order picker

associate

stocking associate

cashier

stocker

Sprouts Farmers Market

My experience at Sprouts has been everything but consistent. Every shift is like rolling dice, one day, its perfectly chill, & all is smooth and peaceful, and the next, you're getting bossed around, and pushed to your limit. So how do you survive Sprouts? If you're gonna apply, here's 5 rules to follow, and some explanations + personal stories relating to each rule I created. I wish someone showed me this before I got hired. Hope this helps, and good luck!

   1. Do not expand your skill set within the store.
   I was hired for one position, and I was told if I worked shifts in different department, they would eventually promote me and give me a raise. Example: They gave me and one of my coworkers weekly shifts in the produce department, and were told that one of us would get the promotion, and then work would go back to normal. Nope! They just hired a new person and kept us working extra shifts. Should have known. Now, the problem with that is, we're still working the produce shifts, pretty much untrained. I didn't mind it at first, but management and the produce staff were starting to get dissatisfied with my work, and I got my hours cut, which wasn't even my fault. I just wasn't properly trained. I've been with this company for 2 years, and never got a legitimate opportunity for a promotion, and even when I ask for one, the same idea is presented: "Work shifts in a different department and we'll eventually promote you..." not happening. You'll never get promoted if you do that, and I've done it multiple times. And the reason I've never been promoted isn't because of my performance or work ethic is lacking, but because of the lack of training.
   2. Do not try to "move up" in this company.
   It's almost as though they hand select the most difficult people to promote. Every time I tried to move up in this company, it was a complete waste of effort. I just watch all my unhelpful co-workers that are not good at their job get promoted and presented with the best opportunities, while I'm stuck working extra shifts for false promises. Example: I was a cashier, and I wanted to move up to the head cashier position, because we had a guy quit and it opened. I talked to my department manager and he said I was qualified. He told me to apply through the website, and I would most likely get the job as long as I opened my availability (which i did). I applied through the website, and awaited my response, but before I knew it, my co worker was already wearing the head cashier t-shirt. I'm not trying to be mean, but I don't think this guy deserved the promotion. He makes so many mistakes, he's bad with customers, and he's gotten me in trouble for stuff I didn't do (like messing up the drawer count and I took blame). Later on, my service manager apologized to me, and told me that our store manager just opened the position for legal reasons, but had his mind set on this guy for the position to begin with. Thanks for wasting my time again Sprouts.
   3. Don't try to make too many friends.
   I met some fantastic people at this job. I've met some difficult people at this job. This can be normal with any job. If someone's vibe throws you off, take the hints.
   4. Don't work too hard.
   I get asked to do extra things every night by my closing manager, and I can't really say no. But if they know you're reliable, they know you could handle 2x the amount of work. I really wish they would split the "extra" tasks between every closing department, because whenever I'm working in produce, I'm stuck with side quests all night instead of doing my actual department-related work, meanwhile, my coworkers in other departments leaving early. It's gotten to the point where the morning crew is all upset at me the next day. Then everyone thinks I am not doing a good job and I hate it. Yep. Might as well kiss that promotion goodbye forever now.
   5. Do not use 100% effort.
   Pick a department that doesn't require 100% effort for you to survive. Here's some departments, and my opinion on each, the ones I recommend are the easiest to survive in without 100% effort:


* Deli: do not work in the deli, its the worst. Everyone hates their job there, and it's usually understaffed because everybody is constantly quitting there. Too much stuff to do. 1/10
* Bakery: not a great idea to work here unless you wanna freeze in the bakery freezer. 3/10
* Front end: cashiering is very easy once you learn, I recommend it. But if you hate talking to customers definitely don't go here... 8/10
* Courtesy clerk: its rough, all you do is push carts and clean random spills. Good first job tho. 2/10
* Dairy: just stocking/facing so pretty chill as long as you don't mind being in a fridge all day. 5/10
* Grocery: I wouldn't personally do this position cuz they want you to work ridiculously fast, and facing the shelves is mentally draining because of so many aisles. If you've done this work before though, it would be easy for you. Wouldn't recommend for beginners though. 3/10
* Meat: its usually known as the easiest department in the store. It's not bad 9/10
* Vitamins: if you're an expert on supplements and nutrition, then I think you should get this position. If not, then good luck memorizing thousands of supplements. You need to constantly worry about theft, cuz half the products in ur department are $50+. Also, sick people will come up to you and ask you what vitamins to make you feel better, while conveniently coughing while they're at it. 5/10
* Bulk: bulk is chill, but the second you fall behind, you are in trouble. 8/10
* Produce: probably the most overwhelming department overall besides deli. Expect extra work, heavy lifting, too much responsibility, and an intense overnight + morning crew. 4/10
* Management: any department manager goes the same out of 10 for each review. Store managers are overworked, so they're always stressed out.

