cashier

store shopper

team member

grocery associate

team leader

Whole Foods Market

Sometimes your schedule will be stretched as long as it can be for the day, but just under the time that would allow you a second break. Sometimes, but not all the time, you're expected to bring it up with someone before you take your break, but often supervision is nowhere to be found. Sometimes you will get in trouble for taking your break before finding them, if they feel petty enough that day. 
You're also expect to go to and be back from your break by the specific times they've written down for you, understandable. Though, if you need to use the restroom or help a customer on the way back, expect to be reprimanded if your supervisor of the day feels petty enough. (they're always petty enough)
You also cant leave to take your break if someone else is already on theirs. Often you'll be left waiting for the favored employees to come back from their hour long 30 minuet break.

You will need to be skeptical if they offer you a full-time position. I had been offered full-time countless times just to have the offer ripped away from me. I wasn't the only person they would do this to either. Either nothing would come of it, they'll make an excuse, or management would cut the full time spot into two half-times. 
In the same manner that they stretch the breaks, they will stretch the schedules of half-time employees. As a half-timer I was working every weekend, 5-6 days a week, 7 hours a day, and I was working more than one department, all while my health was in rapid decline. I couldn't get them to cut my hours either, despite being chronically ill to the point it effected how I fast I worked.  

Workers are forced to come in sick out of concern of loosing their job or upsetting their co-workers. If you're not there, the other kid they're overworking has to pick up your absence since the supervisor would rather sit on the computer in the back. Favored employees could leave early and miss how ever many days they wanted without needing to worry about UPT. If you're sick enough, there's a chance it'll be noticed and you'll be sent home, or mocked behind your back.

You have to get in good with everyone, which is impossible, because no matter what there will always be that one person that doesn't like you for something out of your control. If you're not on the good side of everyone, you can expect them to try getting others to dislike you, as well as attempt to get you in trouble with leadership. 

Folks will be one way to your face and another behind your back. You will get in trouble for things the favored employees do on a daily. Lots of elementary-grade gossip and bullying as well. I was half-shocked to see so many adults behave so egregiously towards each other. Some even pride themselves on it, so giving them any energy is just a lost cause. 
One of the things you're told when coming in is something about helping each other succeed. I think them saying that challenged a handful of people to see how much they could sabotage others. People in here are genuinely so miserable I think they feel the need to make sure others are too. The job's great if you love what you do, but you'll need to be careful with who you interact with, including your trainer and supervision. The trainer will speak poorly of anyone and everyone to new employees as she brings them through, giving them false assumptions of their soon-to-be co-workers.
There's a few faces in there that make it worth while, but some will eventually betray your trust and damage your faith in humanity. The other folks there that make it worthwhile unfortunately, yet thankfully, move on to greener pastures.

Management also favors the customer over the employee, which is understandable. To a point. A customer can do or say whatever they want to you here, and management will hardly do a thing aside from reprimanding you if you handle it any way other than expected. Though, they wouldn't do anything about the elder employee peeking over the stall at the transgender employee. 

The space is welcoming to lgbtq, and a decent amount of employees fall under the category. Though, there's still employees that will treat you poorly if you are such, and will do so vaguely enough that you cant bring it to leaderships attention. They wont do anything without proper evidence because the environment has become so 'he said she said' that they don't take anyone seriously, and often times the person complaining is viewed as the troublemaker since they're so use to the tattling. 

If you are looking to work in the deli and greatly value your dignity, don't. Its not the customers that are the issue, you will get use to them. You will be working the deli slicers, the sandwich bar, and the pizza station alone whilst also occasionally being expected to man the bakery counter. Your supervisor wont come and help, not even on the busy days. I'd caught one a few times just sitting in the back watching you-tube. When they're done they'll come up and maybe ask why your list isn't finished.
You will have a list of things you are expected to complete daily, but you wont hardly get to touch it as you're busy helping customers. You have to prioritize the customer, the deli bunker needs to be full, and all pizza boards need to be full (they vanish quick) Don't expect to see your supervisor, they'll always be in the back unless they come up to change the rules, or add to your workload. 

