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  • Is working at Costco really all it's cracked up to be?

  • The only way to find out is from employees themselves, and luckily, they're not afraid

  • to talk about their experiences.

  • Here's a look at what it's really like to work at Costco, straight from the people who

  • know best.

  • Working at Costco might seem like a simple job, but employees tell a different story:

  • apparently, it can be as exhausting as an intense gym session.

  • Rachael, a Costco employee in Colorado, told Mental Floss that employees are the ones who

  • do all the heavy-lifting.

  • According to her:

  • "When you see pallets stacked with 50-pound bags of flour or sugar or dog food or cat

  • litter, a lot of that stuff had to be stacked by hand by employees before the store opens.

  • Ditto for those giant stacks of shoes and bottles of salsa or five-gallon jugs of cooking

  • oil.

  • It's a lot of hard work."

  • Costco is a membership-based store, meaning you have to pay an annual fee in order to

  • get a card that allows you to shop there and enjoy all of those discounted prices.

  • Every customer is expected to show their membership card to an employee before they walk through

  • the doors.

  • "Welcome to Costco.

  • I love you."

  • However, that doesn't mean customers are always happy about doing it.

  • One Costco employee explained on Reddit that one of the hardest jobs there is working the

  • entrance simply because of the people they encounter.

  • The employee said that customers tend to make things harder for the card checkers by not

  • showing their card, blocking the entrance when taking out their card, or forgetting

  • their card and trying to get in anyway.

  • Another user explained that one of the most common issues that comes up is people trying

  • to shop there even if they aren't members.

  • Sorry folks, but that's not how it works!

  • Costco is known for having a terrific workplace environment, but it's not just the pay that

  • makes it awesome.

  • Employees enjoy lots of great benefits, and plenty of perks on the job as well.

  • One of the best has to be the fact that they're able to shop after hours.

  • Kathleen, a Costco employee in Washington, told Mental Floss:

  • "You can shop after hours, and a lot of employees do that.

  • You just bring your cart to the front register."

  • Costco stores actually keep their member service counter open after the store closes for exactly

  • that reason.

  • Oh, and you can't forget about the fact that employees have access to all of the wonderful

  • free samples that make weekend Costco shopping that much betterand you better believe

  • they take advantage of them.

  • One Reddit user who claimed to have worked there for over seven years said they ate a

  • lot of samples, and added a helpful tip to non-employees:

  • "The demo people are there every day but Saturday and Sunday are the prime times to get free

  • grub."

  • Another Reddit user who had worked at Costco for over two years jokingly said that workers

  • there called the samples the "Employee Buffet."

  • Every Costco has the same policy for customers who are leaving the store: after you pay and

  • as you are walking out, an employee checks over your receipt and looks at the items in

  • your cart.

  • But have you ever wondered how they do it so quickly?

  • Apparently, they aren't reading the entire receipt.

  • Thomas, an employee in California, told Mental Floss:

  • "We're looking for items on the bottom of the cart, big items like TVs or alcohol."

  • One Reddit user talked about it on a thread, saying that employees count the number of

  • things in your cart and see if it's the same number as on the receipts.

  • They also said that they check for expensive items:

  • "Lots of people I knew just checked for the expensive things and didn't bother with anything

  • else."

  • Another user said that they also look for doubles, saying:

  • "Most of what we find is actually errors with scanning.

  • Had someone accidentally key in the number for a $1000 item instead of a bag of avocados

  • once."

  • Costco employees are generally pretty happy, but one very common complaint is that their

  • technology seems to be very outdated across the board.

  • One employee said on Reddit:

  • "Whoever is in charge of technological advancement and taking the digital systems that run our

  • entire company into the future needs to take a step back and reevaluate what we're doing."

  • Another employee complained about not being able to look at their schedules or submit

  • time off online and not having a tablet to use to check inventory, adding:

  • "Why do our computers and registers look like they came from the '80s?

  • Why is everything done by paper and pencil?

  • I get that this kind of stuff is expensive to upkeep, and by not doing tech upgrades

  • we keep our prices low, but it's time to join the rest of the world."

  • "Password entered."

  • It's pretty common knowledge that, in most stores, there's more inventory in the back

  • all you have to do is ask an employee to check for you.

  • Well, at Costco, what you see is what they have.

  • One Costco employee told Reader's Digest:

  • "Costco is a 'warehouse' store in a literal sensewe don't have any additional storage

  • from what you see on the shelves.

  • If it's not there, don't ask us to check the 'back.'

  • The 'back' doesn't exist."

  • One employee said something similar on Reddit, adding that if you notice the item is up on

  • the pallets on the higher shelves, you can try asking someone to get them down, but they

  • may not.