Any other department or office position not listed here, I have no idea, I've heard they're average tho.
Overall, I think it's alright to give this place a chance. just most importantly, choose the right department that fits your needs, and don't try too hard.

imagine spending eight hours on your feet roughly reciting a script over and over. you can sometimes exchange a few words with the customers but you need to keep that to a minimum same with your fellow employees. if your closing you need to clean the front end and in the morning get there early the stores relying on you and people will be there trying to buy stuff on the dot. Don't clock in too early or late you got a slight window after like 5-7 minutes late you may get away with but don't make it a habit. Keep all of this in mind and do your best to be helpful to those around you and you will do fine. 

what you learn is codes and how to keep your self-occupied for 8 hours. it also helps you build some decent habits and may help improve work ethic if you get a good manager who will work with you.

the jobs alright when you get a good manager because they will work with you and give clear instruction and explain things when something is confusing. a good manager is there for you if something goes wrong and something will go wrong eventually. they help make your job easier and are there for you when you need it. the problem is that those managers move up and on.  the bad are those who just make your job harder don't help and when they are forced to do something when they are needed become petty and vindictive. they need to micromanage because they don't give clear instructions or give you a long list of things expecting you to memorize all the random jobs they want you to do right then and there on the fly and expect you to do those or someone else's job like a person who has done it for years.

 when you ask a good manager for advancement they help you in a day or two and tell you what you need to do to get ahead. when you ask a bad one they just put you off and never come back or if they do its quite a few months after ask and you have to keep reminding them each month to get any kind of info or help. they will hide info and lie just to get you out of their office instead of helping you. 

sadly because these managers don't really move on but they do get the job done enough for corporate not to notice enough to fire them they stay. this makes it more likely that you're going to get a bad manager. if you get one don't stay for long just go long enough until you get a better job offer.  They will pay you as little as possible and use any excuse or trick to keep you from advancing in pay. 

The workplace culture is struggling to say the least. as a cashier your not really supposed to be talking to other cashiers and you don't share any lunches or breaks so you don't really get to know them well. you do get to know the other employees though because you will see them at lunch and break if you luck out. that being said Sprouts also have a high turnover rate so don't get used to seeing the same faces. Find the long term employees they will help you and you can count on them. you get employee appreciation days but that just amounts to a free lunch but usually, there is not enough food you got to rush and they just lay out the food and leave. Its kind of shows they really don't appreciate your work that they are just doing it because they were told to. so the cultures not that great.

the hardest part of the job is the lack of variety or change. the total lack of appreciation and the bad managers. You can't advance past cashier unless you have an open schedule so you can't be going to college or have anything that might limit when they can schedule you.

the best part is talking to nice customers and sometimes they will joke with you and that really does make a difference. they also will work with you on your schedule and that is nice.

In the end, i suggest that if you do go to work for sprouts look for a better job and don't stay long term. it's not worth it and you will get better pay and other jobs will work with your schedule as well so it's better to just go with them. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you found this review and any advice I gave helpful.

TLDR;
Overall, okay for a Part-Time or temp job, but know your rights and limits. Look elsewhere for places that actually value their workers on a systemic level if anything more. The job will burn you out Full-Time.

The good (amazing even):
- Breaks (30's and 10's) are actively emphasized everyday, which is an extremely welcome change to the industry.
- Core managers tend to actually assist in department tasks, (more later*).
- Coworkers and department managers are super understanding and tend to be on the same wavelength, with some exceptions.
- Scheduling tends to be flexible for the worker, if you're not a parent or have other responsibilities.
- x1.5 Holiday Pay!

