Working at Wegmans Food Markets — Reviews by Employees

I've been working part time here for 1 year. I was reading through some of the reviews and to my surprise, there are alot with the same issues I have. I took the job part-time figuring that with my 15+ years of Culinary experience once I got my foot in the door it wouldn't be long before I became full time. Since I have been there 2 people were hired full time for Cook 1 and Cook 2 positions. The jobs were never posted internally. They did have a full time position posted for a Sous Chef, which I was told I couldn't post for because I haven't come up through the proper channels i.e. Cook 1 Cook 2. What channels did the people they hired from outside come through? So in reality they weren't looking for a Sous Chef they were looking for 2 full time cooks, which I am more than qualified for either position including the Sous Chef position as well. I went to the store G.M. about this and I all I got was a drawn out explanation of the stores bubble chart with really no clear answer on why the jobs were never posted or why I couldn't post for the Sous Chef position. I was very clear about wanting full time at my initial interviews, and was told I could post for any job I was qualified for. Talking to other people who work at the store I'm finding out there are people that have been there 5 years or more that can't get full time which is ridiculous. They keep hiring all these part time people, why not just give the hours to the people you already have there? I really can't see how this company ranks in the top 5 year after year of the best places to work, because I just don't see it. I've had enough and am actively looking for work. I just don't see the point of staying somewhere for years to try and get full time. I've been in this business for years and my resume and work ethic speak for itself. Well, that's my rant about Wegmans. Oh! almost forgot, Exec Chef drives from N.Y. everyday and 1 of the full time people that got hired also drives from N.Y. Coincidence? I'm thinking not!

This company was the 3rd best place to work for and I believe this speaks for itself. I started as a cashier, and it was a fun experience learning it and improving IPMs. I have mastered it and easily hit 25-35 ipms which is the best in the store. I've done maintnence, helping hands, cafe and many other jobs. I started at 16 and now I'm 18. I am now moving on to the produce department. There are many opportunities to move if you find the openings. The scholarship program is also a great thing if your going to college. I've had a great work experience and am aiming to be a Front End manager someday.

I have been with Wegmans for 7 years now. Overall, I like it. The pay is good, the benefits are great, management is good depending on which dept you are in. The only bad thing I can say about the company is the favoritism. But overall, I would say Wegmans is a good place to work for

Worked for Wegmans in their bakery department for four years and loved the job itself. Even the crack-of-dawn hours didn't bother me. I was crossed trained in several departments and liked most of my coworkers. It definatly had a family vibe to it. Benefits were really good too and co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions were low and affortable. They also were flexiable with my schedule when I went back to college.

On the downside favortism was rampant, at least at my location. People were promoted to positions they had no experience in. We also were understaffed and I basically had no life during holidays (though the overtime paycheck was pretty nice.)

My ultimate reason for leaving was that I was still getting the "prime time" pay while being scheduled 40+ hours a week. This was something I took to HR several times and the response was always "we don't have a position for fulltime." Then why am I being scheduled to work 40 hours every week? It's not that I was bother by working 40 hours; I wanted to but I was getting paid only an extra $1 more on holidays and Sundays and was making several dollars less than those in full time positions.

This is a great company if you kiss ass. People with no experience can move up the latter if they are brown-nosers, others with actual experience are left with empty promises. You spend more time worrying about making a mistake and getting reprimanded then actuallly working. Get ready to get called out on every little thing.

i was hired at 15 last summer as a cashier - now that im 16 i can actually work more hours and get more money training wasn't bad, but then again it's all about the people you work with. i want to be a coordinator so i asked a few of them how they got to their position and other stuff. i went to the FE manager and told her about my interests. at that point i had been working for Wegmans for about only 5 months...and its my 1st [real] job. She said she had a "surprise" for me the next day i worked. so i asked another STL and she said it was service desk.

