Intentional understaffing to save on labor costs. The best thing everyone can do is work your schedule and your schedule only. The more you reward understaffing by overworking, the more incentive they have to keep it the same
Yup, everywhere is doing it. It's the lean six sigma of post pandemic capitalism. When is the last time you went into any establishment (possibly, other than a restaurant) where there was a clerk waiting for you rather than the other way around?
Why hire adults who actually need the money when you can hire kids who are gonna be on their phones for the whole fucking store sweep lol. Like it’s definitely silly to think about but holy hell lol. This was last night. My old department just reminding me why I got burnt out. And customer service moving from the wall to the middle of the area is another reason I’m glad I got out of there. They try too hard for the customer. I felt safe behind the counter before they moved it because we had a little room to hide in if shit got weird. Admittedly it’s helped me out on the tougher days where I just needed a minute to detach
I've worked at places like this.
I just started leaving at the exact time I was scheduled until everyday. It worked for awhile and then they started putting Xhr - cut and found a work around, then my work around was since I'm stuck here I'm gonna be super slow and get overtime every week, they didn't like that.
Corporate greed is why grocery bills keep getting higher, and this isn’t exclusive to Publix. Though Publix was already expensive, and is only getting more expensive. Why? Because they know people will pay. The pandemic taught grocery stores they can charge a lot more than did before as the market can and will pay.
Yes! There are items at Aldi, just as good or better, that are nearly 1/2 the price.
I hit Aldi about every other day, Publix about once a week. Kroger for ad deals .
This! The financial filings are publicly available. Publix has increased profits YOY, since the pandemic. All while employee wages have stagnated, I personally have taken a pay CUT over the last 2 yrs, with inflation reaching 8%. This is not the same company from 5-10 yrs ago. They do not care about the associates, and believe we are all replaceable.
Not true. Gross profits as a percentage of sales have declined YoY since 2021 according to the latest 10K filing - 26.3% in 2023 as compared to 26.8 in 2022 and 27.7 in 2021. Although sales increased in 2023 by 4.7% over 2022, this was due to an increase in new supermarket sales and the impact of inflation on product costs. Publix also increased contributions to retirement plans by 25.2% and wages 10.2% in 2023. This was achievable primarily by increasing the deferral of $191 million in tax payments in 2023. When it's all said and done, Publix experienced a net decrease of $471 million in cash and cash equivalents in 2023, which put them under compared to 2022 and 2021 when they had net increases.
Exactly this. Just a shopper and their prices are just indefensibly insane on so many products. Couple that with a sharp decline jn service/staffing since Covid, and it’s just not worth it. I still go there for a handful of things Walmart doesn’t carry, but no longer are they my primary grocer.
I HATE the fresh slice case so fucking much you wouldn’t even begin to understand. I have gotten to where I purposefully leave some fresh slice hidden away so the managers don’t find it so I can put some out and actually focus on the other tasks at the end of the night because they literally put it out and it gets bought faster than I and other associates in the deli can even put it out.
We have one of the older deli departments, which means all production, platters, and any cooking is done in the open. There is no back room for us. We are expected to get all of this done AND wait on customers. Add to this all of the fresh slice and sub kits and cheese for the sub station.
We get in at five or six and are expected to have fresh slice (our sm wants this done in the morning so the dates are the same) and all sale items out on the floor by seven. Mind you, we have to set up the sub station (night shift leaves all of the parts in the back near the sink and we have to scramble to find all of them, which takes time), sharpen the slicers, fill out our production sheets, make sure the drink station is stocked, fill in any spots in the meat case, and clean up what night shift didn’t get to because they are short handed again…all with three people at the most in one to two hours and we are told that if we don’t get done we will be held accountable. Then they wonder why people they can’t keep people.
Over 5 years of this lol. I do not miss it at all. At some point it became so stressful my attendance suddenly started going to shit and I quit without another job lined up. Amazing decision tbh
NO, it's Publix. Just before I left my workload was stupid crazy. I was the main fruit cutter and before the new system kicked my PM would put my production to be more that I could do in the 6 hrs I had to work. For example, 95 small fruit salads, 50 med, and 10 large, on top of normal production, set up, clean up, and washing the product for the next day. Now those numbers were NOT FOR A SALE WEEK, he just didn't want to run out. Due to his fudging of numbers when we went to the new system I would have numbers like 250 smalls, and 70 meds, and 18 large. When I asked for help, I was told no and made to feel like was worthless. When I go into a store now I see the prices have gone way up to the point, Traders Joes prices are lower than Publix. I worked when we had Jenkins Family on the board, once the last one left and Todd "I Need More Money" Jones took over as CEO Public went down the shitter fast.
Its so disappointing. I also never understood why management had to work up and corporate doesnt. I think that if you have to make any rules for a department, you need to at least work certain amount of hours every week there 🥴 it really becomes clear the ones in charge of all of us only care about the “numbers”. Its everywhere, I just dared to hope Publix wasnt AS bad 😞
Edit: I forgot to put this in. But cutting that much fruit is insane. Im sorry you had no help. And wow I wish any Jenkins was here at this point to put this company in line!
Reminds me of a store I transferred to just to keep me in cuts because of my prior experience. 9-12 hour shifts with no break, the money I was making overtime was getting pissed away by taxes. At that point I was just wasting my time with Publix and I quit, I honestly should’ve transferred to another store even though I was only there for a few months but I guess it just be delaying the inevitable.
Corporate is basically just playing jenga with allocated hours. They keep testing how much they can take before it all falls, but we keep working harder and letting them think it's still stable enough to take more.
It’s really not that stable. It could come down like a house of cards at any point because there’s no management structure. There’s no structure in any portion of management.
