cashier

stocking associate

merchandiser

stocker

sales associate

Total Wine & More

Corporate is shady, and extremely conservative. You will notice this immediately when they have you do the computerized training modules. Though on paper they claim fairness and integrity, in reality their Corporate policies encourage a toxic work environment and shady sales practices. This is not a retail store, it's a sales floor.

You will be segregated into either black shirts (merchandisers and cashiers) or white shirts (sales associates and managers). The former carries most the weight around the store while getting paid the least. They burn out the fastest because they do everyone's jobs for pennies. They're required to stock shelves, move cases of boxes, do online shopping, grab items for customers at register, help customers on the floor, answer phone calls, clean, etc all at the same time. Sales associates are required to SELL and thats it. Oh and that's not synonymous with "helping customers". Profit comes before the customer, and many of us are scolded for helping our customers or helping our coworkers that are merchandising. They will confine you to a zone or area of the store, that if you step out of, even to help a customer, you will be scolded for. You're also held accountable for what your customers buy, and are required to put them onto products that are most of the time average and not better, even for the price, than the main brand they're trying to compare it to. You feel like a used car salesman just as a lot of the customer reviews talk about total wine, and you are. 

Which brings us the management. They're cool enough that you could drink a beer with them, but they aren't leaders and they aren't smart. There is a huge lack of communication between them and each other and them and their employees. They will hold you to illogical and dumbfounding standards that would make anyone question their IQ. I'm talking they will think if they close their eyes nothing exists because they can't see it type "logic". They will tell you 4 different things, and then hold you accountable for their mistake or their lack of IQ. They will not support their employees, they won't train their employees, and then will hold their employees accountable for their own faults. Oh, and they won't even do their own jobs. If a phone rings and they're in front of it, they will talk on the walkie and tell someone else to pick it up when they could do it themselves. And then they will have the audacity to micro-manage you. 

Overall its quite a hostile place to work. They will always assume you're not doing your job and question you for it. It's one of the worst turn-overs I've ever seen. In 3 months they've been through at least 3 different teams of employees. They seem to only fire people of color as well. And many people are already looking for new jobs. They don't even respect their longest standing workers, all whom have now left, or have had their raises frozen for years. You will start out excited because its alcohol and coworkers, but you will then find yourself quickly demoralized by management and corporate. 

The best thing about the place are the coworkers. They're some of the hardest working people you'll meet and are super down to earth at the same time. Everyone carries their weight and are friendly on top of that. That's rare. And you get a decent discount on the direct brand stuff that almost make the actual product worth it. I wouldn't suggest this job to anyone thinking about full-time positions. Part-time would be better since you don't have to suffer as much or might even be able to avoid the bs. But I'd go work for a better company instead, just as the high amounts of people that turnover have. 

Definitely keep busy all day, they have tons of training videos and expect you to do a little of every position.  Mostly understaffed except durning the holidays.  Be prepared to help merchandise the trucks and run up to the registers to help.  If you are a driver you will be drug tested (420 friendly) and your driver record pulled.   Every store is different and there are at least five managers to answer to.  Mostly a good job however not much room for advancement but every so often there is an opening.  Raises are few and far between so try to get what you want right off the bat.  I thought it was a decently easy job but I like to keep busy.  Must jump in between departments and do shopping for online customers, help with registers, and stock the shelves (they will train you).  Around the holidays is the best time to work as they often feed you and show appreciation.   Some toxic parts of the job include different standards from different managers and some lazy coworkers that you need to pick up their slack.  All around was a decent place to work as a job (not so much a career unless you really know how to sell — the store brands are heavily pushed as we get some type of bonus if certain goals are met - in my couple of years the goals were just out of reach and we never got the bonus).   Tips are shared so don’t expect more than a dollar or two an hour — unsure where the rest of the tips go because even if everyone shared there are still some unaccounted for $$ (my guess is it helps when they feed the employees?)).  Everyone except management gets tips,  drivers don’t get a higher share even though they should.  At least you drive their vehicle - every two hours you deliver about 5 orders,  some mountain driving, the delivery area is quite wide and can get stressful- make sure to double check the orders before they go out as one wrong bottle can mess up the whole day.   Customers are always happy to see you however some don’t realize they have to be home to accept their order and must provide ID — when you deliver to nursing homes and apartments it can get confusing but you get used to it as many customers are repeat business every week or two.   Not supposed to take cash tips but sometimes there will be a little— just don’t tell anyone.  Another perk is sometimes you get free alcohol and get discounts on store brands,  there is 401k and ok optional health vision dental insurance after a year but it’s still very expensive compared to the pay.   I liked at least 80 percent of the staff — it’s somewhat hard to get your desired schedule but they will honor your availability if you are not full time.   Must still deliver in snow and rain but sometimes they do cancel the delivery’s if it’s too bad out or the van needs maintenance — in that case you work in store.   End of night shifts help with trash, cleaning bathrooms, floors, making the shelves pretty “2 bottle” and getting online orders together.    Stay positive and you will be fine — be sure to tell them upfront if you need special accommodations.   They don’t seems to mind what you look like or your age as long as you keep hygienic and show up on time.   Good job for newbies and seniors — pay isn’t the best and they expect a lot from you but you can transfer these skills to most any other job.   Good luck! 

