meat carver

deli associate

customer service representative

customer service associate / cashier

cashier

Sendiks Food Markets

Food service/retail is a job I think everyone should take a shot at, no matter what business or location you're in. 

Sendik's isn't all too different from any other grocery store job. Whatever department you're in is a generally a good learning experience, and you have near constant opportunities to change around if something isn't quite your speed. 

However, at this location, the management is very polarizing. They'll do a plenty good job of teaching you what you need to get done, and supervising you, but this is more or less true depending on your department.

The meat department was a fantastic learning experience but both managers I had there had very clear-cut pros and cons. Great teachers, extremely rough supervisors. I was belittled and berated by each of them pretty frequently in different ways, often singled out. I also heard both of them talking smack behind the backs of other people in and out of my department, which was never a good thing to catch.

I also felt significantly underpaid, having done tasks like ordering products/supplies, calling and ordering from vendors, both opening and closing the department, etc.

Sendik's is also significantly corporate. Higher-ups would come by the store almost every other day to oversee things, and the actual CEO and owners of the business would stop in almost as frequently, which could be a stressful experience for multiple reasons. 

However, if you can handle this and don't let it get to you, the pros are very worth it. Benefits are great all around, ranging from discounts on work shoes to family tickets to the Milwaukee Zoo to a fantastic 401k plan. 

Just be prepared to dig your heels in and have a backbone if you want something better out of it.


A normal day in Dairy/Frozen is a pretty typical one in a grocery store. Stocking the load everyday is done in the morning. The loads come from our central warehouse Certco Inc. Being in the position I am in, I do order most of the product that comes in and also decide what new items to bring in too. 

Being at Sendik's, I have learned and improved many skills. I have learned how to properly create eye appealing display to attract customers and promote sales. Also, I have learned skills such as time management, improved my customer service skills, and how to run a profitable department. But throughout this process, I definitely had some struggles too. I would say the hardest part of position was having to learn what products we carry, where is comes from, and how to order properly. But with time and practice, I was able to excel very well.

Overall, Sendik's has been a great company to work for. They strive for excellence, have great core values, have great people in leadership who have years of experience, and know how to treat their employees. Being in a family owned business has been the best part of my experiences with them. The owners come into the stores very often and attempt to get to know as many employees as they can. To me, that shows that they care about not only their business, but everyone involved.

I started working here during high school and always felt that the managers were understanding when life circumstances arose and respectful of differences in the workplace. They were very approachable and helpful whenever you needed to raise a concern, handling employee issues promptly and making sure to gather all necessary information before making decisions. One thing I found a bit unusual was that store directors would rotate between stores every few years, even if things were running smoothly—but it wasn’t a negative, just an interesting practice. My direct manager was excellent at respecting my availability and consistently approved time-off requests without issue. During my two years there, I only had one instance where she gave me a hard time about a last-minute request for time off due to a funeral. It was unusual that they asked me to provide an obituary “to prove” where I was going, but overall, employees were generally able to work, get paid, and leave without issue.

Overall, it was a good place to work, but the pay was very low. To be competitive with other grocery stores, I believe they would need to increase hourly pay by at least $3. Practices may have changed since I left over a year ago, but during my time, compensation was a major downside.

Being a Produce Assistant Manager, I got to work with both entry level employees as well as upper management; the people working there are some of the most genuine I have worked with. The produce selection is diverse, the quality of deli meals are great, and the meat department has some quality selections. Where this company suffers is in management. The line of communication between employees and store directors/upper management is quite thin with most requests/suggestions/concerns falling on deaf ears; even during the pandemic, pay was not competitive (~43% lower than WI and national averages) and was not adjusted for inflation. Raises given during yearly reviews were ~$0.25 and pay increases for those associates promoted from within to Department Asst. Managers sat around $0.75-$1. Many of the dedicated employees felt taken advantage of because they could not say no if asked to complete tasks assigned to others. Policies are not well-enforced except for visits from upper management or inspections.

