food service worker

cashier

replenishment associate

pharmacy technician

food clerk

United Supermarkets

During my tenure at United Supermarkets for six years, I had the opportunity to deal with many problems while I worked there.

When I first started there, I started as a high school student, and like any student the job was my parents idea of being groomed to be a responsible adult and start me on my own responsibilities. I was involved in many extracurricular activities, and when I was hired management was made aware of that.

Management made it impossible for me to have hours working there and also have my extracurricular activities. Either I was scheduled barely 15 hours a week, or I was scheduled too much and was unable to participate during school functions that week.

Despite coworkers being fun to work with, it's annoying that your phone number is accessible to everyone. No matter how many hours you have, or if you're already working that day, someone will call to ask if you can cover for them. But if you need something covered yourself, even if it's an emergency, people refuse to cover for you. Management is also really bad about finding replacements for you if there is an emergency of some sort. Twice while I worked there, I was injured and unable to work for a day or two and they refused to work with me on my schedule and I had to work anyway.

I started out as a sacker, moved up to checker when I started college, became a fuel clerk midway through college, and I'm ending as a pharmacy technician trainee. I moved to the pharmacy because I asked if I could be given a full time position, as I needed the insurance and health benefits. Management struggled to even find a place for me before sticking me in the pharmacy. While there, I was told if I got my license and certification that I would be given full-time hours and health benefits. The certification and background check cost $80 dollars total. When I received my certification, the New Year rolled over and suddenly there weren't any hours to give me, which is why I'm leaving the company now.

Make no mistake. This job is great if you're going to work for a few months and then head back home once school is over, and if you kiss the right people's you-know-where, you'll be moved up rather quickly. But it's incredibly difficult job to try and make a living off of, and don't try to make my mistake and make a hasty decision about licensing unless you can get the agreement in writing.

Besides the problems with hours and full-time positions, management in general is perverted and sexist. Many of the service desk employees are young and attractive women who are ogled by management. There are only three male service desk employees.

My tenure as a fuel clerk was fine, aside from the ridiculous amount of time you have to wait before someone will come to give you a restroom break. During one occasion, I had to wait an hour and fifteen minutes before someone came out there to give me a thirty minute break. The service desk employees are SUPPOSED to be trained to work fuel before they can be moved up, but as far as I know very few of them that work there now actually know how to do it.

Onto the pharmacy. When I first started back there, everyone was kind and helpful to me since I was new and didn't really know anything about pharmacy. It was also flu season, and incredibly busy. I was told, as I mentioned before, about if I got my certification I could work full-time and have benefits.

There was another clerk back there who had worked back there for several months, and after I got my certificate, it became a bitter battle between us. I was unfairly getting my hours cut more than he was, and called the manager out on it, and since then there's been no hope of me ever getting a full-time position there.

Beyond that, the general atmosphere of the pharmacy is unhealthy. Many guests who come to get medication are disgruntled or otherwise upset, and you would expect your fellow coworkers to be kind or at least accomodating to someone new in the position. Instead they ousted me like a black sheep and treated me like I wasn't worthy of their respect.

The employees that I know of that work there are also really racist and homophobic. Even though I wasn't personally offended by the comments, sometimes it just went on for too long, and management joined in. I feel as if some position of professionalism should be maintained, especially in a position of power.

I've been working at United for a while and can confidently say if you can find something else, please do. I started working here when I was 15, and it was a good first job. As a 15-year-old, you can only work on the weekend while schools are in session. Immediately, the pay is low. The hours aren't the best, and the work is tedious and draining. However, for a 15-year-old, it's not that bad, since typically their main concern is the paycheck, and they're usually blinded by it for the first few months. However, when I turned 16, things only got worse. First of all, they cut your hours by a lot. At the moment, I don't have a vehicle, so I do not have a reliable way to get to work after school, leaving me stuck with only weekends. Well now, they barely schedule me because they need to make room for other 15-year-olds, which would be fine if they didn't constantly hire more and more of them. It gets to the point where the only topic of discussion between co-workers is how much they cut their hours to make room for new hires. Second, unless you're lucky, they make it nearly impossible to advance. When I turned 16, I requested to be trained as a checker, so the job would be more bearable, and I would get better pay (which is still less than every other job available), and they said I couldn't because they were training other people. Now this would be understandable if they didn't immediately start calling people for interviews right as we finished our conversation. Instead of promoting those who have been working with the company for a while, they choose to continuously hire new people. This causes the availability of hours to dwindle a lot, looping back to the first issue. A large few of my co-workers can vouch for this, since some I've talked to have been waiting months for any news on a promotion, some of them being extremely hard workers. Third, they don't care about your availability. They claim that they have really flexible hours, and will stick to whatever your availability is, which they do for the most part. However, sometimes, they just completely ignore what you set, and will schedule you for something you can't work. For instance, I have things to do at 5 on Saturday, so I have my availability set to cut off at 4. Well, they completely ignored this and set me to work until 7. When I told them about this, they acted like it was my fault and that I needed to find a solution or I'd get punished. I would understand this if I had something coming up and I didn't tell them about it, but they chose to schedule me for a time that I set that I wasn't available for. I didn't set that just because I wanted to, I did it because I needed to. All in all, find somewhere else and save yourself from the headaches this place will give you. If I had a say in it, I would've left this place a long, long, long, long, long time ago.

