"When you see pallets stacked with 50-pound bags of flour or sugar or dog food or cat litter, a lot of that stuff had to be stacked by hand by employees before the store opens. Ditto for those giant stacks of shoes and bottles of salsa or five-gallon jugs of cooking oil. It's a lot of hard work."
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Is working at Costco really all it's cracked up to be?
00:03The only way to find out is from employees themselves, and luckily, they're not afraid
00:07to talk about their experiences.
00:09Here's a look at what it's really like to work at Costco, straight from the people who
00:12know best.
00:14Working at Costco might seem like a simple job, but employees tell a different story.
00:18Apparently, it can be as exhausting as an intense gym session.
00:21Rachel, a Costco employee in Colorado, told Mental Floss that employees are the ones who
00:25do all the heavy lifting.
00:27According to her,
00:28When you see pallets stacked with 50-pound bags of flour or sugar or dog food or cat
00:32litter, a lot of that stuff had to be stacked by hand by employees before the store opens.
00:36Ditto for those giant stacks of shoes and bottles of salsa or five-gallon jugs of cooking
00:40oil.
00:41It's a lot of hard work.
00:43Costco is a membership-based store, meaning you have to pay an annual fee in order to
00:47get a card that allows you to shop there and enjoy all of those discounted prices.
00:51Every customer is expected to show their membership card to an employee before they walk through
00:54the doors.
00:55Welcome to Costco, I love you."
00:58However, that doesn't mean customers are always happy about doing it.
01:01One Costco employee explained on Reddit that one of the hardest jobs there is working the
01:05entrance, simply because of the people they encounter.
01:08The employee said that customers tend to make things harder for the card checkers by not
01:12showing their card, blocking the entrance when taking out their card, or forgetting
01:15their card and trying to get in anyway.
01:18Another user explained that one of the most common issues that comes up is people trying
01:21to shop there even if they aren't members.
01:23Sorry, folks, but that's not how it works.
01:26Costco is known for having a terrific workplace environment, but it's not just the pay that
01:30makes it awesome.
01:31Employees enjoy lots of great benefits and plenty of perks on the job as well.
01:35One of the best has to be the fact that they're able to shop after hours.
01:38Kathleen, a Costco employee in Washington, told Mental Floss,
01:41"'You can shop after hours and a lot of employees do that.
01:44You just bring your cart to the front register.'"
01:46Costco stores actually keep their member service counter open after the store closes,
01:50for exactly that reason.
01:52Oh, and you can't forget about the fact that employees have access to all of the wonderful
01:56free samples that make weekend Costco shopping that much better.
01:59And you better believe they take advantage of them.
02:02One Reddit user who claimed to have worked there for over seven years said they ate a
02:05lot of samples and added a helpful tip to non-employees.
02:08The demo people are there every day, but Saturday and Sunday are the prime times to get free
02:12grub.
02:13Another Reddit user who had worked at Costco for over two years jokingly said that workers
02:17there called the samples the employee buffet.
02:20Every Costco has the same policy for customers who are leaving the store.
02:24After you pay and as you are walking out, an employee checks over your receipt and looks
02:27at the items in your cart.
02:29But have you ever wondered how they do it so quickly?
02:31Apparently, they aren't reading the entire receipt.
02:34Thomas, an employee in California, told Mental Floss,
02:36"'We're looking for items on the bottom of the cart, big items like TVs or alcohol.'"
02:40One Reddit user talked about it on a thread, saying that employees count the number of
02:44things in your cart and see if it's the same number as on the receipts.
02:47They also said that they check for expensive items.
02:50Lots of people I knew just checked for the expensive things and didn't bother with anything
02:53else.
02:54Another user said that they also look for doubles, saying,
02:56"'Most of what we find is actually errors with scanning.
02:59Had someone accidentally key in the number for a $1,000 item instead of a bag of avocados
03:03once.'"
03:04Costco employees are generally pretty happy, but one very common complaint is that their
03:08technology seems to be very outdated across the board.
03:12One employee said on Reddit,
03:13"'Whoever is in charge of technological advancement and taking the digital systems that run our
03:17entire company into the future needs to take a step back and re-evaluate what we're doing.'"
03:21Another employee complained about not being able to look at their schedules or submit
03:25time off online, and not having a tablet to use to check inventory, adding,
03:29"'Why do our computers and registers look like they came from the 80s?
03:32Why is everything done by paper and pencil?'
03:34I get that this kind of stuff is expensive to upkeep, and by not doing tech upgrades,
03:38we keep our prices low, but it's time to join the rest of the world."
03:47It's pretty common knowledge that, in most stores, there's more inventory in the back.
03:55All you have to do is ask an employee to check for you.
03:57Well, at Costco, what you see is what they have.
04:07One Costco employee told Reader's Digest,
04:09"'Costco is a warehouse store in a literal sense.
04:12We don't have any additional storage from what you see on the shelves.
04:15If it's not there, don't ask us to check the back.
04:17The back doesn't exist.'"
04:19One employee said something similar on Reddit, adding that if you notice the item is up on
04:22the pallets on the higher shelves, you can try asking someone to get them down, but they
04:26may not.
