Budweiser Gardens

Overall, Budweiser Gardens is fine. I started while I was in grade 9, now I'm in grade 12 and because of this job I've saved up a really good amount of money for college. It is like any minimum wage cashier job; it sucks, but you get paid for it. If you apply, you'll almost definitely get hired, sometimes even without an interview.

This job has helped me become more confident and outgoing in all aspects of my life. Part of this can be attributed to it being my first "real" job, but another part is the friendly staff showing me that new things aren't as scary as I thought they were. We are understanding if you don't know things for your first few shifts, but once we have taught something to you, we expect you to be able to do it on your own, promoting self confidence in a way, and personal management as well.

I think one of the more disappointing things about this job is the way that the shifts work: September through March-ish is very busy because of the Knights hockey season and the Lightning basketball season. Typically you would work almost every Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, with Saturdays sometimes thrown in there. It is very hard if you're a student and you're trying to have a social life. I was basically only able to see my friends in school in those months, never outside of school. The months after March very VERY quickly taper off from three shifts a week to two every other week, to two a month for the three months of summer. If there was a graph of months versus number of shifts it would be a very messed up graph. This schedule gives time for you to find a summer job however, which could be seen as both a good and a bad thing I suppose (that's why I'm on Indeed looking for a summer job).

What follows is a very in depth look at my experience working there.

A typical day at Budweiser Gardens would include setting up product for the day (bunning hot dogs/sausages, stocking candy, making popcorn, etc.), then either preparing your till or getting ready to prep for a cashier, or working on popcorn if you're unlucky enough to be stuck with that job for the night (seriously it's the worst, I had to work it for two Knights seasons in a row, I hated my life after. Knights games are easily the busiest for popcorn and it just sucks man).

Once the doors open for the event, you serve customers by getting them drinks, snacks, food, or whatever they order. Once the hour of doors is over, you get a little time to restock and clean before the first intermission begins and you serve patrons again.

Depending on the event, you can have one to three intermissions: concerts typically have one or two, Knights games have two, and Lightning games have three. Once these intermissions are over, and the stand leader has given the sign to close, you may start counting your till or start cleaning. Depending on the concession stand, you may have to do dishes or help with counts, but in every stand you must help with the general cleanup.

By the end of the night, these things must be clean: hot dog roller, pretzel warmer, pizza warmer, pop machines (vary one to two from stand to stand), popcorn machine, butter warmer, popcorn warmer, Icee machine, and nacho cheese dispenser. Not every stand has every single one of these items, but most of them have the majority of items on the list.

After these items are cleaned, the floor must be swept in both the front and back areas, and then both areas must be mopped as well, with one person wet mopping and one person dry mopping. The person doing the dishes is responsible for making sure the dishwashing sinks are clean before they leave.

It sounds like a lot to clean, but with the work divided to at least 4 people, it goes by relatively quick and typically you are headed home about 30-40 minutes after the stand is closed. We typically aim to finish before the event has ended, because once all of the attendees leave, the parking lot is terrible to traverse. Country crowds and older crowds are especially the worst in the parking lot.

The job challenges vary from event to event. Knights game typically breeze by, same with Lightning games, however challenges with concerts change depending on the genre. For more modern events (Twenty One Pilots, Metric) it is usually easy, but for concerts with older crowds, you can expect to hear a lot of complaining about the prices. However older people tend to tip well for beer, so if you can withstand the shocked faces once you read the total owed, you'll be fine. The other genre that is universally hated by workers is the country concerts. The crowds try to get as drunk as possible, which we are not allowed to let occur. For someone like me who is generally very quiet, I find it hard to cut someone off, especially if they've already had a bit to drink and they run the risk of getting angry. Rock concerts are similar to this crowd, but tend to be able to control themselves more. The benefits of these two concerts is that sometimes the patrons get drunk enough to start tipping a lot, so generally you can make 20 extra bucks easy for these nights.

