Professional Warehouse Demonstrations

This company is bad to work for, don't even bother applying. I wish I had read these reviews before I was hired because every single one of them is true. Regular shift is 11-7. There is only one shift a day so if you have an appointment and can't work an hour, you lose a whole day. Not very flexible. You get 15 minutes to load your cart, set up your table and have samples ready. This isn't very realistic so people arrive 15 mins before. This 15 mins is unpaid, yet if you're late they get mad. Bearing in mind, most days you have staff meetings that sometimes run until 11:20, so to have your samples out by 11:15? Unrealistic. You then have to stand in one spot all day until your scheduled break which sometimes isn't until five hours into your shift. It's hard on your body and you cannot leave your stations unless you can use the washroom in 3 minutes or get supplies. No water is allowed at your station which often made me sick, so bad I passed out onto a hot oven due to dehydration. I brought this issue up with my manager and she said it was my fault for not asking another employee to assist me. Roadshows are worse, they are open-close shifts and cannot close at all so if you are in the middle of nowhere with either no one near you or no one that has been trained for said roadshow, you cannot leave. If you have any issues and bring them up, you are punished by less shifts and the worst tasks. You get 30 mins unpaid break, and then you're back at your station until the end of the shift. Management is very poorly run, they think they are always right. They will be on your backs constantly if you fail a mystery shop, don't sell enough product or do any little thing wrong like being 2 feet away from the table or talking to customers for too long, however when you excel, get 100% on mystery shops, sell thousands and is an overall excellent worker, you don't hear anything about it or get any bonuses or incentives. You also don't get any benefits, or paid overtime. They mess you around saying there's not enough demos so your hours get cut and then you get behind on demos so you get double the shifts with no overtime. You are constantly on edge the whole shift. PWD workers, Costco workers, Management, Vendors, Mystery Shoppers. These people can be creeping in other aisles and hiding, watching you. If you get caught doing something wrong as little as itching your arm, good luck.

very little training, management are the most unprofessional people I have ever had the unfortunate opportunity to work for. Many of pwd employees are intelligent hard working individuals that are treated as lowest of the low, degraded in front of customers, bullied, harassed, and disrespected as human beings. The work is extremely demanding, standing long hours, no breaks, no water, no concern from managers. The roadshows are even tougher, an employee cannot close their demo if they need the washroom or a water break. I personally worked more than 6 hours straight without so much as a sip of water or a manager checking to see if I needed my break on 3 separate occasions. When I did get to reach a manager, I was told that it is my fault for not tracking down another PWD employee to assist me! I have been shorted on my paycheques and was blamed by management's assumption that I was trying to cheat them. Luckily, I tracked all my hours, had my hours submitted checked against my schedule and eventually got the 8 plus hours owed to me. Management hires on the premise that roadshow workers get better hourly pay, they do not. When leaving this company, final paycheques for hours worked are frequently not given. The managers of this company need serious help for dealing with people and how to treat others respectfully. The high turnover rates on this job are not surprising. Low pay, inhumane conditions and complete disregard for the dignity of persons. Save your time, efforts and personal worth by not even bothering to apply for this company.
The atmosphere with co-workers and operations as a team of demonstrators is fun and worth the tough conditions, until management decides to run the floor and degrade workers in public. The morale of the team immediately falls off and many employees will quit their job by the end of the day that pwd managers are on site at Costco. Not surprising. What is surprising is that a reputable company like Costco even contracts with a company like PWD for their product demo needs. October 29, 2014

Part time job with  8 hour shifts, which is hard to come by.
You can schedule any day(s) off as long as you are available one weekend day and 1 or 2 other weekdays. 
Some managers are very good, BUT the head office management is ridiculous. Rules change all the time and can be impossible to follow. Nothing in writing, just verbal so if you miss a meeting, too bad. you are rushed all the time to cook more, set up in 15 minutes, close down in 15 minutes, do dishes in 20 minutes, even the seniors working there, who need a little more time to do the job. Many people have been told "this is not the job for you" and sent home with no termination pay.The not allowing food or water other than an unpaid 30 minute break is hard. They say you can leave for a drink, but when you're cooking you have to completely shut down and put everything away. Most customers are nice, but some are unbelievably entitled and grab samples that are still cooling, or being prepared, causing us to throw out the whole tray because of contamination.The pay stays low $11.50 for a while, and raises that were supposed to come automatically  every 800 hours did not happen for anybody! Also they keep hiring people and giving them hours, resulting in 2 shifts a week only from January to May.Assistants try to cancel your shift/demo and call in their friends, taking advantage of immigrants with lesser language/understanding, or desperate seniors. Its ok for me Im not afraid to speak up/hold my ground but it does get a bit tiring. Feel sorry for the managers working for the district manager and higher,. They are rude and disresepectful to all, even their managers in front of workers.