What i like about the company is that you can move around the store simply by asking the right people. honestly, i love my job b/c the people i work with are funny and not miserable. the "angry" customers aren't that bad - all you have to do is explain things to them and if that doesn't work have a manager come and theyll say the same thing.

to what the person said about a cashier babysitting and customers complaining about forget bags:
i have worked cashier days where i forgot someones item, but to be honest you are right. i could put someones bag right on the shelf-thing behind me and they'll watch me do it but when their order is done they walk right by it.

the one thing i cant stand is when people literally watch u ring up every item and dont say a word.

at the service desk...well thats another story - one day i came in for an 8hr show-for-dough shift bc i wanted the $. right at the end of the shift a customer comes up to me and says, "i talked to a young man on the phone earlier about my clams being bad". i said yes that was me...he suddenly started blasting me for not "saying he could get them refunded when we were on the phone". i didnt get why he was so angy...he came in anyway and we said he could get a refund. he event told me, "it's people like you that belong at walmart".

he insisted on calling a manager. so i did. after they got done i asked the manager what he thought of the customer and he replied "i was ready to kick him out of the store". and after i got off work he came to me and said i did a good job of not arguing or fighting with the customer. and that keeing my mouth shut was the right thing to do.

anyway, i think its all about the people you work with - some locations are better than others!

I have been at Wegmans for almost four years now. It has been wonderful. I worked at a store in Rochester, and now work in the Southern tier. After learning to live our values: Make a Difference, Empowerment, Respect, Caring, and High Standards, I was able to become a Service Team Leader. The benefits for part timers are the best I've ever seen. The full time benefits are even better. I believe your job is everything you make of it. If you don't want to be there and want to be miserable, you will be. If you give your best everyday, you will get rewarded. As a manager I try my best to recognize my people when the do good. I will also coach, nit complain when they do bad.

As far as pay goes. I think $12.00 an hour for someone who didn't graduate college is pretty good, especially when full timers get a $0.50 raise every six months.

Like I said, it's what you make of it.

I have been with Wegmans for over 5 years. I came to Wegmans with 15 years experience in foodservice and a college degree. I started part-time and am now a Department Manager. I fully believe anyone who wants full time can get it if you work hard and display a passion for what you do. Most of the comments here I happen to disagree with. My pay is certainly above, and has been from the beginning, the industry average. The benefits are excellent. Now I would agree that many people who are department managers and team leaders should not be. There are people in other stores who are a job higher who have no business in the position they are in. But I know that I am in charge of my own career. I try to do a better job than I did the day before and treat all of my employees with the utmost respect and concern. In turn they do the same for me and I appreciate each and every one, even those who might not be as strong as myself or their fellow employees would like them to be. Overall I think Wegmans is a great company, there are areas that could use substantial improvement, but complaining about them won't help, trying to affect positive change will. And about Danny, he is a very nice, respectful person who I belive genuinely cares about me. No one gets in to Harvard by mistake, he is very visionary and has served the company well.

Wegmans definitely strives to help its employees live better lives through programs like Eat Well Live Well, Strive for Five (fruits and vegetables a day). The company has very good intentions with the way it treats its employees, and compared to almost all other grocery stores it is very very progressive (and treats its employees much better than other grocery stores do), but there is still an old fashioned mentality that prevents the company from being #1 on the "Great Places to Work For" list. The old-fashioned mentality is that among management "if you don't hear me say anything to you, it means you are doing a good job. If I speak to you, then you have done a terrible job and you had better clean up your mess." As mentioned before by a different commenter, it is each employee's responsibility to hunt down their own managers and tell them about the good work they are doing, or else the manager will not notice/pay attention and the work will go on unrecognized. Yet, if you do go up to your manager and tell him/her about what you are doing, you may be labeled a "brown noser" and pushed off anyway. Promotions are usually based on how long you have been with the company and not how productive and effective you are (name tags are even labeled with years of service to the company), so a young 20-something who is very competent may be passed over by someone who isn't as competent but has been with the company for 35 years.

Wegmans employees must be able to show passion for what they do; unfortunately some employees misuse or misinterpret passion and express it through anger and by being a jerk to others, in the name of having passion for their job. Of course, this passion is only expressed to subordinates or new-hires, but never to a customer. One great thing that Wegmans does is ensure that the customer always comes first (as they should), and employees are expected to bend over backwards for every single customer comment, good or bad. This very high level of customer service is what keeps Wegmans at the top of customers' grocery store preference lists.

