The reality, however, is quite different. During the first few months of the store's life, things were very optimistic, with promising prospects for new employees to join and move up in a young, growing company. 6+ months later and a major change in upper management, and experienced team members find themselves missing out on advancement opportunities in favor of know-nothings from out of state.
A feedback loop of cutting hours, leading to losses in sales and service, is followed by the further cutting of hours, during which employees jump ship left and right, causing increased expectations (but not promotions or pay increases) for those who remain.
Nepotism is also an issue, with under-qualified individuals receiving promotions due to their relations with higher-ups in the company.
The management itself is also a major problem, from the Director of Operations and his rude, illogical, unrealistic demands to the Assistant Store Director who follows him faithfully (and seems to enjoy the privilege of being the real store director for doing so), this store is in shambles compared to what it was just a few months prior.
Pros:
+Bright, friendly place to work
+Nice benefits for the kind of job that it is (401k, vacations, and sick days)
Cons:
-Management. I could probably write a novel on this one.
-Hours are unreliable, full time employees beware of getting under 30 hours.
-General dishonesty. Told the company had plans for advancement for you when you were
I worked Full-Time as a Produce Manager & transferred to Bloomington, Illinois from an Iowa store approximately a few weeks ago as a full time clerk. approximately 1.5 yrs. (14 months as Dept Mgr.) Condescending along with extremely poor & untrained management teams make for long days at this retailer. Favoritism & friendship over hard work and dedication. Their guide to training is just show up and attempt to do your job & hope someone with knowledge in your work area teaches you something useful. Typical day at work is having management who knows very little about your job trying to tell you how to do it. Workplace culture is enjoyable if your in with the clique otherwise it's horrible. The most enjoyable part of my job is clocking out for the day. If it wasn't for the pay & benefits most would probably not be working there. Some coworkers pretend to be friendly but complain behind your back especially if they are use to doing substandard work and you call them out on it. Management utilizes written documentation not as a tool but more as a way to separate or punish those individuals who do not comply with them or their groups. I had given my 2 week notice but could not stand to work around such people anymore. I tried to point out what was wrong & tried to fix it but I was targeted by these same individuals not wanting positive change. Sorry I will not be disrespected & held to standards not the same for every employee across the board by anyone in any job title
ProsBenefits
ConsStress, Cliques, Substandard training, Poor Mgmt. Untruthful etc.
If things do not change in three-to-five years, Fresh Thyme will join the list of failed retail "branch out" efforts from Meijer, who owns 51% of the company.
Just look up the history of Meijer; they have a whole lineup of failed retail ventures. Who can forget such Meijer classics like Copper Rivet, Sagebrush, and Tansy? Or Spaar or Meijer Square? These efforts go back to the 70's and into the 1990's. In the 2000's, Meijer had rounds of layoffs after trying to expand too far beyond their Michigan roots against the Kroger and Wal-Mart machines.
In the end, it doesn't matter. If Meijer was serious about Fresh Thyme profitability, they would move the Fresh Thyme HQ out of Chicago and focus Fresh Thyme's footprint in Michigan where Meijer loyalty is BY FAR the strongest. They'd also trade legacy Sprouts, Sunflower, and Sears leadership to Earth Fare for a 7th round draft pick or their outright release.
The last review of statistics shows Meijer has 242 stores and half (121 stores) are in Michigan. Clearly, Michigan loves Meijer and that's where Fresh Thyme should retrench their locations and headquarters. Openly tell Michiganders that Fresh Thyme is part of Meijer. Own it. Love it.
Fresh Thyme should forget the other states where they are trying to operate except for Indiana where Meijer is also a major player.
Fresh Thyme needs to go smaller, clean house, and save money with their headquarters relocated to Michigan. Be a Michigan-centric healthy foods chain w
ProsLocal co-workers
ConsCorporate leadership teaches you what not to do in regards to treating other people
Insufficient training, negligent COVID practices, bad communication
Found it incredibly frustrating to solve problems or get questions answered with HR. Managers were either nice but disorganized and stressful, or severe and incommunicative. Rarely found my training to be sufficient, and found myself asking questions 2-3 months in that people seemed surprised I needed to ask.
Despite them advertising "flexible hours" as a main selling point for new hires, I found it very difficult to communicate changing availability. Managers frequently got the availability I had communicates wrong, scheduling me when I wasn't available. I would also have silly mistakes on my schedule like being scheduled "8am to 4am" instead of 8am-4pm, or "9pm to 4pm" instesd of 4pm-9pm. Schedules aren't posted until the Friday evening before each week, meaning ~36hr notice before a Sunday morning shift, so those mistakes are difficult to clarify ans renegotiate when they do come up. They also do all of their scheduling, availability submissions, and time off requests on paper, with no digital tools available, so if you're not scheduled on a Friday evening or Saturday, you have to take time out to go into the store just to check the schedule.
Finally and most importantly - for a grocery store, their workplace policy and culture around COVID was abysmal - supervisors not wearing masks properly when speaking with customers, my choice to where gloves while handling produce being eye-rolled at, best cleaning practices/intervals not once being covered during training, and ha
Would like to work there again after FT takes some time for some Self Care.