The bad:
- The job(s) are extremely repetitive, and due to high turnover, it's usually a LOT of repetitive work, or cut hours. Depending on if your department is deemed less worthy.
- Kind of clique-ish but everyone gets along mostly.
- More-so neutral, but benefits are run-of-the mill at best and reserved for full-time and salaried workers only.
- Labor information posters are outdated in the break room, at least the last time I was there.
- Scheduling app blows up your phone with notifications, and is very clunky to use.

The ugly:
- Chemical cleaner training/education is EXTREMELY lacking.
- Cross-training is "required" because the store refuses to hire a stable amount of employees. Without proper compensation, of course.
- Relating to the last point, most shifts you will be completely alone in your department unless you're a cashier. While that's sometimes nice, it's maddening and exhausting long term.
- Core management either kind of just exists, micromanages and gets in the way, or fills spreadsheets while feeling superior to everyone else. With few but existing exception(s). They sometimes help departments, but it's few and far between. Again, with some standout exception(s).
- Preferential treatment is blatant with specific manager-worker relationships, especially when addressing department-specific tasks.*
- HR basically does not exist and frequently fails to resolve worker/manager issues.
- Some managers are particularly adamant if you get sick or have a child to take care of in any capacity.

The rotten:
- The company will dangle the carrot of a pay raise/promotion, if you're even lucky enough to get one that's more than $0.10 every 4 months which is much slower than the base rate of inflation. In addition, unless you absolutely hound them on your pay, you will not get that promised pay raise until after 3 months AT LEAST, and they will push the goalposts about backpay every time you ask. Eventually making you sign an agreement online that just so happens to nullify any promised backpay. This and everyone I worked with including managers and of course myself. I hope this gets resolved on a company-wide level as it's embarrassing as a publicly traded company for how long and convoluted this process is. If you work here ever, GET BOTH THE PROMISE OF A PAY RAISE AND BACK PAY IN WRITING THE FIRST TIME WITH MULTIPLE COPIES. DO NOT COUNT ON THEIR WORD ALONE. This is all while upper management and corporate get massive pay raises immediately, announced to everyone.

Sprouts Farmer's Market is a frustrating place to work.  Many of the decisions made from upper management are extremely questionable.  These create problems for both the employees and customers.

The regional management regularly decides to schedule 72 hour sales, massive sales on specific items which bring in large crowds, at the same time as quarterly inventory.  This creates an excessive amount of work for the employees, as they must maintain the front end of the store while also counting backroom inventory.  Also, this is a recipe for customer disappointment: large quantities of the products for sale are kept in the backroom to meet customer demand, but the employees are not allowed to move products that have already been counted from the backroom until inventory is completed.  If the supply on the sales floor all sells in that time period, then some customers may be disappointed and made angry when given this explanation by the employees.

Regional management also creates the merchandising schematics for the sales floor.  Often these schematics are physically impossible to implement perfectly due to the size of the products and the amount of shelf space available.  This creates the impression that regional management either has never stepped foot inside the store before creating these schematics, has no idea how to use measurement tools, or cannot perform simple arithmetic.

The primary distributor contracted for use by the regional managers is a factory of disappointment.  Examples of their incompetence include common tardiness on deliveries, damaged products, incorrectly delivered products (one time our store received tennis balls with a shipping label for soup mix attached to the box), and failure to deliver entire pallets of products.  I am amazed that this distributor is still in business, let alone still doing business with Sprouts Farmers Market.

Mismanagement cannot be attributed solely to regional management.  Store management makes some poor decisions with hiring and employee scheduling.  Often times I am given too little or too much time to perform my tasks, leading to periods of extreme stress or abject boredom with little in between.  Management often fails to schedule enough workers on the front end (cashiering, bagging, and cart retrieval), leading to workers being taken from other departments (almost always the grocery department), to assist.  This gives the impression that management is trivializing the work of the grocery department, something of which the grocery manager has tried to convince management.  This only works when he is present, however.

