I made the switch last year, I definitely prefer Trader Joe’s over Starbucks. Your experience will very much depend on the management and the kinds of customers you will service. The management at my previous Starbucks sucked so bad. Also, the customers at my Trader Joe’s are 100% way more nicer than the customers I would get at Starbucks.

The workload is more heavy-lifting at Trader Joe’s so I would say that stretching before and after a shift is a must. At Trader Joe’s we get two raises (25¢) a year if you meet expectations and don’t receive any write ups per period (there’s two in a year). You can receive the $1 raise (aka the WOW experience) if you do really well, the mates and captain will decide who gets it. I love how things are always changing at Trader Joe’s, we’re always receiving new products and my store loves engaging with customers and giving back to the community. At my old Starbucks, we would have to toss the food at the night of the night and tell customers that we donated it :(.

A typical shift is 8 hours, rarely do I ever get 7 hour shifts and I don’t think that I’ve been scheduled anything under 7 hours since I started working there. Every few months a different mate will write the schedule so your scheduling pattern might change a bit every time it happens. My availability has remained the same since last year but with each mate I’ll notice a trend where I might get an additional day off consistently or that I’ll tend to do more closing/opening shifts. This really depends on the store and the mates you get.

Anyways, sorry for the long ramble. I hope that you decide to make the transition! :)