A busy, friendly, fun and fast-paced environment to spend my working hours.
I was hired at a time that an extra employee was MUCH needed in my department; there is a great deal of work that needs doing each day, and a minimum number of people needed to accomplish it all, and unfortunately the HMR department was severely short-staffed prior to my arrival. I very quickly took advantage of the opportunity I was faced with to really show them what I was made of. I made (and currently still make) myself available to go into work whenever they need me to cover a shift and more than that, every time I go into work, I go to work my hardest for them. I legitimately enjoy the fast-paced work environment, and the face-to-face customer interactions. On any given day there is the chance to work one of several different shifts, whether it be making sandwiches and pizza, filling the salad counter, or cooking. It's a wonderful thing to go into work and know that there is a variety in tasks that need doing. I love the feeling of knowing that when I go into work, I make a positive difference. My co-workers and I have no choice but to work as a team, and working in a place like Loblaws makes that a very easy, and enjoyable task for me. Having said that though, one of the hardest things for me working in HMR is to cope with the fact that we do not have a manager and therefore no one to give solid direction. As an employee of Loblaws, I'm part of the union, and with a union comes the task of dividing hours by seniority, not by a persons capability and productivity. I'm a
Prosability to try new foods daily, friendly faces, healthy work environment
Consnot enough hours, seniority rather than skill based hour allocation
I have worked at this location for a few years. If you had asked me about 2 or 3 years ago, I would likely have given a rating of 4 stars. 3 minimum.
When I first started, things felt much more consistent and goals felt attainable. Management (at least on a department level) felt like they were rooting for you and cared for their workers. You felt like you were a part of a team. Policies felt consistent. People felt more pleasant. Criticisms were constructive, and not destructive. The hours were pretty reasonable.
Many of these things, and more, have changed. Below are the most common complaints that come to mind. I wish I had more good to say. I've had worse jobs that left me feeling much better than this one.
*Management*
The current store manager has been pretty great. But he still leaves much to be desired. At first he was very approachable, but as time has gone by he has let a lot of things slide in departments and it's made it feel like there is rarely a point in expressing your opinions. He's still very pleasant. But good vibes only go so far.
The lack of consistent management as a whole has been difficult. In my time, we have had 4 or 5 store managers and several assistants. Just as you have gotten into the groove of one, you're surely going to have another. Whether it's store manager, assistant store manager, or department manager.
One of the most consistent issues... is the lack of consistency and communication between managers, department heads, and staff. I
Type of work,Benefits,Corporate Culture,Attrition,Salary,Employee regard
Zehrs at one point may have been a average place to work
With the recent few years of the culture of attack on its employees
Zehrs is not such a good place to work. Grocery stores have always been a starting point for some. Should you start your children off working for a company like Zehrs the answer is no absolutely no to be more clear.
Zehrs has gone on like many corporate entities and started to attack its employees about a decade ago. With the culmination of spinning off into its own sub company of Loblaws. The attack on its employees has resulted in basically a very hostile work environment with minimum wage expectations and the point of employee professionalism to either work like a robot compete with a robot act like a robot or expect to be terminated.
You would be better off setting your children to start there carreers in the work place in any other type of industry and certainly any other grocer rather then a zehrs or loblaws employee
The amount of money the loblaws companies makes is so convoluted and dishonest like every company in the grocery industry.
They all say they earn less then 3 cents on any item they sell.
Nothing could be further from the truth except if you told me that there was ice water in hades. Which working for this company is akin too.
If your a adult and considering working for zehrs consider other options any other options before you choose zehrs.
If local customers actually knew what goes on in the grocery industry they would shun t
ProsNONE!
Consanything and everything you could think you can find wrong a zehrs
Im a student, whose worked at loblaws for 5 years, since highschool. It's a decent job to have as a student whether your in highschool or college; I wouldn't say university though. It's good money to save for school/daily expenses. However, you bust your balls for every dollar you make. I would say this job is above average in terms of physical labour, depending on your department. I worked in the dry foods. The scheduling and hours/life balance at Loblaws is absolutely beyond atrocious. Like it's literally beyond atrocious.
When your new, they tarnish you with a unreal load of hours and/or give you brutal shifts (2:30-11 back to back shifts, constant back to back 8 hour shifts, a 8 hour closing shift then a 8 hour opening shift the day after; even though there should be a 10 hour time difference in between shifts. The store i worked at didn't give a flying f...). I would give my availability of when I can work depending on my school schedule, and i would say about half the time ive been at this company for the last 5 years, every 2-3 weeks the manager would book me a shift that wasn't according to my availability. And the scary thing is, i'd get called out for not being able to work the shift or get complained at by the manager himself even though i specifically left an availability note saying i can not work that certain day.
