Complaint Review: Albertson's Osco Jewell - Nationwide

I was a manager at an Albertson's.  I made more than the other employees. I also put in more hours, worked harder, and took the rap if my cashiers did something wrong.  I was the one that needed to make sure they did their jobs.  I also was responisble for making sure that the customers left our store happy and with the feeling their needs were met.  I don't know what kind of Albertsons you have been shopping in, but it in no way should be put up againts ALL stores in the company, and deffinatly not ALL managers.  I would still be at that job, happy, and making good money had I not needed to move away due to family problems. About the alarm clocks... This too must not have been at the Albertson's I was employed at.  I am aware I am no longer there, but still keep close contact with several emplyees that are.  We do get written up for not taking a lunch, or clocking in late to a shift.  Again if you can't do the job correctly there will and should be repricussions to the lack of ability.  Do you expect to be rewarded for bad behavior?

In all companies, the C.E.O's get big bonuses, and need to save the companies they are head of money.  Every employee at my store was offered insurance, cheaper and better than that at my husbands carrier that he was employed at for 10 years.  I got raises, but had to prove myself and actually work for those raises.  No they do not hand them out like they are candy, no you should not expect to get a raise at any hob if you do not do your job well.  We also had the ability to sign up for the union if we wanted to, and by no means were employees in or out of the union were allowed to treat the opposing emplyees and differantly.  I was not in the union, I still recieved respect, my raises, and occasional pats on the back for a job well done.

In short the "reports" of Albertsons can be said about ANY fourtune 500 company.  So I suppose we should also not shop at Wal-mart, K-mart, Sears, Common Cents, or any other store with more than one location? 

And touching on the bicycles and bus remark, I know several people that got raises this year at many other companies that are forced to change the ways in which they get to work based on increased gas prices, food prices, insurance prices, clothing prices ect.... The economy is rough, and will be rough for a long long time.  This is not the fault of one store chain.

Well, I have more incentive to quit this damned company now. Larry and his company are so full of s**t; it's ridiculous! I knew something was fishy when I worked 40 hours a week, and they wrote me down as "part-time." I've already been looking for another job, and once I find one, I'm quitting. At the moment, I'm just gonna keep kicking up my feet, tell my managers to f**k off, and pretty much do what I want. A little blackmail goes a long way, I guess. Still, I hate this place, the customers, and the people I work with. I'd rather be in a better hellhole.

Larry, sit on it and rotate. May you burn to the ground with your cheap chain of stores!

A little Information on Albertsons Ethics I was an Albertsons employee for about four and a half years. Three weeks ago I was suspended two days after calling in sick, after a bogus so called Loss Prevention Investigation (time card discrepancies minutes added up over eight month period of sixty some dollars shrink, video surveillance, bla bla bla). After the suspension I was fired. I have been a butcher for almost 20 years. I have worked for three company's during my career. I have never been fired or anything remotely close to it before Albertsons. Here is a little information on the company and my store (#373 Bountiful UT), before you make a judgment about the above statement. I have four copies of different doctors notes I have acquired over the last four and a half years. I got the notes to excuse me from work when I was sick. I always went to the doctor if I was so sick I had to call in to work. I also have four separate warning and or suspension notices given to me from Albertsons dated within three days of the dates on my doctors notes. Four separate times! The fifth time I was fired following the suspension (stated previously). But Albertsons can't discriminate against you for being genuinely sick (or having benefits, making good wages, being union member, ect.). So they use other tactics and BS to discriminate and get rid of the employees they feel cost them too much. Look at the postings! The day after I called in sick, for example: they would write me up for coming in late on a day that I came in on time (more than once), they used a print out of times I was late in the previous months as justification. Even when I had phenomena, two days after the date on my doctors note, I was given a written warning, threatening termination for being late. They did this kind of BS to me five times! All Documented. I am just glad I keep records. I talked to two lawyers on Friday both said the same thing and offered to help (no payment unless I win). I was told discrimination cases are usually one of the hardest to prove (a lot of hearsay, testifying, ect ), Its not that often the discriminator gives you the proof and documentation you need. I'm just so angry I have never been treated so unfair and rotten in all my life. It doesn't matter that I'm the father of two, have a disabled wife, custody of a five year old I've had since birth because he had a bad start in life. To Albertsons I was just a money problem. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do from here.But I do know I didn't deserve to be treated like this!!! Randy Bountiful Utah

I once saw an email from division that read: Please Remember it is absolutely necessary to cut as many hours as you can, to better serve our customers. ?????????????

