dispatcher

inventory control specialist

warehouse clerk

warehouse supervisor

logistics clerk

Wakefern Food Corporation

A typical day at work in ShopRite starts with taking apart and packing out a truck, if the warehouse managed to get it to your store in a timely fashion. Many times, how your day will go is determined by when the truck arrives, as a good nightcrew can get it down to a much more manageable level for the day crew. That being said, the work is not that hard, especially when you're just a clerk. You pack things out, block up the aisle, and happily help often disrespectful and rude customers, but that's just a part of the job. 

The difficulties of working as a clerk in ShopRite, and retail in general, often lie with the department managers, who are often people who really wanted to do something else and just couldn't get out. In addition to the basic stress of having to depend on late teenagers who have much better things to do than stock shelves, upper management enforces a culture of paranoia over the department managers. Anyone can be transferred to another store at any time, with very little notice, and no matter how well one is performing, there seems to always be a catch, or something else to focus on that isn't so positive. I suppose that's the nature of the business, but it creates a lot of stress on a group of people who already work very hard for their possible $60,000 gross income (especially the younger managers, who aren't grandfathered in to older, much more beneficial contracts) and decent-at-best benefits.

This stress tends to roll downhill, as most things do, and managers sometimes take their stress out on their employees, or the job itself. Still, while people may butt heads with their co-workers and managers, most of the departments tend to resemble big families. Longtime employees are invested in each other, and people are genuinely celebrated when they move on to greener pastures. Plenty of bickering, but a lot of love. Along with dishwashing, I'd recommend retail, especially in a grocery store, as a good way to gain new perspectives, make some friends, and learn how to deal with difficult people. 

As for myself, I started out working 48-hour, 6-day weeks. I continued to do this until the Affordable Care Act was put into place, which is when hours suddenly dried up, and I was cut down to 24 per week. As time passed, I slowly gathered up more and more hours, and at the time of writing, I will have spent the last year working 40 hour weeks, with occasional overtime. Despite this, I am not/was never a full-time employee, nor did I receive any benefits associated with full-time, which is primarily healthcare and a better retirement program. This is common in retail, as far as I can tell, despite the unfairness, and it definitely makes keeping a job like this difficult if you're trying to move out on your own, especially if you lack access to affordable healthcare.

This can be remedied by ShopRite's People On the Move program, which allows self-driven individuals the opportunity to learn how to manage a department, with the end goal of going full-time, either as a manager or a second in command. I did this program myself, and was actually offered a full-time position right before dropping out of it. The position offered was a 40 minute commute from my house, and would have made it exceedingly difficult to focus on my degree, which had priority. If you're willing to put in the work, and if you're willing to be a bit of a pest with regard to motivating your mentors to actually mentor you, you can learn a lot about management in general, and the various systems used in retail and inventory management. You really get out what you put in, like with most things.

Overall, if a semi-stable career with lower end pay and a lot of stress is interesting to you, go for it! Otherwise, ShopRite is a great place to work while you seek out other opportunities, or simply put yourself through school (as I did).

Can find better work elsewhere easily. Was employed part time but regularly worked over 50 hours. Forced to work 6 days a week. They cut hours to 29 once every 5 weeks or so to make you unqualified as full time per the union contract. Union is next to useless. Constantly run severely understaffed in the bakery. Paid under $10 to supervise the department because was given a title but denied the pay that was promised with it. So poorly run they forgot to even tell me i got promoted or give me the vest. I just randomly found out one day xD Said i would agree to still do it for a dollar raise. Get all raises in writing because i never actually saw it. HR lies to you. The companies website for employee services like viewing pay stubs was not given out when hired, had difficulties finding it or getting in as the login would stop working weekly. Pay checks frequently shorted as they use a paper system to keep track of overtime and working outside scheduled shifts. Paper also used to track days off requested and they are frequently either outright denied or approved but they forgot to not schedule you anyway. Was not allowed time off for dentist even when in severe pain because department understaffed. Denied taking a weekend off 6 months in advance. Worked 8.5 to 11 hours a day, was supposed to get 3 breaks, actually got one if i was lucky. Very negative back stabbing environment, store leads were generally good but department managers and hr were terrible. Employed felons and sex offenders. A few times they harassed another employee and were just suspended and let back 2 weeks later. My final straw was hr complaining I didn't work hard enough after an 11 hour shift all week with one 15 min break the whole day on a holiday where they only staffed me and one new trainee the whole night and we got slammed. They then tried to transfer me to a new department that involved lifting when they have it on record that I can't do frequent lifting for medical reasons.

