deli associate

cashier

grocery associate

produce clerk

seafood clerk

uwajimaya

This is a review for the grocery department, specifically the late shift. 

In the three years I worked here this place completely made me into a much worse person. This is the kind of place that they'll work you to the ground until you can't take it anymore. I've worked with some wonderful people and some terrible ones. For the most part my experience here was very negative. If I could go back and give myself advice I'd say to mind your own business and not get involved with anyone. Work loads ranges each week and depends on the days you work. Chances are you'll be working Thursday through Sunday. Thursdays are big freight days, Fridays is freight, Saturday is major customer service and Sunday is freight again. The music played here is dreadful, unless you like tiresome Hawaiian reggae or whatever it's called. 

A typical workday is straightforward, work stock. It's rare you'll ever talk to any of the higher-ups unless it's to fill a certain thing. Everyone tends to do whatever they like so you have your lazy workers who get away with not doing enough, and you have the ones that hold up the rest of the team. Don't bother bringing this up to management, they wont do anything about it. I litteraly had my assistaant manager once say "What am I supposed to do about it? What would you do". At the end of the night its store facing (straightening up the aisles). Some people like that, but for some it's a mindless, tedious, draining chore. Best advice I can give you, is don't care too much, you'll last much longer here. The more robotic you can be, the better. 

Every month or so the place changes its rules so if you like having to re-learn your job every couple months, this is the place for you. One of the most frustrating thing was that whenever a new rule was implemented only half the crew was told while the rest had to figure it out.  Training is pretty much obsolete and the only time you will get any feedback for your efforts is once a year review. Unless you shove it in their face about the times you go above and beyond it won't get noticed, and even if it does dont expect anything from it, and that seems to be a store-wide thing. 

Scheduling is based on favoritism here so if you aren't buddy buddy with the schedule maker, you'll be stuck with the worst shift (5-30pm - 2am). If you even ONCE mention that you can work this shift, you'll be stuck with it for your entire time here. For some people this is an ok shift, but it gets to you eventually. You start having a hard time sleeping, your back starts to hurt, and the pressures of finishing freight will wear you down. In just three years I've had high blood pressure issues, back pain issues, and yeah sleeping is now a chore. 

Now for the Positive. You can pretty much always get the days off you want if you request it early enough. If you're sick, you can get a guarantee call out approved. We get a 10% discount which would be nice if the store wasn't so expensive. Your meal options are abysmal. The deli offers a 3.99 employee meal which, ask anyone, is a gut bomb you don't want to get involved with. Other than that I'm not sure what the positives are. 

As far as grocery goes The Department manager is very kind and is a hard worker. I stayed as long as I did for him because I truly cared and believed that success is best shared. He really loves his job and dedicates, in my opinion, WAY more than he ought too. He cares a lot about us and I can tell that he wishes he could do more for us, but he's a very busy guy. 

t;dr: Stay away from the grocery night shift. STAY AWAY FROM THE GROCERY NIGHT SHIFT. NEVER say you can work that shift!

A typical day at work is alright, it really varies on the weather and the day. Sometimes its very slow and some times its busy. Either way people try to work as a team, to keep steam table full at all times, organize, and clean. I have learned how to make variety of different dishes that are very flavorful, lIke Japanese, indian, chinese, and Filipino. The managers at Uwajimaya are good, they try to step in and help out wherever they can and are very nice people. My co-workers are nice people that are friendly and hard workers. Sometimes the hardest part of my job is the hours. There are times that I have to close  at eight pm, then turn around to open at six in the morning. Or to play catch up with cooking dishes for the steam table when our head cook leaves, and with dirty dishes that was just built up. The most enjoyable part is opening when I can make up the day menu, working with customers, and  at the end of the day.

Uwajimaya used to be a lovely family store. The new CEO wants to take it a new direction and is learning from major corporations. Their policies are getting stricter and their goal is to scale up by catering only to wealthy white shoppers, so they stopped selling a number of ingredients frequently used in a lot of authentic Asian cooking. Despite record sales in 2023, they cut everyone's hours with no explanation. You're not allowed to work overtime, but there's not enough staff, and if the work doesn't get done you get punished. So most people work unpaid overtime so they don't get in trouble, but if management finds out you're working unpaid overtime you get in trouble. If management doesn't like you, you're gonna have a bad time. 

It has been a year since I worked here so things may have changed for the better or worse. Pay was decent at the time I worked there and the benefits were nice but did not kick in until you had worked there full time for 90 days. This seems to be the usual case for most jobs though. The work was hard with a lot of physical labor and doing some of the dirtiest tasks but other employees and management thought that we were just lazy because we would finish our work quick and effectively. Hiring was nice and fast at the time because they needed workers. 

Worked in grocery department as a clerk. Management feels like it has no idea what it's doing. The department manager is great but the rest are clueless and lack direction. The job culture here is stressful and unfair most of the times. There is no room to advance and you're constantly treated like an idiot. Favoritism is rampant and unbearable. Micromanaging to the core. 

This place makes you feel unimportant and defeated daily. 

I would not recommend working here.

Although i've only worked at Uwajimaya for a few months, I can say that it is one of the best jobs i've had. The work environment is very diverse and everyone is welcoming and friendly. I've easily made friends from different departments. The job is mostly relaxed but when it gets busy it's not too bad because everyone helps each other  (for example: when the cashier lines get super busy, the gift department would take a couple customers from their lines to help them check out.)

As a cashier, you're the face of the store and you also look at a lot of faces. 
There are a lot of produce codes to memorize. Customers will bag up unmarked shellfish and bring it to the register without having the seafood dept weigh/tag it (usually after seafood closes for the night).
Shoplifting is pretty ridiculous there. Once, a customer came through covered in blood with a pocket full of uncapped dirty needles and a bloody dollar bill to buy a Popsicle.
Diverse crew.

A typical day is getting in asking the other co-workers what is needed to be done right away. Then check the steam table if food is needed, if so cook. Always cleaning, helping customer, or cooking. The hardest part of work is trying to do everything at once and it doesnt end well. I learned that do one or two things at a time only. The most thing i enjoy about the work was i get to create my own style to the dish that is made there.

Its a good work place with supportive managers. There are lots of variety of cultures in this work place in which it makes work and time go by so much faster. This type of company is broken down into departments and supposed to work as a team, which people do at times, but some times people work in their own type of language group. Which make others feel separated at times and have mix emotional feelings.

I was a cashier at uwajimaya but I also did a lot of other work around the store per request of the store manager. It helped me learn to be the jack of all trades pretty much and even let me know more about the store as a whole as to when I went into the front to cashier, I was able to tell customers about our products a lot better or even where certain things are.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Deli associate 35 salaries reported	$24.69 per hour
Cashier 24 salaries reported	$23.74 per hour
Grocery associate 31 salaries reported	$24.80 per hour
Produce clerk 19 salaries reported	$24.15 per hour
Seafood clerk 15 salaries reported	$26.02 per hour

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