They still do. Trader Joes does too. I love both stores, and do most of my shopping between the two. It's nice to know that 99% of the retail people I interact with are being treated well by their employers.
Interesting perspective of a retailer that invested in its employees and found success. It's sad to see employee benefits and loyalty and an all-time low across society when just a generation ago it was so strong.
Best teenage job I ever had. They treated us with respect and the pay was exceptional for the job, you could live a middle class lifestyle on it. Sundays they paid time and a half. They also had great holiday events, with a very memorable Christmas party I still cherish. I wish more retailers would treat their employees so well.
EDIT: it does go to the top. The CEO resisted investor pressure to reduce wages and perks. Mad respect to him for treating his employees like people instead of cogs.
I saw this in practice in the small town I grew up in that had 3 big supermarkets where the population could only really keep 2 going. Publix paid employees about a dollar an hour more than the other two (and would assume the same for management staff) and had very low tolerance for poor performance. So they always had the friendliest and helpful staff, cleanest stores, best stocked shelves, best kept meat and produce sections, etc. and was able to charge a higher price.
Once someone was fired from Publix, they would start working at one of the other two stores within the next week.
You're thinking of ex-employee's well being, I'm sure, but is retail really the best place to grind your way up the corporate ladder and make a living wage? I would hope that the old employees would have moved on to better things rather than being given back what they had as is.
True, but I despair of it ever actually happening. If even companies with sales people can get it wrong, where getting it wrong makes a difference, then what hope to companies who stick employees in little fabric colored boxes have?
Of course, 23 years in the cube farm might have left me cynical.
I had a brief glimmer of hope back when I first worked for Lands' End. They encouraged their employees to care about the customers to the extent of the whole company culture reflecting that care. After they were sold to Sears and then K-Mart, the whole place began the slump into the typical corporate bean counting contempt for the customer that we have all come to know and not love.
Personally, I shop where I get good service even if it means I have to go out of my way or shop there slightly less if they're higher priced.
They pay a lot more than the average retailer, which is why they feel they can work their employees so hard. I think they also tend to see less employee on employee violence.
I wonder if that's a regional problem. Here (Michigan), TJ's employees seem happy, and appear to be very well treated.
As opposed to employees at Kroger - which is unionized (UCFW). But workers there appear darn scarce, often unhappy, and sometimes volunteer tidbits on just how horrible management is. And it felt weird just how much "help wanted" signage Kroger had, even pre-pandemic.
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