If you want to work in-store shop, don't stress about the numbers. I forget the abbreviation, but they keep track of how fast you shop. You're expected to keep up with a score that constantly increases, but unless you're the flash and you're ignoring costumers that ask for assistance, its impossible to keep them happy. Some of the shoppers will abandon orders or log out if they don't want the next shop, they will take your cart after you've prepared it but get outraged if you even touch theirs. You can get orders done on time and have everything go smoothly without stressing yourself to get over 100 points. It made some since when the expectation was 75 but 90 is pushing it.

Management either doesn't see they're pushing their workers because they don't do the work themselves and cant see how impossible some of their expectations are, or they're just willfully blind. Some of them may even find amusement in it. No accomplishments you make will be seen, no progress will be regarded, but any mistake you make will be verbally spread through the store Paul Revere style.

If you are on the wrong persons radar, they will push and push and push to see how much it will take you to quit on your own. It's like they make a game of it. If you don't quit on your own, some will go out of their way to incriminate you. I'm only in my early 20's and this place legitimately gave me gray hairs. 

“Whole Foods is a lot like communism, it started with a nice idea in theory but in practice... ehh“
Whole Foods,  organic bliss; the land of hemp milk and honey. A paradise for shoppers, if you look the other way on spending $20 for a salad that you could have made for $5.
Whole Foods is like Vegas. You go there to feel good but you leave broke and disoriented. Though everyone hates to love “Whole Paycheck”, as an employee, I quickly just flat out hated it. 
Ok hate is a strong word, there are far worse jobs out there, I’ll just say once being employed there, I felt massively mislead. 
The chill hippy vibe I had hoped to find wasn’t totally absent but often punctuated by crazy, demanding, inflexible, customers and leadership. 

Whole Foods: Green Sheen Machine. Don’t be fooled by their earth-tone interior, granola/hipster/yogi hybrid ambiance. It’s a facade, they’re a corporation out for the other green. 
A greenwashing company uses buzzwords like 'sustainability' and 'community'— words which are plastered all over every surface in a Whole Foods. 
As an employee this veil of hippy camaraderie was lifted,  exemplified by many things, one of which being:

RULES: 
The long list of nit-picky, no-budge, hair-splitting, pedantic rules which they strictly enforce. This rule has since been changed, but when I worked there employees could not color their hair any color that was “unnatural”. I had 4 very small purple highlights that I got an actual warning for. But another employee had her whole head dyed cardinal red. Red was considered technically “natural”....but..It’s hair, WHO CARES?! Another example of a ridiculous rule, is that employees, particularly cashiers could not have water bottles at the register with them —I kid you not —unless they had a straw. No twist tops. This was so stupid I can’t even remember their reasoning for it. 

Another area of excessive hypocritical fake-ness: 
“CORE VALUES” 

(Supporting team member happiness and excellence) - hah, well Let me tell you I was  beyond irritated with the lack of support and back up I got from the lead corporate puppets(management). They pretty consistently let some customers abuse employees and then would actually reward the customers for their behaviour and then trample on the integrity and honour of your abused employees. Sometimes then chastising the employee for their lack of customer service. Happened way too often. 
Basically Whole Foods takes the customer is always right, way to far. 

(Caring about our communities and our environment) HAH they throw out enough food to feed a lot of hungry university students. Employees can’t take home any of the wasted food either. It has to be thrown away
(Caring about our communities and our environment) Oh, you're asking me to put latex gloves on the sales floor so customers can throw a pair out for every handful of gummy bears they take?

(Supporting team member happiness and excellence
Ok I feel like I really should have opened this whole rant with this, because this is seriously not cool. They constantly push/trick employees into taking on more responsibility, without raising their pay. 
A man working there has been ordering the dairy products for over a year. But since he doesn't have the official title of "Dairy Buyer", he is paid $13.50/hr instead of $16/hr, which is the base wage for a "buyer". He buys the dairy. But he is not a Dairy Buyer. It's newspeak. This happens all over the company. 
This is not my personal exerience but the same thing happened to me with the “team trainer” position. Effectively doing more work and being rewarded with a title instead of more money.
So if you’re looking to advance in the company- good luck. 