  • The employee said:

  • "I've been told they don't take down pallets from the shelves because it would require

  • driving the forklifts through all the customer foot traffic, roping off the aisle and the

  • one opposite for safety and would generally cause too much hassle.

  • If something is up high and there's none on the floor, just go back the next day for it."

  • "I didn't really know we carried these."

  • "These?

  • You guys got everything in here."

  • "Well, we sure do, is it working out for you?"

  • If you've ever worried about how your food is being handled at Costco, let this reassure

  • you: employees say food safety is a really big deal to them.

  • Employee Rachael told Mental Floss:

  • "If an employee forgets to remove their apron before exiting the department, they must remove

  • that apron, toss it into the hamper, and put on a fresh apron because now it's contaminated."

  • She also said that there are rules against employees wearing nail polish near food prep,

  • as it could chip and fall into the food.

  • A Costco employee from Florida echoed the same sentiment.

  • They told Business Insider:

  • "We are very strict on food quality and safety.

  • We have safety walks every hour that audit the temperatures of our food coolers and storage.

  • Our famous rotisserie chickens are not allowed to be sold after two hours of sitting in the

  • warmer."

  • Yes, the rumors are true: Working at Costco really does mean terrific benefits, and employees

  • can't stop raving about them.

  • Meghan, a former Costco employee, told Yahoo News that there were more than great hourly

  • wage and healthcare benefits.

  • Meghan said:

  • "While I was at Costco, they gave employees complimentary memberships to the store."

  • One employee told Business Insider that they got paid holidays, a generous 401(k) plan,

  • and affordable healthcare that includes dental and vision insurance.

  • An employee with over seven years of experience told Reddit users that employees get a free

  • executive membership.

  • Another random perk?

  • One employee says they're given a very special gift for the start of the holiday season:

  • "We get free turkeys for Thanksgiving.

  • I didn't even know that before I started working there.

  • It's a nice perk."

  • We have to agree with that!

  • Costco is known for their fantastic flexible return policy, which comes with very few restrictions.

  • But be wary of taking advantage of itemployees say they'll start to notice if you're returning

  • too many items.

  • California employee Thomas told Mental Floss they can tell just by the way you talk:

  • "When someone comes in to return something without a receipt and they go, 'Oh, you can

  • look it up on my account.'

  • that's a tell.

  • It tells me you return so much stuff that you know what we can find on the computer."

  • Another employee with over two years of experience there explained on Reddit that while they

  • don't flag people, they "can make comments on your membership."

  • The employee said:

  • "If a return was over $100 we had to call a supervisor to sign off on it.

  • If it was over $300 we had to call a manager.

  • The supes and managers were so busy though and got so tired of this rule that they literally

  • only came down to sign the receipt.

  • They would ask us 'Do you think it's okay?' and if we said we were okay with it then they

  • would sign it."

  • Most of the time, a trip to Costco means you're ready to stock up on enough food and supplies

  • to last a few weeks.

  • But sometimes, you go to just grab a few thingsand those times, you've probably thought

  • it would be nice to have an express line to go to.

  • There's a legit reason most stores don't have them, though.

  • Costco employee Rachael told Mental Floss that the supervisor in charge gets a head

  • count of customers, so they always know how many people are in the store and have an idea

  • of when they'll be checking out.

  • They can then determine how many registers should be open.

  • They also don't hesitate to pull employees from other departments to help out with lines.

  • There are plenty of great things about working at Costco, but make no mistake, it isn't a

  • walk in the parkemployees work hard for those benefits.

  • Aside from the physical labor, many employees say they find the job to be pretty stressful.

  • An anonymous employee wrote on Quora,

  • "Costco is an incredibly stressful place to work and you are required as full time to

  • work for 40 hours a week, generally during the most inconvenient times and often on weekends

  • and evenings, giving you very little time away from work."

  • Another employee echoed that sentiment:

  • "If you do night cleanup or morning stocking you will be under very tight deadlines to

  • get your work done on time and you will often face situations where you are screwed no matter

  • what you do.

  • It can be very stressful and takes a certain mental fortitude.

  • I could only do it for six years before I burned out and had to move on."

  • Even if the job is stressful, most employees say the job is still well worth it.

  • One employee from Arizona told Business Insider:

  • "I legitimately love my job."

  • An employee who worked for the company for over two years told Reddit:

  • "The company really does strive to treat their employees fairly...

  • It's actually nearly impossible for them to fire you if you've been there for a few years."

  • However according to one employee on Reddit, the best thing about working there is simple:

  • "The fact that everything is done properly.

  • There is a real emphasis on doing things the right way rather than the fastest or cheapest.

  • It's a real testament to the quality of this company."

  • Or to put it another way:

  • "It's fun, everybody knows everybody, they talk about values, and they have good snacks."

  • "Sounds like a place we both know and love."

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Is working at Costco really all it's cracked up to be?

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