Fresh Thyme, as a store, is delightful. It's a fun place to shop and a neat place to be.
The working environment, not so much.
It kinda takes a kind of toll on you. There are folks that invested themselves into working at Fresh Thyme but saw no harvest. They would do everything they could to make people want to come back to the store. These people were attentive and efficient. They knew where things were and would lead you right to it. They were the ones who would open up a bag of chips for you because you were wondering how they tasted. They always greeted you with a smile and made sure you had everything you needed and every questioned answered to the best of their ability.
But these aren't the people that are praised. Instead, the good ones become frustrated and leave.They watch the management above them slowly steer the ship off course. Having a series of store directors and assistant store directors, feeling that they are being thrown at you so as to put a bandage on a gaping wound. Allowing employees to do what they want and fear no repercussion. Having "specialists" that don't seem that special. Managers that are inattentive to their departments. Customers telling you that they "expect you to be out of things" when they come to your store. Feeling like the people that choose products don't listen to the customers but instead to the dollars.
All-in-all, I am thankful for my thyme at Fresh Thyme. I met so many amazing people and I worked at a pretty nifty store.
Employees are nice, met some good customers, management is unprofessional and values favoritism
It pains me to talk down on this store. I met a lot of good down to earth people here. But all I can say is DONT work for them if you value your life outside of work and especially don't expect a promotion or let a lone any recognition for that matter, unless you're as two faced as some of the managers.
After 8 months that I put into this store and the 8 months I came in on days people were sick, quit or called out, this still didn't give me any sort of recognition or even more hours for that matter. Many false promises were given, almost every request I asked for was denied, and almost every thing went behind my back until the last 6 months when I found out they planned on firing me. I didn't give them this opportunity, so I requested a store transfer as a friendly way to quit the store. As soon as I got the position at a different store, I quit for financial reasons and health problems (none of which were lies, but I still took it as an opportunity to leave the store).
I worked in a position that had skeleton staff (and it was me and 2 other women, one of whom complained every other day and talked behind people's back to entertain herself). As much as I enjoyed the job at times though, they shouldnt have backstabbed me as much as they did (especially since I came in 6 am - 2-3 pm nearly every other day).
Towards the end, management was hoping to just cut off nearly all my hours as soon as they found someone who was willing to work in my department (which is part
Great place to work if you want almost all days off and a lot of empty promises.
When I started working at this company, I wanted full time. Was told I'd never get it but that part time was 25 hours per week. The only time I got that much was when someone went on vacation. I worked 16 hours a week to start, then it got cut down to 12 then cut again to 9. I repeatedly asked for more hours, never got them, though I was constantly promised that if I'd stick with it, I'd get more hours, just wait. The strange part is that while they kept cutting everyone's hours (except the few favorite people) they also kept hiring new people and having job fairs. Over half of the original crew quit before the store was even open one year and they all said the same thing, hours being cut, some down to one or two days per week. Why would you cut the hours of good hard working people then hire new people instead of giving the hours back to the ones who already knew what they were doing and did a good job? Seems like this store wants to fail. There is no training at all for any position, you are basically thrown out on the floor and expected to do your job, then when you don't do it the way they like you're told about it. The only way you learn how to do things right is to figure it out yourself or keep asking other employees how to do stuff. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the job, I enjoyed helping people and most of the customers were really nice as were most of the other employees. But management has no clue what they are doing. Even with a change of store manager and assis
I loved my job. It was rewarding and a lot of fun. The pay was pretty decent for the work, and the PTO for full time employees was generous. But management picked favorites constantly, and would give special treatment to whoever their favorite employee happened to be at the time. Conversely, they had a habit of picking someone to harass until they broke down and quit. I saw several of my employees crying in the stockroom and on the sales floor because of the way upper management spoke to them, usually over non-issues or poor communication on management's side of the situations. Furthermore, they continuously asked me to be in charge of more and more within my department, without any additional compensation. They took advantage of my curiosity and willingness to learn new things. The pay was good, but also wildly inconsistent amongst supervisors (yes, we talked about pay). Another thing was that management would constantly berate us for talking on downtime, or making conversation while doing our tasks, despite constantly chatting and laughing about non-work topics themselves. The hypocrisy in upper management was gross.
Overall, it should have been a good place to work. I hated having to leave - the job was fun, the pay was comfortable for my lifestyle, most of my coworkers were hard-working and fun to work with, the hours were great for supervisors and managers, but the abuse from upper management was NOT worth enduring.