Also, 
Employees get discounts based on their body-fat index. 
My discount (the base discount) was 20%, and if I signed up to get metrics done -- biometrics, body fat, blood testing -- it could've been as high as 35% I think.
So there’s that–I don’t know how that sits with you. If you’re over 65 or have any preexisting medical conditions, you’re discount is likely to stay at 20%. Shame on you, you shouldn’t have contracted congenital heart disease! Or-Sorry, you’re just too fat and/or too old. 

In addition to all of that... 
It’s a magnet for crazy people. And you gotta deal with em all. The good crazy, the bad crazy, and the ugly crazy. (Site the woman who screamed at me for 10 minutes because I told her she couldn’t return a red bell pepper. (But of course my manager came over and quickly smoothed things over and took back the pepper, wherever it came from, and made sure the customer knew I had been told next time, to take back a pepper if it’s asked of me.)
Whole Foods’ clientele (and employees) are all about mindfulness and compassion... until they get to the parking lot. Then it’s war. -huff post 
And yes that’s true I got yelled at constantly in the parking lot. By customers, and also by staff/management — the latter was mostly because they did not provide onsite parking for staff, and also forbade us to park in the parking lot.... forcing us to park across a massive intersection and down the block in a less-than-adequate parking “lot” (an unused gravel strip of land behind a different grocery store). 

And those are benign stories, this whole things is getting too long for me to go into any more recounts. 


Whole Foods is like communism, it started with a nice idea in theory but in practice... ehh

Fact is the employees have lost a lot of their former power and the store is being sucked into some centralized monster. 


Quality is being thrown out in favour of the people at the top having to do a little less work. Competition is being destroyed and you're not even pushing that many healthy products. Every second endcap is potato chips or pop or some sort of salt filled snack (Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education). A lot of the stuff in Whole Body doesn't even work or has absolutely no credible evidence to back any claims up. You're kind a faux hippy Wal-Mart now. Great. Job. -former employee 

All of this is probably why Whole Foods has an incredibly high turnover rate of employees.

Typical day: Providing services on the Chef's case (Cold items produced by kitchen staff and sold by counter staff) and Deli (Applegate and Wellshire items along with a great deal of in house items) More experienced members bounce back and forth between deli, CC, pizza and burger as needed. Kitchen staff will assist on the CC and other stations in a pinch. 

Management:

    There is a great deal of support between staff and supervisors. Everybody is on the same page and communicates well. We are sale focused, but in an excited way, as we have monthly profit sharing and half of us make the food - doing well feels like a good reflection on our ability and makes us extra pay. The supervisors also communicate with each other very well. We have a CIA chef as our head, he expects a lot from each individual in a way that shows confidence in our abilities as part of the team and is very understanding with scheduling and requesting days off.

Hardest part: Deep cleans and closing shifts. Tardiness.
   Taking apart the cases all the way down to the fans and cleaning everything to the bone on Sundays and generally taking the place apart at night. The food is beautiful and elaborately displayed and it takes everyone to break it down at night - but everyone helps everyone including in the dish room until we are all set - then everyone goes home at once. This might mean staying over your shift, just be prepared. But hey, no one wants to stay late so it usually gets done pretty fast and even if you do go over - extra hours is always nice when it hits your paycheck :)

Just don't be late. If you are more than 10-15 minutes late 3 times in a 6 month period you will be dismissed. I've yet to seen it happen - it seems more of a safe guard against people who are careless than people who actually care and just make human mistakes. But just don't be the one to find out. There is a call-out line, 2 hrs in advance - and while your co-workers might not appreciate the stress of being short staffed, they are smart and understanding enough to see the difference between habitually calling out and real illness or conflict or other complication.

Kitchen, burger and pizza are very fast paced, CC and deli are interconnected and much more relaxed than other delis I've worked at at. We are a bit short staffed at the moment, but that's the only kink in the Armour. 

