sales associate

retail sales associate

Liquor Depot

Managers & Head Office
-Bully's
-Liars
-Disorganized
-Greedy
-Prejudiced

The first three months I worked for The Liquor Depot I had a very pleasant experience. My Manager was great, she saw that I had high moral standards, as well as a good attitude. She saw right off the bat that I was always dependable, and eager to do my best, which is why she asked me if I'd like to become a Key holder/ Supervisor after the first week of working there. For my work experience course she gave me 100%, and commented that I was "one of the best employees (she) had on staff." She knew how to show appreciation to good employees. I got along well with everyone, the customers, and my co-workers, and they all seemed to really like me.
Sadly though she left after three months. She used to always tell me about the things that went wrong, beer and liquor orders seemed to always get messed up. They'd send us too much of what we didn't need and not enough or none of what we did need. She was always stressed out because they always screwed things up.
After she left a temp Manager from another location came in to look after things and supposedly "clean up the store." He did a good job as he had much more experience than the previous Manager. But he was stressed out because of the problems with head office as well.
Something he did that I'm pretty sure is illegal is he put a ten dollar bill in my till when I wasn't looking, to see if I'd take it at the end of the day thinking that I'd short changed a customer. I didn't though, instead I called him and let him know. He came in the next morning and told me what he did and said "thank you for being honest." But he also bragged about how he'd done that to many employees and had fired some on the spot for taking the extra change.
I also found it odd that Liquor Depot's policy prohibits a penny container for customers.
One day I was working alone and there was nothing to do, and there were very few customers. So during the long wait in between customers I started doing some homework and listening to music (an i-pod on a speaker dock).
When the Manager came in he told me that it was unacceptable to be doing personal things while working, as well as listening to an i-pod because we could be sued for playing music that we weren't licensed to play in the store. I was understanding and cooperative, I put my stuff away and the dock away that had always been in the store, and I said I was sorry.
Then I started doing some tasks that he asked me to do. During that time I was going through some really hard things in my personal life, and my stress started getting to me. He was stressed too and he asked me if I knew where something was, and I went up to the front cashier where he was and I was about to tell him I didn't know, but instead I started crying and I said I had to go to the bathroom. Then he blew up at me! I was so shocked, he started yelling at me telling me that I was a terrible employee, that I was lazy and my co-workers were unimpressed with me, and he said "you're fired" and "I want you to get out of this store right now!" This was all in front of a customer mind you. You can imagine how embarrassed, humiliated and scared I was. A small sensitive girl who tries to do her best, and a big angry man stands up and starts yelling in her face, telling her she's basically worthless.
All I wanted to do at that point was try and calm him down, so through my tears I told him I was glad that he was there and he did a lot of good things for the store. This calmed him down slightly and he told me he was going to "give me another chance" but he still said "I want you to leave this store right now!"
I tried to reach the human resources manager several times, I left at least three messages but she never got back to me.
The day after I had another shift, my parents came in with me because I was afraid of him. He started bragging to my mom about how everyone loved to work with him because he was this great guy. My mom tried to get him to apologize to me for the way he treated me, but he said "absolutely not, this conversation is over!"
A few days later we finally got our permanent Manager. At first she seemed like a really good Manager, but then she decided to surprise me and another girl with a final written letter (there was no first or second, just a final) stating that we had been doing the inventory counts wrong, and we would be fired if we didn't start doing them right. We did them the way the previous Manager taught us how to do them, we didn't deserve disciplinary action, but she said it was because her Manager said if she didn't she would be fired.
She then taught us how we were supposed to do them which wasn't much different from what we were doing, just a little more detailed.
She also gave me another final letter at the same time stating: "Chelsea has been pushing her religion on other employees and there was a customer complaint about this."
The disciplinary action:
"She is no longer allowed to bring the AWAKE magazines onto the store premises."
I talked to all my co-workers about this and they all told me that they never felt like I was pushing my religion on them. I would never do that. But sometimes I would share my belief's with them, which the last time I checked, Canadians have the right to talk about their belief's, and practice their own religion. My religion requires that we obey Jesus commission to preach the good news to people of all nations (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:9-13). So by talking to people about the Bible I am practicing my religion, which I have the right to do. Of course, I would not irritate anyone who didn't want to hear it.
I do believe in Canada, it is also a persons right to read any material they so desire. By telling me that I am not allowed to bring my reading material on store premises am I not also being prevented from practicing my personal rights and freedoms?
If I was a crazy person who was truly trying to stuff religion down people's throats, and therefore making many employees and customers uncomfortable, than I completely understand suspending a person like that for two weeks, as they did to me. Or even firing them.
But there was only one customer complaint about me talking about my religion with another employee, and that customer most likely had a prejudice against Jehovah's Witnesses.
A few weeks after I came back from my suspension, on a Sunday, I was working with a new girl. When she came in she had a bad attitude even though I tried to be nice and cheerful. She treated the customers as if they were bothering her, and while I was doing the work our Manager asked us both to do, she was sitting around texting.
I told my Manager about it, but after she talked to the new girl about it, the new girl apparently told her that I was the one with the bad attitude. Then on the day of my next shift which was the very next Sunday, my Manager calls me and tells me that last Sunday I got two customer complaints about my service, and the new girl got seven.
She then said she was letting me go, as well as the new girl.
I truly feel that it was all some sort of set up or lie to find a way to fire me. I don't know why they really wanted me out of there since I was "one of the best employees on staff," and I was the most cooperative, reliable, easy going, and caring employee I'm sure they've ever had. I worked on every holiday, and took over a lot of people's shifts when they needed help.
I tried again to get a hold of their human resources Manager, I talked to her once, and she told me they weren't going to pay me for the week that they owed me, and if they did they were only going to look back at my paychecks only 7 weeks. I said "that's not what employment standards says." You would think that a human resources manager would know the employment standards code for something as common as that. Unless, they hope that most other people don't know it.
Thankfully though they looked back 3-months which is the required amount of time for people who have wages that vary. Had they only looked back 7 weeks, my final pay check would've been a lot lower.
I tried getting a hold of her again in order to get written proof of what these "customers" said about me, if there really was any customers that complained about me. But no matter how many times I called or how many messages I left, I could never get a hold of her again.
I was going to file a complaint against them to the Better Business Bureau for everything I went through and the unjust firing.
But I just figured, what's the point?
They aren't going to hire me back, and even if they did, I don't want to deal with them anymore.