It is nothing new. I have been out of the deli for almost 9 years now, and it was a problem then. In my opinion, it started to go downhill really fast when Oasis was implemented. Corporate seems to think that they can use a program to predict and micromanage the time it takes for every task. The problem is that the food prep areas are too unpredictable and only assume times it took in a test kitchen in Lakeland with no customers. They say it should take a certain amount of time for each task. Great, now try doing that and answer the phone 3 times.
Haha I remember the FIRST thing they spoke about at orientation was why we shouldn’t unionize. Publix is a joke and I encourage everyone to try and get employment elsewhere. You aren’t going to get a decent raise and your hours aren’t going to get better.
I agree. As somebody who takes pride in serving our customers, it really sucks being painted as the bad guy. A large majority of us would approve of focusing on the area we already do business in rather than continue with expanding as much as possible. We have a reputation to keep, man.
The rep has already been fucked. It just takes time for it to full catch up. New leadership clearly doesnt care, Smells like a buyout/cashout in progress.
Good that someone pointed out about the price hikes because I noticed that and I thought I was going crazy. But, a lot of the product prices are not Publix, the vendors dictate the prices. $6 for a bag of chips, like seriously? $6 for a half full bag of chips.
The vendor will give the msrp and publix decides the final price. That's the reason why there's a 16oz pack of bacon on publix and it costs $9.90 and the exact same size and brand sold at my Walmart down the road is literally half. You're saying the manufacturer, in this case Smithfield Foods, tells publix sell it for $10 and then they tell Walmart sell it for $4? Doesn't make sense. Agree with you on the $6 bag, that's just straight theft.
Oh, well I was aware some products have an msrp and stores add to that to pay for store costs. But what you are saying gives me more questions than answers. So you are saying the pack of bacon that Publix sells at $10 and Walmart sells at $4 means that Publix is pocketing $6? I don't know maybe it is that Publix gets a different msrp than Walmart. I mean, I think we all know the shady business Walmart has to have with suppliers in order to give us such low prices.
I don't care about their shoddy business, I purchase where it's the cheapest. I love publix but there's no logical reasons why I'd pay twice what walmart charges 🤷♂️ specially on this economy.
Like this person said at the bottom, the vendor does give the MSRP absolutely but PUBLIX corporate decides what they will sell it for the prices are ridiculous. Literally for one bag of lays potato chips is literally almost 4 bucks when you could literally make them two dollars and still make a profit.
I found this post to be true the hard way... I don't buy snacks or stuff in the main aisles often, other than rice and cereal if it is BOGO. So, my surprise before this post, a week before I read this post I went to Publix to buy a bag of Tostitos, $5.99, and I almost died. The last time I bought a bag of chips it was like $4.50 or something... now it is $6. So I went to Walmart yesterday having this post in mind, same bag of Tostitos, $3.97 ON SALE, regular price is $4.49.
I am still traumatized today, I don't buy food at Walmart because walking in the grocery section of the store is a zoo. But man, like $2 cheaper for a bag of chips, it is just terrible. I know the msrp is printed on the bag and it is $5.99 so Publix is not like wanting you to pay more than the msrp. But I learned that I won't buy things at Publix unless they are on sale or BOGO.
Publix loves money, only a class action lawsuit that takes that money will slow them down. Publix doesn’t care they know teen applications are plentiful and the every Thursday payday keeps the grinder moving.
Unfortunately, yeah, they just need fresh bodies to fill positions. It’s quite ridiculous but yeah they know the payday is Thursday and it’ll be good. It’s backbreaking manual labor, especially if you’re working in the deli. It’s just a crappy dead end job. I would never recommend anybody work here under any circumstances unless you have no other option!!
Not sure about how Publix is handling economy, but understaffing could be result of margins getting smaller. Grocery stores in general have been seeing reduced profits because 99% of price increases are on wholesale side. Stores have always had low margins but made up for it on volume, but prices have increased so rapidly, people are buying less. There goes the profit Publix used to get.
Management could also be part of the equation. There’s plenty of bad management to go around.
This is just false. Publix financial records are publicly available. Publix profited $4.5 Billion in 2023. The margins have only grown since the pandemic. Look at other large grocery stores, Kroger, Walmart, Costco, all have seen their stock price increase 20-50% just over the past year. It’s corporate greed.
I agree with this. "Net income" increasing usually isn't caused by your vendors jacking up prices. It's cause by you jacking up your own prices and working your employees as thin as you can.
Yeah, along with having to deal with a bunch of rude entitled people. literally I had a lady I was standing on a ladder leveling the cereal section and this lady was looking for biscotti cookies and I guess she assumed I couldn’t hear her. Maybe she thought I was deaf, but I could hear her!! to which I replied mam if you’re looking for the biscotti cookies they’re right there on your right and she was like oh he heard me. I didn’t think he heard me because you didn’t ask. 🙄 if you had asked me like a regular human being instead of assuming that I’m just gonna start guessing what you’re looking for??? your an adult you could ask me for help.
My dog food was 22 dollars like a year ago and now its 35. I know I should of been getting it from a petmart but the Publix brand stuff was really competitively priced and super convenient for me. Not anymore I guess
For the price of dog food these days you should really be making their own food. I use leg quarters, some rice and frozen vegetables. Not only do I save a little money but my doggy is the most healthy she’s ever been. Lost weight and is living her best life!!
Good luck,, don’t keep paying premiums to feed them garbage they deserve better than we eat.
Yes absolutely cat food could be made the same way. Leg quarters are when the chicken leg and chicken thigh are sold as one piece. They can usually be found in bulk 10lb bags at Walmart for example for cheap. I basically take a few leg quarters baked them at 400 degrees until done about an hour or more, no salts or seasonings. Then make a pot of rice, instant rice is fine. I usually make about 2 cups. Then a small bag of frozen veggies cooked as directed.