Co-workers are fantastic! Very friendly and very supportive and very unique. Lots of people into things like doctor who, Avengers, Sherlock, anime, Game of Thrones and the like - there is a very cool nerd culture embedded throughout the store, it's kinda awesome. In general the culture is very good. People are individuals, interesting and fun and they're happy to be there! 

The most enjoyable part: Working here is an experience, they offer tons of training classes in our little library (called the "U", or Whole Foods University) they can certify you to do all the things you need to advance in the company. They even have cross-training between departments to allow lateral mobility if you want to learn a new skill. They value, well-roundness and encourage it! They really hire you with a career in mind, they want you to stay and move up and add to the culture. What you say really gets heard! Team members take a survey after 90 days to either welcome you in officially or to say you're not a good fit. It sounds scary but it isn't and it means you have a great team of hard working people, rather than one with individuals who create more work for everyone else by bad behavior or a poor work ethic. Same thing with promotions, there is a survey and everyone has input. Everything is based on a cooperative effort of individuals - they really make you feel important and valid. It's a totally different feeling than I've had with any other company! Not only that if you make suggestions to supervisors, and see hey I see a problem here's my solution they will take action. The store leaders have even started doing lunches were people can get together and discuss improvements.

So many places say you matter when you don't - Whole Foods delivers on when they say they want you to express your individuality and your  opinions -  you see, hear and experience being valued and your co-workers value.

I actually have real respect for this company. It has a fantastic mission to change the diet available to people and give us options in a world where are choices and transparency are increasing limited. Moreover, they seem to have a second mission in employees and structure. They are changing the way company's are structured to bottom-up rather than top-down. I am proud to support that and their official mission

if you apply to a position I hope you get it and enjoy it!

I was so excited when I got hired here but man, oh man, I could tell immediately they were very understaffed and mismanaged. My first few days there, I had NO management training or guidance. I was stuck in a room for hours doing training videos, and then I would be pulled out to go wrangle carts and bring them in. I was very confused but I wasn't mad about getting to move my legs and get active. Then, that's all they had me do for almost 2 weeks straight. I was hired as a cashier, and I hadn't ANY training in this two weeks. I also had an injury that I made every manager aware of, which made it hard for me to push carts, but I did it anyways. Since the first day, I didn't get introduced to all the management and who I should report too, and when I asked, I received a different answer every time, or it was someone I was not introduced to. I had no one I could talk to about job help or anything in general. When I tried to interact with the other cashiers, they treated me like I was trash. The girls all looked at me like I was a nobody, and were very curt and rude with their responses, and the guys just treated you like you were invisible. I had no guidance for my time at Whole Foods, and when I tried to talk to one manager, she brushed everything off and honestly, she made me feel worse, like I was the problem. I felt a pit in my stomach every time I walked into those doors, which really sucked because I adore Whole Foods and all they stand for, but it was a really awful experience. 

 Whole Foods itself is a cute, little sheep, but when you work there, it's full of vicious, cold hearted wolves, and in the short time I worked there (2 months or so) they really made my self worth even lower. I never in my life felt so excluded in such a big place with so many people. I even explained my [very] personal life to the managers, which includes great loss in the past year, and I explained I just wanted to put a smile on, work my butt off, keep my nose to myself, and go home, and I felt I was so severely taken advantage of. They lied to me and they cover each other, and when you get innocent people in trouble or "written up" is too far. I got written up for not attending a "group training" that I asked TWO separate managers if it was mandatory, and they both informed me it was not. One of the managers even described the "group training" as getting food, hanging out, and then getting drinks (alcohol) after? Which I had zero interest in. So I did not go, and was written up for it. Doesn't make sense to me...

 I ended up having an anxiety attack before my shift and realized this place is no blessing like I thought it was. I also just want to mention, their LACK of communication is disgraceful.. I signed up to receive a pay card for my paycheck, and was never told any information about it, and when it came time to get my paycheck, I went to the store as instructed, and they so awesomely informed me that they mail out the checks now, and I just missed picking it up. Which was EXCELLENT because that day I had bill deadlines, and my best friend was in town [from FAR] for her birthday. Which I now had no money for. Sure, you can blame me for that, but it would have been really great to know that they mail out your checks, even though they tell you to pick them up from the store. :) So I emailed back in forth with their HR (man oh man, horrible HR representative), which they ended up losing my paycard, (or never sent it) but I waited FOUR WEEKS for them to figure out they needed to resend me a paycard, while I was poor and desperately needing money... Only for them to realize they had it at the store THE ENTIRE TIME!! I WAS ABLE TO PICK IT UP THAT DAY! I was completely done having any respect for this company after this. 

