Pros
Not many. Coworkers are for the most part alright. There's always work Most regulars are kind Benefits are good Good medical Good eye and dental plans Learn new skills Good deal with 24 hour fitness gym membership The Safeway products that workers get discounts on are actually better than a lot of name brands. Can get some good deals on Just For U Good job opportunities for disabled workers Good as a first job experience
Kontras
Pay is barely over minimum wage Never enough people hired Never enough people stay The union initiation fee is more than most are willing to pay about 300-600 Many rude customers They spread out their workers very thin Even with a skeleton crew they tell us that there's too many hours being used by workers Not enough people for the amount of work done. Almost always under staffed Union dues once a month is in the double digits, almost looks like one third of pay check. Opportunities to move up vary, depends what department you're in. Too many can't transfer to other stores or departments. Deli department in particular is under paid. Also customer service. New Just For U system makes workers have to go online and add their 10% discount instead of it being automatic. 10% discount only covers Safeway brand products not entire store Have to fill out safety observations on a weekly basis, gets old very fast TV in breakroom only shows a circulated Safeway advertisement and Safeway employee extremely basic How to Do Your Job videos. That workers don't watch most of the time. With the stricter health department requirements being enforced, pressure on departments that handle food has doubled. Many stores have not been renovated and have a lot of outdated or problematic equipment. They don't really listen to employees. Employee opinion doesn't mean anything. A lot of guilt tripping if you call in sick even once. Could be truly sick and they'll still want you to work. Union protects even bad workers. If a worker passes probation they could be a horrible worker for a long time before getting fired, talking years. New contract benefits have been reduced, and you pay more.