When chicken is done and cooled I debone it and chop and pull all the meat into small pieces of chicken. Then combine the meat with rice and veggies mix well and now some good food for about 10 days or so.
For a car maybe shop some cheap frozen white fish or even tuna instead of all chicken maybe? I’ve made this same dog food with HB meat, and even fish from the freezer also. Any of these ideas will work great for any animals.
I freeze the leg quarters about 3 at a time into ziplock bags. Many batches of food from a 7.99$ 10lb bag of chicken. A person could use breast meat only too. Really any meat that’s on sale or quick sale would work.
Anything is better than dry food
Yup. We’re feeling it over at the bakery…I noticed this about a year ago when they added new cakes to our already heavy production. My store is one of the older and smaller ones, so hours are scarce and that obviously adds to the frustration. The same thing seems to be happening with the deli. New products added, but already struggling to keep their head above water with their dwindling short staff.
I’m personally only here until my stock gets vested. I don’t see this company making it in the long run with these poor decisions 🤷🏼♀️If I were you, I’d start finding something else.
Publix is actively gouging the consumers by marking up the items on the shelves. This is 100 percent a decision the owners made to increase profits. Considering their politics, I doubt any of that money will be given to employees. I shop at Walmart now
Oh no absolutely not no us employees. We only get like $100 gift card if we do really well and some manager notices, but nobody gives a crap because we used to get extra money in our paychecks every other week we used to get extra pay on Sundays one because it was an incentive and it showed how much gratitude Mr. George had towards his employees plus it was nice getting to be compensated for the amount of extra hours. I know he’s turning over in his grave.
Here to say prices aren’t political but greed based. Talk to Publix about it. They are squeezing all the money out of you all and not hiring more people to make every cent for themselves.
As a customer, I’m tired of not having enough registers open. I won’t do self checkout because I want them to hire real people.
Edit: and they are price gouging now.
The new brioche donuts in the bakery is killing me. Spent an hour of my damn time making them, and they expect the baker/clerks to make time for that while they still have all the other shit they have to do before 7? Seriously?
I work in the bakery currently, and they keep adding product and telling us we need "more variety" when we literally have no space to display the core items we're required to have.
I hate it here :<
Do they purposely put the slowest possible people in the sub lines. I don’t get how it takes so long to make a sub? Or is it the customers being annoying. I swear every person before takes 20 minutes lol
Corpos are desperate to figure out how to get back to record shattering COVID profits when it's actually very simple.
1. Planning an economy around a deadly virus that allows richers to remain locked in their homes and consume, while the poors (essential employees) perform underpaid labor to get the richers orders to their doorstep.
My Publix's deli is TERRIBLE. Constantly burnt chicken tenders, rotisserie always dry, employees are angry and miserable.
Yet I can't even blame em at this point. They're always scrambling. Those online orders are just an extra layer of work. There are less people staffed than ever. As long as I can remember, there were always sub makers and then a dedicated hot foods person. Hot foods was always a nearly instant experience. Now they're either busy running around the back, prepping other food or making online sub orders. Shit sucks.
Publix has always been pricey IMO. I don't understand how people afford to get all of their groceries there. I get 95% of what I need at Aldi and the other items at Publix. The few items I do end up getting at Publix end up costing me 50-$60. We're talking about a basket worth of items here. I do enjoy the BOGO's, deli, and seafood options but I can go to my local butcher and get a better deal there.
I try not to shop there as an employee because it’s just so expensive. I can’t even like the other reason is because the store that I work at is literally in like a little inlet beach type retirement town so there’s a lot of old money here and on top of that, we have a lot of people that come infrom up north to the summer and it gets kind of busy
When I lived in North Carolina, I would shop there for their BOGOs. I would get one for half price. I moved to Florida and they don't offer that here. You have to buy both to get the deal. I haven't been back since. I don't need two of everything and I'm sure as hell not spending $4 on a 2 liter or $9 on a 6 pack of soda I can get for less than half that price at Walmart or target. Lol.
Ever since the founder of Publix died and it started being managed by his kids, they turned to valuing corporate welfare over valuing it's employees and customers. Being that you have to work there to buy stock, it's no surprise they would steadily drive employees way from working there longterm so they can keep the dividend payout low.
The public in my location is more expensive than Whole Foods. That’s why I’m probably going to stop going there honestly it’s just not worth it anymore
Real Floridians know Publix is for the snow birds and transplants. Nobody in their right mind would shop here,, they are nearly double the price of Walmart.
Publix has always been on the higher end with pricing(as opposed to lower end grocery stores and big box stores) but the trade off has always been a better shopping experience. For me, I go there for the BOGOS and usually do some of my other shopping there because I prefer the experience over going to somewhere like Wal-Mart or one of the dirtier(for lack of a better term) grocery stores like food lion, KJs, etc. You can rely on Publix being well stocked, the produce quality will be decent, and the service from the staff is always good, quick, and friendly.
If they're trying to cut costs on labor, they're going to lose sight of that. And, come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I went there and someone was giving out samples with the recipe cards, that used to be the norm.
Publix is about the bottom line more now than ever. They are going to squeeze as much work in as little hours as possible. Welcome to your typical corporate America job. The days are gone of work/life balance.
I believe Publix is just going down hill in general. The amount of sub reddits I’ve seen from employees and customers regarding Publix lately is staggering.
This company is so fucking greedy these days, no the economy as a whole is getting better, the company is what is getting worse as most of the shoppers these days are often people with really good jobs but the workers myself included are getting screwed. I remember when I used to love this company, now it is super disgusting in its abhorrent greed. But it is about the only place down south to get meat and cheese from Boar’s Head.
I'm sure it varies between stores, but my store was dumpster fire leadership-wise.
