guest service agent

customer service representative

order processor

stocker

barista

Homes Alive Pets

During my time at Homes Alive (north store), I had several positive experiences — such as working with customers and their pets, as well as working with (some) great co-workers. However, I would say that is the ONLY positives of this workplace. Homes Alive is notorious for staff turnover. A few general points that this workplace offers:

1. Unsafe work conditions - The warehouse is overflowing with stock, and they refuse to update shelving and freezer space for storage. There have been several accidents that occurred because of lack of safety measures. Not only are they aware of this, they refuse to take action to change. Often, if you ask for help with lifting, and/or carrying heavy items from the warehouse, it is refused because you’re ‘not allowed to ask for help” and they “strongly suggest you work independently.”
2. Manager (aka Store Leader) — The Store Leader refuses to take any constructive criticism from staff members seeking help and/or change, and refuses to hear anyone out because of their attitude. Another major issue is that the Store Leader will choose favourites, often gossiping and bad mouthing other employees with these favourites. Additionally, if you need to have time off or call in sick or have a serious health issue, it is almost impossible to arrange, however, if they wish to leave early or need time off, it is ALWAYS acceptable. There is no secrecy at Homes Alive, and if you want your home life gossiped about, be sure to chat. 
3. Regional Manager/Owners — Regional Manager/Owners will write you up if you call in sick, and/or don’t have a doctors note. They will not take the proper steps to ensure workplace fairness — such as verbal warning, then written warning, then formal write up. You will also get written up if you’re “caught” talking to other staff members — whether it’s about work or not. They basically expect you to show up to work, not say a word to any other people except customers, and go home. This vibe generally brings a toxic work environment, and causes mental strain on employees.
4. Policies/procedures — Store Leader and Leaders will not follow guidebook policies/procedures, even if it is strongly suggested to us in our initial training. For example: Staff member will call for Leaders’ assistance on tills and Leader will not back up employees if they are following policy — aka saying “just this one time” or “we normally don’t do this.” This happens multiple times a day, which causes guests to take advantage of the store. The main focus seems to be the drive for money growth, rather than supporting your employees and investing in proper procedures. 
5. Lack of opportunity and growth — Homes Alive will always hire “outside” and they never invest in their current employees to excel — whether that’s further training, etc. There are many employees that are more than confident to get a better opportunity within the company. In the year I was working with Homes Alive, I never once received a wage review (supposed to be at three months), even if you approached the Store Leader or Leader.

They are a great place to shop because of the products and what they offer, as well as a few select employees and their knowledge, however, if you wish to work at Homes Alive, I would strongly recommend to do your research.

In my experience working at Homes Alive, There were good days and bad days. The bad days involved the treatment and lack of respect I had received on some days and It was unacceptable and should not have happened. The store lead tended to take her “bad days” out on specific people on the team. When the Store Leader was having a good day the team generally had a good day, but for the most part the Store Leader brought the team down when the Store leader was down that day. Working at Homes Alive is no walk in the park. It is a very fast paced place, you have to be physically fit and that is no lie, it is also not really suitable for a first job because of how much you have to do and learn and know. It’s more suited towards either pet knowledgeable people or people who already have tons of retail experience and can and are willing to learn an abundance of products and taking the time to learn yourself as well as what is provided for you. 

There were many times working in the warehouse that I did not feel safe, and many accidents (people getting hurt, if not badly even a little) happened inside the warehouse. I even had a few trips and accidents myself in the warehouse. Other than the safety concern and the lack of proper management. Working at Homes Alive was alright. They definitely need to focus on their employees a lot more though in order to keep them long term. The customers and their pets definitely helped make the days better but I wouldn’t recommend working here if you have any sort of mental illness or high stress already because of the mental toll this job will take out of you. They are mostly always short staffed so even if you need days off you usually cannot get them due to being understaffed. On your scheduled days off it was rare near the end of my time there to even get the 2 days off just because of how understaffed it was there at the time. It was also almost impossible to complete a task in a timely manner due to them being understaffed most of the time. There weren’t many positive things about working at Homes Alive but there were a select few that I can name, they have a staff feeder program, they have decent benefits and you also get a discount on top of the staff feeder. Those are about the only positives about working here. Overall I would say if you can get past being somewhat bullying by some leaders and focus on the customers and your wanting to learn more about pet products and pet food then ya it could be the job for you, but I wouldn’t recommend it to any of my friends.

