shift leader

store manager

fulfillment associate

assistant manager

warehouse worker

Kitchen Stuff Plus

One of the better places I’ve worked at when it comes to the general environment. The coworkers and managers were very friendly and easygoing - it seemed like a pretty close group. Because it’s a small store, it’s usually dead except for during the Christmas season. The customers were usually kind, but there were a few grumpy people who came in to buy holiday gifts.

The work itself is the same as a typical store at the mall, except once a week you could be scheduled to take the new weekly products off of skids and put them on the shelves. It’s a lot of manual labour and not the lightest stuff. Those shifts usually ended at 12am. There were a lot of hours, some of them not timed the best (eg. an 8 hour shift that ends at 12am and another 8 hour shift that starts the next morning?) but as soon as the holiday season was over it was 2 shifts a week at most and you’d usually go home early.

The email sign up thing was also pretty annoying. You’re really encouraged to ask customers for their number, email, and postal code as the store literally depends on it (not enough emails, it closes). Of course you feel like you’re invading a lot on customer’s privacy and you could tell they were uncomfortable when you asked them that stuff and they didn’t know why. 

Their minimum wage is an extra ten cents more than it has to be, there is no student wage. For seasonal workers, the benefit kinda sucked - it was just four 20% off  purchases.

The training was also very tedious. It was a lot, and I mean A LOT of slideshows and videos with quizzes. It was all easy but you had to get them all done so it was very boring.

Anyways, it was still a very nice place. A nice place to start if you have difficulty speaking to people or customers but there’s a bit of labour and stuff.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It was a very easygoing work environment, and I felt supported by my coworkers. I've worked in places where the company's main goal was to take advantage of people, but at Kitchen Stuff Plus it felt like I was genuinely helping people find the products they needed. Their company culture was pretty healthy overall.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I'm a person who requires accommodations, and I did not always feel that my needs were being met. I was cautious about telling my employers about my disability out of fear of losing my job, which in hindsight is not something I should have been concerned about. I am now very upfront with new employers about my disability because of this.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's great! I think a lot of it will depend on where you work, but the team I was with was wonderful.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
There are a lot of different tasks to get done around the store, so we would be stationed at different places for the majority of one shift. Some days I'd be on cash, which meant checking out customers, bagging online orders for pickup and unboxing pots and pans for displays. Other days I'd create lists of things to grab from the warehouse and restock on the sales floor. There was a big emphasis on "facing", which means doing the rounds of the general area you're in and making sure that all the products are facing forward. That part was incredibly tedious, and even if I had faced everything already, if I was caught not doing anything, I was told to keep facing. I really hated that, and in hindsight think that that could've been done a lot better, but I always tried to keep busy in other ways to avoid that.

Upper Management and training manager were a complete joke.  They wanted work to be your life and you were scared to ask for time off.  The Training Manager and DM always pointed fingers at each other like as if they hated each other-not role models to any of the employees what so ever.  They hire people who if you don't buy the DM lunches you never get to move up in the company.  Friends of friends get hired and moves up in the company and the hard working Assistant Managers or Managers get stuck where they are.  Too many promises are made and it's all broken.  Upper management fails to realize that they cannot pressure their employees if sales goals are not met, it's uncomfortable and brings the morale down.  They need to take a class on how to speak to people.  The DM is too afraid to confront her employees and puts pressure on the Manager to speak to their employees. The Owner never showed an interest in meeting his employees-the people who bring in his money.  There were never any incentive and you worked hard like a race horse, they put too many stores close together to compete with each other so sales budget is hard to hit and they don't alter the budgets.  Your co-workers at store level were your support because they were the ones who listened.  The pay was low for what they expected you to do.  Worst move was leaving my old job for this place.  Glad I left and hope the next job I have is way better.

This is not a good work environment. The sales associates tend to be absolutely amazing people, very friendly and helpful 

But then you get to management...shift leaders, assistant Managers and Managers. Can I say inept does not even begin to describe these people.

They do very little as far as the day to day running of the store but as soon as it is bonus time they act as if they are the ones responsible for making all the sales. They seem to not realize without the staff that they would not have a bonus. Upper Management are so inconsistent with rules depending on what suits THEIR needs, it is hard to believe that are really that oblivious. 
 
They allow the lazy people to flourish and the few that work they seem not to notice. Basically you are treated less than. The management team do nothing to correct the problems in the store, rather they choose to ignore. They are either blind or incompetent. Not sure which, but either way they need to attend some kind of training on how to motivate staff, how to support staff and how to deal with conflict. 

Overall this place sucks the happiness and joy out of your life, and the niceness out of your soul.

And yes, sadly I am a current employee. As I said the sales associates make all the nonsense worth it.