work for eight hours a day mainly making sandwiches/salads/hot and cold food to be served throughout the day.  ran the cash register when needed to. no down time allowed by personal moral standards.  time to lean means time to clean, so, one would use available downtime for reorganization, rotation and cleaning of work area supplies and equipment.
First and longest running manager/boss was strict, diligent, fair, respectful, hands on and followed through with any needed training.
current manager/boss is new to job field and inexperienced in multi-tasking as a manager to carry out day to day objectives.
co-workers have ranged from well, self maintained people of high work ethic and practice to first ever job of students still in school.

the hardest part of the job was accumulating work tasks that were expected to be done with no question on top of what was already expected out of a regular work day. (i.e.- go run a mile in nine minutes flat with x amount of obstacles to cross  with more and more obstacles placed over time while only getting same amount of time in a work day.
badly short-staffed, out of supplies or resources to complete desired job always met by management with a "i do not care, just do it." attitude. 
there was always a game plan on what needed to get done but there is zero input onto how it was able to be done.

most enjoyable part of the job was the people i served and being face to face with them.  gained many regular customers over the years like friends do in school.  the interaction with people while i worked throughout the day made for a different experience with each shift.  knowing of being in the public eye, this helped oneself in learning the importance of a customer driven business.

The typical day at work for a person whom works in my field at Shoprite  would be coming in fronting shelves if I'm working in the grocery or frozen department, or if I'm working cashier set up cash and begin looking to greet and serve awaiting customers. I usually worked overnight so i had the freedom to dao what i wanted sometimes which required discipline to get the job done. However , sometimes the time given to work the load given was to short which resulted in a few overtime hours which was good until i had to begin leaving on time because of my son. Thats when things went south. They loved it when i could stay late and do the extra work but when it came to a point where i couldn't do it anymore i started losing hours because of it. I eventually had to transfer departments again because of this. The pay is poor there and they act like they don't have the hours for you. i asks to be transferred and they have been sending me in circles since. Hence i have been looking for a better paying job who will work with me and be straight up with me. Not a bad entry level job but if you have bills to be paid not the place you want to be. There are days where your work load may be light though but that is unusual. Though the negatives far outweigh the positives at this job i did enjoy the supervisor. They all seemed to be straight up with me, but when it came to senior management i couldn't say the same. Talking to my coworkers has assured me that I'm not the only person who feels that way. Its ridiculous but what can you do?

Well you punch in run to the back of the store and hope to god you find a good uboat. you'll be assigned an isle by the night crew chief there will be pallets you have to dig through to find products for your respective isle you load them up into the uboat go into your isle and put everything where it's suppose to be when everyone else is done unloading you start the stocking process. i learned how to work in a fast pace environment and how to adapt to situations. The head manager was a grumpy old man who looked like he'd blame you for his misfortunes.. he had a liking to other coworkers but not me for some reason.. i remember one time they changed my schedule without calling me so my day off counted as a no show i tried explaining that to manager but he wouldn't believe me he just accused me of not knowing how to read a schedule he said if i missed another day he'd fire me which isn't fair. They also expect you to know everything the first day i remember getting yelled at my first day there 5 minutes into working the guy i was working didn't seem to understand that it as first time working there so instead of helping me he just requested to the night crew chief to never get paired up with me again. Most of the people i worked with didn't act human they just worked when it came to me when they would work with other people they were more open it was most likely because i was new but after a month of working there and still not much at least id get a hello but on my days off i heard they would just complain about me so it was weird showing up to work alongside two faced people. the hardest part of the job was staying awake it was the night crew shift. the only enjoyable days on the job were the lunch breaks of course.

From the time you enter to the time you leave you need to be working diligently and efficiently. 
The hardest part about this job is the overnight hours. Once you get past that time management becomes the hardest thing. There is always a lot of work to be done.
Everyday the entire produce aisle needs to be culled, rotated, and hand stacked. The daily Wakefern deliveries (7-10 pallets on weekdays, 10-15  pallets on weekends) and outside vendor deliveries needs to be unloaded, checked for inventory and broken down and put away in cooler or outer area. Any damaged or expired must be weighed/counted and scanned out of inventory. All loose product signs and labels  must be checked to verify that country of origin are correct. Other regular duties include assisting in ordering, employee scheduling, price changes, condensing bins of product, crisping greens, taking customer special orders, and constructing and moving displays.
The most enjoyable part of the job is the people. Whether it be your co-workers, superiors, or the customers, you get to meet people from all walks of life which keeps the job fun and interesting.
The relationship with management sets the tone for how your experience will be at ShopRite. By showing the managers that you are respect, reliable, and hard working will go a long way with improving the amount of trust they have in your ability to complete a task.
ShopRite taught me a lot of things, perhaps most importantly that to be a good manager you need to set the example for others. People are much more likely to go above and beyond for you if you are willing to do the same for them.