I work in the meat market at a Jewel in Illinois. I've been with the company for about three months and I have to validate many statements already stated and have a few complaints of my own about Albertsons. My number one complaint is the full-timers and managers in the meat market treat the part-timers like s**t. They take advantage of us by making us do a load of work that we can't possibly get done in our shifts. If I can't complete something, I always leave a note saying I couldn't finish it and will do it the next time I'm here. DO NOT MAKE ANYONE ELSE DO IT. the managers always b***h about it, however, and expect the impossible done. I wouldn't complain about it if I didn't get bitched at and if some of this work was done by the full-timers in the day. I don't care if full-timers don't do it, but there are somethings they should do, but leave it up to us, which brings me to my next point. Most of the full-timers feel they're above some tasks dealing with mostly cleaning. I'm cool with that, but when they expect us to do all of this and help them with their jobs, there's a problem like this one b***h who's in charge of frozen and fish. These are her only responsibilities. She doesn't do much when she works, except talk a lot with other employees and customers, make a few orders, and serve customers. She expects part-timers to help with frozen and clean up her messes. I'm like, WTF? I have a huge f**king load to do, not to mention a big list of cleaning left by the butchers, and she expects me to help her with frozen? She gets in to arguments with the butchers about this and when she doesn't get her way, she skips out of work for days and no one can make the orders for frozen. The other night, the butchers left a list of complaints about us. I personally responded by replying with a list of my own. I firt checked the things that I would immediately fix, or that I'm not responsible for. The I asked why I couldn't do some of the things I was doing, like putting two types of uncooked fish in one tray when I close. Instead of simply answering me, one of the meat managers, a general assistant manager, and the store's director sat me down and bitched about me having an "attitude". This was complete bullshit because I asked them in a polite manner and they didn't even answer some of my questions. This all resulted in them giving me a 12 hour week. The butchers made a list of rules and one of the rules was anyone who hasn't worked for the company for more than 20 years can not say that something isn't their job. I thought, that's fine, but I have to do tasks before other tasks like wrapping meat over stocking frozen. If the full-timers can't get these things done, then they shouldn't be fired, but obviously, Jewel likes to play favorites. The managers havent's even worked at Jewel for 20 years and they refuse to do some things. What's with no over time? I had to close the market one night and to get all the work done, I had to put in another half-an-hour. They blew up at me, but I figured if the other guy doesn't get paid, why shouldn't I get with a small percentage of his earnings? I thought Jewel was all about customer service? If I don't take the extra 30 minutes to stock all the shelves, customers will get pissed that their Perdue chicken drumsticks aren't in stock. Then in the little meeting, the manager said I put in overtime twice, which was completely false. It just happened once and I don't appreciate f**king lies about me. When I first started working for Jewel, I cared about my job. I was always nice to cuctomers, did all the work they told me to do, and tried hard to catch on quickly. I did catch on quick and I still do all these things, but I don't care if Jewel goes out of business. I have no loyalty and I'll work slow and be rude to customers during my last week there. I just got hired by BestBuy for more money and less work. And I'll tell them I'm quitting saturday night when after they made the schedule for next week.

A long time ago, jobs were good and your company treated you with respect. You could expect to be rewarded for a job well done. Those days are all gone. Today, everything is about money. Is it a better world now? Of course not. In fact, it's much worse. But, there's really not much you can do about it. Even if you started your own company, you could not take care of your workers because then you would have to pass those costs onto your customers. The customers wouldn't pay more just so that you could take care of your workers. Look at wal-mart. This is the world now. You have no choice but to accept the changes and try to find a way to survive with them. Sad to say, but it's really just that simple.

I used to be one of those employees that cared, I mean REALLY cared. I would go out of my way to help our customers. Many of them getting to be like a 2nd family to me. Every one of those "secret shoppers" gave me 100%, I even got secret shopped when I was off the clock, having stopped to help a confused customer when I was in the store shopping on my own time. Now, in the last 2 years, my pharmacy has lost over 50 years of Pharmacist and Tech experience. NO ONE has retired. 50 years of people deciding to leave. We went from 4 staff pharmacists to 1, filling in the gaps with "RPH-on the go" Decreased hours increased profits? NO!!!! Increased medication dispensing errors, decreased customer service, decreased moral. Glad to say I no longer work for Albertsons whose slogan "use as needed" refers to the treatment of its employees!

