i've read a few archives and every single one bags on courtesy clerks. lol @ the pun. i was just called in for an interview and im wondering if it's even worth it? everyone's makin it seem like the worst job in the world. i mean money is money cha feel. it can't be that bad..
It's probably the easiest job in grocery (probably retail in general, too). Play baby's first Tetris, push carts, get yelled at by customers for no reason, clean toilets and spills. There's enough variety to not go crazy, but bagging during primetime is really draining and monotonous.
i've read a few archives and every single one bags on courtesy clerks. lol @ the pun. i was just called in for an interview and im wondering if it's even worth it? everyone's makin it seem like the worst job in the world. i mean money is money cha feel. it can't be that bad..
I'll be completely honest with you. I actually like working for Kroger as a courtesy clerk because I get to feel like -- or even know outright -- that I am helping people when I do. Whether it is in the small way of bagging their groceries which will get their purchases home and feed their families or showing them where something is located or helping them out to their car to help make a tiny part of their day better.
The crappy part is that my upper management bosses are arseholes. They could care less if I quit. They so much as told me so themselves when I was written up a week or so ago. One of the two had already bitched me out when I first started telling me she has worked for Kroger for 20 years. I could tell. *rolling my eyes*. And being in the union doesn't really seem to make a difference, although I feel that it is probably a precaution in case my total bastard management bosses decide to frump up again.
The front end supervisors aren't as bad. They at least let me pick up the slack if I want to and don't take condescending tones when asking me or reminding me to do something. But then again as a courtesy clerk I am always moving and staying busy no matter how slow or busy we are at the time. It's tough to come up to me and ask me to do something when I've got my hands full or am obviously already aware of what is going on.
The worst part by far is that goddamned parking lot. We as courtesy clerks do not make any extra pay for bringing the carts in and unlike Wal-Mart we do it manually. So if we are low on carts or we are busy I push 11 of them at a time -- seven on 'the strap' and four in front of me at the end. But our parking lot is sloped so I have to be careful how I push or where I push to or place carts. And of course our customers are clueless MORONS who put the carts in and when I am assigned to ' lot duty ' I have to take ten minutes to solve the puzzle of the connected carts before I can even grab a row to take back into the store. The whole time I am fighting the elements, we do this in zero degrees and we do it in 100 degrees. The humidity, the rain, the snow we still do it. And if it has been raining every cart you bring in will be wet which customers HATE. But good luck in that, there is nothing that you can do.
Plus I am always battling idiots turning into the row trying to find a space or leaving the parking lot so I either have to wait for them to pass or try to move my massive 160+ pounds of horizontal aluminum and steel around to avoid them. Then there are the people who are always backing up out of a parking space that either can't see you but you see them so it's more waiting with 160+ pounds of carts or it's a game of Tetris right there in the parking lot starring YOU as the block.
We really need lot attendants or lot clerks or some crap like that. Or Kroger needs to find a way to give us a bit of extra pay to do that job. The pay increase for the hour or so would at least give incentive to do the damn job and move as many carts as you can. I mean we as employees already can clock in for utility to show when we sweep the store as the clock keeps track. We can clock for breaks, for shifts, for almost anything, it wouldn't take much to modify the computer system that runs that stupid fingerprint scan clock-in to add a parking lot item to it, so basically you go up, select the parking lot, clock it then when you are done clock out, BINGO, you have the extra hour's pay. I am thinking at least $9.00 an hour so that's about $1.75 more than I make right now.
So pros: Co-workers are usually cool, those who have been there awhile will usually help you out and show you the ropes. Overall it's an easy job, unless you are utility you are going to be bagging, go-backs, price checks and assisting with carts taken outside. Your hours will be weirder than working part time at a clock factory (today for instance I worked only four hours) but if you can pick up 15-20 a week it will be considered a victory. You will see many of your co-workers getting a little less than that or a little more. Seniority doesn't really pick up for courtesy clerks. I mean, technically it's possible, but nobody in front end ever really does it unlike other departments. Although seniority can technically play in your hours and how many you get based on the attitude of your Front End Manager or whomever is setting those hours. Depending on the size of your store you may learn quickly the basic aisle numbers and locations (I can tell in my store immediately what aisle the water, cookies, bread, etc. are on).
Cons: That DAMN parking lot. It really is slave labor on Kroger's part. We don't make any additional monies and it's rough as hell. Most of my fellow courtesy clerks just do the job but they know the same as I do, that it's Kroger trying to get the most work for the least amount of pay and least amount of actual employees to do that work. I have spent 30 minutes out of the hour on parking lot duty taking apart cart corrals because our customers have shoved everything in there without caring. oh yea about that, good luck, on two separate instances now in three months of working as Courtesy Clerk I have nearly been hit by a car. Not a driver, a car, and not backing up, either. Then I have had three or four close calls after that. Plus once I found an entire dead chicken, feathers and all, in a bag by one of our trash cans. Seriously, a whole chicken. Probably not dead that long either. I have heard a rumor one of our cc's once found a used tampon. I have seen dirty diapers myself. Plus many of our customers are lazy jackasses, they will leave a cart ten feet from a corral or they will just leave a cart sitting along an island or the middle of the parking lot expecting people to come and get it. Yea. You.