At this company or well atleast at the store i worked at, you have to show them you work hard in order to get a mutual respect and build relat
Prosdecent student job
Consshift times, hours, scheduling, disgusting work life balance
Move Fast, Watch Out, Pray for Work, You might be Ok
If you can work under intense time crunches, want to build muscle, or want some decent benefits, this job would be alright.
Problem however, is that the company cares little about your wellbeing, training, and or quality of the job.
Employee's are often encouraged to move and work fast. Even at the cost of safety and stability of palettes. And being that the company often judges you on these numbers you reach, it is not only anxiety inducing, but sometimes unintentionally competitive as often other workers can be aggressive or rude.
Another major issue is dirty floors and cracked floors. These small slips and bumps are not only tripping hazards (in two cases i nearly slipped on wet floors), but can cause vehicles to move uncontrollably with no option to steer or brake, or spill palettes full of food. Not helped by the fact custodial staff is not given any sort of wet floor or caution signs, making these imperfections hard to see.
But for me, my biggest issue with the company and why I left the distribution center were the inconsistent hours and pay. Loblaw does not operate on a schedule, rather by a quota. Which depending on the day, season, and or time. Can last either the full 8 hours or (more likely) just a little less or a little past half of that time. Whatever hours you work you don't get paid, which makes it difficult to plan days and budget for the future. This confuses me as more often then not there's enough to be done around 8pm, yet new employees are often hir
You need a really good pair of cushioned insoled shoes for this job.
I easily get in my 10,000 steps daily doing my job. As front end manager, I answer every call. Whether its a price check, or to retrieve a dozen eggs cause one is broken in the pack. I jump on cash whenever needed. I make sure things run smooth on the floor, in the cash office, out in customer service. I handle customer complaints with empathy and genuine concern. I love teaching newbies everything I know. And I seem to learn something new everyday myself. With my years of experience from Dominion Days till now, I can do almost anything. I have learned to write on cakes, cook a lobster, slice deli meat, wrap meat serve up food in the deli, tally up invoices, order product, do payroll, make schedules, and more. I love my job, but alas, the cement floors have taken it's toll on my body. Vericose veins in one leg developed in the early years as I put all my weight on one leg, and made the turn table spin by pushing on the peddle with the other. Next heel spurs, and eventually osteo arthritis in the knees, and as of late, my wrists are getting in on the bad joint action. Time to retire and let someone younger take over . Close to 50 years in retail and it's time to back off a little. Not entirely though. I think I would go stark raving mad if I didn't get out of the house. I will continue to work PART TIME and work only a few short shifts a week. This way I can look after my health, my husband, my house.. and spend more time with friends and family.
ProsDeveloping great friendships with co workers over the years.
ConsHard cement floors are hard on ones knees after awhile.
I did not expect this job to be so demanding. they want new hires to be operating at 75% by their 3rd week(1 week of training and 2 weeks of regular work) which means picking about 1500 cases of product per 8 hour shift. the shoty equipment and constant setbacks and delays make it extremely difficult for average people to succeed at this job, here are some examples- machines are not maintained until they stop working, constant headset disconnections, most products packed in uneven and irregular shaped containers some products packed with ice in cardboard boxes. frequent delays do to reach truck drivers who are also "competing" for numbers, sometimes large amounts of product at end of isles required to be picked until another picker needs access to isle in which case you move up and they take that spot leaving you with no option but to carry 40pound boxes 20-30 feet which takes more time than the system allows, only 3-4 wrapping stations working/available which causes you to have to hand wrap your pallets which takes time that the system does not allow, short orders of 10 or less items that take you all around the warehouse( bad for numbers), if any injury occurs they will tell you to go to the hospital or keep your mouth shut and work through it ( even though hospital is a hotbed for covid), wearing a mask while preforming heavy lifting at a fast pace causes rapid fatigue. you will hear about some people who make 100k or more per year working here but these people have been h
Prosno pros for new hires. standard bare bones employment for those in desperate need of a pay check
Consso much food wasted, suited only for people who are athletic or willing to hurt them self for money
Good for experience, but there are WAY better opportunities
Ok so there's a lot to say about my experience, so I'll start with the negatives:
- There's a habit of opening shift workers leaving work that they are meant to get done for the closing shift workers which leaves us with more to get done in a short period of time.