 Honestly, I'm getting frustrated and feel gross having to relive this experience, and I don't know if anyone cares to read it. But if I can help just one person to not work at such a degrading place, and save your happiness for a job that's actually worth it, then every minute of my time is worth it!


 The ONLY positive things I have to say about Whole Foods is, their hot/cold bar is fantastic, I love the products they sell, I love they recycle and have mostly all organic and healthy choices, and you do get a decent discount on everything in store. But it isn't worth your sanity. Out of all the jobs I've had and worked my butt off at, this one hurts the most. Biggest let down in my entire job history. Please reconsider applying here!

I recently worked at the Altamonte Springs location in the prepared foods department, and at first everything seemed okay. I got sufficient training, and I was doing a good job. It was very simple, I have a cooking background, so it was very laid back than the line cook work environment that I was used to. However, things took a turn for the worse when I was told that I was doing things wrong, even though I had specific training from someone that knows what they are doing, and then to be told in front of customers at the hot bar that all of what I was doing is wrong, and just making me feel so small in front of guests. And I was angry and said that I was frustrated with how this conversation was being had, and I've been working here for weeks and then all of a sudden you guys tell me I'm doing something wrong? So that was weird. The management, including one of their supervisors, are a joke. They started out really nice and had that whole "we're a family here" facade. But it quickly faded when their true colors came out. I was in my probation period, so the rules are strict about missing work, I know. But I had a really bad, infected impacted wisdom tooth, and it had to be removed because it was interfering with my overall health.  So I communicated that with my managers, and I was able to get days approved to get it taken care of. And that it was no issue, they would cover the shifts and I could get my tooth taken care of. Not even two weeks after that, me and my partner had both gotten really sick with pneumonia, and I had to pay 250 dollars to go to urgent care so that I could get antibiotics, and a doctor's note, so that I could cover my absences because I was out sick. I went to work one of the days I felt really sick, and almost passed out twice and had a fever over 100 when I got home. I fought a fever for a week, and I felt terrible. During this whole time, I called the managers, emailed them, kept in communication with them. Because the rules are if you're sick, stay home. And I had most of the symptoms if not all, saying that I should stay home to prevent everyone else from getting sick. And anytime I talked to a store director or leader it was "you'll be fine, just bring in your note. Thank you for communicating with us, don't worry." And so, when I finally was able to shake the symptoms I was having, I brought them a doctors note, and a negative covid test that my doctor required me to get before coming back to work, and worked for a few days. Then the hurricane happened, and the store was closed for a little. When I returned, I worked my closing shift on a Monday, came in at 2:00, and around 3:30 my manager says oh can I borrow you? I just wanna talk to you real quick. Making it seem like, this was a fast conversation and I could go back to what I was doing. But it was actually a closed door meeting with them and the store director and after a lot of beating around the bush, they inform me that because of my absences and the doctors note not being accepted, to cover said absences they separated me because I basically am not trustworthy, and they don't want to continue forward with me. The whole situation has been extremely frustrating and annoying. Because as much, as I understand the rules of being a new hire, and I take responsibility for what I did, at the same time I didn't call out just to mess around, and not be at work. I was very sick and going through some health issues and it was really bad timing. So, honestly they did me a favor because truthfully, I don't see why people pay 11.99 a pound for the hot bar food. It's all reused and recycled food that's either going out of date soon, or expired stuff from fresh pack, or the chefs case, and reheated and thrown on the bar. It could be all dried up, or from the night before and it gets reused. Most of the product is frozen and shipped in, and it's not great quality. But hey, I'm sure I'm just another disgruntled team member. 
10/10 do not recommend. 