There are very few things to recommend working here.  The work is boring, mindless, and Sisyphean.  People with allergies or sensitivities to mold or dust should avoid this place like the plague. While management has been able to accommodate my school and church engagements, they also have changed my weekly schedule without giving me any prior notice.

Sprouts lets people who attend their job fairs and hiring events think they are being hired full time when they are not. Beware: all employees except management are really only hired at part time. That is like most other retail stores today but for some reason Sprouts feels the need to lie to applicants at their job fairs and say they do hire full time and they let their applicants walk out of their job fairs thinking they have been hired at full time and it is all a scam. Why they can't be honest like all the other stores and just hire part timers and temps to open their new stores and not make people think they hire at full time I don't know. I guess they think people won't work for them if they are only part time with no benefits and they are probably right about that for some people because Sprouts also expects new hires/employees to drive all over to train and to even do new hire paper work and orientation. I had to go to Atlanta to fill out paperwork (in addition to what I did online and at the job fair), I had to go to Dunwoody for orientation, and to Norcross for training which I could not make due to no gas money and bad tires. It was all just a big waste of time, effort, and money because not only was I not full time they let me think I was full time the whole time I was worrying about how the heck to get to Norcross, GA to train even though I was hired for the Peachtree City, GA store. They have no concern for the hardship they place on employees and no conscience about lying and saying they are hiring you full time when they are really only hiring you part time. It was such a disappointment to find out that I was lied to. I have been trying to find a full time job for so long and to have a consistent paycheck and some kind of benefits (like health insurance and a 401k). I understand if business is slow your hours can go down and you can loose full time status, etc., but I also know Peachtree City, GA is eager for a Sprouts and business would be good so I would not have to worry about the store doing poorly. I did not know I had to worry about Sprouts lying to me. Such a disappointment. Just beware if you apply with them. I don't know why they thought lying to applicants at their job fair was a good idea, but apparently this is how Sprouts does business. I hope they change their ways and don't do this to other employees. They have like a 96% turnover rate. I guess Sprouts just has the kind of business model where they get employees in and get them out before having to spend any money on them for benefits, etc. They need to be ethical and honest when hiring people though. I have never had an employer do this before. They let you know upfront they only have part time positions and they don't give you false hope where there is none.

I’ve only been with this company for a year now. But I’ve learned and discovered SO many things in just that short amount of time. First and foremost, these are grocery stores that offer a wide variety of food, drink and vitamin products at an affordable price for both their customers and employees. 

They’re also a very fast paced environment with a high customer volume on a regular basis. This is what ultimately drives sales and profit for them. So be prepared and willing to give your best quality of work everyday. With that being said, the WORK itself is not what’s hard. It’s the WORKLOAD that is very demanding and unforgiving most of the time. I speak for myself when I say this… but I truly believe some of us are assigned WAY too many tasks and responsibilities (especially on load days) to be completed in a timely and efficient manner. I just consider these to be unrealistic expectations that are downright discouraging and demoralizing. 

There’s also a very high turnover rate here primarily in deli, bakery, produce & grocery. Morale is just EXTREMELY low in these departments mainly because most of the people who work in them are strongly dissatisfied with their workload, ridiculously early morning start times and VERY LITTLE pay earned in return. Some other things that really bother me are the lack of resources available to us like: adequate staff coverage (labor hours), only 30 min lunch breaks, shortage of fixtures in the employee/public restrooms and supportive leadership from management staff.

Sadly, there’s not much work life balance here in general either. In fact, it’s really difficult to be happy and enjoy yourself outside of work when your job basically sucks the life force out of you. I’m serious. Working here not only physically exhausts you… but mentally and emotionally drains you too.

The only perks of working for Sprouts are its employee discount, insurance benefits, 401k plan, “somewhat” flexible work scheduling and their “slightly” above average pay. My only advice to anyone who is thinking about applying for a job here is: to stop and ask yourself if you’re REALLY cut out for this kind of work. If you find yourself up to the challenge, then great and best of luck to you. But if you think you are and it turns out you’re NOT, at least have the professional courtesy to give your two weeks notice and finish out your remaining time there. Don’t just quit and bail on your team without saying anything! PLEASE make every effort you can to leave on good terms.

I really hope this honest review provides you valuable insight into this company and helps you make an informed career move decision.