Again, Wegmans is a LOT farther ahead than most other grocery stores and comparatively is a great place to work. However, the company must not get so full of itself and forget that while it is great, it is not perfect, and there is still much room for improvement.

Oh yes Wegman's... top 100 companies for 13 years in a row. I absolutely loathe the place, and I have only worked at the place for a year and a half.

Working on the front end, the management is pretty much none existent, and when you do finally get a manger or service team leader that will actually pay attention to you, Wegman's goes and transfers them to other stores. So it's best to try and figure things out on your own. Oh and then they have the nerve to snap at you when your talking to, or worse, -helping - the employee next to you, yet you find them talking amongst each other and nibble on food while their pagers are going of because the employees actually need them.

Wegman’s tends not to fix a lot of things either, well at least in my store. I was on register on day and the metal that covers the side board near the cash was sticking out, and I - being my clumsy self -sliced my wrist on it… In all honesty I was hoping for it to gush blood so I could get off register… It didn’t so it wasn’t a concern. However that didn’t get fixed until 2 weeks later when a customer ran into it. I can still see the scar I don’t think it’s going away :(

The customer's are pretty much just as ignorant. I mean come on I'm guessing it's not your first time in a grocery store, how come you can't figure out the system. On top of that the cashiers are supposed to tend to the customers every whim. Hell one time, I even had a guy ask me to watch his kid while he went back and grabbed something he forgot. Don’t get in line if you aren’t finished shopping, stupid. Honestly, I'm a cashier not a babysitter. Then you have the mothers who let their kids have the run of the store, screaming at the top of their lungs, and even though you want to punch them in the face, you just have to smile and nod. Then there is always the lovely people who complain that Wegmans is too expensive. All I have to say to that is go to Wal-Mart, why are you even shopping at a grocery store for non-grocery needs? Really people? Oh and then the customers get made because they forgot their stuff behind, seriously? I scan up the crap and put most of it in the cart, I think you can handle one extra bag, I have lots of customers to get through and I can't be responsible for every little thing.... Then again I'm not much of a people person I have little patience for the incompetence of others, so maybe it’s not all Wegman’s fault that I hate my job… but I'll move on I could rant about customers all day... point is management gets mad when customers aren’t happy even though they aren’t the best customers.

On to shifts... yeah like anybody at Wegmans knows how to do shifts. I don't know anyone other than management positions that can get full time, which wouldn’t be so bad if they let you know your shifts ahead of time but no. Wegman's does shifts one week at a time with shifts anywhere from 3 to 8+ hours, however getting above a 5.5 hour shift is a skill all in itself. So since because I HATE front end, I applied to go to HBC, to add more hours. Originally I was planning to switch to HBC and drop FE all together, yeah not a chance. Now instead of getting jerked around in one department I have two, and together I'm barely getting 21 hours. Which isn't good since I need money for college and 13 hours a week ain't gonna even dent it. Like next week I work all but two days and every shift is a 4 hour shift... I can't stand that.

Wegman's says they will help any employee to further their career, well I've decided to be a pastry chef so I thought getting into bakery would be a good start. I talked to the human resource representative, and she said bakery would have a posting for cross training at the end of the week, that was 3 weeks ago almost 4. I can't seem to get anywhere and yet theirs a girl who's only 17 who pretty much gets whatever department she asks for, she's on her 4th department now... sorry I'm getting jealous.

But there has to be good right? Well the pay isn't that bad. Every 6 months employees get a 25 cent pay increase until whatever the cut off limit is. However you pretty much need it since everything they do is centered around United Way which tries to eat up your hard earned cash. However, for the employees you do make friends with it's nice to talk to them when you get a break. Unfortunately there really isn't much else good to say about them

Personally I think Wegman's pays off someone to get to the top of the fortune's top 100 list

Wow sorry... that's a bit of an ear full... but I feel better >.<