Working at Kitchen Stuff Plus was always a pleasant experience. Colorful and very open environment always put me in a good mood to work, along with the excellent staff.
Working there taught me to better interact with customers and taught the value of giving a customer the optimal shopping experience.
starting from when a customer walks through the door until the very last minuet they leave the store, "the customer should allays come first". Management was always outstanding. Very flexible with hours, always organized with the scheduling and made a point in hosting monthly staff parties to keep our team happy and always entertained. Co-workers alike, were also outstanding. As new comer they were all more than willing to give me tips on how to handle certain in store issues, always looking at ways to improve the customer shopping experience and always eager to lend a helping hand. great people to work with. Working at Kitchen stuff Plus allowed me to really interact with customers on an all new level. Discussing certain products that would best suit them and their home was always something i enjoyed and was easily the most enjoyable part of the job while organizing inventory during seasonal holidays by far was the most challenging part of it all.

Working there the staff was great! Very friendly an helpful. The management team hire you for manager but put you as a shift leader. Never really had a MOD it should be SLOD (Shift Leader On Duty). Managers post schedules then change them so you don't really have a life. If you get to friendly with a coworker they don't like that at all so be careful.They expect WAY to much in just a little time. They want someone who they can walk on an someone that will kiss up to them. Very fake an pretentious in your face then turn around an try an find ways to get rid of you like what they did to me. I wouldn't recommend this a great place to work as they don't want human workers they want robots that will kiss up to them an have no personality. They don't like when people stand up for themselves. They makes things bigger than what it really is. When your shift is over they expect you to stay longer to finish a task without asking you if you could stay..some people have buses to catch which is not fair. They really don't care about their workers, just about "budget". So sad. They've missed out on some Great workers. Not saying to not give it a try, just saying I wouldn't recommend it. 

Basically, try an be the "right fit" for a puzzle you really don't belong to.

A typical day is basically go flat out if you want to even come close to covering what needs to be done. Chronically understaffed and many workers seem to burn out and give up and those still trying do not really get better opportunities than anyone else. I learned many basics of retail sales and basically every aspect of running the store day to day. Management is hyper focused on meeting sales targets although targets are consistently very high, this results in a lot of cut hours and the aforementioned understaffing. Workplace culture is spotty, several pretty major incidents occurred during my time here and neither time was the infracting employee punished in any meaningful way, although many coworkers were quite pleasant. Also workplace safety is an afterthought at best, sales numbers are what is important. Hardest part of the job is dealing with angry or dishonest customers, also managing to properly organize and store product when dealing with constant overshipping. The most enjoyable part of the job was assisting and educating customers as well as working with and helping to develop team members under me.

I was hired to open and manage a pop up location. Though we were expected to be open around 6 months it did very well and we remained open for a couple years. It would have stayed open if the location hadn't needed to close due to mall construction. It was an excellent company with a phenomenal training program, developed in house and very streamlined processes to run their stores. This meant our store staff all had cookie cutter training, leading to a higher quality team. My district manager was a dream. Perfect combination of firm but fair. I worked hard for her and she in return often went to bat for me. Upper managers were very involved, and approachable and the President was fantastic. She attended meetings and was very passionate about the business and really cared about the teams. When my location closed I was offered my pick of locations opening in the near future. They were both too far for me but I appreciated that kindness. If they ever come back to Guelph I'll be first in line to come back.

For the short seasonal time I was at Kitchen Stuff Plus I was happy with what I saw. People of all cultures (both KSP employee's and customers) were treated with respect and where helped whenever required it. Employees were praised for doing a great job and I myself was given several "job well done" cards which was put in a raffle. The environment was relaxed even on those very busy days. I was always very friendly to customers and they always got what they came in for. If not the item was ordered. They have very good safety regulations which is great because I had to use very high ladders. The prices were always solid and there was always a sale going on which made the majority of the customers happy. My most enjoyable part of the job was working with great co workers and helping customers find what they need. The most difficult part of the job was carrying the ladders around. Some could be rather heavy but after a week or so I got used to it and was carrying the ladders all over the place.

Fantastic place to work, for a couple hours a week. Head office is great and the work culture is VERY impressive (teamwork, support, growth!). 

A typical day: transactions, cash handling, customer service, customer service, customer service... restocking. 

What I learned about management: most of them do care, and those who do not, do not last. (KUDDOS!) 

The hardest part of the job: the holiday chaos. Keep smiling, hopefully you're not understaffed and working with a great team! Embrace it, and enjoy. Try to be understanding that there are all sorts of customers, you have the opportunity to make their days/ holidays.

The most enjoyable part of the job: the people... always meeting great employees across the company and appreciating encounters with them (a refreshing experience seeing a familiar, upbeat face). You get to know and see so many familiar faces over time- from all different positions.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Shift leader 3 salaries reported	$19.20 per hour
Store manager 2 salaries reported	$60,000 per year
Fulfillment associate 2 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Assistant manager 1 salary reported	$42,000 per year
Warehouse worker 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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