Working at Trader Joes — Reviews by Employees

I am very happy to be a Crew Member at Trader Joe's. I am a foodie, and I love to keep busy. So it is a great fit for me. I have worked in alot of other businesses and this is the one for me. We take care of each other big time, the crew and the customers. Even the store Managers (called Captain and Mate) make it a special and fun place to be. After almost 5 years I feel that I will make it another 5 years. I, being female, get treated equally and don't feel like it's a boys club. We are always talking about how to keep business up cause if we don't take care of our customers then we will be just like the guys across the street who think they can make their building pretty so they win -ya right!. I like the way we are allowed and encouraged to do cool stuff for them. I made alot of friends here at work. My friend showed me this site cause she hates her job and alot of her co-workers post bad stuff about the job. Our score is pretty good! Glad I don't work at her job:) LOL!

Pay - The pay for part-time crew members is better than average. As a new employee coming on it depends on how much experience you have but most likely you will be started at $10 to $12 dollars an hour. Raises are every six months and can vary between nothing and one dollar per raise. It depends on what score you get on your review but most people get 3's (on a 1 to 5 scale) and get a raise of 30 to 40 cents. Supervisors get paid required overtime which makes it hard to leave the job.

Respect- The management (captain and first mate) are always available to talk about store issues. Supervisors (full-timers) are always around to listen to concerns if management isn't available. Crew members are regularly praised for their achievements and offered developmental plans if they need help in certain areas.

Benefits - The benefits are great. Health insurance is offered after you work a certain number of hours in a quarter. Employee discount is 10%.

Job security - IT is pretty hard to get fired at Trader Joe's. If you show up and work hard and give the customers all your attention you will do well here .

Work/Life balance - As a part-timer it is easy to have a good work life balance. Shifts are usually around 7 hours and you can work as little or as much as you want depending on your schedule outside of work. As a full-timer you are at the mercy of the store and will work at least 47.5 hours a week. More if you get a lot of sick calls or if there is a special flyer coming out. Also as a supervisor be prepared to work a descending schedule starting with nights (usually 1pm-11pm) for two nights, the "turn-around (usually 7a-5p) for one day, then super early mornings starting at 4am for your remaining two work days. This can make for a terrible balance because you are tired all the time and don't want to do anything except sleep outside of work.

career potential - It's more difficult than it used to be to get promoted to "novitiate" or entry level supervisor than it used to be. If you work hard, relate to people well and get good review scores you will have no problem getting promoted pending upon if there is a need in your area.

location- sometimes out of the way places but mostly in easily accessible areas

co-worker competence - depending on who does the hiring in your store it can be hit or miss. Lots of people work at Trader Joe's for a long time so they know what they are doing but occasionally you will get a newbie who has no clue what they are doing.

work environment - pretty relaxed overall. Keep your hands moving and you can talk all you want. Most people are pretty cool even the customers. Be prepared to do the occasional all day register shift if there are a lot of sick calls. It doesn't happen often but keep a smile on your face and you'll do fine.

Let's start by stating the positive, my company has great benefits and a fun environment. People that work at Trader Joe's are usually happy and it shows in their work. The customer experience is incredible and we stock the shelves with great products.

Now the negative: I am considered part time crew member yet work forty hours a week. They give me less responsibilities than management yet more than a part time crew member. Whenever we have a store visit from a regional manager I am leaned on heavily. They depend on me and are forced to make due when I am not at work. I work in retail (manual labor) yet I am one of the few that has to sit at a desk to do my job. Because of this I am treated like I have a silver spoon in my mouth. So I am forced to complete my deadlines working on a cobbled together table and sitting in a fold out chair. I am paid the same hourly rate that the other part time employees are paid yet my review is based on different criteria. On a daily bases many interoffice company emails are directed towards. I am responsible for the appearance of the store and all marketing of products. My job title is called "Crew Member" yet all levels of management in the company call me an "Artist". I believe it is a common opinion among management that artists are a dime a dozen and replaceable. I have a Bachelor in Fine Arts with an Emphasis in Illustration yet I spend many days "coached" by Store Managers on how to improve my work. Mind you most store managers don't have a college degree in anything much less art. When you express an opinion it is considered confrontational.

I know this message will make me sound like a bitter employee who is difficult to work with. I actually have a great working relationship with my store managers and they probably have no clue how I feel. Even if I passed it on to my store manager (which might be the end of my days as an employee) they couldn't do anything about it because the decisions are made at a much higher corporate level. So talk to my regional manager you say? Did you read the part where I said I have a good working relationship with my managers?