I worked for this company for just over one year. At first I loved the store, the people were great and for so long I just couldn't grasp why people didn't like it as much as me. 
After being promoted I came to realize just how poorly run this company is. Here are some examples:
- HR is not in the business of HR. When bringing forward concerns regarding health and safety, staff's well being and a member of management who was mentally abusive to many, we were labelled as dramatic, negative or both.
- They fix their problems by doing mass firings of those that disagree with them. Whether or not that leaves the team to completely fail is not a concern to them, so long as they no longer have employees to call out questionable actions/decisions.
- They are a family run business, which in many ways is wonderful, however, they refuse to recognize or accept when a family member is in the wrong. They also refuse to listen to others ideas because of this and mostly view it as "there's no way my *insert family member here* doesn't have the best idea"
- Any criticism of the store manager will be deflected onto you and if you have an issue with it, you are once again labelled as negative and dramatic.
- There is no such thing as confidentiality. I knew numerous times that someone was going to be reprimanded, written up or fired days before it was happening and I know I am not the only one.

My advice: swallow your pride. Accept that you are not always in the right, recognize that consistently changing your team doesn't do anything, but upset customers and cause insane training costs for new members you'll inevitably fire. Recognize that you're expecting $20 an hour work for minimum wage. For the love of god just take care of your team. Whether you will ever admit it or not, they work so hard for you, you could at least start to work hard for them.

Even though I've only been with HAP for a few months as of writing this (~3.5 months), I've quickly found this to be one of the best jobs I've worked. The staff at all levels are extremely friendly and nice not only with guests but with staff from all over. I was made immediately welcome when they flew me out to Edmonton for training. The place a heavy emphasis on customers and employee's having a good work life balance. A great example of this was during my training they found out my grandfather was in hospice care near the end of my training and it was never even a question if I needed to go back early or not. They offered instantly to change my flights, etc if I needed to get back home ASAP. When I had filled out a form incorrectly for my direct deposit, they notified me before I even knew and made sure I had money in my account ASAP. 

When we set up the new store in Winnipeg, it wasn't just Winnipeg people setting it up but also the higher ups from Alberta including one of the owners, which greatly surprised me and instantly impressed me as these days anyone above Manager never seems to want to get there hands dirty.

The "hardest" part of the job so far has been that while it can be fast paced, for the most part its on the slower side of what I've been used to. This is a very good thing in my books. 

Easily the most enjoyable part of any day working here is the people that bring in their pets. Its really hard to have a bad day when you effectively get payed to pet dogs and cats and give them treats!

Homes Alive Pets has been a positive experience from my first interview to now. I've had the opportunity to work at multiple locations and have enjoyed working with each and every team member I have met. Homes Alive Pets has provided me with opportunities to advance and grow within the company. Any questions I have had, have always been answered, my concerns are always addressed, and my feedback has been utilised.

During Covid, my employment or loss thereof was never a concern and this was a huge deal to me. Homes Alive Pets really drove home the importance of their employees and made sure everyone was taken care of and continues to do so.

As Homes Alive Pets carries a lot of health products for pets, such as supplements, you will find that having a foundation for pet nutrition and health will be an asset. The questions and challenges that guests will bring forth can be complicated. Homes Alive Pets continously works to provide educational courses and works closely with their vendors to bring in intructors that will help to build on your knowledge. 

Homes Alive Pets offers benefits for full-time employees that include dental and medical.

Reviews are not often done in person. In-Person would give more opportunity to discuss areas where growth is needed and where an employee is excelling. 

I would definitely recommend working at Homes Alive Pets.

As a GSR, there is always something to do. We always work together on tills, stocking and assisting customers in getting what their pets need.

