become discouraging because of the amount of work and the lack of workers, and the desire of the team leaders to not leave too much for the AM or PM shift to cover. It would be nice to have some reward for dedication.

The dynamic between teams was sometimes difficult to navigate. When do you help other teams which are shorthanded, or stay with your own which is also shorthanded? Coordination was difficult because of inexperienced and untrained new team leaders, lack of accountability between AM and PM shift teams, and failing walkie talkies which were often in short supply. Sometimes helping another team too much created conflict with internal team members who were left to do large areas alone. It was a challenge to make the right choice, and sometimes impossible because of conflicting direction by those in leader positions, but more often because of sheer exhaustion. 

While I mentioned having an efficient merchandising team with long time workers, I was puzzled by very non-contributing members who were mediocre workers as well as mentally and socially challenged in sometimes inappropriate ways. This is an example of how you might get an extreme mix of workers, from the very experienced, distinguished and qualified to the very indiscriminately chosen. There was even a vastly overweight security guard. I am not sure if this is the product of the pandemic or not. 

While I'm leaving this location for personal reasons, I would consider myself lucky to be able to continue working there. 

I do recommend management orient new workers to the fullest extent regarding their benefits, most especially health insurance which I discovered was incredibly cheap, but I could not qualify for because I had passed the enrollment period and had to wait another five months or so to be eligible to enroll. Also I would have appreciated being educated about the complimentary PLUS membership card too and its 10% discount on fruits and vegetables. If I can make some additional requests too: fix the walkie talkie shortage immediately and the club pick up devices and their failing apps. Also get more box bins to consolidate trash with. Falling boxes off palettes across a long distance from the front of the store to the back was a nightmare.

The Club manager is very rude and curses at the associates; it doesn't matter if members are present. He is not approachable and all of his responses are offensive. In the beginning, he says if there is a problem, you can go to him about it and he will do anything he can to help, YET any problem that was brought (from me and other associates) he criticizes you instead of asking the problem. The ENTIRE Fresh Department sucks. The managers are in competition on who can give the most write ups and they want to make your life hard to see if you last. The team lead over HMS/Rotisserie/Cafe is horrible. She does not help her associates, and she says she is always busy, BUT somehow she has time to pump her breast milk in the fresh office for office. Yes this is a place of business. You read that correctly. She just walks around all day. So be careful when you consider this job. All of the managers say she is not meant to be in production but all other team leaders are. So, clearly something fishy is going on there. She has lost over 15 associates in her 5 months as a team lead. That should tell you something. Many concerns have been brought to managers about her behavior, but she is still there. They over work you and do not give you PTO that you work for. You can work 13 days straight and request off for one day and they will decline it. So if you like to go on vacation or simply have a doctors appointment, you might as well cancel all of those before you apply. If you do get a day off, they will make you do extra work the next time you work to punish you for taking a day off. If you have any emergency and need to call in, they DO NOT take doctors excuses, they may say they do in orientation, but just know everything they say is a lie. You are expected to work one weekend day and you do not get to choose what time you want to work. You must be able to work whenever they need you and work in any department. Do not expect to get paid for what you do. They want everyone to cross train and be flexible to work in every department, but they do not want to pay everyone the same. For example, if you work in the cafe (11-12$) and a meat associate (13-18$) calls in you are expected to work in the meat department for the same 11-12$. They all have favorites, so if you are one to stick up for yourself, do not work here. If you are a pushover, this is the perfect place for you. They will use you to get information on other associates and if there are rumors going around and you tell them, they will use it to their advantage but you will still get written up for being associated with them. There is not enough associates in fresh but you will be expected to open or close by yourself with no training. The ONLY positive is a free Plus membership. The shifts are 5am-1:30pm, 3am-11pm, 1pm-9:30pm. If you can not work these shifts on anytime of the day do not waste your time. I cannot speak for frontline, but I have heard a lot of terrible things. Please do not take this lightly, because these are not the only things that are wrong with Club 4749. Save yourself the headache because you may get fired anyway if you can't suck up to the managers. Most of the time that only works for a bit, they will get information from you and once you have nothing else to offer you will be fired. If you do choose to work here, you do get a 30 minute break and if you smoke you can basically take breaks every 20 minutes. Do not talk to anyone because you can get written up for talking to other associates in different departments. No one is your friend, there are snitches everywhere. I did however make a lot of new friends that are leaving the company as well. At least 15 have said they are leaving, which is GREAT.

I'll start out by saying, when I first started there I really liked it. I learned multiple different departments (I basically knew them all, minus the licensed areas). My coworkers were amazing. They were the reason I stayed as long as I did. After a couple years I found that I loved Cake Decorating so I transferred to the bakery and learned it all on the job. It was great. 

After a while we got a new manager in the club. They striked fear into basically everyone. They would come to the bakery say things like "You guys are doing great!" Then turn around and tell the Team Lead that we aren't keeping up with production and that they needed to get on us about it. That made the Team Lead come back and basically scream at us for not keeping the cake case stocked or getting orders out time. Graduation Season was the WORST! From May-July we would constantly get cake orders for graduations. They would always want them on the weekends. The most typical time was always noon (12pm). We would get 15+ orders for a Saturday at 12pm (plus the other orders for before and after that time, it added up). We weren't allowed to have an order schedule to make it easier on us. 12pm would come around and we'd be behind in orders. We're people, not robots. We're working as fast as we can to get the orders done. But we also don't want to rush them because we want them to turn out right. Of course members would be furious. It was absolutely terrible. Then, of course, some of the managers would come back and get mad at us for being behind. 

After the weekends the beginning of the week would be fine. The downside, they didn't schedule enough of us in the evenings to make cake back up for the next weekend and fill the cake case for the current week. So by Thursday we'd have almost no cakes in the freezer for the weekend. During the weekday we'd work on orders first, then do the cake case, then back up. Most of the time there would only be 1 or 2 decorators until 4pm. After that there was only 1. If a member needed help with an order form, we'd have to help. If a cake needed to be written on, we had to help. If the bread side needed help wrapping, we had to help. We're 1 person with 2 hands. We couldn't be everywhere at once. We tried our hardest, but we couldn't do everything so we got in trouble for it. 

My last straw was when I worked the day before a closed holiday. We were busy. Very busy. I came in and I was told by my Team Lead to help with wrapping bread for my entire shift. I asked if they were sure. They said yes. I triple checked with them. I got yes every time. After they left I asked everyone in the bakery if they had heard that. They all confirmed it. So I did as I was told. The other closer decorator was overwhelmed. By the end of the night there was nothing in the cake case with no back up. The closing manager knew this and told us they would vouch for us since they knew we had been so busy. Believing them was a mistake. The day after the holiday I got called into the office by our Team Lead and one of the managers. I told them what happened and the Team Lead proceeded to say "I never told you to wrap bread". I told them that everyone in the bakery heard it. They didn't even bother to get their facts straight. I got coached (written warning) right there. I was furious. I always feared for my job. But even when I did what I was told with witnesses, the team lead and the management just did not care. I got a new job not long after that.

I still love my coworkers. We still talk. But most of the management there don't care and will put the blame on anyone before fact checking for themselves.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Associate 61 salaries reported	$16.97 per hour
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Produce associate 26 salaries reported	$15.96 per hour
Team leader 141 salaries reported	$73,209 per year

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