When you see a top executive drawing a multi-million dollar salary, plus millions more in perks and stock bonuses, what does that tell you? I don't know about you, but it tells me that I should be doing the same exact thing that the top executive is doing. Robbing the company blind. I don't understand how in the hell you could work for a food retailer and not have enough to eat? You always take a roasted chicken home with you. Some cereal for the kids. Grab a couple of loaves of fresh bread as soon as it arrives. Four gallons of milk. I think supermarkets have a word for this. Spoilage. Every supermarket has a certain amount of spoilage. There's nothing you or I can do about it. Perhaps that roasted chicken will go bad by the end of the day. That new orange looks a little soft. Oh, and that new 5 lb. pack of roast beef in the deli looks like it might be turning green too. Did you ever hear the expression one bad apple spoils the whole bunch? Food inspectors made up these sayings just to try to protect the public. Better not take any chances with all of it. You don't want the customers to get sick, do you? Remember, you're in charge of customer service. So, just to be on the safe side, you better take all that spoiled food home and dispose of into your refrigerator. You know, here's the part I just don't understand. How can sliced peaches get moldy if the can has never even been opened yet? Well, we better not take any chances with them. This will all have to be disposed of. Put all these cans in a cart and haul them out to my van at the end of the shift. You know, between all this disposing I'd have enough to feed the neighborhood. Maybe even sell a little something on the side, just to help make ends meet. Hey neighbor, what do you want for dinner tonight? They have a word for that too. Charity. Let me show you how this works in practice. Did you ever hear of the expression this fell off a truck? Well, I used to be the guy that actually drove the truck while the stuff was falling off. Tractor-trailer trucks are supposed to get 6 miles to the gallon. But, no matter how I tried, mine would never get more than 3 miles to the gallon. I don't know what the hell was happening to all that extra fuel. You don't think somebody might have been selling it, do you? That wouldn't be fair! The other thing that always worried me a lot was when my load came up 2 or 3 cases short. Each case has a retail value of $75 to $200 dollars, depending on the product. Now, how the hell could $500 worth of goods just up and disappear like that? And, it wasn't just once or twice. Hell no. I did two or three loads every week and most of them came up short. Somebody must have been making money. But, it wasn't me. Here's the thing that really bothered me the most. Every time they loaded my truck, some of the boxes would get damaged. So, naturally I would have to move the damaged stuff out of the trailer and into the tractor, where I live while I'm driving around. I can't count the number of times this happened. Computer equipment, LCD tvs, inkjet printers. I had to store all that stuff in the cab until I was able to dispose of it. I'll tell you, it was hard to find a place to dispose of a new television once the box was torn up and the inner foam was showing. At least the food products were a little better. You see, I always left the damaged beef patties and chicken strips in the trailer, so that they would stay frozen until I could dispose of them at a little mom-and-pop type grocery store. I guess the store would sell them for their salvage value. One good thing about trucking. You'll never go hungry, that's for sure. You could never eat all the stuff they put in your truck. Not in a hundred years. Hey Hilda, you don't need any frozen chocolate cream pies, do you? I got 3 cases of them that look like they are going bad. I better dispose of them before they ruin the rest of the load. You see Hilda, there is no reason that you should end up working your whole life and have so little to show for it. That's not right. Look at how bitter you are. Instead, you just need to learn to work WITH the system instead of fighting it all the time. I realize it's a terrible world we live in. You don't have to tell me about it. Hell, everyday I saw things spoiling right in front of my eyes. The only thing you need to decide is how you can make the best of the situation that you find yourself in. You know, school children understand this concept perfectly. They even made a rhyme up about it. Two for me and one for you. One for me and none for you.

"WE THE PEOPLE" that worked for yrs and yrs.for Albertson's who put our hard sweat and blood into this company to grow and who today is causing many of us to lose our homes etc and not having enough money to pay for our electric,gas,food etc. should be the ones to have what we are feeling heard.We didn't last yrs and yrs working for Albertson's if we didn't do our jobs...It wasn't our bad investment decisions that put us out of our full time jobs..Losing all of our benefits...For yrs.we all had to hear about the big bonuses our supervisors received and the store managers as they all watched us work like dogs....And we had to be happy for them and lick it up...This is why Americans all over this country are being screwed...These top executives getting paid millions......we harnessed all our energy and enthusiasm and we get told it's Walmarts fault? So now they want to hire part time ppl at low wages and let us who had to work for yrs..myself 10 yrs to make 11.50 an hr. to get less then 20 hrs per week!........ ....HOW DID ALBERTSON'S ACQUIRE ACME,JEWEL-0SCO,SAVON DRUGS,SHAWS,OSCO DRUG,STAR?....THEY ACQUIRED THESE STORES THROUGH INVESTING THE PROFITS WE THE PEOPLE BROKE OUR BACKS FOR THEM FOR YEARS.......NOW THEY STRETCHED THEMSELVES SOOOOOOO THIN WE FULL TIMERS ARE BEING SCREWED OFF ANY MEDICAL, STOCKS AND PROBABLY PENSION PLANS.....I CAN BET THAT THE NEXT STEP JOHNSTON DOES IS BANKRUPT ALBERTSON'S AND EVERYONE WHO THOUGHT WAS GOING TO GET A PENSION ETC. WILL BE SCREWED....THIS IS HEARTLESS,GREEDY AND CRUEL........

i am an employee of albertsons. i have been for one year and three months. my albertsons was on the list to become a supersaver....but it is turning around. we are under new management. and our sales have improved. for those of you who say that we dont care about our tags being wrong or our customers being right you are WRONG. i am a service supervisor and i am told by my superiors always make the customer happy and avoid confrontation.we refund stuff all the time that probably shouldnt be refunded and we give stuff away free most of the time even if the tag is right and the customer saw the wrong one.if not free they at least get it for the price they thought it was. if all of you feel so bad that the employees are being treated badly dont stop shopping there.....you stopping to shop hurts us even more. i am a recent high school graduate and i am 18 nyrs old. i do not intend to make a career out of albertsons at all however, i get a VERY generous pay for my job and this week im scheduled 42 hours.... albertsons has been a great job for me. those who dont get hours are those who dont do their jobs.........