● Work-life balance
The hours are only available to management favorites, regardless of how much time is needed to actually finish a full day’s bake. There’s no quality check to leave all workstations clear for the next employee’s shift. Even if you do set yourself up for success, your work will be undone and your shift will begin with cleaning up after the last person who used your station. Management texts at random, even if you don’t consent to sending and receiving texts as a form of communication. There’s no balance because the work day is so stressful that it’s impossible to relax when you’re suffering from one day and dreading the next. They consider 32 hours full time.

● Pay & benefits
Pay is tricky, because you may get a good hourly rate, but you’re only working 32-35 hours, which reduces you’re salary overall significantly. Benefits are okay, insurance is pricey, sick pay is quick to accrue, but you will be punished for utilizing it - my manager even asked me inappropriate questions about my condition after I requested use of my earned sick time.

● Job security and advancement
Advancing is impossible under certain members of management. Skills and experience are undermined, priority for all positions are given based on favoritism, and even the favorites are taken advantage of. Training is minimal, they even have a trainer assigned to each team but they are treated like a free employee and they essentially just run errands for management.

● Management
Management is the reason I left Whole Foods. I worked under 2 of the most toxic people I’ve ever met while baking at Paradise Valley. The team leader was aggressive and prejudiced, they  repeatedly singled me and fellow coworkers out for no reason other than imagined differences. They were unprofessional, calling customers gross names and swearing and making inappropriate comments. Their second in command was basically a sloppy puppet who followed along with and did whatever the lead told them to do, even when it was unethical or even cruel. I was injured because of this person’s carelessness and the two of them continued to bully and humiliate me while I was supposed to be working under the protection of reasonable accommodations. They were a nightmare that I never woke up from, a nightmare I still have months after leaving.

● Culture
Whole Foods is a dangerous place to work if you value autonomy, progress, balance, dependable leadership, physical safety, and reasonable pay and advancement. Whole Foods doesn’t provide any of these... your skills and experience will be better appreciated likely anywhere else.

● Overall
Whole Foods culture seemed like a dream come true during orientation - locally and ethically sourced foods, a company who strives for sustainability and boosts small business AND cultivates a “we’re all in this together” work environment. This was not my experience as the store baker on the prepared foods team in Paradise Valley. Management is dangerously unprofessional, using expired cheese to make pizzas, scraping mold off under baked muffins and repackaging old product to renew the label and increase shelf life. Bullying, disgusting comments toward customers, a lack of sanitary respect when washing tools, dropping product on the floor and dusting it off. This in addition to the most toxic interpersonal environment you’ll ever work in. The team leader and assistant were the worst 2 people I’ve met in the industry. They cared only for bolstering their images and getting away with murder. Upper management turns a blind eye because the otherwise underperforming store makes a quick buck off of the shortcuts the team leader takes. This is only a sliver of what I experienced. Turnover was high at my store, for these reasons and because training was disappointing. I wouldn’t recommend this store, or any Whole Foods store. Save yourself.

Be mindful that these are some feedback from my-almost-2-decades-experience working in different positions, and being part of these bad managers:

They are now so focused on labor, almost everyone was cut down to avg 35hr/week for a full time and as little as 8hr/week for the part time with no OT. Granted they may have a better pay rate/hour compared to their competitor (?). All in the reasoning about not having enough labor that is well balanced with the programs for the departments. You’d be stressed out of your mind trying to complete a mountain of tasks with very little time unless you’re a speedy one with excellent skills which we know not all are. 

Management (upper) are really unprofessional (please note that there maybe some good ones out there still) and so disassociated with what happened on the daily because they busied themselves with a mountain of non-related meetings, about the last meeting, about the last programs, about why metrics aren’t met. They are so unorganized and not relevant with today’s business needs. Global people create programs that don’t make sense and not well-balanced between work put in, labor needed for and the result. They even slowly removing customers’ favorite in many different ways because ‘it’s too expensive to make now’. 