I transitioned to SFM after leaving another large health food grocery chain that I dearly loved and was EXCITED to go to each day but felt was no longer a good fit for, I had very high hopes for SFM as they are growing quickly and seemed to have lots of opportunities for everyone . Not only are all non managerial jobs part time (at best) the standards were way out of synch with what they appeared to be! Yes, I understood my position and the packing order was made clear to me, but promises of guidance to climb higher were often made but never followed through on despite my eagerness and qualifications.  I don’t dispute the import of working in grocery is the facing of the store and its’ cleanliness, but to have these menial tasks prioritized over customers and sales (when all my training emphasized customers first! Always say yes!) felt inconsistent to me. I spent time and built relationships with customers (it was nearly impossible to build a relationship with any of my coworkers) and out sold more senior staffers without much effort  (thanks to my knowledge and prior experience)and yet was unfairly terminated for the quality of my FACING. I wanted to grow with SFM, I wanted to do what I was good at and help people build a healthy lifestyle inexpensively, but my manager would say one thing to me and my store manager would say something different and what the store manager wants is the only thing that matters. I felt like I was never included, I felt I was never given detailed contsructuve criticism so that I could Improve in the areas I was doing poorly in (but for a post-it note toward the end that FINALLY detailed my mistakes) at the end, management said they spoke to me and pushed me to improve (which is true I was formally and informally snapped at frequently) but how can I improve without actual guidance? It’s near impossible when no one would tell me how to do something in a satisfactory way simply told
Me to do it “better” and then shrug me off rudely or somehow insist that I must “know” what they meant. If I dared to take initiative to help with something “above my pay grade” I was reprimanded. I don’t feel that disposing of EXPIRED BACKSTOCK Is something that should be overlooked by any team member ever if you are trying to give a quality experience to your customers. if this is your first job, or if this is your after retirement gig to occupy your time or make a little extra cash; you will find this place satisfactory and the discount to be a nice perk. If you color outside the lines, CARE about your clients and want to grow or share your creativity or collaborate with like minded folks, look elsewhere. You May be able to squeeze a little more than a paltry wage out of a few days a week working here if you are lucky and just want “a job.” I was so disappointed with my short time here and more effective communication and a clearer set of standards and guidelines could have saved all of us a few weeks of trouble.

I've never felt so under-valued and so easily replaceable in all of my life. My job experience is irrelevant. I'm treated like i'm incompetent and spoken to like a child. Things are repeated to me multiple times and followed with a "don't let me down." I've never had positive feedback, only negative. All the positive points that the interviewer sold me on turned out to be not true. I knew I should have run away when I got paid .50 cents less than what was initially discussed. I was told they would work with my school schedule but that was far from the truth. 

Management makes the job unbearable. Completely unprofessional. First of all, no one explained who the management team was, so when I went to the GM with questions I was told in front of customers not to bother him. Policies aren't explained, so its sort of a guessing game as to what you are supposed to do. Employees are disrespected right in front of shoppers by management. Actually, customers are treated horribly too. Their version of "leadership" is answering the phone and delegating ALL work. If you need help you are told that there is none, but they will pull people out of their departments to assist others, only making it impossible to get tasks completed. They add unnecessary stress to every task, as if we are trying to meet a deadline. If you have a bubbly personality or if you are outgoing and you are scolded and treated like a time waster and a time clock cheater. When customers have asked me to get a manager to resolve an issue, they have refused to help me and made me deal with the complaints.

I've never seen such blatant favoritism in a work place. People who are promised positions are passed up for the obvious favorites. Hard work is rewarded with asking you to do more. The favorites will hang out with management and take extended long breaks in the office while others are running around like crazy people trying to get work done. If you aren't one of the favorites they will walk past you without acknowledgement like you don't exist. If they hate you they will look for anything to get you fired. (Did you hear about the guy with Fetal Alcohol syndrome they wrongfully terminated? That's a perfect example). If you are a bad employee they will just transfer you to a different store. All store managers change stores at least once a year. 

