Tractor Supply reviews

This is a lengthy response in hopes that Upper Management will see this: 1) Pay- Not for Store Managers, we are on par with specialty retail. But for all hourly Team Members which is everyone else in a store. The company fails at offering a rate which draws in quality employees. Average starting pay for a PT Team Member (TM) is $8/hr. And the job is physically tiring. We also expect an $8 employee to be a sales and product expert. Add to that they need to really understand retail merchandising and what makes retail happen. For $8 you can barely get anyone that can operate a computer these days. Our main competitors start people at $10-$11. Our full time key holding Team Leads do not even make that! 2) An extension of pay, Bench Depth- Your DM & RVP will preach that we should be developing TM's for leadership, and the hourly leadership for the next roll up. Again we do not pay enough for quality. You're essentially saying, "Hire an $8 an hour employee and make them business and retail leaders for our future." That's not going to happen. And for the few good employees you can locate and hire we cannot give consistent hours so they can maintain a level of take home pay; so they quit. We are constantly told to cut payroll by anywhere from 3%-5% weekly, even during Christmas. 3) Payroll- A very low percent to gross sales as it stands for an industry average. Yet TSC brags at sales meetings how many consecutive quarters of growth and beating earnings estimates we are on. I get it, I like the stock price to go up too. But what do you do when you've cut payroll so much that customer service and store standards suffer, which they currently are across the board? When our growth slows you will have no more to cut, no margin to be had, and earnings will really suffer. This is a very short sighted approach in my opinion. 4) Work life balance- Balance is a TSC value, I think they really mean that. Problem is with the payroll level, store standards expectations, and the less than high caliber employees Store Managers as the only salaried employees must absorb the slack if you care about running a good store. If you don't so much care you can work your 55 and go home. Just know you will receive poor store visits. If you care, and especially if you want to be a top performer you can expect a 6 day week, and about 65 hours a week. Including days like Sundays and holidays when you will be the only manager for the whole 12 hours in order to make your payroll budget. I get it, it's retail and it's our choice to make. However, it burns out your good managers. 5) Advancement - I will say it's actually very easy to move up to any level including Store Manager. Show up, work hard, learn the processes. Want to be a DM? That's another story. High performing store managers are routinely passed over. The only thing set on how to become a DM is that your RVP must personally like you and send you to a week long panel interview. At that the other RVP's must personally like you at that interview. It has nothing to do with running the best store. I understand that there is a level of "Right person in the right seat". But the company is hiring external DM's and passing by good Store Managers based on a level of personal connection, and not on the merits of if they can run a good district. I found it odd that out of almost 1,500 stores that we do not have enough "depth" that there is a Store Manager qualified to be a District Manager. Hopefully this gets passed on to someone who takes it to heart. I like working at TSC. I want a very long career at TSC even if it is only as a SM for the entire time. I just ask that we look into pay and staffing levels. You are killing your good SMs, and stores, and more importantly customer service, is suffering.

Huge disconnect with the company values being preached verses being followed in the field. DM's need to be retrained, weed out the old school ones who only focus on hitting numbers, regardless of the personal cost on the team in the trenches. Company's fast pace growth is leaving behind the ones where it counts, in the stores! It really ought to be an embarrassment to the company to have balance as a value and treat SM & ASM's the way they do.