I decided to quit working for liquor depot after a series of stressful events, which in all honestly, are just par for the course working in the liquor industry as you see a lot of addiction related behavior, such as theft, robbery, and generally unwell people threatening your security. However, that is just my experience.

A typical day of work mostly involves serving customers at the counter, and helping customers find the right products they are looking for or making recommendations to customers who are looking for something different. 

Other usual janitorial duties such as cleaning the floors, windows, or dusting shelves still applies, and you get a lot of experience in inventory management. 

As a key-holder I was responsible for sometimes filling inventory and sales reports on morning shifts and looking through loss prevention reports, as well as sometimes placing products orders myself (though not often). Every employee is expected to count and put away orders, create inventory cycle counts, and submit their counts on the office computer to check for inventory errors and then fix those errors. There were many tools at your disposal to check inventory, and even see the inventory available at other stores, which was a very rewarding aspect of customer service as you could make sure that particular customer was able to find exactly what they were looking for. I very much enjoyed learning the inventory aspects of the job, as well as basics of shipping and receiving, as they are valuable skills that are transferable to any job working retail or warehousing. 

You are also provided many opportunities to learn about the product, compared to lets say clothing retail, as you often get to talk to the product representatives in person, engage in product sampling, and read in depth information given to you about the products target market, taste, history, production methods, etc. Many employees and management took a genuine interest in the culture of alcoholic beverages, even outside of it being a job requirement, which in my opinion did lead to high levels of service.

Management, at least for me, was quite a roller coaster. The turn over rate for store managers was about as high for that of regular employees in the area that I worked in, so store management was often unpredictable and I had to try and adapt to many styles of management. Upper level management, was also quite unreliable, as they often overlooked many stores, and had to be concerned with numbers and figures more so than managing the requirements of each individual store. If your store needed more shelving, or had to have permission to re-arrange sections that are arranged according to the plan-o-gram because the high theft target items were to easy to conceal or run out the door with, then these issues took very long to address if they were ever to be addressed at all because store managers did not have much say in the matter. It would seem that because of this, good managers who wanted to have a say did not last very long.

Job security was fickle, again, just because it is the liquor industry, because one slip up on requesting the ID of a customer could cost you your job, and even then if others at your store failed to request ID too many times, your store was viable to lose its liquor license.

Workloads varied depending on what what time of day you worked your shifts, as morning shifts did not have many customers and could have to wait till the afternoon to receive any deliveries, and could not afford to leave the front area too often as they worked alone most of their shift (our store was a small store, other larger stores did not have this issue). Afternoon to evening shifts dealt with the majority of the customers and putting away deliveries, which made the shift go by much quicker, and your worked with another person which made you feel safer, but often there was an observable difference in productiveness and attitude among those who typically worked evenings and those who worked mornings.

Hardest part of the job, and the reason I chose to leave, was that in the majority of theft incidences, there is nothing an employee can do besides deal with the aftermath and fill out police reports. In spite of this, upper management believed that a significant amount of theft could be reduced simply though "customer service" and watchfulness, despite the fact that most shoplifters will deny that they have stolen anything and just walk out with the product in their jacket or pants, or outright just run in and grab an armful and run out. To be fair, management was working on hiring more security to their stores before I left.