I am giving this company 1 star because I have worked for 7 employers before and this one was the worst of them. First, they told me clearly i would be starting at 15 an hour in Florida, but my pay stub showed up 13 even an hour when i started. I went from a seasonal stocker to a full time stocker there. The overtime was nice at 10+ hours a week if you like the hours, but don't expect a lot of breaks with this company. You would get 30 minute lunch and 2 tens for a ten hour day. The health insurance benefits were nice. But that's about it. The job was very physically demanding which was to be expected but no where near as much as they put you through. I was a stocker of liquor, but i supported in sales, cleaned up at night, ran register, did curbside orders, i cart pushed in florida heat. The least they could of done was raise my pay to 15 an hour. 

Also, there was no unified mission from the founders of the company of what good details they expected to see in there stores of setup. It was not communicated clearly or  in the moment or beforehand so that left  store managers and supervisors to interpret that in there own ways, which only caused chaos and confusion for a grunt man like me at the bottom of the company, as well as for my coworkers at the time. 

I was given some basic video training of how to use their device to locate items, but nothing on product knowledge and too vague of sales service and no mock sales practice before i went on the sales floor. Too little training and too bad of training was the problem. 

As well as unsafe unorganized overheads with products and boxes stacked sky high to where it was hard too find invenory a lot of times. This only angered customers because it was wasting both mine and their time and this pushed customers away and lost us store revenue and gave us negative online ratings because of wait times. 

I was given too much of a workload, little to no training, stuff was unsafe and unorganized, I was lied to. I had a blaming hypocritical atmoposhere at the store i worked at. No one took any responsibility. There was too much unprofessional, childish drama. There was a lot of confusion miscommunication or none at all. Daily tasks kept changing too rapidly and roles for the day as well. Communciation was not there about the changes. There was no clear, quick, and, decisive conflict resloution especially from managment. There were lots of managers amd supervisors but no leadership. There was little inclusiveity especially from "leadership" about sharing ideas and their implementation for conflict resolution. We were told to hurry work harder and cleaner because the district manager or our boss's boss or the owner would be in town doing walk throughs in the store to "grade" our work. A silly tactic they used when three quarters of the problem stemed from upper management to begin with. I would have been willing to grow with this company and bring our store to a competetive edge but when there are these many problems from the top down i ended up getting super frustrated and finally quit this place after a year and half of all this crazy stuff. 


Every day each employee contributes to restocking the shelves, filling pull lists, fixing price tags that were either inaccurate or fell off the shelf. Sales representatives would communicate and assist customers with recommendations, and if a customer wanted a case of wine we'd get it for them from either top stock or the warehouse. I'd regularly add on more bottles for the customer to try based on their preferences.

Personally, I loved the work out the job gave me. Each case of wine was heavy, climbing up and down ladders to reach the top stock above the shelves was my exercise. I also enjoyed engaging with customers, and was the stores go-to person for food and wine recommendations. Especially with what wines to cook with. I learned a lot about wine in my time there, as when I first started I only considered it bitter grape juice in different colors.

Management needed vast improvement. When communicating with other employees, many felt the same save for two or three managers that actually did a good job managing. The HR manager didn't know things he should've, same for the store manager. Many mangers wouldn't lead by example, and would tell employees what to do while they stand there. Communicating with them was difficult as employees have been yelled at in front of customers, or nothing would get done and you'd have to regularly ask the manager until what was needed got done. Most employees felt like their job was not secured, and we all felt over worked and exhausted. There was little to no communication between managers, which ended up overloading employees with tasks.

When I brought up the employee moral to a manager, they simply said and I quote "This store has always been a beast, you just gotta deal with it or find another job. We can't treat you like a flower." I've been told to my face that I'm trying to sound like a bad/lazy employee when they asked me to do the very thing that hurt my shoulder, after I let them know my shoulder was hurting too much to even move my head. When I showed management pictures of the fire escape doors and fire hydrants being covered and blocked by many things daily, they didn't care and I didn't feel safe working there. I overheard a manager mock another employee who's diabetic, which made me feel like I couldn't share anything with him, medical or concerns.

