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From my experience working at a non union grocery store, they don't want full time employees other than salaried management. They were always trying to find ways to get rid of people who were there 20+ years and making a decent buck before they axed the pay scale and got rid of the pension plan. They capped hourly employees out at $14 an hour to encourage people to go salaried, where they work people 70+ hours a week for only 45 hours of actual pay. Turnover was high.
Part timers are the backbone of grocers, retail and food services.
Walmart became the largest US employer in the 80's, followed by McDonalds and Yum brands (Taco Bell).
I was at the local Safeway Store and noticed the man who was checking us out at the cash register had a badge that said Store Manager. I made some comment about how we are getting extra service today because we got the store manager to take care of us. He smiled.
I asked him if he had to work at the cash register often. He said, "too often, I just can't get the staff to show up and work." He went on to explain that there is constant turnover, lots of fighting between staff, employees who won't listen to direction, constant sick calls, people who walk off their job and people hired who don't make it to their first day of work without any notice. He told me he was at wits end.
I was shocked he was so candid, maybe frustration just gave him a need to get it off his chest.
My first reaction is he is not paying his staff enough money, or he and his team of supervisors are poor managers. Or there is poor human resources. Maybe they need to hire more immigrants, less native Americans.
What is it, why is this man who manages a large grocery store in a wealthy suburban community having so much trouble?
Supermarkets struggle with high turnover. It leads to stores being shorthanded of associates to effectively serve customers, associates not being trained thoroughly, inventory not being replenished, tasks not being done, and business lost to competitors.
Supermarkets are constantly hiring for front end, delicatessen, grocery, and meat departments. Opportunities in a pharmacy department are limited because of low turnover, good pay, and strict staffing requirement set by state law.
This generation has no work ethic. Millennials want it all without doing anything. They'll wise up when their parents finally throw them out of the house when they are in their 40's.
How many ****ing generational debate threads do we need? I know lazy ass baby boomers still living at their mom's house too. And, of course, I know plenty of hard working baby boomers who have worked their ass off to achieve success. Same with millennials, I know lazy ass ones and hard working ones. It's the same thing for every generation.
Yes, we need to ''can'' the generation critique because it is just not valid for the reasons cited.
That said, my intention had not been to stay at my grocery job forever, but until I find something that pays more, has more reasonable hours, and maybe even benefits, at least it's some money coming in my household.
It's my co-workers who make it tolerable and sometimes even fun. The discount is great and being close to home is great too.
When a business owner says the stuff that is mentioned in the OP, it means that owner wants people who approve of turn-of-the-century labor ideologies. Like a Dickens novel or something . . .
"I cant find good help" really means "I cant find people who will devote their entire existence to me for 2.00 an hour"
A lot of posters complain that grocery stores do not pay high wages. At the wages they pay, the typical grocery store only nets 1.9% of sales after all bills are paid. That 1.9% has to go to a rainy day fund, so if business has a big problem, they still have money to pay employees. It has to go for many things such as the charity donations every business has to make to keep the public happy. It has to go to many places most people never even realize saps money out of a business. And last but not least, is a dividend to stock holders or for small stores goes to the local owner as a profit. The profit and dividends can only be paid if there is any money left.
There simply is not enough money to pay higher wages. Due to competition, they cannot raise prices enough to pay higher wages. If they could raise prices 10% and keep current customers, they could pay higher wages. But if they raise prices 10%, they would lose enough customers that they would take in less money than before the raise, and would have to cut wages back below what they were before the price raises, or go out of business.
It all comes down to money, is why wages are no higher than they are. There is simply not enough money coming in to pay higher wages. If there was more money, unions would be able to get better contracts with higher pay and better benefits. The union heads realize how little money the stores profit, and know they are not going to be able to get their members a huge raise as the workers want. They would if they could, but it is not feasible. As the old saying goes, "You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip" because there is none. Higher wages are not possible, because there is no money available to pay them.
Take a look at the profit margins for about every form of business, and you will see that the profit margins are down to only 1.4% for grocery stores.
I was at the local Safeway Store and noticed the man who was checking us out at the cash register had a badge that said Store Manager. I made some comment about how we are getting extra service today because we got the store manager to take care of us. He smiled.
I asked him if he had to work at the cash register often. He said, "too often, I just can't get the staff to show up and work." He went on to explain that there is constant turnover, lots of fighting between staff, employees who won't listen to direction, constant sick calls, people who walk off their job and people hired who don't make it to their first day of work without any notice. He told me he was at wits end.
I was shocked he was so candid, maybe frustration just gave him a need to get it off his chest.
My first reaction is he is not paying his staff enough money, or he and his team of supervisors are poor managers. Or there is poor human resources. Maybe they need to hire more immigrants, less native Americans.
What is it, why is this man who manages a large grocery store in a wealthy suburban community having so much trouble?
It's probably not hard for his employees to find other jobs working for managers that are competent and don't spend their day trash talking their workers to anyone who will listen would be my guess. I certainly wouldn't work for him. There's one company I used to do some work for. They had a bad reputation and a lot of people warned me about it. Took me a while to see it. I haven't worked for them since. They still contact me every few months trying to get me to cover jobs. Like everyone who warned me about them now, however, I won't take a job from them. They outsource a lot of their jobs now because while they've lost come clients they have a lot more work than staff to handle it.
This generation has no work ethic. Millennials want it all without doing anything. They'll wise up when their parents finally throw them out of the house when they are in their 40's.
And of course you had to be the one bashing millenials in this thread. Millenials this, millenials that.
Not all of us are bums. Get the hell over yourself with that crap.
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