Pharmacy in general has REALLY changed, thanks to PBMs and insurance companies. It is definitely NOT what it was back twenty years ago. The nickel-and-diming totally diminishes our value, and older pharmacists are bearing the brunt of the fallout. What started out as a ma-and-pop small chain has grown exponentially since we bought into the Wakefern company. Some things for the better, some things for the worse, but the culture at work has shifted from knowing our patients and establishing trust, to being easily replaced by the vast pool of new pharmacists being put out there by the multiple pharmacy schools. My immediate management feels the same way, and in no way, shape, or form do I have any problems with. It's the upper management, who, after 30 years of being mostly autonomous, is feeling the pressure of what insurance companies have turned Pharmacy into, and the way they go about doing what needs to be done. Suddenly, loyalty and 28 years investment in the company isn't respected, and just means you're first on the list to try to remove.
   The most enjoyable part of my job is getting to know the patients, discovering their journey, and trying to help them through the hard times. The hardest part of the job is dealing with the ongoing ridiculous demands of insurance companies. Now I deal with the ever-looming prospect of reducing my hours. As far as retail pharmacies go, I probably am luckier than most. I have a great immediate manager, and a stellar team of technicians. Although their hours have also been cut, we still have decent coverage of hours.

Started off okay. Was offered the job for full time 40 hrs a week mixed shifts. That quickly changed a few months later to 6-7 days a week working and all 4pm-12am shifts. Cant choose what day you want off. There is no work and life balance here especially when they promised one thing and then changed it. They drive their workers way to hard and thats why they have such a huge turn around rate which leads to even managers quiting. Compensation was not great despite having 3+ years of experience. Typical day was checking fire doors, checking shortages on registers, watching cameras, and apprehending shoplifters. The cameras were the worst that i have ever used out of every company i have ever been too hard to catch cases on cameras that are ten years old and extremely low quality and have no ptz's. they will also have you do other things and be a handy man such as plumbing, changing light bulbs, setting mouse traps, catching birds that fly into the building, fixing doors, anything that really needed to be fixed they made security do which i thought wasn't my job. No team, no leadership. They crucify you for every single tiny mistake and will punish with schedule changes. One person isn't enough to watch over an entire supermarket while one other the security manager is in the other store calling you every five minutes harassing you asking what you are doing and never willing to help you after training no matter how good you do. I highly suggest you do not work for this specific family.

Wakefern is moving backwards when it comes to quality of employment. New leadership has removed benefits such as unlimited personal days, and a 3-day-per-week in-office schedule - with no justifiable reason. It seems they are moving more towards an "old school" approach to running a company, which is disappointing. Leadership has not made an effort to make Wakefern an attractive place to work. Offices are run down & old, there are no industry-related perks (such as store discounts, occasional free lunches, snacks of any kind, or even a working coffee machine). In the grand scheme of things, these are nitpicks, but when you work for the largest grocery cooperative in the nation, I'd expect more than what we were given. 

There is a growing disdain for leadership, suffocating office politics, and a general sense of unhappiness and negativity among the employees. While I enjoyed my time at this company, I cannot recommend it to anyone right now seeking employment. I truly hope this improves in the future because the work is interesting, the coworkers are fantastic, and it's one of, if not the safest industry to work in - almost immune to economic pressures. People need food no matter what! 

As the title suggests, the work was braindead easy. You walk around, scan the items in the order, throw them in the cart, bag the items, and then start over again. A child could do it. Very easy but definitely not engaging in any way. Every day I was here I was miserable and the thought of going to work made me sick. I’m not sure if it was just my location, but the managers and my coworkers were genuinely awful. I’ve never worked for people as inconsiderate and incompetent as they were. Absolutely zero communication between managers/coworkers so there were constant issues that ended up falling on the entry level employees. The HR woman makes the job seem really nice and full of benefits but they are lackluster in comparison to literally any other place. Absolutely no employee discount/coupons, hours are wildly inconsistent, you do get PTO as a part time worker but only after an entire year of working there, and did I mention the management is awful? I wouldn’t wish employment here on my worst enemy. Not only this, but HR hires literally everyone who walks through the door so our tiny department was always overflowing with way too many people when needed and we all ran out of work within 3 hours of the store being open. 

Basically, if you want an incredibly easy, brain-numbing job, work here. A plus is that they’re always hiring. I was here for a year and a half and I’d never go back even during my most desperate times 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Dispatcher 19 salaries reported	$26.04 per hour
Inventory control specialist 2 salaries reported	$18.50 per hour
Warehouse clerk 5 salaries reported	$21.75 per hour
Warehouse supervisor 6 salaries reported	$1,588 per week
Logistics clerk 7 salaries reported	$20.51 per hour

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