i am an employee of albertsons. i have been for one year and three months. my albertsons was on the list to become a supersaver....but it is turning around. we are under new management. and our sales have improved. for those of you who say that we dont care about our tags being wrong or our customers being right you are WRONG. i am a service supervisor and i am told by my superiors always make the customer happy and avoid confrontation.we refund stuff all the time that probably shouldnt be refunded and we give stuff away free most of the time even if the tag is right and the customer saw the wrong one.if not free they at least get it for the price they thought it was. if all of you feel so bad that the employees are being treated badly dont stop shopping there.....you stopping to shop hurts us even more. i am a recent high school graduate and i am 18 nyrs old. i do not intend to make a career out of albertsons at all however, i get a VERY generous pay for my job and this week im scheduled 42 hours.... albertsons has been a great job for me. those who dont get hours are those who dont do their jobs.........

i am an employee of albertsons. i have been for one year and three months. my albertsons was on the list to become a supersaver....but it is turning around. we are under new management. and our sales have improved. for those of you who say that we dont care about our tags being wrong or our customers being right you are WRONG. i am a service supervisor and i am told by my superiors always make the customer happy and avoid confrontation.we refund stuff all the time that probably shouldnt be refunded and we give stuff away free most of the time even if the tag is right and the customer saw the wrong one.if not free they at least get it for the price they thought it was. if all of you feel so bad that the employees are being treated badly dont stop shopping there.....you stopping to shop hurts us even more. i am a recent high school graduate and i am 18 nyrs old. i do not intend to make a career out of albertsons at all however, i get a VERY generous pay for my job and this week im scheduled 42 hours.... albertsons has been a great job for me. those who dont get hours are those who dont do their jobs.........

i am an employee of albertsons. i have been for one year and three months. my albertsons was on the list to become a supersaver....but it is turning around. we are under new management. and our sales have improved. for those of you who say that we dont care about our tags being wrong or our customers being right you are WRONG. i am a service supervisor and i am told by my superiors always make the customer happy and avoid confrontation.we refund stuff all the time that probably shouldnt be refunded and we give stuff away free most of the time even if the tag is right and the customer saw the wrong one.if not free they at least get it for the price they thought it was. if all of you feel so bad that the employees are being treated badly dont stop shopping there.....you stopping to shop hurts us even more. i am a recent high school graduate and i am 18 nyrs old. i do not intend to make a career out of albertsons at all however, i get a VERY generous pay for my job and this week im scheduled 42 hours.... albertsons has been a great job for me. those who dont get hours are those who dont do their jobs.........

To the poster that said to report violations. I have worked in H/R and with H/R and it does very little good to report violations. It has been my experience that once you go to H/R to report anything it will come back at you. H/R depts exist as a wing of management. They are there to protect the company from lawsuits NOT help employees. I worked for a grocery store back in 1980 and was making more money as a bagger than these kids at Jewel make tody. C'mon that is ridiculous. No kidding. The wages are FAR too low. I will say though Dominicks the other major grocer in Chgo (owned by Safeway) is MUCH worse. Back in 1980 we had A&P, National, Eagle, Garfalos, and Thrifty Mart, all as well as Dominicks (Safeway owned) and Jewel (Albertson's owned). Now Chgo has just Jewel and Dominicks. I think the lack of competition has HURT grocery stores and droves wages and service down. I will say the Jewel stores are much cleaner than Dominicks stores and the employees are paid better and less dissatisfied

The company is not Larry's. It's ours as consumers/customers and employees. There are posters by clock-in machines that clearly states that if there's any violations for not getting paid for time worked, it should be reported to the proper authorities. If us as employees do not follow or adhere to those rules or chose to ignore them, then we cannot blame anyone else but ourselves. It is plain old common sense that time is money, your time is your money, if you chose to do the work and spend your time doing it, then you should know to get paid for it. Don't do work you don't want to do and are not getting paid to do! Albertson's is not Larry's. It is made up by us employees, stock holders, consumers, our community. We make it. If something is wrong or is cause for concern then we should try to fix it, if we can't then we should look for help from a higher authority in our company. If there is cause for concern or a problem within our company, then we should try to fix it ourselves. We should try to be discreet. A lot of concerns here in this post are about not getting enough hours, when a person applies for a job, availability and schedule is agreed upon prior to hiring. If hours are cut, it is something else more than just a personal vendetta against you. I am currently experiencing getting my hours cut right now, but it's ok, it's hard financially but it will be harder for a lot of other people who will either get cut or lose their jobs if I don't agree to my hours getting cut. Or worse if my store can't afford to stay open anymore. We should be thankful we have jobs, there are millions of people who can't make ends meet because they cannot work. If we are able and willing, we can get a 2nd job. There is no perfect job but let's be happy at our workplace and try to make a difference for our customers and for ourselves. I'm not saying it's the perfect workplace, I've had a few problems with my hours, wages, healthcare, etc. but the difference I made is that when I knew something was wrong, I brought it to the attention of my manager. Let's try to do a difference by becoming a team, not by turning against each other.

