Overall, Waitrose provided an adequate shopping experience for customers. The store was generally clean and well-organized, and the staff were friendly and helpful. The selection of products was diverse and the prices were competitive. However, there were some areas for improvement. The store could benefit from more frequent restocking, as certain products were often out of stock. Additionally, the store could improve its produce section by offering a wider variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and ensuring that they are consistently fresh and of high quality.Overall, it was a decent experience but with some room for improvements.

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Insights into Waitrose & Partners

Based on 739 survey responses

Areas for improvement

Support from manager
Ability to learn new things
Energising work tasks

Generally Okay

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Cheadle Hulme - 20 December 2022

The job itself was a bit basic, you're understaffed and overworked so it feels like they don't really care about you as a person and only really care about you as an employee. My specific branch handled the COVID situation so poorly that the entire store caught COVID and they had to shut the branch for two weeks, the management was a joke. The people who worked there were generally lovely (apart from the odd manager or supervisor) and I did enjoy talking to customers. But it was just another retail job like all the others, not amazing but not awful either.

Pros

Discount card, some of the staff were nice

Cons

Handled covid awfully, constantly being micro managed, given more responsibility and not being paid for it

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Good for part-timers

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Buckhurst Hill - 5 December 2022

It's not a mentally stimulating or a difficult job. It's good if you need some money, but you cannot make a living out of it. The discounts are good, but only get them after 3 months. The most infuriating part of working there is the meetings in which you have to think up a way for the company to improve, even if you are not a manager and get nothing for it.

Pros

Cheap lunches in cafeteria, Waitrose & John Lewis discount

Cons

Cliquey, managers, no growth, no hours flexibility, entitled customers

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Worst place to work

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Gillingham - 22 November 2022

Management is weak and blame team for their poor decisions. Communication is non existent. Pay and holiday allocation is unfair. The worst place to work.

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easy first job

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Poynton, Cheshire - 14 November 2022

easy first job, how ever some aspects were very boring. the senior member of staff could be rude to the other members but overall a nice environment to work in

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Truly one of the best jobs I ever had

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Hertford - 1 November 2022

Throughly enjoyable being a partner at Waitrose. Interesting, challenging and felt part of the team.Had to leave only due to the store closing .I worked in customer services in the wine department and Learnt so very much.Found other partners friendly, helpful and always made to feel valued

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Great place

Sales assistant (Former Employee) - Stourbridge - 15 October 2022

Great place to work, colleagues and management are brilliant, always there to support you physically and mentally. Friendly staff, regular customers are nice

Pros

Great company to work for

Cons

None

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Productive

Sales Assistant (Full-time) (Former Employee) - Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester - 6 October 2022

Not a bad place to work, minimum wage but good discount within the company. Management could have done with some improvement, get to work in a good team though which was good

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Was OK as a stop gap

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Nottingham - 29 September 2022

Over all I enjoyed my time with the company. Some colleagues were great to work with. Quite a few were very rude and generally difficult to deal with. Management was very poor. There was a very clear divide between Management and staff which you wouldn't expect in a company that prides themselves as a partnership.

Pros

Worked with some nice people

Cons

No flexibility with work patterns. Inconsistent, hostile managers

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Overall not bad

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Otley, West Yorkshire - 25 July 2022

Quite an easy job but very hard to progress and sometimes too much pressure for the pay you get. If you show that you’re a hard worker then sometimes management will take advantage of that!

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Kind management

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Newport City Centre, Newport - 15 July 2022

Not your typical job where you’re stuck with witty managers. They are kind and helpful, understanding that you are new and training and might not be able to do everything. Co-workers can be iffy

Pros

Good pay

Cons

Long hours

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Nice food

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Brighton, East Sussex - 23 June 2022

Good luck with your new romney and a good time for a the same place t the to do in margate to the docs else to do with it are we still the same with me today and will have the heating in your room and to the tie.

Pros

From your doing good

Cons

she was doing some stretches from you

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Stressful and understaffed

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Croydon, Greater London - 4 June 2022

Hard to progress and pay is too low. Managers refuse to hire enough staff to cover busy periods and often pushed their work on to underlings so that they could leave work early.

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good

Sales Assistant (Current Employee) - Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire - 4 June 2022

nice enviroment good staff hard working culture incredibly competitive precise salary varies word of mouth advertising ect managers interview process

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They work you hard but pay you well

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Wokingham, Berkshire - 21 May 2022

At work you'd be expected to work non-stop and they were not lax about the breaks. Management were mostly ok, my line manager was very dislikeable. The store and the customers always were friendly and you were treated well by them.

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Good place to work

Sales Assistant (Current Employee) - Chandlers Ford, Hampshire - 12 May 2022

Good place to work , partners are friendly and look after each other . Typical days are fast paced and there is a lot do but not too much s not possible to finish.

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Loved my time there

Sales Assistant (Former Employee) - Ramsgate - 29 April 2022

I spent 4 years working at Waitrose and the only reason I left was because I moved to a different area. Waitrose gave me so many opportunities to work in all areas of the shop. I was constantly learning new things and growing valuable skills. They were very supportive throughout my school years, I’m so glad I started my working career there.

Pros

Everyone receives minimum wage regardless of age, Lots of opportunity to progress, Very friendly managers and colleagues.

Cons

Sometimes you are expected to do many jobs at once

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Managers are bullies and do not care about the service they give customers. They do not care about the partners.

Sales Assistant (Current Employee) - Wapping London - 27 April 2022

Multiple issues with how this company is run, it is not ethical as it makes out to be. There is no department where you can confidently put in a complaint about a manager or issues you are having, the whole structure is designed to cover managers backs and the company itself, instead of supporting it’s hard working partners who are struggling they will leave to get depressed and ignored in the job where your only option is to quit. They do not have an equal salary pay. New starters will start on more money than those who have worked there for years, and are only offered 10-20p pay rises every two years depending on your “performance” rating given my a manager. The whole company is unfair, unequal and very biased into covering the backs of managers and not caring for partners or customers needs.

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