Sometimes we have events that we call "caps off," or "pour everything" events. These are two separate events where one, the caps of all bottled drinks must be removed and kept, or two, the entire contents of the bottle must be poured into a fountain pop cup. These rules are given to the Budweiser staff from the specific event managers: the employees CANNOT control this at all, and it varies from event to event!! But a lot of patrons seem to think that it is a personal attack on them, that we won't let them have their bottle caps. If we give you the cap we can easily get in trouble!! These events have by far the most complaints from customers, which makes them absolutely hated by all concession staff. Those nights are probably my absolute least favourite thing about this job.

Like I said in my first few lines, Budweiser Gardens is fine. The workers range from high schoolers to college graduates, so this is a good first job or an old reliable one to come back to when you can't find anything else. Budweiser Gardens will always be there for you, waiting for your return.

Working at the Budweiser gardens is exciting because it was a new environment for me to be in. I've gained a lot of experience with sales, customers, and patience. The pros of the job are free food and you get to experience fun events such as, seeing Disney characters, monster trucks and more. You always see happy customers and it makes the workplace just that much better. The only con of this job is that, you are on your feet for 10+ hours straight so it can get exhausting. There are usually some people who try to steal food, it's a very crowded place which could make you overwhelmed and cautious. I've gained a lot of experiencing with customers as in, making sure they are happy, making sure they get what they want, and that they have a great time at the event. Working here for me has helped my patience with customers. We have a lot of items to sell, so it could take up to 5 minutes until the customer knows what he/she wants. All the employees were friendly and nice as well. We all made sure everyone was happy and that everything was cleaned up by the end of the day.

During my years working as a cashier here, I've met a lot of great co-workers, the job salary is fine which is minimum wage (it is also based on the amount of events that you are scheduled for), my only complaint is the lack of organization that management has. The job itself is very straightforward once you get used to it. The hardest part is having to think on your feet constantly because you are scheduled based on events, one shift might be insanely busy while the next one might be slow. As a first job, Budweiser is a great place to gain experience and skills from. The only issue with working here is unorganized management which can make the working experience hard to deal with at times.

I have a preferred location and the patrons I deal with are mostly season ticket holders for hockey games and they are amazing people. I talk to them all the time with tons of laughter. Co-workers are amazing team players. We look after each other and having a good time. There are always a bad apple in the crowd but it is dealt with very professionally and effectively. I do love the people I deal with on every shift. It's always a good time.

I had multiple friends who worked with me at budweiser gardens who all, including me, quit because the manager for the concession staff was a horrible person. He would never listen to requests for time off, even if given enough time, and cursed out an employee for checking her phone during a shift. Loved the coworkers there, the leaders in the stands were great too, but it was not worth the mental pain of dealing with our manager to continue working there.

The job is great for someone who hasn't had a job yet and is looking for a good place to get some base knowledge and skills to help in future jobs.

The job is very variable based, some shifts will be super busy because its a large event, some will be slower because its a smaller event. So you have to react effectively to what sort of event is going on that specific day.

I really enjoy working at budweiser gardens. the job is pretty straightforward and the pay is to be expected from a cashier. However, the management isn't very good. I have been working there for a few months now, and I never get e-mailed my schedule, which occasionally causes me to miss shifts, and i never get e-mailed what stand I'm supposed to work at.

I set up stages for a lot of different bands, artists and entertainers. The work isn't mentally straining in any regard, but very physically straining. You have to keep up with the rest of you crew or you end up leaving more work for those around you, so keeping pace is really important to your team members.

The working environment at Budweiser Gardens is almost inadequate. Coordinators are often unorganized or go missing to go hang out with friendly co workers in isolated areas to avoid working with the rest of the force. Proper and PROFESSIONAL rules should be enforced upon the conversion crew.

I worked here for 3 years, then the pandemic hit. It was a good job while I was a student. However, now I have a family and it is not feasible anymore. You work every knight’s game, but not every event. They also usually pick their favourites for the events. I met some fantastic coworkers though!

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