Once you move on from the general getting used to things at any first couple of weeks at a job, you start to understand what the company truly is. They pick apart everything you do for the little wage you are given. You are asked to do more and more on a large scale basis without truly ever seeing any compensation for the added work and responsibility. Upper management from your personal store director told way up the food chain in corporate will come in occasionally and have nothing positive to say to any of the low level employees. To be treated fairly by any of them you need to be in the general vicinity of their role. I did find some comfort in knowing that despite all of the mayhem with upper management, my own personal department manager was very easy to work with at the start. But over the course of time she/he also showed that they truly will always be your “boss” and not your friend first. I would not recommend Sendiks for anyone to work at. The pay will never come close to the responsibility and lack of respect you are given as an employee to this company. There are plenty of other jobs out there that will pay you much more and care about you as a human being. 

Typically I worked 1st shift and got everything for the display cases prepped and displayed properly. All cleaning was usually done by myself until the 2nd shift came in. The job was typically slow for helping customers in the morning, but quickly became a juggling act with greatly increased customer servicing, food production, display case management, inventory management, cleaning, and general health code compliance at all times. We had frequent breaks at short time intervals to take a hiatus from the action, and had a good team atmosphere that usually ran very well when we had a good crew working. Although the hardest part was providing excellent customer service while trying to do at least three things at once, it taught me great communication, time management, and customer service skills, which also helped boost my already solid work ethic.

Sendiks is definitely not the worst place that you can work. Having said that, there seems to be a lot of deep issues going on here as a company. Communication between management and employees is non-existent, plans will be made, schedules changed without your knowledge. We had a new hotbar/salad bar put in and and the deli team had 0, absolutely 0 talks or meetings with management about it. It was almost as though they were purposefully keeping us in the dark, it was weird. It very much seems like corporate is stretched too thin and a lot falls through the cracks. The pay is not great, but there are some perks. If you're a good worker they'll work you to death while letting others do the minimum. I literally felt like I was having to work overtime so everyone else could go home early. All and all I don't think it's a bad company to work for but if you have skills and are a hard worker you'll probably have better opportunity elsewhere.

There are more cons about Sendik's than pros. If you ask for a day off far enough in advance you will get off, but sometimes schedules get messed up and nobody will pick up your shift. For the most part, coworkers are super friendly and welcoming, however, you will work with a few rude/ annoying coworkers. Managers are nice, but very unorganized people, especially when it's busy.  Also seems like some managers can't handle the stress and frequently snap at people. Pay is horrible. You only get raises for your anniversary of working and the raises are not based on performance. Almost every worker gets paid a different amount, despite doing the same jobs. Plus, you will often get stuck doing jobs you were never trained for (despite only getting paid for one) such as working in other departments. Employee discount is pretty low despite high prices, breaks are short, you will work holidays, etc. Maybe this is a good first job but I don't think it would work for anyone else...

Having worked at three different grocery chains in Wisconsin, Sendik's is by far the best place to work at. Most stores struggle with staffing, but Sendik's has a lot of people working during a shift, so you can accomplish all your tasks. As with any grocery stores, you will have terrible workers and instead of being fired, they move them around or are actually terrified to discipline or coach them. There are a lot of terrible managers at many stores, with some good ones. Pay is a bit higher than most stores. I wouldn't recommend Sendik's as a career, but more as a stopgap or if you are a student it's a good place to work.

Not transparent about pay or timeframe to goals or promotions. Management rather poor and constantly turning over. Training next to non-existent. Pay is downright embarrassing. Inconsistent scheduling. Now that we've gone through the negatives lets hit the positive notes. Hours allow you to typically have most of your afternoon free to fill. Co-workers generally speaking are nice and everyone does seem to care about each other all in all. Discount/benefits/PTO is okay but maybe not anything to rave about. I'm wracking my brain for more and can't think of any. This is as a member of the management team for some background. I can't say I'm particularly unhappy just that it was a below average experience that frankly would have been better putting time elsewhere. I cannot say I'd recommend especially if you're looking for a career.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Meat carver 1 salary reported	$14.00 per hour
Deli associate 5 salaries reported	$15.50 per hour
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$14.00 per hour
Customer service associate / cashier 6 salaries reported	$13.50 per hour
Cashier 6 salaries reported	$11.25 per hour

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