Note when I left the management was being moved around to a new store, but my points still stand.

A typical day is around 10-13 hours with a 30 minute lunch. Be prepared to get the life sucked out of you for around 8.50 an hour (starting VA wages). Everyone starts out as a cashier, unless you have 10+ yrs of wine or management experience. If your under the age of 30 and have a college degree be prepare to start at the bottom and I mean bottom; minimum wage, cleaning taps and wine spills, cashiering, and merchandising. This company does not like young people moving up the ladder fast. The top 50% of the company is controlled by rich old men. So I suggest you start taking up golf and learn to like whiskey, all on your minimum wage pay, in order to move up the ladder. Each store has only a few select number of full-time cashiers, wine associates, and merchandisers, who are approved by corporate. So don't expect to get benefits (paid time off, medical, dental, or 401k) unless a full-time employee leaves or you are specifically hired as one. Managers must work a min. of 50 hrs a week. The company's main focus is on Winery Direct numbers (wine that you cannot find anywhere else but total wine) and percentages, so DO NOT go into the job stating you love Kendall Jackson or any other wines you can find at the local grocery store. Your job, your bonus, your holiday lunches, any perks, and the whole success of the company is determined by not selling such brands as Kendall Jackson, Barefoot, Woodbridge, JLore, ect... It's an on going battle to persuade the customer into give up their grocery store favorites and get them into WD wines, (which the customer can become very hostile about) because your future with the company depends on it. Also, you only get discounts on WD wines. There is no discount on beer, except for singles. This is a very young company with a solid business plan, but they need to work on standardizing breaks, benefits, employee award programs, and at least giving some kind of benefits to part-time workers. They could use some time to fine-tune their business plan. The company is also involved in some political struggles to have state liquor stores abolished in ABC states. For instance, they will not be opening more stores in VA until the state government abolishes ABC stores and lifts liquor restrictions. Now ABC agents are purposefully targeting TW&More stores with Minor Sting Operations in hopes of quieting the company's lobbying agenda. This means more chances that you could sell to a minor and land yourself in federal prison. Applicant beware.

A typical day: 
Stock and fill product on shelves 
Recommend and sell products to customers
Ensure customer satisfaction

What I learned:
Total Wine and More has an unparallelled training program for its team members.  It is a main value of the company to have the most knowledge staff about wines, spirits, and beers from all around the world.  Tasting, interpreting, and talking about the products are huge in the everyday development.  This is what makes this company great for customers.  

Management:
As with any job, different managers have different management styles.  I have notice that this company trains managers to act as if they support and help their employees, yet prove that they do not follow through with employee requests.  I have noticed that if it seems in the best interest of the employee and not the company, management does not do their due diligence to fight for their staff.

Co-workers:
This is the best part of the job.  The co-workers are just as passionate and knowledgeable about the products, so it is a never ending conversation about learning and developing ones taste to new and exciting products.  

Hardest part of the job:
Physically:
This company requires full-time associates to work 50 hours per week.  All of these hours are spend on your feet, walking around, throwing hundreds and sometimes thousands of cases of wine, beer, and spirits.  By they end of your 10+ hour day, you can't help to be sore and in pain. 

Mentally:
This company under-compensates employees for their job.  They require you to do tasks that are not in your job description, but need to be done for the overall needs of the store. The kicker is that the company and or management do not appreciate and or compensate you for this.  They make it seem like their wages are competitive only because of the "forced overtime"  that they give you.  Supervisors have it the worst.  They have all of the responsibilities and are accountable for the store as a whole just like a manager, yet they are barely paid a livable wage.  

Estimated Full-Time Yearly NET Salaries (Paid by the Hour):
Sales Associate: $24,000 / year
Supervisor: $30,000 / year

Most Enjoyable Part of the Job:
The continuation of knowledge.  Since working for this company, I have experienced many new wines and spirits that I would never have without tasting them.

The job prioritizes wine above all else, and if you want to get anywhere in the company you have to be able to sell tons of their "Winery Direct" wine and not anything name brand (ie Kendall Jackson). The company makes their money off of their Winery Direct wines, which is why they push it so hard. If you're going for a sales job, and you're great at sales and getting people to switch or upsell them, then you'd do alright here.

Cashier-wise, the job is taxing, as most cashier jobs tend to be. You have to pitch their rewards program (&More Rewards), which only works for certain wines and barely ever on anything else in the store. They say that they "updated" it by adding vouchers that can work for anything, but most customers are still unhappy with the program. And naturally, those customers will bring their concerns to the cashiers first and then to the managers last. Some cashiers have extra responsibilities such as putting together web orders or filling the mini bottles up front. Said cashiers are often not given enough time or coverage to be able to work on these tasks.