The best part of the job was interacting with customers who were genuinely kind and interesting, and we got to know them quite well.

I worked here from 2007-2009. I was hired as an assistant manager, and then was promoted to store manager within a few months because the manager at the store was leaving. The pay really wasn't worth it. I was basically on call 24/7. I am pretty sure I was getting at least $10,000/year less than the other managers in the area. I was at that location for about a year, then I was  sent to a store that was in the process of being built, so I had to open a whole store, which included going around to other stores in the area and picking up their liquor that was to go into my store. Once the store was set up, I was then basically a traveling manager, I was going from town to town filling in for managers when they were either fired, or on holidays, or sick. I was then transferred again to another store because the manager was leaving, and they needed someone to fill in or take the job. I ended up taking the job because it was closer to my home. This is where things started getting really bad. I had been with the company for almost 2 years (short a couple weeks). I was never given holidays or holiday pay outs. I finally requested time off because I was becoming tired, having to work everyday ( I was lucky if I got a whole day off in 2 years). I asked for 2 weeks, for the 2 years I was there, and was argued with. They let me take 1 week. So I took my week, and the last couple days of my time off I got extremely ill. I told the district manager, and she freaked out on me! I couldn't talk, I tried to, but my voice had been gone for a couple days, insane fever, I was unconscious for a day or two, and she finally "approved" an extra week. After the week was up, I still wasn't feeling well, but went anyways. I was there for about 10 minutes and the district manager shows up and tells me to leave, I am no longer employed with them. She would not give me a reason why. I called the head office to see if they had any information, and i was told I was only getting severance pay for the one year, I hadn't made it 2 years...my 2 year mark was 2 weeks away. I also asked why I was let go in the first place, and I was informed that I was let go due to shrink issues... Well I was sent to that store to sort out their shrink issues, the manager before me there had everything out of wack, and I ended up taking the blame for it. In short (I know this is a long post) I would never work for them again, I would suggest others not work there unless they like  being treated unfairly.  The only perk was getting the discount.

The managers would never come or answer your phone calls, they miss-judged evrypne that walked in the store and certian culturial people who dropped off their resumes where ignored. They had expectations of you to constantly follow customers and / or depending on the color of skin. This goes against all i stand for and regreted every day that i worked there. My co-workers never worked except a select few if that. They would leave both safes wide open and never paid close enough attention to the store nor those who entred. Thus resulting in forty's that have been stolen and thank god no cash, but lots of stock was always taken because they didnt watch the customer, not as in walk behind, but cast a glance back or ask if they required any help i was not impressed. I worked 80-or more hours and alwyas on call because the managers never wanted to to go in nor help the staff out when thye had problems i was the person they called. The only time i enjoyed my job was when i worked by myself or with a certain staff ,member, we would get our list of things to do no matter how big than, have the night to ourselves. I learned that people no matter where you work, retail or with any given job, its best to do your best and try your hardest not to focus on others, unless the situatuon is really bad. I also learned that i work very well with people and know exactly how to speak or talk to others withput sounding pushy or snotty, i guess its why i get along with others so well, I'm very outgoing and love helping others to the best of my abilities.

Overall they are a terrible company. They profit the most yet pay there employees the least. 

-Keyholders and Sales associates make the same wage as of october last year because minimum wage went up.
-you work full time hours but are put as a part time employee 
- you dont get benfits
-Managers make schedules to benefit themselves
-HR does not take complaints seriously
-They do not take health and safety seriously
-the company expects to much for to little
-you only typically get a 20 cent raise after six months
-they cut your hours if your making "to much"

you also get harrassed by customers for the extremely high prices and most of the sales are a scam because they raise the prices 2-5 dollars 2 weeks to a month before the sales and only put it on for a dollar off (basically the target scam all over again) 

The companies words and i quote "Money does not and will not motivate employee."  (even though you make 12.20 an hours to start) 

Was also lied to about our liquor license being expired for two days....was told that they automatically renew and then found the receipt for payment of the renewal the two days later. As well as the buisness license was expired for two days as well!