Prosfull time pto, good benefits, decent pay, good co-workers, consistent daily tasks
Consguilted for taking breaks, abusive upper management, dramatic work environment, blame-shifting
Fresh Thyme Farmers Market was absolutely the worst place I ever worked. There was not a single week that I did not work under 70 hours a week and they could have cared less. The Store Manager allowed the associates to absolutely ruin the customer base with their rude and lewd behavior. There was an employee who was making comments to female customers and the store manager refused to fire that employee. The people who worked their guts out for the company were the ones who were ridiculed and dismissed because they wanted it right. Customer service was the worst I have ever seen from any employer that I have worked for. The assistant manager never even worked in a grocery store before and she had the nerve to ridicule and put down the department heads trying to do the best possible job they could without any help from store management. The moral of the store was the worst I ever seen in my life. I worked there and I refused to shop there because of the environment of the store. The store manager and assistant manager totally ruined the moral of the store and it was horrible to work there. I had associates call in sick every single day and the store manager refused to document the excessive call ins and my hands were tied by the store manager. This was just a horrible work experience and I have never seen anything like it in my life. I compare it to a zoo because the associates did whatever they wanted to because of the weak leadership of store management. The sales of the sto
Management
The managers lacked communication and played favorites.
Overall
I did not enjoy working here because when I was hired they said I would be working 25 - 30 hours per week. The minimum requirement for how many hours you had to work as an employee was 15 hours split every other week. So, one week they would have me work 8 hours and another week they would have me work 7. Not even close to the hours they promised. If you worked over time at all you would get into trouble. On top of all that, there were only a handful of people who were actually nice. The managers played favorites with the other employees and as I said, most of the employees there were not nice. I was constantly dealing with bad attitudes and people who felt like they were better than everyone else because they had been there since the store had originally opened. Maybe the store wouldn’t have closed if the managers had not played favorites and held on to all the people who had been there since the store opened. I wish I could thank the people there who were truly nice. They’re the only reason I stayed. I would also like to add that the amount of work they expected me to do was unbelievable. I had massive jobs to get done in 5 hours or less. Often times my partner would end up having to finish the work I was not able to complete because we were not allowed to work over time. No matter how hard or how fast I worked I wouldn’t be able to get it all done, and the managers showed no appreciation. I would l
Questions And Answers about Fresh Thyme Farmers Market
What is the work environment and culture like at Fresh Thyme Market?
Asked Jul 25, 2016
The environment in my store is as toxic as toxic comes. Got written up for a family emergency that left me unable to work for about 5 or so days. I tried to get coverage every day but when you only have about 6 or so cashiers it’s very difficult. Management walks around with their head in their phones and refuses to help out when needed, it takes them 3 pages for them to emerge from their little office and 10 minutes to walk up to the front. Management does nothing but spy on you through the cameras- especially if you’re a woman working. Everyday is a pain, the customers walk all over you and degrade you in every way they possibly can and nobody cares. Cashiers expected to run around multiple departments and do their jobs while also maintaining the front, which is impossible and overworking. I don’t get paid enough to do 4 departments worth of work, I barely even get paid enough for everything I have to do in the front end. Management dumps everything onto the front end workers while yelling at them and praising the people who do nothing but sit on their phones. Overall a very bad place to work, they don’t care and will overwork you until you drop and then they dump more work onto you.
Answered Mar 10, 2021
Toxic environment. You can feel the cloud of negativity, and sadness when you walk in. At first you like it, but then it all becomes so clear. The turnover is unbelievable. I have seen employees go take a break and never come back. Employees come and go. Store Director is where I worked was cold and uncaring. She doesn’t know how to talk to employees. She is a bully. Assistant Store Director is her lap dog. He throws people under the bus to protect himself. He is so cheap he squeaks. If they don’t like you they will sabotage you so they could write you up and fire you. It is no secret either. They make it obvious. The Southwest DO, Southwest Admin will do nothing to help you either. The DO is such a disappointment. Don’t fall for her inspirational talks. It is all a lie. I was a fool to believe in her. They say don’t fear retaliation if you come to them, but that isn’t true. I have seen it. Experienced it. It is an unhealthy, unhappy place. Don’t apply. Spare yourself the grief.
Answered Mar 17, 2020
Drug test?
Asked Apr 1, 2017
No drug tests. they do a "background check" but we had a guy employed for us for 3 years who had a child molestation charge on his record, it was just in a different state than ours. so whoops I guess.
Answered Aug 28, 2019
If you test positive, you write the next business plan.
Answered Nov 23, 2018
How do you feel about going to work each day at Fresh Thyme Market?
Asked Jul 26, 2018
I never dread going to work, but I know some days will be harder than others. Generally, I have a pleasant experience at work, even if it is busy. This can also depend on if I have enough people on my team.
Answered Oct 12, 2021
The clock becomes a doom counter when my shift draws near, counting down the minutes until I have to go in for the day. I have never felt such a strong sense of dread and misery in my life. The mere thought of even having to go here for work fills me with dread.
Answered Oct 3, 2020
If you were in charge, what would you do to make Fresh Thyme Market a better place to work?
Asked Aug 1, 2017
Create a training program! Right now there is absolutely zero formal training for any position. You only know what you know because the person standing next to you told you.
Answered Oct 2, 2020
Hire more employees for busy stores and work on fixing those cutting of hours.
Answered Jul 21, 2019
Is the pay weekly or bi Weekly?
Asked Apr 16, 2017
Tri-weekly. If you beg to be paid, you are flogged.