- Management is horrible at their jobs despite the fact that they get paid a very large amount more (my manager didn't even train me, he passed that on to a part-timer with only a few months more experience than me)
- You don't get benefits until you've worked there for at least a year, I believe
- I've found that the older workers are often unreasonable with the younger workers and will leave a ton of work for us that we either weren't trained by them to do or wasn't our job in the first place
- We. are. always. short. staffed. Some of it can be owed to the fact that there is such a high turnover rate, but a LOT can be owed to the fact that the manager will not schedule enough people to close or to open.
- Customers can be very rude and quite difficult to deal with. If you add on the fact that we're short-staffed, that almost always means that I am working some of the busiest days of the week alone or with only one other coworker which means dealing with multiple customers at a time to the point that hardly any of our work gets done.
Now on to the positives:
- I enjoy working with people around my own age because we try to make each others jobs easier (i.e. if one of us completes our work, we'll do a coupl
ProsGen Z coworkers are the best, work isn't that difficult
A typical 9am-10pm day at Loblaw's Pharmacy consists of three pharmacists, six technicians/assistants and two cashiers busily working intake, packaging, checking and pick-up stations for approximately 290 to 320 prescriptions. During flu shot season, 300 to 400 prescriptions are the norm.
Working at this pharmacy, I have learned patience in all aspects of this retail environment, whether it be solving third-party billing issues, helping disgruntled customers, locating misplaced stock or just keeping up with workflow. Patience is the single most important characteristic any member of the customer service field must have. With patience, I have led unhappy patients to reach solutions that give them peace of mind.
The management at this pharmacy is lacking in terms of clear disciplinary action and reinforcement of policies. Staff that are late returning from breaks are never spoken to about the matter, including about frequent abuses of long bathroom breaks. Staff are also not discouraged from leaving their post to purchase personal items in the store, whenever they please.
Co-workers are friendly individuals, however, are slow to get to work. Patients have frequently complained that our staff has ignored them in the past, to cluster in the back and chat about personal affairs.
The most difficult part of working as a pharmacy assistant here would be solving third-party issues over the phone. Often times, the insurance company puts you on hold for indefinite per
I applied for this job in May of last year. At the time, I was desperate for a job so I was applying just about anywhere. Loblaws came up, not my first choice but I figured I'd give it a shot, it can't be that bad.I was about as wrong as you could be. My Manager and Assistant Manager were about as boneheaded as you could be. One instance of this was; I was up to around 20 hours after a few months so that would mean shifts would increase. At one point I was working 4 hour shifts 5 days a week. It made absolutely no sense to be doing that to me. I asked management if they could do something like, 2 8 hour shifts and 1 4 hour, they instantly denied me.
Continuing about management, they don't do a single thing. My Manager and Assistant manager would always just sit in their scheduling office and kill time until 8 hours is up. If Management puts no effort fourth why should your employees?
You have to MARRY Loblaws if you want a job here. HAVE to be available weekends (It's retail makes sense) but then they have requirements during the week and certain times you have to be available as well. I believe it was one shift monday through wednesday, one shift either thursday or friday, and you have to be available saturday, sunday. At this place, even part-timers are working 4-5 days a week. It makes zero sense.
The job overall sucked. Snobby customers who think they know better than the store, management on your case about optimum cards, supervisors making you do extra work
ProsWorking in Garden Centre was fun
ConsTerrible Management, Overworked, Moody supervisors, brakes were strict, horrible training
Questions and answers about Loblaw
How often do you get a raise at Loblaw?
Asked Nov 7, 2022
0.6% annually. Pretty terrible after having worked here for 21 years.
Answered Sep 15, 2023
Annually
Answered Jul 11, 2023
What is the promotion process like at Loblaw?
Asked Nov 7, 2022
you have to apply to be promoted through an application for a managerial job
Answered Jun 21, 2023
Base on your performance
Answered Jun 18, 2023
What would you suggest Loblaw management do to prevent others from leaving?
Asked Mar 16, 2017
Management should take courses on how to treat employees. Update equipment like registers and computers so they don't always crash or freeze. Better wages, more consistency with schedule
Answered Aug 30, 2022
Managers and higher ups just need to be nicer and stop taking out their anger at the people below them.
Answered May 14, 2022
What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Asked Nov 7, 2022
Cutting meat, stocking shelves.
Answered Jul 11, 2023
6-8 hour shift every weekend both days
Answered Jul 5, 2023
How are the working hours at Loblaw?
Asked Mar 15, 2017
Horrific! Promise you your minimum asking, and then continually over-hire so that absolutely no one is getting decent hours. BUT......expect you to be on-call constantly in case someone calls in sick, etc. Then chastises you and docks upcoming hours, if your were not available to cover.
Answered Mar 9, 2023
Continually cater to certain people and the others get what's left.