AND FOR SOME REASON A LOT OF COSTCO EMPLOYEES HATE US AND TREAT US BAD, INCLUDING THE DEPT MANAGERS. WAS TOLD THIS MY FIRST DAY, AND ITS TRUE. SOME ARE AMAZING PEOPLE ACTING LIKE COWORKERS, OTHERS ARE LIKE THE ENEMY. YOUD THINK WE WERE THE ONES MAKING MORE MONEY AND GETTING BENEFITS AND PAID CIVIC HOLIDAYS

Prepare to stand in place for 8 hours repeating the same information over and over again, with only one half-hour break at random. Everything is extremely scheduled; hours are straight forward, cut into two groups (Ex, A:1030am to 630pm, B:11am to 7pm Mon-Fri), if you can't make it within the first hour for whatever reason, don't bother, you're day will not be rescheduled to make your shift and you will have lost your whole pay for that day. Members are extremely rude to the employees, and Costco/Costco employees take no consideration to the demonstrators jobs or safety(One day I was working a double cold foods demo that needed to stay below 4 degrees for health and safety purposes, we were out of coolers so I needed to keep my products in the large freezer. Costco employees left the door open all day and my meats were room temperature, I couldn't start my demo for hours as I tried to keep my products cooled down. Not to mention they left our ice packs out of the fridge over night so no one doing their cold food demos had ice packs which are essential. Then they packed the freezer full of canoes(no idea why), the floor is coated in ice, and they moved all of our stuff to the back so we all had to try very hard to not slip and break our necks in an avalanche of small boats) Zero benefits are included in working there, initial pay is only slightly higher than minimum wage, with an increase every 600 hours or so. It's a full-time job, everyone gets about 4-5 shifts a week, until there are random cuts needed to be made and you become stuck with 2. Only good part really is your co-workers, who can be really fun to talk to and you all share a common hatred for your jobs, the members, and Costco.
Have Fun.
And be nice to your local demonstrators, they go through a lot of mental and physical strain to give you the free stuff you don't deserve.

Working as a Food Demonstrator is not as easy as it looks.

First of all, you have to have strong legs, because you will be standing for very extended periods of time in one place, barely walking around unless you need to acquire more food samples or needed work tools.

Usually, interacting with customers to promote food products - from my experience - has usually been pleasant most of the time. But I unfortunately had a difficult and somewhat unreasonable boss.

Management during my tenure had sadly become more crooked and corrupt. There wasn't any fair pay to employees between those who were just hired and those who had been working at the same location for a few years.

The best part of the job was talking with kind and friendly customers, even if they politely declined or refused to try or buy the food product you were demonstrating. Additionally, the food itself was delicious and you could eat some if you were on your break - but not while you were on your shift.

The hardest part of the job would be extended standing on your feet in just one place for most of the day. It can also get more hectic with busier shopping days on the weekends and holidays when there are a lot more customers. As well, the job payed no more than slightly above minimum wage, and because it was just a subsidiary company of Costco, you could not obtain any workers benefits nor find many great possibilities for advancement.

Next time, I would recommend actually acquiring a real 'Costco' job and not one with PWD.

a typical day at would be walking in grabbing a cart going to the room where all our supplies are filling the cart up putting out table and our rad cloth and plastic for the able with it  then we set up our table put everything on the table we need take the carts back come back to our table set things up and serve customers with free samples of different types of food and snacks some cooked some not cooked we also do roadshows wich on road shows sometimes your cooking  some special product there selling in the store or sometimes a roadshow can be of something that that isnt a food product like clothes or special pillows and bedsheets or selling exspensive shoes  or a special laundry soap end  of day we pack everything up in a cart take it back to the room put it all away mop sweet do dishes clean everything we use and then go home

A typical day of work consisted of setting up the tables with a group, getting all your equipment for the day ready in a cart, then setting up your table and starting with your samples. You prepare them, then ask people to come over and try. You tell them its benefits and its price. The coworkers were all older, and many of them having been there for a long time were a bit snarky at first. The hardest part was definitely the standing all day, and the fact that you cannot drink water at the table, which caused me to feel dehydrated as I couldn't drink at the table, but had to shut down my entire table just to leave and couldn't do that too often. It led to me passing out onto my table and being taken away via ambulance. This is one thing I would strongly urge to people: drink lots of water before the job, since the pressure to not leave your table is very intense. The most enjoyable part was the free samples, although you cannot eat of course at your table, you can walk around during your break, and before & after work. It makes for a full worker!

The job involves employees being assigned a different product each shift. The employee had to give assigned samples to members of Costco and had to sell the product to employees. This entailed highlighting benefits of the product and how members can make use of the product. 

Throughout the job, I learned how to better handle food (through Safety and Sanitation precautions) and I also learned how to be a better salesperson. 

The most enjoyable parts of the job involved engaging with members and selling them a variety of products. The people I work with are usually very nice.

The hardest parts of the job involved standing for long periods of time and constantly having to talk about a product to as many people as I could. While selling is enjoyable, it gets incredibly tiring having to stand for a long time and constantly talk. We also only get one thirty-minute break in an entire 8 hour shift.

A usual day at PWD starts with sign up and loading carts with a table and a bin full with the supplies needed for the demo day, (the demo product is loaded as well).  Move to the location of the product and find the closest appropriate spot for setting up the demo station.  Start demoing the product, talking with the customers about the product, making samples for people to try.  I have learned how to stay calm in fast-paced situations, how to properly use some of the kitchen supplies, how to kindly talk to the customers who might be not as kind as I am, and how to cooperate and help my coworkers even without being asked for help.  The most difficult part of the job is at the very start of the day because everyone needs to quickly find the product, set up the station, go back to the office for the demo product, and go back to the station to start demoing.  Obviously everyone must start demoing on time.  The best part of the job is talking to the customers about the product and seeing when people enjoy the product.

I work in management for a year as an assistant , the upper management was terrible the verbal abuse was intolerable . not only did I have to stay late many nights with out pay but the way the district manager and the owner treated their staff was unprofessional rude and completely uncalled for.  The worst part was that I wasn't properly trained but was expected to read their minds on procedures and fend for my self.  Collectively they only trained me for 4 days . I do not recommend working for them at all ! Unless you like getting verbally abused , mistrained and like management to change every couple months . I saw 3 managers and 2 assistance leave in just under a year . the people who get punished aren't the ones who should.

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