Has anyone ever worked at Costco?

[Cryptic_Snow]

I can see the writing on the wall at my current job with the hours being cut and people being laid off. There's a new Costco opening in my area in a few months so I'm wondering what the best positions they offer? What's the pay scale like?

Anyone work for Costco that can help me out?


Link to video.

 

[Joecoolyo]

10 bucks says they offer employment positions in bulk.

 

[bombshoo]

Yes, if you count slipping on peepee and getting a settlement as working there.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

No, I worked at Sam's Club, which means I'd rather have worked at Costco.

 

[Elta]

I can see the writing on the wall at my current job with the hours being cut and people being laid off. There's a new Costco opening in my area in a few months so I'm wondering what the best positions they offer? What's the pay scale like?

Anyone work for Costco that can help me out?

My mother manages a Costco.

They start out making 11 an hour, typically getting .25 cent or .50 cent raises every six months to a year. Raises for non managers stopping at $21.50. 25 to 35 hours of work a week is typical, more hours being given as one gains experience, or as needed seasonally. You are guaranteed to get 25 hours a week unless you mess up and are on probation. Pay is time and a half on Sundays and holidays. The medical benefits are pretty good.

As far as the best positions..... there are none, every manager's goal is to have a store that is completely filled with people who are able to work any position in the store and make $21.50 and work 35 hours a week. As such, they will put you anywhere and everywhere so that you gain experience.


That said, avoid the bakery the week before thanksgiving like the plague.

 

[downtown]

Were you only looking at in-store, retail level positions, or more on the corporate side? I work with CostCo above the store level every so often.

 

[Core Imposter]

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around a job of 25-35 hours a week. When a sophmore in high school and in my junior year, I worked in a cotton mill on second shift. The school let me leave a little early and the mill let me come in a little late. I'd dash down the interstate making the commute in 4 minutes so I could clock in and get paid a full eight hours. I worked a 48 hour shift.

This while taking advanced college placement classes and maintaining a B+ average. I did only drive a school bus my senior year but that to spend more time chasing girls.

I worked 50 hour weeks at age ten during the summer months in the years before high school, for my father's construction firm.

That 48 hours a week was the least hours I then worked per week for the next 35 years before I suffered my loss of health. Seventy hours+ was the norm. Except of course those years I spent in felony prison, but still.

Since taking a health settlement with my last firm, in my medical retirement I do about 12-16 twelve hours days a month in various poker rooms. Though I admit there were three and a half years sandwiched in there when I was totally incapacitated.

So I can't fathom the world today, though I see it and the results of it. The mindset I had most of my life if proffered a job of 25-35 hours a week would have been to scoff and say, no, I am looking for a real job, and maybe take it as a second one. Or a third.

I really feel for the country. There really isn't an economy at all out there right now. I don't recognize this as life at all in the tradional sense. Its no wonder that so many of you don't even believe in God.

 

[Synobun]

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around a job of 25-35 hours a week. When a sophmore in high school and in my junior year, I worked in a cotton mill on second shift. The school let me leave a little early and the mill let me come in a little late. I'd dash down the interstate making the commute in 4 minutes so I could clock in and get paid a full eight hours. I worked a 48 hour shift.

This while taking advanced college placement classes and maintaining a B+ average. I did only drive a school bus my senior year but that to spend more time chasing girls.

I worked 50 hour weeks at age ten during the summer months in the years before high school, for my father's construction firm.

That 48 hours a week was the least hours I then worked per week for the next 35 years before I suffered my loss of health. Seventy hours+ was the norm. Except of course those years I spent in felony prison, but still.

Since taking a health settlement with my last firm, in my medical retirement I do about 12-16 twelve hours days a month in various poker rooms. Though I admit there were three and a half years sandwiched in there when I was totally incapacitated.

So I can't fathom the world today, though I see it and the results of it. The mindset I had most of my life if proffered a job of 25-35 hours a week would have been to scoff and say, no, I am looking for a real job, and maybe take it as a second one. Or a third.

I really feel for the country. There really isn't an economy at all out there right now. I don't recognize this as life at all in the tradional sense. Its no wonder that so many of you don't even believe in God.

I always love it when people live terrible lives and then say after the fact that everyone else should too.

 

[Core Imposter]

I always love it when people live terrible lives and then say after the fact that everyone else should too.

You are making a value judgement there, without standing.

I must admit being guilty of assuming that people want their lives to amount to more than working 30 hours a week at Costco. If that is considered a better life, I don't understand why.

In my generation work was something we aspired to. It was a goal. When times were hard and time was cut back, I was proud that I was allowed to remain full time by offering to split my work week between my job and pick up one of the janitor's jobs (who had retired). I cleaned toliets with pride. Thats just the way it was.

It was not always pleasant but I never found it a terrible life.

 

[Core Imposter]

I just picked this out of a story from RCP, which touches on changing attitudes:

"Labor Secretary Hilda Solis just tried -- and failed -- to draft a proposal prohibiting kids under 18 from working "in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials," even on family farms. And she wanted to turn over some farm training programs now run by the Future Farmers of America and the 4-H to the government. Most Americans raised on a farm believe that the times spent doing chores with their parents, siblings, and neighbors were the most important and rewarding years of their lives."

Prohibting kids from working. This is progress? Not in my book.

I think that is just sad that the economic unheaval due to this shift to a global economy and the march of technology has left us scratching our heads as to how best to find productive use of manpower. Its a tough time made exponitially worse by government distortion of market forces.

 

[Synobun]

You are making a value judgement there, without standing.

