Trader Joe's reviews

By far the worst part of working at Trader Joe's is the schedule. It's not how many hours you work, it's how they are bunched together. Many, but not all, Trader Joe's stores use what they call a descending schedule. You start your work week by working 2pm to 12am. The next day you start a little earlier, like 12pm to 10pm, and each day after you start a little earlier and earlier. On the last day of your week you work 5am to 3pm. So in 5 days you go from starting at 2:00 in the afternoon to starting at 5:00 in the morning. Some days you will have 9-10 hours off between shifts.

This review is intended for people who are thinking about joining Trader Joe's store management from the outside. Starting compensation was decent, but yearly bonuses were laughable. My first year bonus was 1.2% of salary... For the entire year. Work/Life balance is atrocious and completely unhealthy. Mates work a waterfall schedule. Here's an example: tues and wed off; thurs 2:30pm-12:30am; fri 1pm-11pm; sat 8am-6pm; sun 5am-3pm; mon 4am- 2pm. Store level management: most of the other managers I worked with were promoted to mate and had several years experience working in trader Joe's, rather than hired directly into mate like myself. Nearly all of them were uneducated, lazy, entitled, and would not last more than a few months in a manager position at anywhere else except maybe Walmart. There is a strong disconnect between internal mates and external mates. I was met with cold shoulders and it was difficult to find one of them to help me learn the business. Captains: I worked under 3 captains and while all were very nice, none of them really knew how to manage a store. I don't blame them necessarily, I blame trader Joe's lack of training and development. This also explains why you have captains who have been at the store level for over 20 years. They aren't gaining the skills and experience to go on to something bigger and better. A lot of people with golden handcuffs. Employees: most crew members usually did as little as possible. There were a few that worked extremely hard but most of them just didn't care. A lot of people with no direction, no work ethic, and zero drive to better themselves. Work environment: although in a management position, as a mate you're just a glorified crew member. Breaking down pallets, stocking shelves, turning a key on a register to open it because cashiers are not allowed to do it themselves, working a forklift, are all common. This a blue collar job and it will wear your body down fast. A lot of injuries due to repetitive stress. Getting transferred to different stores: in my 2+ years at trader Joe's I worked at 3 different stores. There was no reason behind moving people around. They also did not care to keep people close to home. Some of the other mates had an hour commute both ways on top of working the waterfall schedule. Overall: Worst job I've ever had and I am blessed to have found a new career. This is a dead end management job. I would only recommend to people who are comfortable having no life and don't mind doing the same thing day after day for the rest of their lives. It's retail management and it sucks no matter how you look at it.