I used to work at the 548 location in the deli and I loved it. While there, I was given the opportunity to move up from a food service clerk to a food service lead. I had to opportunity to move up because my managers notice how well I worked with my guest and team members. During the three years I was there, I had so many customers that I knew by name, their order, and some parts of their life. Management also saw that if a team member was struggling with a task or needs the incentive to work, I was there to cheer them on. Being able to know I was recognized for my good customer service and my ability to make my team members stay on task without running over them makes me realize how much more I want to become a leader and open my own business in the future. As long as team members stayed on task, kept themselves busy, and treated guest with ultimate service, the job was well. With every good job, it has it's hard days. Sundays are most of the time the busiest during lunch due to Church letting out. Throughout the week, you might run into guest who come across unfriendly and not pleased with certain products or pricing. The best thing to do is do not argue back and try to fix the problem. If the problem cannot be solved, get upper management to help out to come up a solution. I will say that working at United was one of the best jobs I had due to the fact that after a while, you become familiar with your regulars and your team members become family to you. One thing else is they worked with my school schedule. I was working close to full time hours and going to school full time but if I needed off due to school, they didn't hesitate to give me off because they knew school was a first priority. I loved working with United and it is a wonderful company to work for.Rather it be in the deli, produce, front end clerk, ect.

In a typical day of a pharmacy clerk I start my morning reading temperature of fridges, put back drugs that are overdue for pick up, hang up and organize newer prescriptions, sell, and communicate with customer on their understandings and needs. I believed I learned how to organize better, have compassion of people needs and wants and cultivated knowledgeable of the systems we use to sell prescription drugs. When it comes down to management I feel like it can be intimidating to ask what you would like your schedule to be, they don't like change if it only concerns yourself instead of doing what's best for their employees to not have a mental break down. Some are willing to help work with you but it's rare. Hardest part of the job is probably dealing with customers that have no knowledge of how or why we couldn't fill their prescriptions. Many people feel entitled to what they usually take for their health. Unfortunately the pharmacy has policies we abide by and trying to relieve the patients from their worries is definitely a daunting task. Lastly the most enjoyable part of the job is becoming a valuable employee to the customers. Not all people are the same and most I believe have their own lives to live on. I respect that people see me work hard on my job to be courteous to everyone even if the patient is being difficult to me. I create bonds with most people. Almost like a friendship. That small amount of friendship helps me go to my job even when I don't feel like it.

I liked the workplace atmosphere and my co-workers, but as a licensed financial professional with over 10 years of sales, retail and management experience (2 of those in a the Wal-Mart Bakery), I was suprised at how difficult it was for me to move into a management position. I accepted a non supervisory position due to the lack of available management positions at the time in order to get my foot in the door and show my willingness to take one for the team. I picked up a second job to supplement the lower income with the expectation to move to a more elevated station once it became available.While employed I applied to 3 seperate middle management positions. Each time I was informed that a more qualified individual recieved the position. Through further investigation I found that, on paper, this was not always the case. One position in particular was that of bakery assistant manager. I had the approval of my department head, the previous assistant manager's recommendation, the acting manager's approval and the full support of the bakery crew. The position was awarded to someone from another location with less overall experience. At this point I no longer saw for myself an opportunity for advancement, so I put in my resignation and traveled to greener pastures, where i now manage a retail location for a telecommunication and electronics company. Three is a charm.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Meeting and helping customers with their groceries, by sacking and carrying out their groceries. Talking with customers and getting to know them better, as well as the customers getting to know you better. 