My experience at the Liquor Depot was quite enjoyable. We strived for sales and up-selling, learning the products for recommendations and to better serve customers. I learned about each different category and my knowledge on liquor is quite extensive now. We would keep track of inventory and implement theft prevention. They were sure to remind us of safety, and to keep up with filing reports for incidents. I maintained the security of the store by properly handling delicate situations in dealing with theft or intoxicated customers. 
      Our manager was very resourceful and found many different ways of problem solving. She made sure we were keeping track of inventory, stocking, and how we dealt with customers. She also made sure we were doing everything to the best of our ability and were focused on the most important matters such as customers, sales, and store moral. We were using PayWorks so our payments were on time and we could keep track of our pay stubs in an environmentally friendly way. 
      My co-workers were very resourceful as well and we enjoyed finding our own solutions and constantly improving our work flow. 
     I found in this business that it is very difficult to please everyone. I had to learn to get a feel for people and how to ask questions that would bring the customers to find their own solution. I also learned to focus on those who needed assistance. 
     The most enjoyable part of this job for me was the interaction I had with the customers and learning to help them with their selections or informing them on the benefits of the store membership.

To receive, store, stock and sell packaged liquor in a state liquor store; perform related work.

 
GENERAL INFORMATION
 
This work involves standing and walking continuously throughout the shift, and lifting cases weighing up to 50 pounds to a height up to five feet.
 
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES
 
1. Liquor sales. Typical duties: greets customers and answers questions regarding product content, use and price; observes customers, checks identification for proof-of-age and denies service to underage or intoxicated customers; receives payments by cash, check or credit card and makes change; receives and verifies licensed-bar orders; operates computerized cash register system to process sales data; closes out cash register and balances receipts to sales journal.

2. Stocking. Typical duties: receives and verifies shipments; inspects and documents freight damages; determines stocking needs, codes merchandise and arranges shelf and floor displays.

3. Store operations. Typical duties: acts for manager during absences; opens and closes store and maintains security; balances daily receipts with daily sales reports and makes bank deposits; reconciles discrepancies; enters merchandise data into computer system to update files and generate reports; may supervise work and train other clerks; recommends product merchandising, inventory levels and new product listings; prepares sales summary reports; performs routine cleaning and maintenance of store area.

Those within the company are well aware of its history of trying to "change direction" every couple of years. This can bring about good, as seen previously with the implementation of increased safety measures and employee support resources (including having supported education within the liquor industry for their employees).
The direction they have chosen to redirect towards as of late almost deliberately curates a toxic work environment. From advising employees to ignore safety codes to maximize stock on hand from discount purchasing, to general mismanagement, nepotism, and sexism. 
The "New" head office (as nearly 100 positions were replaced in upper management and operations) does not hire qualified/suitable candidates as store managers, area managers, and regional managers. As such, stores are left with few resources from their superiors. When stores are left in disarray with associates having to try and fulfill duties outside of their job descriptions, they can expect little to no help in maintaining their stores, let alone restoring them to acceptable standards of operation. 
Your store-level coworkers will be like family, as every store typically bonds quite closely, however you will all be working in unacceptable, stressful, hellish conditions. It's just not worth it.

At the start it was a really fun place to work, it has progressively become more and more "corporate." They try to build a work culture of Cheers, having fun while serving the customers to the best of their abilities but then take away everything that made the job fun. Too much micro-managing and too little trust in the people on the ground floor.
The upper echelon are completely out of touch with each area's demographics.  They are closed off to any input from store managers, despite saying they want feedback. 
Stores are punished for high theft by reducing available payroll hours so instead of three people on shift the store is only capable of two or one and theft goes even higher.
Prices are jacked up to an insane degree but it is not reflected in the compensation for sales associates, assistant managers and store managers. 
Any failure to produce ridiculous quotas and sales goals are pinned on the store managers rather than the fact that prices are too high, the product is 9 times out of 10 not available to be ordered despite being on sale, products are contrary to what clientele actually want and sales goals are set so intentionally high as to prevent them having to actually pay out bonuses to the salaried workers.

Overall, if you need a basic retail job while you're doing schooling or need an easy second job, this can work. Don't bother otherwise. It will kill your soul.

I enjoyed the people I worked with but not the company. They bought out Sobey's Liquor in the city I worked. They treated a smaller city with the same expectations and sales as a nearby large city. It was almost a completely different market. Not to mention they increased prices almost right away. In the time I worked there, I probably increased prices 5 or more times. They are way over-priced. 

Take a look at their mission statement. It says that they plan on taking over smaller stores in convenient locations. This really bothered my from the start.  

The regional manager was almost non-existant. He spent most of his time in the larger city. Then when you bring up an existing concern, he takes it as you are not doing your job. In our city, the 3 stores pretty much ran themselves and when upper management got involved, they would overstock us in product that wouldn't sell in our market.

At one point, we got an e-mail from head office notifying us of a competitor selling Crown Royal at a price lower than what Connect Logistics (Only Alberta supplier of liquor) sells it at. We were to send staff to buy as much as possible from the competitor so that we could re-sell it in our stores. I refused to. That was a shady business practice. 

To this day I will not buy from Liquor Depot and their shady business.

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