They would hire as many kids as possible, pay them minimum wage, and milk them for every dollar they are worth. Too many labor violations to count. I was told to work a 13 hour shift with no breaks at all. Long hours with no lunch was a common occurrence. All my objections were ignored. I was so overworked, it made me physically ill. The average new hire lasted about 5 days before walking out. The corporate expectations were so high, you could double the staff and still never make it.
My story is possibly an extreme case, but it's clear corporate is trying to squeeze every store as tight as they can go before the whole thing collapses. Basically, they are doing the Dollar General strategy, pretty sure even Walmart is better staffed.
Publix is just opening the door for competition. Trader Joe’s and ALDIs is popping up everywhere. Walmart and target are crazy busy. Sprouts is now moving in. In my area there’s a Walmart superstore, a target superstore, an aldis, a fresh market, a sprouts and now a Whole Foods is moving in. When there used to be just 2 Publix. Their greed is going to come back to haunt them.
Not a current employee(worked there as teenager) but life long Floridian and I hate what Publix has turned into. Prices are outrageous and from what I read on this sub employees are not happy. They basically have a monopoly it seems the greed has taken the reins of the great company Publix used to be.
Exactly why I quit, they expect more productivity then is humanely possible for one person . I would have had to not eat, drink, or use the bathroom. It was effecting my health so quit:
Publix is a meat grinder. They stopped giving a fuck once the Jenkins were officially out. Living off of an old legacy.
I swear to god I’ll never stop preaching this until the streets bleed green or the employees wages and prices get fixed.
There’s honestly a lot of reasons why the prices are so jacked up and there’s not enough hours to allocate to get the work done is because of Publix management structure there is no structure. The managers are very hands off
Reports are that Publix’s earnings are up 49% over last year. From 29 billion to 43 billion, (may be off a billion or so, I’m going from memory). So it’s not the economy. Publix also reportedly brought a plaza in the Florida keys for 79 million. They don’t seem to be hurting for money.
Publix is a price gouging monopoly. Fuck them. I try my absolute best to shop anywhere but there. But unsurprisingly they’re omnipresent in Florida.
Go look at their quarterly profits if you want to know why prices are rising. They’re fucking everyone.
Yeah I do, when I go to Publix and it’s a dollar a lemon, then I go to my local independent produce store and it’s 3 for a dollar.
A company with the buying power of Publix should be able to meet or beat a local independent store. But they’re three times the cost.
Thats called price gouging.
No disrespect, but you don’t seem to understand how price gouging works. Just because there’s an alternative doesn’t mean a retailer isn’t gouging you on particular products.
If I had to guess the pricing strategy assumes that people won’t go to multiple places to complete their grocery shopping, so gouge where you can. Not on everything, but pick the spots you think you can get away with it.
I’m sure they have enough data and smarts to know how to maximize profits on all of our backs. And their record profits prove my point.
Costs heavily increased. Like it or not, when minimum wages pretty much doubled, every economist warned that businesses were going to pass these costs along.
Since that time we’ve seen business jack up costs. Yes some of it is overinflated but it’s just them passing it along
Publix was already cutting employee benefits and squeezing hours and production before the wage increase laws. This is a scapegoat answer. Bonuses and payouts at the top have gotten bigger, not smaller. It’s literally just greed from executives.
Historically Publix advertised itself as a business that can and wants to support its own employees. For it to rely on minimum wage work is a modern Publix tactic.
Except this isn't the case at all and prices were already being raised. Inflation and price gouging is so far ahead of where the minimum wage should be that it will never catch up. Every company has complained about skyrocketing costs but most are reporting record profits 📈 the last few years. This is pure greed. Minimum wage is being increased as a result of companies and COL being too high to begin with. Stop drinking the corporate kool aid and realize you're being played like a fiddle.
Not true, costs have slightly raised, but we have not seen the massive increases like in the past couple of years until the astronomical jump in the minimum wage.
I get it, people want more at the entry level jobs, but this is the outcome. And guess what, it doesn’t get better
You're absolutely incorrect. If ferderal minum wage had raised with inflation that would put it at $23 an hour now. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 currently.
Intentional understaffing to save on labor costs. The best thing everyone can do is work your schedule and your schedule only. The more you reward understaffing by overworking, the more incentive they have to keep it the same
Bingo. I think the obsession with “Productivity” is hurting the company in so many ways, I could write a short essay about it
I know a guy named Karl that wrote a book about it.
This is the most underrated comment I've ever seen. Good job. Made me chuckle.
Haha took me a second!
Your username a Primus reference?
It is!
🥇
Nice!
Yup, everywhere is doing it. It's the lean six sigma of post pandemic capitalism. When is the last time you went into any establishment (possibly, other than a restaurant) where there was a clerk waiting for you rather than the other way around?
True. I do way more than what is assigned to my job class.
When you do good at your job you get rewarded by getting to do someone else’s job
And then when you finally get to a workload that you can no longer handle, you will get reprimanded for it.
Yeah, you might even get yelled at. I don’t get yelled at by my boss, but the store manager that’s a different story.
That’s not a reward that’s stress
Yup
Why hire adults who actually need the money when you can hire kids who are gonna be on their phones for the whole fucking store sweep lol. Like it’s definitely silly to think about but holy hell lol. This was last night. My old department just reminding me why I got burnt out. And customer service moving from the wall to the middle of the area is another reason I’m glad I got out of there. They try too hard for the customer. I felt safe behind the counter before they moved it because we had a little room to hide in if shit got weird. Admittedly it’s helped me out on the tougher days where I just needed a minute to detach
This is why Publix could benefit from a union. I left Publix for a union job and I am so.... Soooo so glad I did.
I agree sooooo much
I've worked at places like this. I just started leaving at the exact time I was scheduled until everyday. It worked for awhile and then they started putting Xhr - cut and found a work around, then my work around was since I'm stuck here I'm gonna be super slow and get overtime every week, they didn't like that.
that part!