I must admit being guilty of assuming that people want their lives to amount to more than working 30 hours a week at Costco. If that is considered a better life, I don't understand why.

In my generation work was something we aspired to. It was a goal. When times were hard and time was cut back, I was proud that I was allowed to remain full time by offering to split my work week between my job and pick up one of the janitor's jobs (who had retired). I cleaned toliets with pride. Thats just the way it was.

It was not always pleasant but I never found it a terrible life.

My point is that life should not be about having 70-hour work weeks and working yourself into poor health at any earlier than usual age.

 

[Core Imposter]

Well, I am off to slug it out with the nits at 5-10 limit.

Best of luck Cryptic Snow. You might consider a career in construction. Although home prices are not likely to ever recover to bubble levels, over time the industry will recover and with it the economy (one more recession to go). Barring catastrophe, there will be a lot of work to do on all the existing housing stock which is decaying terribly.

This would be a good time to get a job in the industry with the goal of earning a contractors license so that you can start a company of your own down the line, God willing.

 

[Elta]

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around a job of 25-35 hours a week.

It's free market and that is what the market dictates. I am sure a lot of people at Costco would like to work more hours, but don't because they are not in a position to do anything, they are wage slaves and don't control the means of production.

I really feel for the country. There really isn't an economy at all out there right now. I don't recognize this as life at all in the tradional sense. Its no wonder that so many of you don't even believe in God.

I don't even want to get all anthropologist on you and jump all over the absurdness of even using the term "traditional life" so I'll leave that alone however, I am amused by the association of non deism with the economy and or not striving to work yourself to death and watching real life pass you by.

Most people do not strive to be Frank Grimes for good reason.

 

[Core Imposter]

My point is that life should not be about having 70-hour work weeks and working yourself into poor health at any earlier than usual age.

I understand that and it does happen. In my case I suffered accidents unrelated to work. Just bad luck that I can no longer work the 70 hour weeks that I loved and used to provide for myself and my family.

 

[Synobun]

I understand that and it does happen. In my case I suffered accidents unrelated to work. Just bad luck that I can no longer work the 70 hour weeks that I loved and used to provide for myself and my family.

I feel sorry for you then.

 

[Core Imposter]

I never heard of Frank Grimes before so I googled:

“I'm saying you're what's wrong with America, Simpson.You coast through life, you do as little as possible, and you leech off of decent, hardworking people like me. Heh, if you lived in any other country in the world, you'd have starved to death long ago.”

Sounds like my kind of guy Homer.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

In my generation work was something we aspired to. It was a goal. When times were hard and time was cut back, I was proud that I was allowed to remain full time by offering to split my work week between my job and pick up one of the janitor's jobs (who had retired). I cleaned toliets with pride. Thats just the way it was.

It was not always pleasant but I never found it a terrible life.

"My generation" is a useless term. No offense intended, but there are too many people with too many opinions at any given time to say "my generation believed X". Where and when you grew up, its very plausible that your "work makes you happy" philosophy was held; but, you can't claim that for your entire generation.

Aside from that, there's nothing inherent in working all the time vs. being smart with money and working less that makes either objectively better. Its all about what you prefer, or how well you adapt.

You're obviously older than most of us here, so you've done plenty with what time you were capable. Why not use this new time to learn new skills that you are capable of doing, say intellectual pursuits? You've got tons of reading time, I assume, so why not go for the Gold in a Proust summarizing competition?

You can't always pick what trail your on, but you can always pick between stopping for the day, smelling flowers, sketching trees, etc.

If you're situation has changed, adapt to your situation.

My two cents.

 

[downtown]

It's free market and that is what the market dictates. I am sure a lot of people at Costco would like to work more hours,
.

If CostCo did that, they would have to either fire a lot of people, or dramatically cut wages, to remain competitive.

 

[Antilogic]

Its hard for me to wrap my mind around a job of 25-35 hours a week. When a sophmore in high school and in my junior year, I worked in a cotton mill on second shift. The school let me leave a little early and the mill let me come in a little late. I'd dash down the interstate making the commute in 4 minutes so I could clock in and get paid a full eight hours. I worked a 48 hour shift.

It's free market and that is what the market dictates. I am sure a lot of people at Costco would like to work more hours, but don't because they are not in a position to do anything, they are wage slaves and don't control the means of production.

Many department-type stores do this to list as many storefront employees as part-timers as possible, which cuts down on the number of benefits they have to provide them. They won't give employees more than 35 hours, irrelevant if the employee wants to work more.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Yes, part of the reason for having part time workers is to limit expenses of providing benefits (save money), but sometimes it's also because of the demand for workers during peak hours. They don't need many workers in the store during the hours where there isn't many customers. Sure, people want to work more hours, but if they are just standing around because there isn't any work to do then that isn't very efficient.

The big rush for Christmas shopping and other holidays (and the slowdown days or weeks after those holidays) affects how much work there is to do. So either they hire a bunch of temporary workers during the busy times (and then lay them off during the slow times) or the part time workers have their hours adjusted.

Federal law does not dictate what is or is not 'full time' (except for overtime pay), employers decide themselves, or there may be some states where state law dictates what is or isn't full time. Walmart's standard is x number of hours in a 6 month period (or a year?), so you could work more hours during some parts of the year and less during others, but if you go over that limit then you should be moved to full time. I'm scheduled to work 34.5 hours (3 days of 11.5 hours) and considered full time, even though there are times I work less than that because the volume just isn't there (I work in a warehouse, not a store).

It would be a manager's dream if the customers came in at a constant rate with no big rushes and no big drop offs (same number of customers in the store at all hours of the day and every day of the week), but that's not how society operates.