Raises are few and far between. Basically what you start out at you remain at unless you move into management and even then you will only receive a 'hourly pay raise' per hour you are there without higher management working that same shift. Work is extremely physical. Expected to do ALL of the duties of the store ie; stocking, cashiering, ordering, inventory control, cleaning, etc. No set schedules. Hours are erratic. Expected to be available from 5 am to 11 pm every day of the week. OT is mandatory if needed. Do not always get off at the time you are scheduled to leave. Benefits have slowly gone downhill.
Store managers are employees who have been promoted from within. They do have the knowledge of how each store works yet they lack the ability to apply this knowledge proficiently. Once promoted to store manager they figure out a way to make sure that on the shifts they are working to have adequate personnel there so that they can sit in the office and do nothing after the stocking of their store is complete for the day. The responsibility of running the stores then, actually, falls down to the lower paid employees who do not receive any compensation (ie: bonuses per say) for this. Yet are expected to perform the positions adequately.
Hiring and firing is not done at a store level. District managers are responsible for this so, if we get stuck with an employee they hired that is not pulling their weight we are expected to cover that slack. Instead of just firing the person they keep them around unless they do something completely out of line (misplaced money for example). This makes it hard on current employees who are there to actually do our jobs.
If you are looking for a job with higher than average pay and do not mind killing your body in the process and staying at your same rate of pay for years on end with more and more demanding expectations placed upon you, then please apply. Aldi has figured it out though. They realize that if they pay their employees a higher than normal average then they WILL retain us longer just because we can NOT go anywhere else and make what we make there, which then makes us put up with all of the 'other stuff' that makes our jobs so hard. Just remember, if you get hired here please remember to put your 'smile' on and that CUSTOMER SERVICE comes first. At the expense of your own personal life.
