hope i'm posting in the right forum, but anyone have/had any experience working for whole foods? they're hiring in my area, i've applied.....







oh, sorry for my fuzzy avatar...it's late, i'll fix it tomorrow : )

I know Mikie has worked for them for a few years in at least 2 different stores. I'll be sure he sees this.

I think remillard works there too... (Is he still around?)

i am kind of interested too ... i'm also wondering if they pay minimum wage or start a little highter

I've worked for Whole Foods for four and a half years (at five different stores.) Depending on the area you live in, they'll start you at either a dollar over minimum wage to around $10 an hour (in the San Francisco and New York City areas.) Depending on one's coworkers it can be a good job for younger people who only need some income. I wouldn't want to raise a family on Whole Foods wages however, unless, of course, one is a boss with a nicer income.



(Naturally, Whole Foods or any other grocery store, in the end, is just another service industry job. No matter how nice a grocery store company might be, the jobs all deal with the public and that can wear a person down over time.)

I have worked for Whole Foods for 3 years now at 2 different stores.



As far as paying over minumum wage:

In my state, minimum wage is $5.15 and WFM starts at $9.00 at my store, and another area store is moving it up to $10.00., so almost double minumum wage. Although I know some states have a higher minumum.



Whole foods is a great company to work for as well. They have good benefits, Health, Dental, Vision, as well as something called a "Personal Wellness Account" for all Team Members who work full time, which is a Medical Spending account which you recieve $1500 a year to spend on various medical procedures, co-pays, deductibles, or other things not covered by insurance; Like alternative medicine.



They also offer Stock Options for every 6000 hours worked - or every three years or so at full time.



Also, if you are interested in moving up in the company, there are so many oportunities to do so. You could be making a pretty good living in a few years if you really want to.



I just looked at your profile and realized you live in Walled Lake, so I'm assuming you applied at the Rochester Hills Store? If so, they start at the lowest wage around, at like $8.00 or $8.25 if your lucky. It's a smaller volume store, and they aren't able to pay as much. It's a nice store though, and I worked there for about 2 years and liked it alot, until I moved to the store in Troy for an ATL position. If you don't mind the drive, I would recommend working at the Troy store, mainly for it's atmosphere.



Anyways, I'll stop blabering on now.

Obviously, I didn't realize where Walled Lake is. So you probably applied at the West Bloomfield Store eh? They are the ones talking about raising the starting wage to $10.00 But everyone I know who works/worked there doesn't like it as much as other stores. They have seemingly extremely strict rules. For example, you cannot punch in 1 minute late for your lunch break, or you will be written up for lateness, if you get 4 in 90 days, you will be terminated, including if you are 7 minutes late arriving for your shift. This is really the only complaint that I hear on the other hand. So decide for yourself.

Is it true that you get a discount on food if you work there? I heard like 20%, which is pretty sweet.

Yeah, somehow I forgot that. 20% indeed, which is huge in comparison to most employee discounts at grocery stores.

Any perks for part-timers? I *wish* I could work there full-time but the wages are just too low. I'm sort of in transition mode, trying to decide what's better....earning less to do something enjoyable or despising my job for the better paycheck. Leaning towards enjoying myself. but eh.....

I'm actually looking to do some research on Whole Foods. Does anyone have information about the Salary Book that they speak of?



Or, does anyone know what the different wages are for Team Members and building up?

They arent necessary for sure. You can eat a balanced whole foods diet without them... beans and rice are staples.



I dont think those foods are HIGHLY processed, but they still take processing.