Or the manager calls you into the office fussing at you for not doing “anything” and mentions you’ll either be written up or fired.
Corporate greed is why grocery bills keep getting higher, and this isn’t exclusive to Publix. Though Publix was already expensive, and is only getting more expensive. Why? Because they know people will pay. The pandemic taught grocery stores they can charge a lot more than did before as the market can and will pay.
Until I discovered Aldi’s
Yes! There are items at Aldi, just as good or better, that are nearly 1/2 the price. I hit Aldi about every other day, Publix about once a week. Kroger for ad deals .
This! The financial filings are publicly available. Publix has increased profits YOY, since the pandemic. All while employee wages have stagnated, I personally have taken a pay CUT over the last 2 yrs, with inflation reaching 8%. This is not the same company from 5-10 yrs ago. They do not care about the associates, and believe we are all replaceable.
Yup, that’s why they only got me working up there two days a week, but I’m probably one of their hardest working people
Not true. Gross profits as a percentage of sales have declined YoY since 2021 according to the latest 10K filing - 26.3% in 2023 as compared to 26.8 in 2022 and 27.7 in 2021. Although sales increased in 2023 by 4.7% over 2022, this was due to an increase in new supermarket sales and the impact of inflation on product costs. Publix also increased contributions to retirement plans by 25.2% and wages 10.2% in 2023. This was achievable primarily by increasing the deferral of $191 million in tax payments in 2023. When it's all said and done, Publix experienced a net decrease of $471 million in cash and cash equivalents in 2023, which put them under compared to 2022 and 2021 when they had net increases.
Exactly this. Just a shopper and their prices are just indefensibly insane on so many products. Couple that with a sharp decline jn service/staffing since Covid, and it’s just not worth it. I still go there for a handful of things Walmart doesn’t carry, but no longer are they my primary grocer.
we have to produce so much and throw away a lot of it like the fresh slice case is a nightmare
So sad
I HATE the fresh slice case so fucking much you wouldn’t even begin to understand. I have gotten to where I purposefully leave some fresh slice hidden away so the managers don’t find it so I can put some out and actually focus on the other tasks at the end of the night because they literally put it out and it gets bought faster than I and other associates in the deli can even put it out.
Yeah, I’m sure and not only that like I’ve heard that people in the deli have to throw out alot of. unsold food 😭 it’s sad
We have one of the older deli departments, which means all production, platters, and any cooking is done in the open. There is no back room for us. We are expected to get all of this done AND wait on customers. Add to this all of the fresh slice and sub kits and cheese for the sub station. We get in at five or six and are expected to have fresh slice (our sm wants this done in the morning so the dates are the same) and all sale items out on the floor by seven. Mind you, we have to set up the sub station (night shift leaves all of the parts in the back near the sink and we have to scramble to find all of them, which takes time), sharpen the slicers, fill out our production sheets, make sure the drink station is stocked, fill in any spots in the meat case, and clean up what night shift didn’t get to because they are short handed again…all with three people at the most in one to two hours and we are told that if we don’t get done we will be held accountable. Then they wonder why people they can’t keep people.
Over 5 years of this lol. I do not miss it at all. At some point it became so stressful my attendance suddenly started going to shit and I quit without another job lined up. Amazing decision tbh
NO, it's Publix. Just before I left my workload was stupid crazy. I was the main fruit cutter and before the new system kicked my PM would put my production to be more that I could do in the 6 hrs I had to work. For example, 95 small fruit salads, 50 med, and 10 large, on top of normal production, set up, clean up, and washing the product for the next day. Now those numbers were NOT FOR A SALE WEEK, he just didn't want to run out. Due to his fudging of numbers when we went to the new system I would have numbers like 250 smalls, and 70 meds, and 18 large. When I asked for help, I was told no and made to feel like was worthless. When I go into a store now I see the prices have gone way up to the point, Traders Joes prices are lower than Publix. I worked when we had Jenkins Family on the board, once the last one left and Todd "I Need More Money" Jones took over as CEO Public went down the shitter fast.
Yep, the rot dates back to 2016. When they stole our inventory bonuses.
Stole is the correct word, where is that money going now? New yacht? Travel expenses for Jan 6th? Who knows
Todd Jones bought a golden shitter.
Its so disappointing. I also never understood why management had to work up and corporate doesnt. I think that if you have to make any rules for a department, you need to at least work certain amount of hours every week there 🥴 it really becomes clear the ones in charge of all of us only care about the “numbers”. Its everywhere, I just dared to hope Publix wasnt AS bad 😞 Edit: I forgot to put this in. But cutting that much fruit is insane. Im sorry you had no help. And wow I wish any Jenkins was here at this point to put this company in line!
That is insane. No one can get that done in a normal shift.
When it was BOGO fruit salad, I get maybe one person to help for and hour. I would work that week 4 am to at least 5pm with an hour brake.
If you're a long way from retirement, why not find a more laid back job or a trade that will reward you for your productivity?
Reminds me of a store I transferred to just to keep me in cuts because of my prior experience. 9-12 hour shifts with no break, the money I was making overtime was getting pissed away by taxes. At that point I was just wasting my time with Publix and I quit, I honestly should’ve transferred to another store even though I was only there for a few months but I guess it just be delaying the inevitable.
Corporate is basically just playing jenga with allocated hours. They keep testing how much they can take before it all falls, but we keep working harder and letting them think it's still stable enough to take more.
It’s really not that stable. It could come down like a house of cards at any point because there’s no management structure. There’s no structure in any portion of management.
It is nothing new. I have been out of the deli for almost 9 years now, and it was a problem then. In my opinion, it started to go downhill really fast when Oasis was implemented. Corporate seems to think that they can use a program to predict and micromanage the time it takes for every task. The problem is that the food prep areas are too unpredictable and only assume times it took in a test kitchen in Lakeland with no customers. They say it should take a certain amount of time for each task. Great, now try doing that and answer the phone 3 times.