Management is always helpful and working with us. Their feedback on presentation and how we interact with customers is always respectful, I personally feel like I am never spoken down to. Overall no matter the position we are all treated very equally. 

The best parts of the job in my opinion are working with customers and the learning opportunities as a dog owner myself. We recieve training straight from representatives of different companies. They are incredibly helpful on giving us insight on what specific formulas of food are for which needs. It helps us with our own pets and especially with customers. Being able to help people with their pets specific needs and finding a solution that works always feels accomplishing. 

Sometimes the job can be stressful when the store is busy (Especially on 10% Tuesdays, not enough staff for so many customers!) but we do make it work. All hands on deck, we do the best we can, and people leave happy. We also get free lunch on the 10% Tuesdays which is a very nice plus. 

Overall a wonderful company to work for, we are treated very well, and it is a wonderful learning opportunity if you are a pet owner. 

They love acting like they treat all their employees really well but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. I had the same experience as the reviewer who said they used to hide in the bathroom to cry. That was a popular spot for me as well as the stock room, break room etc. Management does not care about you, they only care if you’re “wasting time”. Absolutely the most unsympathetic cold and condescending lot of people I’ve ever worked for. Also you better hope you don’t get sick while working here. I called in sick ONCE and they demanded a sick note otherwise I would be written up, which is ridiculous considering it was one time and $40 out of my own pocket just to prove I was sick was ridiculous. Especially since I was forced to come in the next day and spent the entire day running to the bathroom to throw up and wasn’t allowed to go home. One manager even made a joke that they scheduled me to work next to the bathroom so that I could go throw up easier. No sense of sympathy whatsoever. I don’t understand how management can feel good about themselves at the end of the day when they barely even treat their employees like human beings. They’re constantly hiring because of the high turnover and I feel really sorry for all the new people that don’t know what they’re getting into. Best to just avoid this place all together.

Homes Alive Pets has, thus far, been my favourite retail business to work for. While there are things that could be improved, it is clear that the owners, leaders and staff of this company are constantly looking for ways to improve the process and experience for staff, customers and their pets, and I personally feel appreciated in my work. The people who work here are naturally hardworking, personable, kind and helpful, and are eager to learn about and educate others on the importance of pet health  - I have learned a lot! It isn't perfect, as the workload can be fairly hefty on certain days and stress can be high, but overall the customers and staff are very supportive and understanding. As a bonus, we get to see people's pets as they bring them into the store! My experience at Homes Alive Pets has been overall positive, and I would recommend this job to anyone.

Working here was a roller coaster rather than a family friendly environment. There were highs for sure, seeing a variety of animals come in, the staff feeder program, working with some awesome staff members and the memories with said awesome staff. 

But there are so many lows that staff and I had to deal with that it makes it hard to recommend working here. Management and upper management like to drag their feet when it comes to dealing with toxic people, either stalling or refusing to deal with it until good staff leave due to said person (or they fire the good staff members while the toxic one is still there...or promote the toxic person to marketing) and any concerns that floor staff or upper staff have which have been expressed usually falls on deaf ears or...they drag their feet on the issue until staff leave due to the concern/stress/pressure they no longer can take or deal with. Management also recommends you use your paid vacation time if your in the hospital versus using the benefits that the insurance company work uses...

I worked here almost three months and in that time I quickly learned that management plays favourites. Some of the management was wonderful and amazing but others not so much. The owners are very kind and wonderful! Most of the staff was great but clearly some managers were favouring the bad ones. I was surprised when they hired someone outside of the company to become the new store manager when clearly they had better options working in our very store. Working here was great at first but slowly it started getting progressively worse. It got so bad to the point where I started dreading going in because I knew what was waiting for me. Medically I couldn’t continue working there anyways but I had to leave for my mental health as well. However I made some wonderful friendships working there! So if you want to work here be prepared for what you may experience. It’s a great job and it’s good hard work. It is also a wonderful place to shop. I’m definitely coming back to shop and visit friends. I think they just need to work on their “family” aspect and how they treat some of their employees. 

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