Now, wanting to advance is another story: if you don’t know ‘how to connect’ with the right people (sorry, Indeed doesn’t allow me the use of words but you get what I’m trying to say), forget about advancement. They’ll hire the next person that give them a great interviews rather than internal candidates that had proven themselves with skilled track records. Anyone that is good at ‘connecting’ can kick everyone else out of the line. Sure, they have great fast track programs for internals, however after ‘graduating’ and got promoted, about more than 75% of those attendees never follow up the ‘great values in those programs’ and weren’t being held accountable for it. 

If they like you, you’ll stick around for a while. If they don’t, guaranteed that they’ll find a reason to kick you out. I’ve been in many conversations where I felt disgusted with these managers taking specific actions that was against possible HR rules because they felt too personal about specific incidents. 

They also expect new hires to get the job right away. When I was promoted to a specific job, even with my experience, it took me almost 9 months before the job makes sense. The upper managers don’t have that understanding. They expect everyone new to be up and running in a couple of months. Mind you this company has the most complex group of systems used and none of them even talk to one another to make the job easier. There were many talks about upgrading the system. It’s been over a decade since that talk happened and nothing has yet changed for the better, more for the worse. 

Now I did have some good experience with good managers in this company. However, there are less and less of them because they have had left (myself included) due to not wanting to deal with the headaches anymore. 

I don’t even want to suggest this as a workplace to anyone I know. This place had changed in many ways for the worse. It’s not the company people want to work like it used to be anymore. 

Be warned!


Work-life balance
Work-life balance at Whole Foods Market is fine when staff levels aren't critical, but Amazon keeps slashing our labour budget, making management ask for more hours, then just scheduling you over avalibility and hoping you ignore that and show up. Keep an eye on Kronos. They'll also throw out your avalibility sheet if they think they can get away with it. Shifts are getting more intense, burnout is regular.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at Whole Foods Market are good, but slowly getting worse. They have a 401k.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at Whole Foods Market, I think that no one can ever get fired unless they don't show up on time. Stay as long as you'd like, but be prepared to share your workplace with other unfireables.

Management
In general, managers at Whole Foods Market are incompetent and petty. They lie to eachother and to their employees, and are never to blame for their mistakes. There are a few good ones in there but many of them have left, or are planning to.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at Whole Foods Market is great. Only thing that is good about this place is the coworkers, but many of the best ones are quitting, I'll soon be honored to follow in their footsteps.

Overall
My experience working at Whole Foods Market is mixed. I professionally grew there, I made so many fun memories and I know what a good workplace can be. I loved that individuality was supported and encouraged, that every store had it's own flavor, and that a little bit of mild mischief and lots of fun made a great experience for customers and coworkers alike. The environment was fantastic and supportive, your supervisor had your back every step of the way, but made sure all went according to company plan. That environment crumbled slowly over a matter of years. Now you can feel the tension in the air, and you know full well no matter what happens no one cares, (unless it whatever happens puts Amazon at risk). Don't work at Whole Foods. Especially not now, the holidays are here and there is less than half our usual workforce. We're pushed harder than ever to meet Prime directives, our benefits are being chiseled away while our hours increase. Communication between management and the employees has completely deteriorated. There is no trust in the company anymore, and our oldest employees are leaving. Repairs around the workplace aren't being made, and it's about to land us in lawsuit land. During the pandemic healthy and safety have taken a backseat to profits, and anyone who burps medical exemption is welcome to waltz around the store as they please with no mask, they can also be rude to staff with no consequences. 

Speaking of there are a number of men who have made innapropriate advances on women, and have been around my whole tenure. They've never been banned, and the excuse management gives teters between "They're socially awkward sweetiepies" and "You don't have to ring them up, we'll help you!" You can gladly take advantage of asking your supervisor to ring them up instead, but as soon as you do these creeps target the next newest girl, so on and so on. You haven't had the whole experience until you're bagging groceries and you have a 6ft tall man standing an inch behind your bent over self grunting with pleasure. Welcome to Whole Foods ladies!

Great place to work if you like your job. One of the best retail grocery jobs around. Some of the company guidelines and procedures are stupid but its worth the money.