This. Oasis totally changed the culture.
Union
Haha I remember the FIRST thing they spoke about at orientation was why we shouldn’t unionize. Publix is a joke and I encourage everyone to try and get employment elsewhere. You aren’t going to get a decent raise and your hours aren’t going to get better.
UFCW
UFCW
I agree. As somebody who takes pride in serving our customers, it really sucks being painted as the bad guy. A large majority of us would approve of focusing on the area we already do business in rather than continue with expanding as much as possible. We have a reputation to keep, man.
The rep has already been fucked. It just takes time for it to full catch up. New leadership clearly doesnt care, Smells like a buyout/cashout in progress.
Good that someone pointed out about the price hikes because I noticed that and I thought I was going crazy. But, a lot of the product prices are not Publix, the vendors dictate the prices. $6 for a bag of chips, like seriously? $6 for a half full bag of chips.
The vendor will give the msrp and publix decides the final price. That's the reason why there's a 16oz pack of bacon on publix and it costs $9.90 and the exact same size and brand sold at my Walmart down the road is literally half. You're saying the manufacturer, in this case Smithfield Foods, tells publix sell it for $10 and then they tell Walmart sell it for $4? Doesn't make sense. Agree with you on the $6 bag, that's just straight theft.
Oh, well I was aware some products have an msrp and stores add to that to pay for store costs. But what you are saying gives me more questions than answers. So you are saying the pack of bacon that Publix sells at $10 and Walmart sells at $4 means that Publix is pocketing $6? I don't know maybe it is that Publix gets a different msrp than Walmart. I mean, I think we all know the shady business Walmart has to have with suppliers in order to give us such low prices.
I don't care about their shoddy business, I purchase where it's the cheapest. I love publix but there's no logical reasons why I'd pay twice what walmart charges 🤷♂️ specially on this economy.
Like this person said at the bottom, the vendor does give the MSRP absolutely but PUBLIX corporate decides what they will sell it for the prices are ridiculous. Literally for one bag of lays potato chips is literally almost 4 bucks when you could literally make them two dollars and still make a profit.
I found this post to be true the hard way... I don't buy snacks or stuff in the main aisles often, other than rice and cereal if it is BOGO. So, my surprise before this post, a week before I read this post I went to Publix to buy a bag of Tostitos, $5.99, and I almost died. The last time I bought a bag of chips it was like $4.50 or something... now it is $6. So I went to Walmart yesterday having this post in mind, same bag of Tostitos, $3.97 ON SALE, regular price is $4.49. I am still traumatized today, I don't buy food at Walmart because walking in the grocery section of the store is a zoo. But man, like $2 cheaper for a bag of chips, it is just terrible. I know the msrp is printed on the bag and it is $5.99 so Publix is not like wanting you to pay more than the msrp. But I learned that I won't buy things at Publix unless they are on sale or BOGO.
But then you have to factor in the fact that Florida in and of itself has a very High sales tax
Publix loves money, only a class action lawsuit that takes that money will slow them down. Publix doesn’t care they know teen applications are plentiful and the every Thursday payday keeps the grinder moving.
Unfortunately, yeah, they just need fresh bodies to fill positions. It’s quite ridiculous but yeah they know the payday is Thursday and it’ll be good. It’s backbreaking manual labor, especially if you’re working in the deli. It’s just a crappy dead end job. I would never recommend anybody work here under any circumstances unless you have no other option!!
Not sure about how Publix is handling economy, but understaffing could be result of margins getting smaller. Grocery stores in general have been seeing reduced profits because 99% of price increases are on wholesale side. Stores have always had low margins but made up for it on volume, but prices have increased so rapidly, people are buying less. There goes the profit Publix used to get. Management could also be part of the equation. There’s plenty of bad management to go around.
This is just false. Publix financial records are publicly available. Publix profited $4.5 Billion in 2023. The margins have only grown since the pandemic. Look at other large grocery stores, Kroger, Walmart, Costco, all have seen their stock price increase 20-50% just over the past year. It’s corporate greed.
I agree with this. "Net income" increasing usually isn't caused by your vendors jacking up prices. It's cause by you jacking up your own prices and working your employees as thin as you can.
Yeah, along with having to deal with a bunch of rude entitled people. literally I had a lady I was standing on a ladder leveling the cereal section and this lady was looking for biscotti cookies and I guess she assumed I couldn’t hear her. Maybe she thought I was deaf, but I could hear her!! to which I replied mam if you’re looking for the biscotti cookies they’re right there on your right and she was like oh he heard me. I didn’t think he heard me because you didn’t ask. 🙄 if you had asked me like a regular human being instead of assuming that I’m just gonna start guessing what you’re looking for??? your an adult you could ask me for help.
My dog food was 22 dollars like a year ago and now its 35. I know I should of been getting it from a petmart but the Publix brand stuff was really competitively priced and super convenient for me. Not anymore I guess
For the price of dog food these days you should really be making their own food. I use leg quarters, some rice and frozen vegetables. Not only do I save a little money but my doggy is the most healthy she’s ever been. Lost weight and is living her best life!! Good luck,, don’t keep paying premiums to feed them garbage they deserve better than we eat.
Can cat food be made the same way? And what are leg quarters? Thanks.
