retail sales associate

Value Vilage

A lot of the people there are nice but when you get to the higher levels of managment all they care about it money. It REALLY shows in the amount they expect from you for the minimum wage they pay you.

A lot of the time they will run a skeleton crew and expect one or two people to handle all the physical labour in a fast paced enviroment. This lead to a number of injuries for those unfortunate few. As well as days where one person was resposible for all of the recycler duties in the warehouse. This includes loading/ unloading trucks and trailers, moving OK carts, making bales, moving garbage and rag out bins, As well as boxes and pallets for every station.

Very poor employee protection as well, making them empty trailers full of wet and moldy clothing with zero protection. Trailers that can only be backed in on an angle. Full of heavy materials far above your head where you're expected to let in rain down or find a way to slowly pull them down. Trailers that are also constantly broken into due to a lack of security and they expect you to build pallet walls to stop theives. There are more examples of dangerous working conditions such as wanting you to climb into a cardboard bin which is as tall as you and jump up and down to fit more into it.

These conditions lead to employees having to solve a number of problems in the work place themselves and lower management constantly strained trying their best to hold together all the under staffed departments

There are a lot of insentives for working there that were also taken away. One of the most important being bonuses for exceeding number goals. It was never much anyway but they now just push for higher numbers everyday with no reason for the employees to reach for those goals. 

It was however made known that the higher management gets big bonuses for your hard work as well as all expense paid learning trips outside of the country almost every year.  including a number of other perks.  This comes off as very insulting when compared to the minimum wage entry they start you at. Which is lower then this industries standard. If you're lucky you'll get a 50 cent raise a year.

Overall this workplace has a lot of nice people in it, who  come in looking to work. Only to be underpaid and are frankly being used by the higher managment who care nothing about them. I would not recommend working for this company.


I’m sure not all VV are the same.. I hope not (management wise). I’ve never encountered such a bad running management before. These VV at Oakville (Hampshire) they don’t know how to take care of their employees.. they pushed them to their limits. All they want care about Is the productions or quota. They didn’t care about how hard their employees are working just to get the business running.

They didn’t even give us a good incentives for all our hard works on last year holidays. That we work our behind just to get the quota that they want. Even holiday lunch is a bogus. The management so cheap can’t even afford a better holiday lunch to their employees. Doesn’t take employees suggestions as well. 

Management needs to work on their people skills. They don’t know how to take care of their employees. Workers are leaving because their pushing way too much., employees r not robots, they care about the work loads and the money coming in.. than the people who actually helping the company to run their business.  If your new, they followed u and checking ur moved all the time. They’re like checking up on you and just waiting for u to frazzled or make mistakes so they have something to point out on u..

 I’ve seen n met people who works there for few weeks, months and years quit their job because of poor managing their people., I guess they didn’t know the saying “be kind and be good to your employees, coz the employees will run your business smoothly.”


The management is horrible. They are never on the same page, you'll get in trouble for something where another manager said it's okay to do. They don't tell you the new changes that's happening in the store (especially if you are not in everyday) and just expect you to know when you come in. The lunch room is filled with fruit flies because of the open trash and the store is so dusty and dirty. They treat their staff with favouritism and act like they will "advance in their career", some of my co workers that have been there for a over a year have said they were fooled into thinking they could ever be a front end supervisor. They teach you all about loss prevention and make you watch training videos in the room and once a situation like that actually happens, they don't do anything about it. The way they give out schedules is super impractical because they only give out your next week's schedule on a Wednesday/Thursday. Someone who would be on vacation from Monday-Sunday could work the following Monday and they wouldn't know at all. Also, the front end supervisors want you to be doing 5 different things at once, they'd send you out on the floor to only be called back to the front to open cash 30 seconds later (constantly too). They also claim to help the communities but their prices have gotten so expensive you might as well shop for new clothes. l I would not recommend for anyone to work here, unless you really have no other choice. My co-workers were super friendly though and they made my days bearable.

The work-life balance is great for those with dependents.  You'll be home for after school, dinner if you start early in the day.

While the pay is low, the daytime hours are a bonus!  Nights end at 8 PM, which isn't bad either. So are the benefits after 3 months employment. 

Having 1-3 days off during the week isn't bad either. 

And you get a nice discount for being an employee.  It's cool to shop for work clothes on your lunch time, after your shift.  

I don't think there is a typical day as every day has new, interesting products to be processed.  It also depends which part of the store you're working in.  

So far, I've learned about assessing merchandise, how and where to put items for recycling such as e-waste (unsafe, frayed electric cords, cracked appliances, etc.), what happens to rejected clothes and where they're baled to be shipped overseas, tagging items for sale, finding space on shelves that looks attractive to customers, loss prevention...so much!

Management is pretty transparent and eager to help out newcomers to the team.  

Workplace culture is mostly friendly.  A small percentage aren't social, but that happens everywhere.  Just bypass them.

The hardest part of the job?  I've yet to discover one.  

The most enjoyable part of the job is seeing someone find something they're happy about and they want to discuss it with you and/or they have friendly small children who like to say "Hi!" and chat a bit to you while their parent shops undisturbed, thankful for the break.  