I had to quit due to my impossible manager and my girlfriend having been on my team and myself in general is kinda emotional and impulsive. but that's besides the point...? haha

*Don't date someone in the same department, work hard, talk less, and you should be good. 

Its a retail environment so if you don't like customers and having to fake relationships with co-workers than get a solitary job.

The hardest part of my job was staying happy at work. I get a bit down some days and when you work a repetitive job its easy to feel low. For the most part though I worked my butt off and truly had a good 1.7 years at this place. 
Frankly wish I could have stayed but to be honest some things about the place also allow me to accept that I no longer work there. I had a few past friends who worked there and it got stale doing the whole "yeah we should chill sometime soon" "how have you been" thing that past friends do but never actually go hang out. As well as having had my brother work there before me and having people always ask me about him as soon as they saw me "hey so hows your brother doing?!" "why don't you call him and find out ..think of something actually creative to talk about instead of spitting out the first thing that comes to mind."  haha 
Other things that bummed me out was that half of the things they sell aren't healthy foods really, their prices are way too high on certain things, and most managers never seemed to be thoroughly happy with their employees back breaking labor and it almost seemed like there was a goal to hire all new people once the experienced employees realized the way things really run in your department and the fact that it is impossible for all employees to get full time and mostly the more liked people get the promotion instead of the hard worker. whew. That was a long sentence that sounded rather anxious.

Other than all that I still had fun. meet new people and learned some about organic foods and health in general.

If your manager is nice and understanding you will enjoy your job a lot more and reap more benefits. If your manager is passive aggressive and treats your girlfriend bad overtime without resolution you might over-react and quit for that reason as well as other things that annoy you that have built up inside of you.

yes I know im venting. hope you like your job, sincerely.

In grocery, most days are filling stock, helping answer customer questions, walking customers to products, and maintaining the look of the store. It can be very fast paced as popular items sell out extremely fast, and you have to be ready to fill a hole. Depending on your shift, you may be more focused on throwing load which will involve a lot of lifting and carrying, or restocking shelves as they deplete during the day. There is not a lot of idle time, so the day can pass quickly.

Management is some of the best in all retail, but your mileage will vary. (Personally, I have a so-so manager, and I get a little envious of the departments that have better managers.) But the self-empowering corporate culture trickles down. Many times they are very hands off--initially it surprised me that team members coordinated their own lunch breaks instead of being told when to go--but very helpful when you have questions. There is thorough multi-day training before you step onto the sales floor--typically two to three days. (Out of all my retail jobs, only two of them had significant training sessions--Whole Foods and the Apple Store.)

Coworkers are great and very interesting, tho this will depend on where you work as well. (My store has two colleges close by, so most team members are young students.) They'll typically be very helpful, even when from another department; spills are common and ANY team member nearby will usually stop what they're doing immediately to help out.

The grocery department is the largest department of the store, so hence will have the most items to manage. Initially, it can be seriously overwhelming that at some point you'll be expected to know all the products and where they are, as well as having a general idea of backstock availability, but it surprisingly comes naturally after a few weeks.

It's very physical work and you can sometimes be expected to work very fast. The stores can get very crowded at certain times of the year, and you'll be expected to help more customers than usual while also keeping up with regular tasks. Sometimes chats with customers can get oddly heated. There is a lot of misinformation about food out there, and customers may stubbornly challenge you when you share information. Surprisingly, there is a lack of haughty customers, but it could be because our store is in a more working class, family-oriented neighborhood.

There is a lot of food, and many times it is free. It surprises customers that the store has a very generous sampling policy, so it's not uncommon to open a bag of chips to share with a customer, offer them to other folks shopping, then ends up in the break room for everyone else to share (if they're fast). Grocery stores "spoil" out a lot of food that's not bad, off, or expired, so they offer them back to employees at an extremely high discount. A lot of food may also just be offered up for free. There are many free lunches as well.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Cashier 25 salaries reported	$21.23 per hour
Store shopper 16 salaries reported	$17.00 per hour
Team member 28 salaries reported	$17.32 per hour
Grocery associate 12 salaries reported	$24.33 per hour
Team leader 4 salaries reported	$79,000 per year

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