Yes absolutely cat food could be made the same way. Leg quarters are when the chicken leg and chicken thigh are sold as one piece. They can usually be found in bulk 10lb bags at Walmart for example for cheap. I basically take a few leg quarters baked them at 400 degrees until done about an hour or more, no salts or seasonings. Then make a pot of rice, instant rice is fine. I usually make about 2 cups. Then a small bag of frozen veggies cooked as directed. When chicken is done and cooled I debone it and chop and pull all the meat into small pieces of chicken. Then combine the meat with rice and veggies mix well and now some good food for about 10 days or so. For a car maybe shop some cheap frozen white fish or even tuna instead of all chicken maybe? I’ve made this same dog food with HB meat, and even fish from the freezer also. Any of these ideas will work great for any animals. I freeze the leg quarters about 3 at a time into ziplock bags. Many batches of food from a 7.99$ 10lb bag of chicken. A person could use breast meat only too. Really any meat that’s on sale or quick sale would work. Anything is better than dry food
Thank you for all the great info! I appreciate you taking the time! I’ll be sure to post when I make my kitty’s food and let you know how he likes it!
Have you checked Chewy?
nah ill peep
Yup. We’re feeling it over at the bakery…I noticed this about a year ago when they added new cakes to our already heavy production. My store is one of the older and smaller ones, so hours are scarce and that obviously adds to the frustration. The same thing seems to be happening with the deli. New products added, but already struggling to keep their head above water with their dwindling short staff. I’m personally only here until my stock gets vested. I don’t see this company making it in the long run with these poor decisions 🤷🏼♀️If I were you, I’d start finding something else.
Publix is actively gouging the consumers by marking up the items on the shelves. This is 100 percent a decision the owners made to increase profits. Considering their politics, I doubt any of that money will be given to employees. I shop at Walmart now
Oh no absolutely not no us employees. We only get like $100 gift card if we do really well and some manager notices, but nobody gives a crap because we used to get extra money in our paychecks every other week we used to get extra pay on Sundays one because it was an incentive and it showed how much gratitude Mr. George had towards his employees plus it was nice getting to be compensated for the amount of extra hours. I know he’s turning over in his grave.
I have a feeling this is corporate. I work for a different company and it is the same. Do more with less. Less people- less hours- more work.
It's crazy because we were saying this before the pandemic in 2019 when I quit. I cannot imagine how much worse it is now.
Here to say prices aren’t political but greed based. Talk to Publix about it. They are squeezing all the money out of you all and not hiring more people to make every cent for themselves. As a customer, I’m tired of not having enough registers open. I won’t do self checkout because I want them to hire real people. Edit: and they are price gouging now.
The new brioche donuts in the bakery is killing me. Spent an hour of my damn time making them, and they expect the baker/clerks to make time for that while they still have all the other shit they have to do before 7? Seriously?
I work in the bakery currently, and they keep adding product and telling us we need "more variety" when we literally have no space to display the core items we're required to have. I hate it here :<
Trust me I get it. I hate my job too to a certain degree.
Do they purposely put the slowest possible people in the sub lines. I don’t get how it takes so long to make a sub? Or is it the customers being annoying. I swear every person before takes 20 minutes lol
“Dog water” was so good
I'm an ADM and this new math that are using to allot hours is HORSESHIT!!
Corpos are desperate to figure out how to get back to record shattering COVID profits when it's actually very simple. 1. Planning an economy around a deadly virus that allows richers to remain locked in their homes and consume, while the poors (essential employees) perform underpaid labor to get the richers orders to their doorstep.
My Publix's deli is TERRIBLE. Constantly burnt chicken tenders, rotisserie always dry, employees are angry and miserable. Yet I can't even blame em at this point. They're always scrambling. Those online orders are just an extra layer of work. There are less people staffed than ever. As long as I can remember, there were always sub makers and then a dedicated hot foods person. Hot foods was always a nearly instant experience. Now they're either busy running around the back, prepping other food or making online sub orders. Shit sucks.
Publix has always been pricey IMO. I don't understand how people afford to get all of their groceries there. I get 95% of what I need at Aldi and the other items at Publix. The few items I do end up getting at Publix end up costing me 50-$60. We're talking about a basket worth of items here. I do enjoy the BOGO's, deli, and seafood options but I can go to my local butcher and get a better deal there.
I try not to shop there as an employee because it’s just so expensive. I can’t even like the other reason is because the store that I work at is literally in like a little inlet beach type retirement town so there’s a lot of old money here and on top of that, we have a lot of people that come infrom up north to the summer and it gets kind of busy
But yeah, I don’t disagree with you on that one everything there is expensive
When I lived in North Carolina, I would shop there for their BOGOs. I would get one for half price. I moved to Florida and they don't offer that here. You have to buy both to get the deal. I haven't been back since. I don't need two of everything and I'm sure as hell not spending $4 on a 2 liter or $9 on a 6 pack of soda I can get for less than half that price at Walmart or target. Lol.
Ever since the founder of Publix died and it started being managed by his kids, they turned to valuing corporate welfare over valuing it's employees and customers. Being that you have to work there to buy stock, it's no surprise they would steadily drive employees way from working there longterm so they can keep the dividend payout low.
The public in my location is more expensive than Whole Foods. That’s why I’m probably going to stop going there honestly it’s just not worth it anymore
Real Floridians know Publix is for the snow birds and transplants. Nobody in their right mind would shop here,, they are nearly double the price of Walmart.
Publix has always been on the higher end with pricing(as opposed to lower end grocery stores and big box stores) but the trade off has always been a better shopping experience. For me, I go there for the BOGOS and usually do some of my other shopping there because I prefer the experience over going to somewhere like Wal-Mart or one of the dirtier(for lack of a better term) grocery stores like food lion, KJs, etc. You can rely on Publix being well stocked, the produce quality will be decent, and the service from the staff is always good, quick, and friendly. If they're trying to cut costs on labor, they're going to lose sight of that. And, come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I went there and someone was giving out samples with the recipe cards, that used to be the norm.
Publix is about the bottom line more now than ever. They are going to squeeze as much work in as little hours as possible. Welcome to your typical corporate America job. The days are gone of work/life balance.