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Not having enough sackers help when store gets really busy because of bad scheduling by management. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Working environment is usually fun and friendly, and the culture is, being friendly, courteous, caring, and basically treating others with respect and how you would like to be treated.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
My shift is from 6am - 11am, which the opening store shift. I am busy from the time I clock in until I clock out. My responsibilities are, placing mats down at each cashiers register, fill up disinfectant spray bottles and change out dirty rags on each cashier registers and self-checkout registers. Making sure all registers are stocked with register tape so that customers will receive their receipts after their purchases. I also stock all paper and plastic shopping bags at each register, as well as self-checkout registers. In addition to all this I am sacking groceries and carrying them out for customers. The next Sacker comes in at 7:30am and we both sack and carry out groceries for customers. l am able to  get a 15 minute break between 8 and 8:30am.

I came from another grocery store here because I felt held back there and have grown immensely as a designer. Within the first six months, I learned how to do virtually everything that is required at any flower shop of a designer including standing sprays, corsages, showstopper arrangements, etcetera. Compared to other job postings I see for designers, I am paid fairly for what I do and am given opportunities to learn new skills to help advance. It is a very pleasant work environment. Yes, it is long hours on your feet but what retail job isn't? The discount on groceries is very nice and the benefits are good. They are more flexible on the dress code than other retail places I have worked. Everyone at my store is very friendly and close. They are very supportive with any personal problems that might affect time off and very considerate towards part timers in school. The things I don't like...the rigidity in doing things the way they've always been done and the lack of open-mindedness to new ideas is frustrating. Everything HAS to be Debi Lily which gets old. While I feel like my plant knowledge is respected, often times it is overruled in favor of retail placement, such as keeping lavender inside and watching it die for lack of sunlight. But overall I love my job and hope to stay for many years to come.

A usual day as a service clerk would be me starting my shift as soon as I would come through the doors I would smile and greet all the cashiers and sackers whom I love and miss dearly. Then onto the desk where I'd help customers with paying bills, making money orders, helping correct any rewards points, registering customers for rewards and sending them away with a smile. The management had not a clue of how to manage a store and was allergic to taking suggestions of how to handle the job....it was and is too much for this person. I went to work for United believing it was a better option for me and my family as it is a Christian company, better pay, and closer to my home...little did I know that not all people behind that service desk know what it means to give helpful, kind, and positive customer service to customers and constructive and helpful reinforcement to co-workers that are supposed to look up to one's that have more experience, instead they talk down to and about everyone including customers and co-workers. Some very hateful employees behind the counter that feel they are above others and have the right to treat other co-workers awful. Very disappointed that they choose to keep losing employees that are great to keep such sour hateful ones. Good luck to any and all that work at this store! I pray that ya'lls experience will be better than mine!

Working here has a lot of upsides. Youre adequately trained, your work is clear and help is there if you need it. Management is very supportive and cares about you. It is retail so you will have some unpleasant customers.
Benefits are decent. As long as youre full time you get personal and vacation time off. Health benefits, and overtime pay.
The only downside is on the corporate level. There seems to be a disconnect from corportate to the stores themselves. Over the pandemic it became clear United cares more about its guests than its own workers when it came to personal health safety. Corporate wants to put the store customers above all else, even when its harmful to its own workers.
The second reason corporate sucks- the pay. Employee pay is standardized by corporate and store management has no say in it otherwise. Its clear that the pay is no longer competetive in my area. Some other competitors have pay differences of up to $7/hr. Management knows this and is vocal to corporate about the issue but the best they can do is "$250 sign on bonus". Over the pandemic they raised all employees pay by $2/hr for about 6 months. Everybody was motivated, it didnt harm sales, and it helped a lot of people out. But then omce they decided people were too comfy with it they took it away even thought the pandemic was still going on. Oh well i guess

Overall- good work, good management, horrible pay

A typical day at work for me would consist of walking in to work and automatically employees would smile and welcome you as they would their customers. After clocking in I would go back to the deli and begin making a list of every thing that needed to be made, stocked, and  filled on the hot bar. I learned that being punctual made a huge difference on the way the day went; how every little detail matters when preparing food for a customer; that just because someone is your manager or a lead doesn't mean they can't be a friend to you as well; your fellow employees should be people you can come to, people you can trust; you may not always get along with every person you work with but you should always be professional when it comes to your job and leave your issues and problems at the door. The hardest part of my job was having to do other peoples job for them due to laziness but I never minded because as long as I stayed busy I always knew I was doing my job. The most enjoyable part of my job was learning to make new products and tasting new things that I never thought I would enjoy; learning that not everyone works at the same pace but everyone is always willing to help one another.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Food service worker 15 salaries reported	$47.11 per hour
Cashier 1 salary reported	$22.27 per hour
Replenishment associate 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Pharmacy technician 1 salary reported	$24.00 per hour
Food clerk 1 salary reported	$15.27 per hour

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