After 14 yrs of honorable military service I was medicaly retired and looked to work for a company that offered loyalty and benefits. This is what Albertsons told me. One year later they re-nigged on everything. Albertsons claimed it was changing it's benefits package from a 90/10 plan to an 80/20 plant. That's cool I could live with that. The reality is they never had a plan to give employees benefits. All the while our a*****e CEO Larry Johnston makes millions off our hard work. Nice job Larry you stupid f**k. Next my store director has a management meeting and starts talking about how we have to mirror WALLMART. Well guess what, Albertsons isn't Wallmart. We actually care about our customers and provide great service to them. The next thing to come was the coup de grace. Larry's next move was to get rid of full time people. This was a huge blow to us guys and gals who are loyal to the company and work and honest days work and expect and honest wage. Once again if the company wanted to save money how about cutting Larry's salary and bonus money. Or better yet cut the Store directors bonuses. I trully hope Albertsons does a nose dive. The company is run by a guy on if you did some research ran GE into the dirt nearly. Albertons is sinking. You cannot expect to get good employees by paying them 6 bucks and hour and getting rid of your long term and loyal help and cutting their hours down to 15 to 23. Albertsons deserves to fail

I am a current employee of Albertson's and I found this site by stumbling across the initial post to this thread regarding the crap that current Albertson's employees have to put up with. Firstly, I whole-heartedly agree with the first post and it made me feel better that I'm not the only one that feels this way, but upon reading the proceeding message by "kent", I could not restrain myslef from commenting on his ignorance and horribly misguided opinions. I would not be surprised if the author was actually Larry Johnson himself. NOW... on to the REALITY of the direction in which Albertson's is going... "You" in this post is refering to the Corporate Office, all the regional vice presidents, and everyone else working in corporate possitions who make their living making vital decisions in store policy and procedures. In general, you people have no knowledge of the implications and effectiveness (or lack thereof) that your decions have on the daily operations of a store. I could go on and on about endless discrepencies with the current procedures and the problems they create because of the ignorance of corporate employees, but I'll save that for another thread. Corporate is so short-sighted and focused on the problems of profits and stock prices that they are overlooking a key underlying issue; KEEPING THEIR EMPLOYEES!!! I work at a major Dallas store that is often used as a hub for meetings and conferences and as a result, I am exposed to allot of the news before it happens. What I hear about the most is the company's need to cut major costs. It just so happens that Employee benefits, particularly healthcare, are major costs that Albertsons is willing to severely depreciate in the hopes of recovering more profit. Yes, good job geniouses, running all your stores using 95% part-time labor so that you don't have to pay health care will probably cut your costs significantly. Now that yall got that figured out, lets go over some of the implications of this theory; the MAJORITY of current full-time employees in my store, most of which have worked there for the better part of their life, are being told they they will now be considered part-time and will therefore not be receiving any benefits. Our regional president has allocated our store with 5, thats right, only 5 full-time management possitions. The Goal is to have all other employees be part-time with only the minimum pay and raises provided by store policy. Needless to say, most of the good, reliable, hard-working employees have found this to be well, BULLCRAP and are currently putting in their two week notice. In the midst of this change, some employees have been somewhat uneffected by these new policies because they have been paid as "part-time" employees working 40+ hours (otherwise known as (FULL-TIME!)and simply care about getting the hours neccesary to pay their bills. If and when they do figure out whats going on, they needn't bother complaining about not getting full-time benefits because the immediate reaction by management would be to simply cut their hours. Eventually, these employees will get fed up with this unorthadox (not to mention illegal) manipulation of hours and quit also. So to bring you corporate people up to speed; Lets think... who are we left with?... Thats right, incopitent, inefficient, lazy, poorly trained, poorly qualified, poorly PAID, unhappy workers who are there only because there are now plenty of job openings thanks to Corporate's "flushing out" of any and all good workers who REALLY and TRUELY make the stores run properly and WHO at the end of day ARE THE ONES that allow you ignorant people to get paid your high end salary. Larry, I don't care how many thousands, millions, or BILLIONS you save the company on cutting hours, benefits, etc., the fact is that soon stores will be run, or maybee i should say NOT run, by a bunch of incopitent people who will most deffinately drive people away from Albertson's, and then you'll be looking at more ways to cut costs in an attempt to offset the additional loss of profits because of this.... and on and on this viscious cycle will go until you GET A CLUE. Hasn't the slogan for so long been all about Customer Service??? I assure you Albertson's is in great need of that because the people that really do care about the quality of their work and providing customers with a pleasnt shopping experience are no longer working for you! Good luck running a company consisting almost entirely of people who could care less. As for you, "Kent" or whoever you are, re-read your post and remove anything that has to do with "Team", "Customer Service", "Quality", "Best", which Albertson's will no longer have any of, and you aren't left with much of an argument. Also, as an Albertson's associate I think you have an OBLIGATION to speak your mind about the company you work for. This not only sends a message to coporate that things aren't as peachy as they imagine in their perfect little world, but also warns potential employees of the mess that they could be getting themselves in to. ...and i do agree; It's Larry's Store, not yours.