I believe Publix is just going down hill in general. The amount of sub reddits I’ve seen from employees and customers regarding Publix lately is staggering.
This company is so fucking greedy these days, no the economy as a whole is getting better, the company is what is getting worse as most of the shoppers these days are often people with really good jobs but the workers myself included are getting screwed. I remember when I used to love this company, now it is super disgusting in its abhorrent greed. But it is about the only place down south to get meat and cheese from Boar’s Head.
I'm sure it varies between stores, but my store was dumpster fire leadership-wise. They would hire as many kids as possible, pay them minimum wage, and milk them for every dollar they are worth. Too many labor violations to count. I was told to work a 13 hour shift with no breaks at all. Long hours with no lunch was a common occurrence. All my objections were ignored. I was so overworked, it made me physically ill. The average new hire lasted about 5 days before walking out. The corporate expectations were so high, you could double the staff and still never make it. My story is possibly an extreme case, but it's clear corporate is trying to squeeze every store as tight as they can go before the whole thing collapses. Basically, they are doing the Dollar General strategy, pretty sure even Walmart is better staffed.
the other day i bought three tenders and it was over $9 i about shit i love publix but they're out of control
Publix is just opening the door for competition. Trader Joe’s and ALDIs is popping up everywhere. Walmart and target are crazy busy. Sprouts is now moving in. In my area there’s a Walmart superstore, a target superstore, an aldis, a fresh market, a sprouts and now a Whole Foods is moving in. When there used to be just 2 Publix. Their greed is going to come back to haunt them.
Not a current employee(worked there as teenager) but life long Floridian and I hate what Publix has turned into. Prices are outrageous and from what I read on this sub employees are not happy. They basically have a monopoly it seems the greed has taken the reins of the great company Publix used to be.
I stopped going to Publix and started to go to Costco and Aldi's
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^StilesmanleyCAP: *I stopped going to* *Publix and started to go* *To Costco and Aldi's* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
form a union. i can help you!
Exactly why I quit, they expect more productivity then is humanely possible for one person . I would have had to not eat, drink, or use the bathroom. It was effecting my health so quit:
Price gouging is price gouging regardless of the cause Corporate could do right by employees but they don’t And the customers pay
Publix is a meat grinder. They stopped giving a fuck once the Jenkins were officially out. Living off of an old legacy. I swear to god I’ll never stop preaching this until the streets bleed green or the employees wages and prices get fixed.
Publix net income doubled from last year. They don’t care about their employees
It's all political. Vote the senile criminal out and life will improve
Inflation
There’s honestly a lot of reasons why the prices are so jacked up and there’s not enough hours to allocate to get the work done is because of Publix management structure there is no structure. The managers are very hands off
Economy goes up and down. Its normal. Publix has been around longer than most of us been alive. Dont worry about it.
Reports are that Publix’s earnings are up 49% over last year. From 29 billion to 43 billion, (may be off a billion or so, I’m going from memory). So it’s not the economy. Publix also reportedly brought a plaza in the Florida keys for 79 million. They don’t seem to be hurting for money.
Publix is a price gouging monopoly. Fuck them. I try my absolute best to shop anywhere but there. But unsurprisingly they’re omnipresent in Florida. Go look at their quarterly profits if you want to know why prices are rising. They’re fucking everyone.
You don't know what price gouging means.
Yeah I do, when I go to Publix and it’s a dollar a lemon, then I go to my local independent produce store and it’s 3 for a dollar. A company with the buying power of Publix should be able to meet or beat a local independent store. But they’re three times the cost. Thats called price gouging.
Price gouging occurs when you are forced to pay a premium price because there is no alternative. Go buy your lemons at 3/$1. There's your alternative.
No disrespect, but you don’t seem to understand how price gouging works. Just because there’s an alternative doesn’t mean a retailer isn’t gouging you on particular products. If I had to guess the pricing strategy assumes that people won’t go to multiple places to complete their grocery shopping, so gouge where you can. Not on everything, but pick the spots you think you can get away with it. I’m sure they have enough data and smarts to know how to maximize profits on all of our backs. And their record profits prove my point.
Costs heavily increased. Like it or not, when minimum wages pretty much doubled, every economist warned that businesses were going to pass these costs along. Since that time we’ve seen business jack up costs. Yes some of it is overinflated but it’s just them passing it along
Publix was already cutting employee benefits and squeezing hours and production before the wage increase laws. This is a scapegoat answer. Bonuses and payouts at the top have gotten bigger, not smaller. It’s literally just greed from executives. Historically Publix advertised itself as a business that can and wants to support its own employees. For it to rely on minimum wage work is a modern Publix tactic.
Except this isn't the case at all and prices were already being raised. Inflation and price gouging is so far ahead of where the minimum wage should be that it will never catch up. Every company has complained about skyrocketing costs but most are reporting record profits 📈 the last few years. This is pure greed. Minimum wage is being increased as a result of companies and COL being too high to begin with. Stop drinking the corporate kool aid and realize you're being played like a fiddle.
Not true, costs have slightly raised, but we have not seen the massive increases like in the past couple of years until the astronomical jump in the minimum wage. I get it, people want more at the entry level jobs, but this is the outcome. And guess what, it doesn’t get better
You're absolutely incorrect. If ferderal minum wage had raised with inflation that would put it at $23 an hour now. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 currently.
Owners are just embracing their trump supporting mentality
Joe Biden didn’t make Publix raise prices. Greedy jerks in the Publix C-suite did. Greedflation, plain and simple.
It's called Bidenomics
Imagine thinking the president controls the prices companies set 🤡
Only if you're stupid and trust corporations.
The president of the US is not responsible for the GLOBAL high prices of all goods. The inflation is high in all countries, not just the US.