Pros
Aldi has some of the best benefits in the industry. That's honestly the reason I stayed as long as I did. In addition, I absolutely loved most of my co-workers. They were like my second family. That's about it as far as the pros are concerned.
Cons
Aldi seems like a great company to work for to the people on the outside looking in, but you're sadly mistaken (as I was). As a shift manager, I was making $16.75 an hour. Unfortunately, as a shift manager, you only work as a manager a couple of days a week, and those are the only days I was making the $16.75 an hour. The rest of the time, I was just a cashier making $11.65. That's sounds fine, but it isn't right to pay you as a cashier and expect you to do manager duties for the same pay. I've worked in retail for over 10 years, and Aldi is by far the most stressful environment I've ever worked in. Most nights, one manager and one cashier run the entire store. As the manager, you're filling produce, meat and bread throughout the night while trying to complete a list of tasks left by upper management. Not bad, right? WRONG! On top of that, you're assisting customers with finding items and playing back-up cashier during the rush times. If that isn't enough, you're expected to be finished and clocked out by 10:00pm. Yeah, the expectations are ridiculous. You almost have to be rude to customers in order to stay on tasks. There is absolutely no work/life balance at Aldi. The schedule changes every single week. One day you'll work until 10 or 11 at night and then come in the next day at 6am to throw a truck with one other person. If someone is a no show for the evening shift, you're expected to stay and pull a double. On the days I'm actually off, I spend them trying to catch up on sleep and regain my strength to repeat the cycle all over again. Aldi customers are the rudest shoppers I've ever had to deal with in my 10 years of retail. I'm honestly surprised I wasn't fired on numerous occasions for snapping back at them. They have no idea the stress that an Aldi associate endures on a daily basis. They think we just sit in a chair and scan groceries all day. What they don't realize is that when there are no customers at the register, associates are stocking shelves, cleaning or doing re-shops. The worst thing about Aldi is that upper management will lie to you, using promotions as a way to get even more out of you. I was told I would be promoted within three months of being hired. That didn't happen. I was then told I'd be promoted in another three months. That didn't happen. I was then told that if I transfer to another store (an hour drive one way), I would be promoted in a couple of months. That didn't happen and that was the last lie I fell for. It's unfortunate that most of the employees at Aldi can't up and walk out like I did because they are living paycheck to paycheck. Aldi knows this and they use it to squeeze every inch of life out of their employees. They figure that once they're too broken down, they can just replace employees. The day I left Aldi was the best day of my life.