It's been 5 years. Now I am becoming unsure. I believe it is becoming too corporate. Too much of the "good ol' boys club". Obviously the economy has hurt everyone, but even this "progressive" company who is here for fun and values is now just cutting out the true workers money for I assume the higher profits. Right, I know I should be happy to just have a job, that pays well with amazing benefits. I am. It has changed from 5 years ago. I miss the old TJ's. . . .or maybe I just miss being a good hard working part time employee not working 50 hours a week (who gets lower raises then others who are not in management )...(yes, I work hard). Blah blah. It has both aspects. It all depends on what side you look on it from. Great job for anyone in college!!

Great place to work. Employees are treated with respect, the pay is decent, and there is no bureaucracy. What more could you want.

I find it interesting that Trader Joe's is one of the very, very few companies on this site with a positive average score. And also sad. We get paid pretty well here, but in order to earn what would be considered 'good' wages, you have to become a full-timer, i.e., get on the management track. So when I say pretty well, I refer to the range of pay of all professions and also whether I could survive on just my weekly wages (I couldn't). Retail- and/or grocery store-wise, though, the pay is outstanding. Performance reviews are every six months (used to be every three!) and normally result in at least a minimal wage increase. Benefits are phenomenal. One need only work 900 hours per year to receive full benefits with reasonable out-of-pocket deductions. That is practically unheard of in the working world, and I believe Starbucks is about the only company that's competitive in this regard.
And everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING, is completely subjective and mutable. Some of my co-workers are amazingly competent and hard-working; some do the absolute minimum required to retain their job. "Respect" got a high rating from me because I'm working with managers who treat me with it. Had I written a review a year ago, when I worked at another location with different management, I would have ranked it at about a -4. Location gets a 5 because I can walk to the store or ride my bike; in fact, when the store (a new TJ's) hired its new employees, I believe I heard that over 70% lived less than two miles away. And Bravo to TJ's (specifically, its managers) for 'hiring local.' This, I believe, truly lends the store a neighborhood feel.
I could go on, but other reviewers have said it already. Yep, you will work hard. Yep, they expect a lot from you. Consider it a character-building gym membership that you're getting paid for. Nothing wrong with that!

I have been a part time crew member at trader joe’s for going on 3 years now. I can say that this is a good company to work for. The pay and benefits are great and I have met a lot of cool people. We have a new manager who started last year. He is a cool guy and seems to care about me and my life. Most of the crew members are good folks as well. The new manager expects much more from us and the supervisors then the old one, and some employees cant hang with that and they get pissey. But if you work hard and do your job good then u will love the job. It is very physical and stuff gets hard sometimes, but we keep it fun. I can honestly say that the ones who post bad stuff about Trader Joe’s on this site need to get a life. It’s a pretty sweet job.

What a great place! The work is hard, but the atmosphere is fun. Customers are cool, fellow employees are caring and funny. Not everyone is perfect, but that's just life. I feel respected and appreciated, and my management really seems to care about me. Had to take a sick day, and the tone was concern, not accusation or disbelief. I think they try hard to keep things as fun and light as possible, even on the hectic crazy days.

This job rocks. I've never had a job before where I feel happy and excited to be at work every day. The crew is large at my store, around fifty or so, and we are all really close. Everyone is eclectic, interesting, and funny, and the work itself is very straightforward and even fun. To anyone seeking a good, solid job which allows you to still be yourself, Trader Joe's is a good option for you.

i've been working at tj's for more than a year now, and i have grown to truly, truly despise it.

it's a complete and total boys club in which the bosses favor the pretty, young girls they themselves hired based on those qualities alone. bosses easily get away with making sexist remarks on a daily basis, they sexualize their female workers and walk around on power trips all day and night long there. management is beyond awful, my captain likes to think of himself as the "good guy" because he wants us to govern ourselves when really that's the coward's way out because he won't take the responsibility necessary to actually change awful situations that have come up there.

the amount of favoritism and sexism i've encountered there in this past year has spiraled me into the worst depression of my life.

i know, i know, why don't i just quit? i've been looking for another job with equivalent pay & benefits and so far no luck. :(

i think this company loves to feature itself under the guise of an amazing progressive company but in reality it's full of huge gaping holes in the "progressive" area.