When I worked for Albertsons, I was just happy to have a job that had benefits for 20 hours a week of work. Being a veteran and a college student trying to make it on his own, I was desparate for health insurance, and would take any job that would provide it. If I did not work as the assistant bookkeeper with my unobtainable workload, I was stuck working in their 'customer service' booth, in which I had to deal with some of most difficult customers you could imagine...taking phone payments, making money orders, money transfers via Moneygram, cashing welfare and social security checks, dealing with bad check writers, etc. It was no fun...Basically, it sucked. The bookkeeping job was much more preferable, and I worked very hard at it in order to keep it. When you figured in the fact that I had to give breaks to other employees, help out in the booth when it got swamped, and try to figure out the mess that some of the underpaid and undertrained cashiers left their register reports, 6 hours a day allocated was hardly enough. Oh well...I'm over it.

When I worked for Albertsons, I was just happy to have a job that had benefits for 20 hours a week of work. Being a veteran and a college student trying to make it on his own, I was desparate for health insurance, and would take any job that would provide it. If I did not work as the assistant bookkeeper with my unobtainable workload, I was stuck working in their 'customer service' booth, in which I had to deal with some of most difficult customers you could imagine...taking phone payments, making money orders, money transfers via Moneygram, cashing welfare and social security checks, dealing with bad check writers, etc. It was no fun...Basically, it sucked. The bookkeeping job was much more preferable, and I worked very hard at it in order to keep it. When you figured in the fact that I had to give breaks to other employees, help out in the booth when it got swamped, and try to figure out the mess that some of the underpaid and undertrained cashiers left their register reports, 6 hours a day allocated was hardly enough. Oh well...I'm over it.

I have spend over 18 years in retail Human Resources and Loss Prevention management and I am constantly amazed that anyone would work off the clock. Such behavior is against the store policeis of most companies and it penalizes the one who practices it. When I work, I expect to be paid for my labor. Period. Can't get the job done in the alloted time? It is time to analyze your daily activities. Try to eliminate gossip and and chatting in the work area. Stay focused and pleasantly remind visitors that you have work to do, so you will have to continue the conversation after work. Handle the paperwork only once. Get organized and have the tools and resources at hand before you start the task. Avoid cigarette breaks beyond 15 minutes every six hours. Focus on the work on don't have phone calls while you enter data into the computer. Be more efficient and you will get done sooner and have time for catching up on less important tasks which you have put off. This applies for every work environment, since you are not at ABS. If you work off the clock for any company, you lose! Don't risk your job by your failure to follow the rules. No one will support you!

All hours are cut except for the management, they get to keep their hourly wage. But more importantly, store directors now manage two stores instead of just one. My particular store director rarely is seen at either store he "directs." I guess it's alright as long as he gets paid... Our former front-end management consisted of a twenty-year-old that did not quite know what she was doing, so instead she slept with the grocery third-person. Now, we have new people who try to do their jobs, but the remnants of past management have crippled our store. Our former front-end manager promoted another ignoramous that messes up the safe quite often and has a vendetta against me and others and is trying to get us fired. She has made buddy-buddy with the new front-end manager and so the manager doesn't see how bad she is. Now for the REALLY bad stuff. It is policy to leave items that do not have an expiration date and only a code on the shelf. Vendors are supposed to come and check these codes themselves, but they never come and the stockers never rotate. I have found items on the shelf dated a decade ago, and some items that look older but I cannot touch due to the codes. I have told management several times and they have yet to call the vendors in or at least learn how to read those codes. I wouldn't be surprised if those items were from when the store opened in the 1980's. The majority of these items are in the Asian food section, and since not many people buy the more exotic food, those items are left for literally years on the shelf. More than this, I have found hundreds of expired products WITH dates on them. The dairy section usually has milk weeks before expiration yet they are not put out. The milk that is put out expires in about four days. Can you drink a gallon of milk in four days? I can't. But then these gallons are left until one day after the expiration date when they are supposed to be taken off three days before. A mixture of bad management, bad prices, and bad food is going to bring Albertson's to financial ruin.

I worked for Albertons in Wichita for 2 years while putting myself through college. The stores are out of Wichita now...it's very sad, actually, as Wichita (a fairly good sized city) has only 1 major grocery store chain (a Kroger subsiderary called Dillons) and a couple of small chains that are inconsequental. Anyway, I spent MANY hours at Albertons working off the clock. I was an assistant store bookeeper. On days that I did the books (2 days a week) I was given 6 hours to do 8 hours worth of work. Thus, I would come in at 5am with the bakery crew and get started, and not punch in until 6am. I would punch out at the end of my 6 hours and then finish my work. Right after I quit, Albertons was faced with a class action law suit from all over the country on employees working off the clock. I opted not to participate, but I probably should have. I also reported my store director to their 'ethics' hotline. He was living and working in Kansas, yet kept his auto registration in Oklahoma where it was cheaper. This is QUITE illegal in this state. That really pissed him off, but not enough for him to change his car tags. Sad. My rationale was that if he was supposed to be setting an example for his employees, it should start with obeying the laws of the state. The company has problems. I contemplated sticking with it and getting into management, as they do make excellent money (much more than I make now with a masters degree and a pretty good corporate job), but too much bad karma there...