Merchandisers/stockers are the ones who do the heaviest work, often times being the first ones called to bring down cases of wine and being sent to fetch shopping carts outdoors. I can't speak much more on their jobs since I never worked it, but I admire all of the hard work that they have done for the store.

Positives sides: You get to learn a lot about the wines and liquors, your co-workers are usually very friendly and helpful, and the store manager will sometimes order food if he's feeling generous. The job starts at a little over $10 (usually) but raises are stagnant, if they go up at all. If you are very good at selling, then you get to work an easy job, just be aware that you don't get commission. On the contrary, for every over 22 ID a cashier scans, they get $0.10; for every 21 ID, they get $0.30; and for any denials or fakes, they get $5. Depending on your location and the time of year, that can all add up really quickly.

Regardless of where you work in the store, you need to be able to lift heavy boxes. They really mean it when they ask if you can lift 50 pounds. If you have back problems, this is not the job for you.

I have plenty of experience working retail - picked up this part-time gig to supplement my full-time job at another major retailer.  I worked there for 5 years up until Holiday-2021 averaging 22 hours a week - so I've been through lots of changes. I was making under $14 an hour after 5 years, while clueless new employees were making $15. I say lots of changes because the turnover is so high, that quite literally, every 8-10 months, roughly 70% of the staff have been completely replaced with new faces. The only people there who have been there 5+ years are full-timers who truly love the liquor culture.  Last guy I trained in, he quit 5 hours after his 1st shift because I asked him to help me fill beer shelves that morning, and he thought the gig was simply giving beer advice to customers! That says a lot - in that they don't tell you what the job actually entails during the interview. 

Work is pretty strenuous if you're opening or closing. Opening is having to go through a list of 40+ items, find it on the overhead/backroom, shuffle heavy boxes around, then stock it. Closing entails having to fill the entire beer cooler....sometimes by yourself.  Then you have to back-up cashier, pick web-orders, push carts, clean bathrooms...all on top of having to ensure your opening or closing tasks are done.  The pay, compared to Target 3 minutes away is trash since they start at $15.50 an hour, and my many years of having worked at Target was very positive (e.g. PTO for part-timers, good balance of workload, good benefits, good management, etc). 

Was at Total Wine for 5 years because I absolutely loved conversing with some of the managers and most of the co-workers there - they always made me laugh.  I'd say 95% of the customers are also very pleasant to deal with. For the most part, I hate the company from the top; because I actually loved most of the managers, co-workers, and customers. Not a single nickel of PTO in the ~5000 hours I put in, short 10 minute breaks (by the time you walk to-and-back, you have 6 minutes to rest), low pay, laughable $200 annual bonus (~$100 after tax) if you have a perfect attendance during the holidays (lose it if you end up getting sick), etc.  I was also able to justify quitting because I received a $14K yearly bonus from the other retailer I am working for.  Moral of story - there are numerous better alternatives out there if you want to work in retail. 

I walk in and management gives us our goals for the day. We as a team then spend our full day doing our best to convince customers to buy off brand name products as well as assist customers to buy products that fully meet their needs. Aside from that, we have certain chores and tasks that we need to complete. These tasks are basically formed to make sure that our store looks clean and our shelves are fully stocked. At the end of the day, management thanks us for coming in and we leave. 
Total wine is all about teaching the customers about wine and spirits that they do not know about. So it is our job to go to wine and spirit trainings and learn, so we can then relay this information to customers.
Management for the most part is great. They are incredibly friendly and enjoy joking around when there is spare time. However, not all stores are the same and I have run into some pretty horrible managers.
Our hiring managers do a great job bringing in other team members that fit well into our culture and I have become very good friends with many of my co-workers. If a new member is brought in, they have a three month trial period to prove themselves to management and the rest of the team. At the end of the three month trial period if a team member is not a good fit, they will be let go. 
The most difficult part of the job is assisting customers who are set in buying what they have purchased in the past, even though I know another product would likely be a better fit for their budget and their palate.
The most enjoyable part of my job is going into work and seeing some of my best friends for 6-10 hours. Other than that, the trainings are always a lot of fun and the expansion of knowledge by trying things that I have not tried before is always a good time.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoy my job. The only problem is that their is little room to move up in the company.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cashier 3 salaries reported	$15.13 per hour
Stocking associate 16 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour
Merchandiser 21 salaries reported	$16.49 per hour
Stocker 4 salaries reported	$13.50 per hour
Sales associate 3 salaries reported	$12.67 per hour

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