Employee morale is nonexistent. Everyone who I have encountered hates their job. A lot of people have a "us vs. them" mentality (especially management), so dont count on getting any help from anyone else. They give one person a workload big enough for 2 people and then yell at you if you go overtime, but wont give you any help.

I've worked at sprouts for about 8 months now and I first started out as a courtesy clerk/bagger. It was a great job at first, bagging groceries for hot older moms, doing some cardio getting carts. Not bragging or anything but I believe I am one of the few people at my store with common sense (90% of the working staff is a drone who's soul has been drained from labour overtime) and I believe management was quick to notice. In all seriousness, after 3 weeks I was promoted to produce clerk and the job all of a sudden was a lot more entertaining and strenuous. I cannot tell you the amount of knowledge about produce I have received from this job. However without me ever knowing it, my job title never changed after 4 months of becoming a produce clerk until my produce manager mentioned to me I wasn't on the schedule. Apparently thus whole time I was still under the courtesy clerk's schedule. My wage stayed at 10.00 flat until I finally asked management about this. And after multiple confrontations with the lazy managers who constantly tried to avoid it, and 2 weeks later, my job title finally changed and my pension was increased to $11/hr. Its been half a year working with my produce team and this is my overall conclusion, I do apologize for the length of this review btw just want to get my opinion out there :P
First of all the orders for what produce we receive in our department is almost always messed up somehow or someway. Sometimes our manager will only order 1 case of asparagus or 20 cases of white peaches..no matter what, it never meets the appropriate demand of the customer for that week. Secondly, whenever a produce team member calls out sick and another produce member cannot fill their position for that time, management continues to call in un-trained sprouts employees that work in other departments and simply have no idea what they are doing :( After a day like that, and the department is ravished from an inefficient staff, the produce team is confronted by management (who by the way are too lazy to help contribute) and are basically yelled and threatened for showing such poor results. This has been a common trend the past 6 months or so and has yet to change. I would like to also add that my produce team member is threatened repeatedly by management for not coming in when they ask if he can come in to work even when he is not scheduled. This company is failing, and hopefully that law suit ruins this corporate sham once and for all. Trust me, don't work here.

I was a Sprouts employee for nearly seven years. I worked at different stores. A few weeks ago I did something I "shouldn't" have but it was out of the goodness of my heart and I didn't see it as wrong in the moment. I gave an older African American male his groceries for free -- he didn't have any vitamins, no alcohol. He was riding an electric cart and said he needed to cancel his order as his turn approached. I was a cashier. I asked him if he had his card to pay and he said he didn't. I was coming off of working many days in a row (seven days on, one off -- which happened to be the day I got my 13-year-old cat back after he was missing for 3 months, and then scheduled another 5 days before my next day off.) I was on day 4 of 5, so was exhausted, emotional, and hormonal. Not a good combination for a female! When I witnessed the gentleman I felt bad for him and instead of using my brain and saving the transaction and paying for it later... I let him go without paying because I felt sorry for him. The woman behind him in my line reported it and I was suspended that same day. I waited 8 days until my store manager called me and I was told that Corporate chose to go through with termination. Back up to when I was being talked to by management about the incident -- I was told that Loss Prevention would want to speak with me which never happened over the course of me not being able to work the week while I waited my fate. The company left me hanging for a week and then I got the phone call.... "I'm sorry but you've been fired." I was a wreck. I have been unemployed now for 11 days and I find it *unreal* since I worked there for SO long, was a hard working loyal employee. In this case, my kindness didn't pay. I was trying to be compassionate and do something nice for someone else (even though I know that I *shouldn't* have given away merchandise that wasn't mine to give away). Had I not been going through all of the emotional turmoil, I probably would have handled the situation differently. I wish the company would have scolded me, taken me off the register, transferred me to another department.... something. But FIRING me over trying to do a good deed for someone who clearly needed it? Cold. That's just who I am. A letter was written to HR and to the CEO/President of the company and I have yet to hear anything. I'm the girl who often times paid for customer's orders when they couldn't, gave away my earrings when someone said they liked them and thought they were pretty, I always said yes when called in on my days off or was asked to stay late because someone called out or didn't show.I would never intentionally steal from the company or do wrong by Sprouts intentionally and that is EXACTLY how I feel they treated me.

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