I read on a well known newspaper's online site today that Albertson's parent company, Sainsbury, is selling it off. I guess too many negative factors have finally caught the attention of the higher ups at Sainsbury. Too bad for the employees--many of them I'm sure are hardworking and honest people trying to make a living--it's a shame the rotten apples spoiled it for everyone.

I read on a well known newspaper's online site today that Albertson's parent company, Sainsbury, is selling it off. I guess too many negative factors have finally caught the attention of the higher ups at Sainsbury. Too bad for the employees--many of them I'm sure are hardworking and honest people trying to make a living--it's a shame the rotten apples spoiled it for everyone.

I read on a well known newspaper's online site today that Albertson's parent company, Sainsbury, is selling it off. I guess too many negative factors have finally caught the attention of the higher ups at Sainsbury. Too bad for the employees--many of them I'm sure are hardworking and honest people trying to make a living--it's a shame the rotten apples spoiled it for everyone.

I read on a well known newspaper's online site today that Albertson's parent company, Sainsbury, is selling it off. I guess too many negative factors have finally caught the attention of the higher ups at Sainsbury. Too bad for the employees--many of them I'm sure are hardworking and honest people trying to make a living--it's a shame the rotten apples spoiled it for everyone.

What about the smallest guys in the Albertson's chain? The COURTESY CLERKS who do the most work and get the least pay. Most courtesy clerks at Albertson's make next to nothing. They may be teenagers, like myself, but if they work hard enough, they deserve more pay. The "600 hours until a 15 cent raise" is rediculous. I work two jobs and have 2 AP classes in my high school. Even with two jobs, it is impossible to pay my own car insurance and car payment, I must rely on my mom to help me. If I made more than 5.55 per hour, I could support myself. Also, At my store, they make me stock and face groceries, which, the last time I looked, was not part of my job description. Stockers get paid almost three times as much to do the same job. Why should I suffer? I say that all courtesy clerks should start out at, at the least, $6.50 per hour. That is how much starting pay is many fast food joints.

If Albertons really cared about consumers they would not knowingly sell meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, all refridgerated items at temperatures above 70 degrees. This happened at Fort Worth, TX at the Albertsons on 820 South. After seeing this and reporting this incident to management at the store and being ignored, I returned hours later to see the same items still being sold after it had sit out all night at 70 plus temperatures! This does not sound like a store that cares about me, my health or anyone elses. If the employees won't buy your food then there is a reason. Like the time I bought chicken on sale and we barfed for 4 days straight. I will NEVER buy from Albertsons again. I value the quality of my food and don't care to be poisoned by it or by a store that cares about me that much!

If Albertons really cared about consumers they would not knowingly sell meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, all refridgerated items at temperatures above 70 degrees. This happened at Fort Worth, TX at the Albertsons on 820 South. After seeing this and reporting this incident to management at the store and being ignored, I returned hours later to see the same items still being sold after it had sit out all night at 70 plus temperatures! This does not sound like a store that cares about me, my health or anyone elses. If the employees won't buy your food then there is a reason. Like the time I bought chicken on sale and we barfed for 4 days straight. I will NEVER buy from Albertsons again. I value the quality of my food and don't care to be poisoned by it or by a store that cares about me that much!

If Albertons really cared about consumers they would not knowingly sell meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, all refridgerated items at temperatures above 70 degrees. This happened at Fort Worth, TX at the Albertsons on 820 South. After seeing this and reporting this incident to management at the store and being ignored, I returned hours later to see the same items still being sold after it had sit out all night at 70 plus temperatures! This does not sound like a store that cares about me, my health or anyone elses. If the employees won't buy your food then there is a reason. Like the time I bought chicken on sale and we barfed for 4 days straight. I will NEVER buy from Albertsons again. I value the quality of my food and don't care to be poisoned by it or by a store that cares about me that much!

If Albertons really cared about consumers they would not knowingly sell meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt, all refridgerated items at temperatures above 70 degrees. This happened at Fort Worth, TX at the Albertsons on 820 South. After seeing this and reporting this incident to management at the store and being ignored, I returned hours later to see the same items still being sold after it had sit out all night at 70 plus temperatures! This does not sound like a store that cares about me, my health or anyone elses. If the employees won't buy your food then there is a reason. Like the time I bought chicken on sale and we barfed for 4 days straight. I will NEVER buy from Albertsons again. I value the quality of my food and don't care to be poisoned by it or by a store that cares about me that much!

