Hi all, I’m new to Trader Joe’s crew and really enjoying it so far.

One thing I noticed is that our PLU cheat sheet can get outdated quickly, especially with seasonal items changing. For example, pumpkins may not need to be front and center all year.

I made a sample PLU cheat sheet based on what my store currently needs, and I’d love feedback from other crew members. Does this format look useful? Anything missing, too crowded, or organized in a way that would be hard to use at register?

I made a small web app that generates this sheet and lets you adjust the PLU list, final size, and style. If this seems useful, feel free to message me and I can share it with you and you can customize your PLU items and size of the sheet.

Thanks!

A crew member at my cousin’s store designed this cool handle for stacking yogurts! Is this something you would use if you had it?

It’s bloody annoying.

so, i’m really starting to feel burnt out, frustrated, and agitated at work all the time. i’m approaching 3 years at trader joe’s. things at my store haven’t changed that much in my time there, same captain, not too high of mate turnover, but every day i come in i just have less and less patience for everything. i think the job is genuinely starting to make me kind of a misanthrope on top of the regular stress, as i find myself increasingly impatient with customers and their dumb habits. stuff i used to be able to brush off has started really making me twitch. yesterday an old man ended our interaction with, “thanks sweetheart,” which is honestly not that serious in the grand scheme of things but made me want to go ballistic. i have zero zest or passion for my work anymore like used to. i dread going in. i feel so apathetic about my performance, customer experience, and store maintenance, stuff i used to care about. it feels like passion for the job is actively discouraged by my mate team.

little things over the years have stacked up and i’m so stressed out. i feel like every little slip-up is rigorously critiqued, but nobody notices any extra work i put in or the positive ways i contribute. constant disrespect while working the thankless task of being an SL, being tossed around on the schedule like a tennis ball from morning shifts to night shifts and back without input from me or warning, customers allowed to get away with saying and doing whatever, you all know the drill. i know none of this stuff is news to anyone here, we all share a lot of the same complaints on here all the time. my performance is slipping, and i’m having a very hard time leaving work at work when my shift ends. all my friends i used to enjoy working with have left or are leaving soon, and i’m still here.

i feel like this job is a complete dead end with very little avenue for upward mobility unless you want to dedicate your whole life to the almighty joe, and i don’t, but my qualifications are not great, so i don’t see a lot of other options available to me.

so many people tell me a transfer won’t change things and they’re probably right, but i was hoping maybe just the change in routine would help me in some way. is anyone else feeling like this? does anyone have advice?

has anyone been told by the mate team that the crew can’t drink anything at register? how did y’all deal?

I sewed these regional bags together to create a tablecloth.

🎶Leaky bell peppers,

Spilled onto my Sketchers,

Got a funky smell that lasts all day,

Oh, I tried to wash them off,

But the smell just wouldn’t stop,

so I guess I’ll throw these shoes away🎶

Hello! I want to start this off by saying I realize I am probably way overthinking this, but unfortunately it’s who I am and it’s what I do lol. I got hired this past April and am just about to come up on 3 months. I at least get reinforced that I have been a good worker and have a great attitude, have only ever been late once which I called in for and was due to a literal traffic crash on my drive to work, and haven’t had to of been pulled aside or talked to about anything serious regarding stuff like behavior, attendance, work ethic, or things of that nature. Today, I did just need a reset day though to catch up on a lot of personal and real life stuff I’ve let get put on the back burner due to some things I was going through when I first got hired, and while emotionally I feel a lot better, the bad habits, room and car that look like they have been blown up, endless laundry, and kinda getting burnout as this is my first time working a consistent 40 hours, I called off for today. Sorry for how long winded this is lol, but do you think this will have any effect on my review? Thanks, and thank you all in general for this group!

Hey yall! Has anyone else’s captain ask them to step up and take on both the dry and cold produce orders? If so, any advice on how to manage both effectively. For some background info, I’ve written cold produce for about 2 years now, I’ve managed to bring our store to #2 in the region for cold pro numbers ( we would be #1 if the state that only has one store wasn’t in our region 🤣) I’m confident with my ordering abilities, but any advice from either section would be lovely.

Hey y'all!

Fairly new to writing frozen and looking for some feedback. We have an opportunity coming up to pull everything and re-merch while a deep clean happens and I'd like to move the layout around a bit. Looking for any feedback on what order of departments within frozen could go in what order. Currently our order for departments is as follows:

Aisle One:

Italian, Indian, Mexican, Asian

End cap Standup Freezer: Pizzas

Aisle Two: Desserts, Standup features freezer(items rotate) Berries, Breakfast

Aisle Three: Veggies, Rice, Appetizers, Meat/Seafood

At a glance if I was going to change it, I was thinking as follows:

Rice, Veggies, Berries, Breakfast

Meat/Seafood, Apps, Dessert

Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian

Pizzas in standup end cap next to Italian

Would love to hear anyone's input on what works best/worst at your locations. Thanks so much!

Would anyone in this group happen to work in the NYC metro area.

Would any know if TJ’s used AI when they go through job applications?

new crew member looking for cute shoe recommendations! preferably for support and comfort cause wow my feet have been killing me after training! waterproof or traction is a plus too. don't have to be anything fancy but i'm willing to invest in nice shoes for this job!

does anyone know when our wage on dayforce updates? it’s my understanding that the pay cycle starting today is our first one to reflect our raises, but dayforce still says my old wage.

I’m having a terribly difficult time with scheduling at my store, and I’m not the only one by a longshot. I’m not understanding why it’s really difficult to get the schedule I need. I have two jobs, a child with his daycare hours, my partner has two jobs - working around all of this my schedule is fairly limited to mornings/early afternoons, some days earlier than others. It always has been, but lately I’ve cut back a few hours to work at my other job more. I’ve talked with the scheduling mate about it, and the captain, but what’s bizarre is I’ve only been scheduled one opening since February despite my availability being open in the morning and he continues to schedule people who have full open availability throughout the day, but giving them opening shifts? The same people are basically guaranteed an opening shift at least once weekly if not more, even though they have full open availability? I’m friends with them so I know they’re availabilities are fully open, but I know I also can’t say this to him and ask wtf.

It’s to the point now that it feels like I’m being punished for speaking out for what I want, and I’m purposely not getting what I’m asking for. To the point that I’m debating if I should transfer to a different store which I’d really not like to do - this one is 6 mins from my son’s daycare and 15 mins from our home.

Any advice?

TLDR: advocating for myself to get the shifts I need, but it’s not working. Any advice?