Pros
-Flexible hours: my department (Grocery) was extremely flexible on the hours. I had a set schedule, but I could freely adjust my hours with very little harassment from management. As long as you came in and did your job they were okay with it. -Benefits: they have good benefits for a small grocery store chain. Good 401K and medical, vision, dental for only $60 a month (single). My checkups at the dentist were only like a $100 and they give you an annual $200 allowance on vision which includes the eye exam. -Discount: they give you an ID cart after several months of employment. You get a 10% discount in the store with this card (20% in Gift). -Laid back (this could be a CON for some): employees including management are super laid back. It is almost to the point of negligence. This will be a great if you're someone that doesn't like working hard. I will explain the reason for the laid back environment in the "Cons". -Employees: work ethics aside, majority of the employees are friendly and easy to get along with. I never witnessed any unnecessary drama or fights. -Friendly customers: the store is fairly expensive so majority of customers are upper middle class. You will rarely see a car under $30k in the parking lot. Stereotypical snobby customers who might shop at Walmart or Winco doesn't walk in Uwajimaya. Majority of the Asian customers are very friendly (probably a culture thing) and even the Caucasian customers are too. I rarely saw a customer make a big deal in the store.
Cons
-Low wage: Uwajimaya doesn't pay well. Their starting pay is slightly above minimum wage and you get one mandatory "raise" of around $0.15 after several months. After that you don't get any raises NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU WORK. You can have an A+ review and that still wouldn't matter. They currently have what's called a "wage freeze" due to the failed opening of the Renton, Washington branch. -Poor store management: I've never seen a company with such poor management as Uwajimaya. None of the managers and store directors have any college education, therefore they have absolutely no idea about business management. All they know is what they've learned and experienced at Uwajimaya. Some of the managers don't work at all: they stay in their office, check emails, do some paperwork, play on their phones, surf the internet, let the phone ring, chit chat with coworkers, and go home. Obviously not all the managers are lazy, but most of them fall short when it comes to ethics, etiquette, professionalism, and integrity. -Poor corporate management: Uwajimaya is a family owned business so they don't care about you if you're not family or close friends with the family. They view and treat their employees like slaves. They aren't appreciative of the work that gets done. They only care about the profits and to them workers are dime a dozen. They don't even care if the stores are unhygienic (no joke) and dirty, as long as the company's making money it's all good. -Low morale: low wages, no raises, and poor management results in an unproductive work atmosphere. No one really works hard because they know it's pointless. A lot of the work gets done incomplete which later results in working harder to fill those holes. Very inefficient work space. Employees punch in, do the very minimum, and go home. The atmosphere can turn a hard working employee to an I-don't-care-anymore. This is why Uwajimaya has a horrendous turnover rate. Most employees leave after 6 months to a year. Career growth: Uwajimaya is a small company so there's not many chances for promotion. Corporate doesn't like spending money on employees so they're very hesitant on opening more positions even though they're clearly needed.