Albertson's is damaging themselves by carelessly hiring managers who can not manage. A manager makes the same salary as the worker. The only reason to become a manager is to have a title, a few more hours, and the ability to discriminate against anybody you choose.
All the workers keep alow profile and know they are really running the show.
Now, wouldn't it make more sense for the share holders to vote out the underperformers in management who cause the problem?
Well, cut my hours and hire some new bodies, that's the answer!
Oh, and incidently, those scanner errors, that's just
the inexperienced doing their thang.

The Alberston's that I shop at does not care about the customer. They have been rude when we point out the price is not marked correctly and tell us that we are wrong, when the ad says one thing and their signs say another...we're wrong?
With the new "card" a 2 liter bottle of Coke is $1.19, without it's $1.49, they use to have them on sale all the time for $.99! yes, the prices do matter to keep employees and customers happy...no customers...no employees...We actually got to park close yesterday, when we used to have to park very far away, so that tells me that not everyone likes the "card" or the new prices in the store. if the customer doesn't like it, how can the employees? I know a few people who work at Albertson's and they aren't very happy there either. Just my opinion.

Shame on you. As an Albertson's associate, you should not be blasting the Company that you work for in this manner, especially when your comments are "public" (for all the world to see).

I understand the frustration that many associates feel right now. This is the beginning of a new quarter, and every store has to work to get started with a clean slate as far as labor and labor projections go. It is always tough, especially during the first few weeks of a new quarter.

Blasting our new CEO Larry Johnson isn't fair, either. The man has come into the leadership position of a Company that was suffering from a major expansion that it might not have been completely ready for. The additional costs of closing many stores due to federal regulation wasn't necessarily planned for completely. In any event, our stock value had dropped, and earnings weren't as expected.

Since Mr. Johnson's arrival and his resulting actions, some of which were very hard for some as well as being unpopular among some, profits have increased and the stock value has gone up. Our Company is headed toward a major recovery, largely due to his leadership.

I don't know anything about a $9 million bonus. While this statement on the part of the original writer may be correct, it would have had to be approved by the Board of Albertson's... the Board that is ELECTED by each and every stockholder in the Company. If it was their feeling that Mr. Johnson had earned a bonus for his leadership and the actions that he has taken thus far, we need to support it.

Your language leaves a lot to be desired. I would like to think that my fellow associates all have higher standards than that, but maybe I'm naive.

I'm personally sorry if you don't feel that you are appreciated as an associate. We do all have to pull together, be supportive and work as a TEAM if we are to return Albertson's to its rightful place as the Number One Grocery Chain in the United States. We must do this by being second-to-none in customer service and in quality. We don't have to be the lowest priced store in the country... just the best. If we all work together as associates -- as a Team -- we can bring about the change needed to get back the customers, which will bring back the hours.

Negativity doesn't help anything. If a person is so unhappy in the job they have, they should look elsewhere for something that will make them happy. You should be happy in your job at least 70% of the time, or you should go somewhere that will make you happy.

The last comment, written to consumers, is unfair. This is February. Roses don't grow outdoors in most places in February. The COST to Albertson's for roses is higher in the middle of the winter than in the summer. Of course the retail price is going to be higher this time of year, just as it is with fresh fruits and vegetables that have to be grown in special climates or hothouses. I don't know that the margin is that much greater with the higher retail on roses -- but I can guarantee you, and every consumer that reads this, that roses and floral arrangements from your local Albertson's cost less at retail than they did in most floral shops this Valentine's Day!

If we had kept going down the path we were going, and had not taken a pro-active move to cut costs (by streamlining divisions and the corporate office, etc.), we WOULD be heading down the road with K-Mart. However, we won't, because we are going to do whatever it takes to move us ahead. There are a lot of associates out there that feel the same way I do about this.

As one last comment, I would like to say that non-loyal "employees" that shop at stores other than their own are only hurting themselves. If you have 100 associates in your store, and all 100 spend $100 a month for groceries in your store, the store's sales will increase by $10,000. If the labor percentage in your store is 11%, that $10,000 in additional sales will provide an additional $1,100.00 that can be used for labor in YOUR store. If the average rate per hour paid by your store for labor is $10.00, those additional sales will mean an addition of 110 hours of labor for your store, per month. If those same associates spent $500.00 per month, that would mean an additional 550 labor hours per month that your store managers would have for scheduling associates. By shopping at WinCo or Costco (which says to me that you are an associate living on the west coast), you are only hurting yourself -- or cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Albertson's DOES care about its associates, and it cares about the people we serve. It IS NOT "all about the money." However, anyone with any business sense would realize that a business that doesn't make money isn't a business at all.

[The thoughts expressed in this rebuttal are the personal thoughts of the author. It has not been reviewed by Albertson's, Inc. prior to this rebuttal being provided on their behalf. Any and all comments, therefore, should not be viewed as that of an official company position, nor is it implied that these opinions are shared by any officer or agent of Albertson's, Inc.]