This job will do you fine if you are desperate for work. It's not hard to be hired, especially when you don't know what you're getting into. Management is somehow getting worse and worse, thanks to Upper Management's meddling - you can tell UM has never done these sorts of jobs in their lives. CDC went from good, to awful, to fine. If you are fine with hypocritical policy and protocol, work in the back. Avoid any sort of merchandise processing if you value your physical health, as workers comp is a running joke amongst employees (as in, good luck actually getting it when you inevitably get injured). If you can, work at the front - its all self checkout, so you're only needed to clean up the unfathomable mess the customers leave, or deal with customer complaints. Otherwise you stand there all day with the front management who don't do anything either.

Would recommend it as a summer job for students. If you're not physically strong, avoid. If you don't like hypocritical, unappreciative, and delusional management, avoid. If you're willing to trade your health and sanity for laughably low pay, c'mon over. Only pro is that the majority of employees are all very kind and welcoming, and make the work easier in the brief moments management isn't looking where you can socialize with them.

TLDR, management will make it bad regardless. Don't plan to work here long term. Employees are good, management is not. Avoid CDC, and merch processing. 

If I could give It negative stars I would. Never work here, i regret ever applying. It's incredibly dirty has alot and I mean alot alot of dust and dirt, production employees leave garbage lying around everywhere to the point where it would actively get in my way. the work is incredibly physically demanding. my wrists, knees, back and neck were in so much pain alot of the time. THEY DO NOT PAY EMPLOYEES ENOUGH FOR THE WORKLOAD. the heat feels like its constantly blasting so both customers and employees would complain daily for very good reason. They expect you to put out a ridiculous amount of product on an already extremely crowded floor (literally no room left for more stuff). They set completely unrealistic time expectations for putting product out onto the floor. The management were baised, unprofessional, unreliable, unsupportive and crossed more lines then I can count. Supervisors were incredibly rude at times. I was never properly trained. I was laughed at when I called in from the hospital and 2 times when I hurt myself at work. I had customers make me feel unsafe most shifts I had, they left incredibly dangerous people to just go around the store, including in the back production area. One time they let a man just walk around the back when only me and another minor were there. it's a miserable miserable workplace. NEVER WORK HERE.

When I started as a supervisor with value village I was extremely excited. I had been a long time shopper and was looking forward to learning the inns and outs, which I absolutely did. The only issue was the theft. The location I worked at was in a not so great part of town and theft was rampant. Thankfully, value village never encouraged me to try and recover stolen goods or punished those who did not confront shoplifters. There were, however, items where that wasn't an option. Some people would be very angry/on drugs/drunk or just looking for a fight. It took a lot of deescalation skills but the team I worked with was so friendly and helped each other through tough times mentally. Once I was transfered to a different location, that seemed to not be the case. At the next location, the mentality of the managers and team members was simply to get the day over to get their paycheques and go home. We got the job done but there was no comradery or friendly chats between managers and cashiers/salesfloor workers. It was very disjointed and seemed almost like high school cliques. So, all in all if you find a location that's friendly and works as a team, value village can be a fantastic and fulfilling place to work. 

I really enjoy working there. My coworkers are all friendly, the management is really kind and understanding, there's always something to do, the discount is insanely good. However, in recent months there has been an insane amount of burnout/turnover. Recently, a few employees left and as a result the rest of the staff is stretched absolutely thin trying to fill in the gaps. I feel constantly overworked and tired as I'm stuck doing the job of multiple people since management refuses to give more hours, which leads to more frustration, which is leading to more quitting. I really love working here but it has gotten so bad I dread heading to work now. At one point, after dealing with a frustrating customer I broke down in tears out of exhaustion, and while management was very supportive, the way the store is being run is the inherent issue, no amount of breaks or days off fixes the fact I am running around constantly for 7+ hour shifts with no real down time. Until these concerns by me and my fellow cashiers get more then just a shrug, I just don't know what to do other then warn others.

Value Village was a challenging place to work, primarily due to poor management. The leadership often played favorites, creating a toxic atmosphere where hard work went unrecognized and unappreciated. Many employees felt undervalued and overworked, with little to no support from supervisors.

Opportunities for growth were virtually nonexistent, leaving staff feeling stagnant and demotivated. Even when individuals demonstrated dedication and initiative, advancement was often reserved for those in the manager’s good graces. This favoritism not only impacted morale but also led to high turnover rates, as many employees sought better working conditions elsewhere.

Compensation did not align with the demanding workload, leaving staff feeling exploited. The constant pressure to meet unrealistic expectations without adequate rewards contributed to a negative environment. Overall, my experience at Value Village was disappointing, marked by unprofessional management practices and a lack of respect for employees’ time and effort. I would not recommend this workplace to anyone seeking a supportive and fair job environment.

The current work environment is quite stressful due to several systemic issues. There is a significant lack of pay equity, as new hires are frequently started at a higher rate than tenured employees with three or more years of service. Additionally, the benefits package is limited to full-time staff and requires costly upgrades to be effective.
​Operational stability is also a concern; the work schedule has become increasingly unsteady, with frequent and unpredictable reductions in hours. Management often struggles with timely communication and conflict resolution, leading to delays in addressing critical issues. Furthermore, internal morale is impacted by perceived favoritism in decision-making. While an 'open-door policy' is technically in place, it has proven ineffective, as voiced concerns are rarely met with actionable solutions or follow-up. Finally, the scope of work is inconsistent, frequently requiring employees to manage multiple roles outside of their original job description.

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