04:27The employee said,
04:28"'I've been told they don't take down pallets from the shelves, because it would require
04:31driving the forklifts through all the customer foot traffic, roping off the aisle and the
04:35one opposite for safety, and would generally cause too much hassle.
04:38If something is up high and there's none on the floor, just go back the next day for it.'"
04:42"'Pardon me, but I didn't know we really carried these."
04:44"'These?
04:45You guys got everything in here.'"
04:47"'Yeah, we sure do.
04:48I mean, is it working out for you?'
04:50If you've ever worried about how your food is being handled at Costco, let this reassure
04:54you.
04:55Employees say food safety is a really big deal to them.
04:58Employee Rachel told Mental Floss,
04:59"'If an employee forgets to remove their apron before exiting the department, they must remove
05:03that apron, toss it into the hamper, and put on a fresh apron because now it's contaminated.'"
05:08She also said that there are rules against employees wearing nail polish near food prep,
05:11as it could chip and fall into the food.
05:14A Costco employee from Florida echoed the same sentiment.
05:16They told Business Insider,
05:17"'We are very strict on food quality and safety.
05:20We have safety walks every hour that audit the temperatures of our food coolers and storage.
05:25Our famous rotisserie chickens are not allowed to be sold after two hours of sitting in the
05:28warmer.'"
05:29Yes, the rumors are true.
05:31Working at Costco really does mean terrific benefits, and employees can't stop raving
05:35about them.
05:36Megan, a former Costco employee, told Yahoo News that there were more than great hourly
05:41benefits.
05:42Megan said,
05:43"...while I was at Costco, they gave employees complimentary memberships to the store."
05:47One employee told Business Insider that they got paid holidays, a generous 401K plan, and
05:51affordable health care that includes dental and vision insurance.
05:54An employee with over seven years of experience told Reddit users that employees get a free
05:58executive membership.
06:00Another random perk?
06:01One employee said they're given a very special gift for the start of the holiday season.
06:04"'We get free turkeys for Thanksgiving.
06:06I didn't even know that before I started working there.
06:08It's a nice perk.'"
06:10We have to agree with that.
06:12Costco is known for their fantastic flexible return policy, which comes with very few restrictions.
06:17But be wary of taking advantage of it.
06:19Employees say they'll start to notice if you're returning too many items.
06:22California employee Thomas told Mental Floss, they can tell just by the way you talk.
06:27When someone comes in to return something without a receipt and they go,
06:29"'Oh, you can look it up on my account,' that's a tell.
06:32It tells me you returned so much stuff that you know what we can find on the computer."
06:36Another employee with over two years of experience there explained on Reddit that while they
06:40don't flag people, they can make comments on your membership.
06:43The employee said,
06:44"'If a return was over $100, we had to call a supervisor to sign off on it.
06:48If it was over $300, we had to call a manager.
06:51The supes and managers were so busy, though, and got so tired of this rule that they literally
06:55only came down to sign the receipt.
06:57They would ask us, "'Do you think it's okay?'
06:59And if we said we were okay with it, then they would sign it."
07:02Most of the time, a trip to Costco means you're ready to stock up on enough food and
07:05supplies to last a few weeks.
07:07But sometimes, you go to just grab a few things.
07:09And those times, you've probably thought it would be nice to have an express line to go
07:12to.
07:13There's a legit reason most stores don't have them, though.
07:16Costco employee Rachel told Mental Floss that the supervisor in charge gets a head count
07:19of customers, so they always know how many people are in the store and have an idea of
07:23when they'll be checking out.
07:24They can then determine how many registers should be open.
07:27They also don't hesitate to pull employees from other departments to help out with lines.
07:31There are plenty of great things about working at Costco, but make no mistake, it isn't a
07:35walk in the park.
07:37Employees work hard for those benefits.
07:39Aside from the physical labor, many employees say they find the job to be pretty stressful.
07:43An anonymous employee wrote on Quora,
07:45"'Costco is an incredibly stressful place to work, and you are required as full-time
07:49to work for 40 hours a week, generally during the most inconvenient times and often on weekends
07:53and evenings, giving you very little time away from work."
07:57Another employee echoed that sentiment.
07:59If you do night cleanup or morning stocking, you will be under very tight deadlines to
08:02get your work done on time, and you will often face situations where you are screwed no matter
08:06what you do.
08:07It can be very stressful and takes a certain mental fortitude.
08:10I could only do it for six years before I burned out and had to move on.
08:14Even if the job is stressful, most employees say the job is still well worth it.
08:18One employee from Arizona told Business Insider,
08:20"'I legitimately love my job.'"
08:22An employee who worked for the company for over two years told Reddit,
08:25The company really does strive to treat their employees fairly.
08:28It's actually nearly impossible for them to fire you if you've been there for a few years.
08:32However, according to one employee on Reddit, the best thing about working there is simple
08:36— the fact that everything is done properly.
08:38There is a real emphasis on doing things the right way rather than the fastest or cheapest.
08:43It's a real testament to the quality of this company.
08:45Or to put it another way,
08:47It's fun, everybody knows everybody, they talk about values and they have good snacks.
08:52Sounds like a place we both know and love.