Also cons, we are supposed to greet each customer and tell them 'have a nice day' or something similar but if we are really smoked and busy I don't have the time to do that which sometimes I feel as if I should. I mean it's one thing to have a $300 order and feel like you should have a few extra appendages but even if it's a small order if there are five people waiting you just have to grab and go. Plus communication is not always the best, at least at my store. We have had mandatory re-train meetings, brief ones, where videos are watched quickly and regulations are reminded, but for instance one day we had a courtesy clerk who was on parking lot duty have to go in to one of those stupid things, this was at 6 p.m. but we were busy that day. At 6:30 p.m. on our main entrance we had very few carts available. Why? Because he was the courtesy clerk on that side and he was in a meeting and front end supervisors didn't send someone out in his place for that period of time. Heck I came in to work one day at 6:15 scheduled and was on the parking lot schedule from 6-7! Plus lately our trend for courtesy clerks, me at least, is to come in and the exact hour I start is the first hour I have to be in the lot. So let's say I am scheduled to work 3-8, well guess what, I'd better get into the habit of getting to work at 2:50 at least because I will most likely have to be in the parking lot at 3 p.m.
All in all I really DO like my job, but my upper management's attitude of emotional apathy and straight-up corporate bulls-h-i-t combined with the slave labor that comes out of that parking lot and the minimum wage, well, it IS a nice job, but there are better ones out there. When I came out of that meeting after being told "You can quit today and we can part ways and we will be okay with that" I just lost all emotional connection to my job. Before I would give 110%. Now I give only the required 100% or slightly less because, well, why should I care about the 10% if my bosses barely see me as the 100%?
You are the only one who can decide if you want the job. I would say take it because the pay IS weekly, you can even set up direct deposit, and even with the union (don't let anyone con you into thinking you HAVE to join by the way---it's optional), federal, state, etc. taxes on your paycheck if you can pull around 16-22 hours a week, or somewhere in that window, you'll be making at least $100 a week. Which isn't that bad. I mean yea $400 a month is below the poverty level and you can do better but for say a summer job or a job while you go to school and need to pay for books or partial tuition or even if you just want spending cash to put gas in your car tank, well, it'll do that for you. And I have to admit, the discount isn't that bad and the fuel points, if you choose to use them, are handy. Good luck.
Courtesy clerks jobs gets you in the door. It's your opportunity now to show your employer your work ethics! I Have had the pleasure of working with several managers who's first job was courtesy clerks. I have just had the pleasure of working with a gentleman who graduated with a master degree that worked the last 8 years with Kroger. Remember your first job starts the beginning of your resume. Work with a positive attitude. Remember that customer is the reason you have a job. Do not worry about what other employees do or don't do just follow the company rules, be dependable, dress in uniform and wear your name tag. You will be noticed and if you would like to work in a different area let the department manager and manager know.
Yup it gets you in the door.. if you're not heavily restricted and do a good job.and so on you'll move up. Its not supposed to pay good because its not intended to be a career position if you're there for over a year and still doing it then either you're heavily restricted, you have special needs if it seems hard for you then quit its the easiest job In the store departments look easy from the outside but keep in mind most people in departments have been doing it for a long time. Always work hard department managers see you and it matters because if they need to fill a position they aren't going to pick the guy they see sweeping the floor and texting at the same time.
Yup it gets you in the door.. if you're not heavily restricted and do a good job.and so on you'll move up. Its not supposed to pay good because its not intended to be a career position if you're there for over a year and still doing it then either you're heavily restricted, you have special needs if it seems hard for you then quit its the easiest job In the store departments look easy from the outside but keep in mind most people in departments have been doing it for a long time. Always work hard department managers see you and it matters because if they need to fill a position they aren't going to pick the guy they see sweeping the floor and texting at the same time.
Next paycheck you get, please purchase some punctuation.
Is any job really worth it? If you stick with it a while you can move up into cashiering or a department and head up towards management - but you have to ask yourself if working at a grocery store is something you'd be okay with doing 5 or 10 years from now. It's a fast paced high stress environment, and although most jobs claim to be such, the supermarket really is. You'll be on your feet a lot and juggling multiple balls and answering to a seemingly infinite supply of supervisors and managers. None of that cushy office job nonsense where your biggest problem is boredom and water cooler gossip and wondering if your boss can tell you're using the work computer for porn.
