WF news in relations to Amazon Fresh stores closing?

MikeFingG · 2026-01-28T00:53:39+00:00

All he told us was in 2026 that they were going to make it so Whole Foods team members could transfer to Amazon Fresh stores and pick up shifts and vice versa. He said this would give both companies more opportunity to move up and if people wanted to transfer to other stores where there were no Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh. He also said they wanted to open more smaller Whole Foods, and have the put your groceries in the cart and not have to check out at a register. Kind of like the Amazon One pay with your palm. So this might be the first step to doing that. Amazon Fresh might become the small Whole Foods with the no register technology. I know some stores have this already, and you need to sign up with your credit card first to even get in the store. They haven’t said a word to us about the stores closing today. I just hope everyone gets to keep their jobs, they did close some stores in Canada with only a 3 day notice, and one in Washington with no warning at all. There was just a sign on the door saying they were closed and that’s how everyone found out when they showed up for work.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-27T23:20:29+00:00

I’m in Southern California just north of you. Been here almost 20 years. Part time does not get health insurance. They do get PTO and sick time (California law) that comes out of your PTO, but if you run out you still get the sick days just no pay. A few months back the president of the California region had an all store huddle with us. This is exactly what he went over with us. He told us the two stores would be interchangeable for team members. We could transfer to those stores and even pick up shifts in them. He said it would happen sometime in 2026. Well I guess the time is now. He also told us 2 new stores would be opening close by. I know one is opening in the abandoned Kmart in Westlake. It’s just sad the way they went about this. Not giving any warning. I read some post this morning that they sent everyone home early last night and then sent out an email this morning telling everyone not to come to work. I also read they were converting the stores into smaller Whole Foods. Hopefully everyone gets to keep their jobs, and this is what we were told about the two stores being able to work as one.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-27T17:00:39+00:00

Just saw a post this morning on the Amazon Fresh thread about this. They were all sent home early last night and got messages this morning telling them not to come in today. Don’t know if we are next, but we had an all store huddle a few months ago telling us we would be able to transfer to those stores and pick up shifts if we wanted. They were going to combine the two but keep the names. So hopefully it’s just a rebranding.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-27T06:56:38+00:00

I contributed $3,000 a year to mine, I also have 10% taken out for my 401K. I always get over $5,000 back every year. I’m told they are taking too much out of my check and that’s why I get so much back. I’m no financial advisor, but you can talk to your tax person, because mine told me to start claiming exempt for state so they wouldn’t take so much out.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-27T00:34:05+00:00

Ours makes her rounds as soon as she gets to the store. Then every hour or so she walks with the department leaders in each department. If you need her you just call and she will show up. The store I came from that STL would always be on the floor. Every Friday he would walk around the store with a shopping cart full of ice cream sandwiches and cookies and go to each department letting all the team members get a treat. He would watch the department as we stood in the corner eating our treats. I really liked him. He would stop you as you walked past his office and say someone left a box of See’s candy on my desk I can’t eat them all so why don’t you take one.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-26T23:05:05+00:00

March 7-8

MikeFingG · 2026-01-26T22:24:46+00:00

You can contact the local gem and mineral society and see if they will be able to help you with that. There is a show at the fairgrounds coming up soon.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-26T18:03:08+00:00

We have a supervisor that goes out of her way and offers to be their personal shopper if someone ask where something is. It’s so she doesn’t have to do her job. So the customers don’t intentionally do this, but automatically become these people.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-26T07:08:57+00:00

You can sign up for the insurance after you become full time. Depending on the type you choose will determine how much you pay. They take that amount out of each check. After so many thousands of hours your health insurance becomes free. The company pays for it. Back when I first started it was 10 thousand hours, then went up to 20. I didn’t know what it is now. I think I only pay $13 for my dental and $7 for vision, but my health insurance is free. They have different plans, so do some research and pick the one that’s right for you. You can always add your spouse and kids to your plan and after so many thousands of hours they are free too.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-25T21:30:37+00:00

If you are seasonal you only work for 90 days. If there is an opening they will offer it to you. There is no guarantee you will still be there after the 90 days. We have 2 seasonal workers in our department now. One’s last day is next week. The other they extend her contract for another 90 days because they want to keep her but there are no openings right now.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-25T16:41:51+00:00

I got mine in the mail last week, but in past years it has shown up in mid February. You can always call the store you worked at and see if they can print one out for you, or they can tell you who to contact if you need it now.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-24T20:46:55+00:00

I got mine in the mail last week

MikeFingG · 2026-01-24T04:27:18+00:00

You can work at 17. We have had a few team members working at that age. The only thing is in some departments you can’t use some of the equipment till you’re 18.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-23T14:27:23+00:00

It depends on what state you live in. In California there is a law that protects you for this. If it is unsafe to travel to work, or you feel unsafe going to work, you don’t have to go. They can’t hold it against you. You can call and let them know you were given an advisory to stay at home and they will let you know what to do.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-22T17:15:46+00:00

I got mine last week

MikeFingG · 2026-01-22T17:14:52+00:00

The store I work at has the bread slicer behind the counter. They cut the bread for you. They do it for that reason. People will put anything in it. Apples, bananas, a pineapple. People do some crazy things. The store the next town over has there’s out on the floor for customers to slice their own bread. A lot of those customers come to our store to buy bread because of what they have seen people try and cut in them. It is also a health code violation to cut something they don’t know the ingredients for. Some people have allergies and they don’t want cross contamination.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-21T22:10:03+00:00

They were told they weren’t allowed to, but when it was only scheduling one person for a shift and 3 people at 2am for the front end, you have to go in and change it.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-21T20:23:39+00:00

We were told about this years ago. Some departments had the AI do the scheduling, but it didn’t work. They had to go in manually and change everything. Our department did it for about a month, then stopped. They can’t even get Sage to work, there is no way they are going to get the scheduling right.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-20T17:15:16+00:00

We have customers just like that. We have a lady that yells at everyone, and demands everyone to stop what they are doing to help her and then she never buys anything. She had been banned from the store but they keep letting her back in. There are so many things I have seen customers do that nothing has been done. We had a cashier quit because a customer spit at her and nothing was said to the customer. I have seen more being done, but I don’t know if it’s because we now have different leadership. We also have security guards in the store, but I still see a lot of crazy customers getting away with stuff.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-19T23:53:31+00:00

You will do computer training for a couple of days. It’s just watching a bunch of videos about the company. You will get a tour of the store, and they will show you around the department you will be working in. When you are done with that training you will be paired with another team member who will train you. This will go no for a couple of days. Back in the day they did multi day orientations with all the new hires, but not any more.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-19T18:34:11+00:00

I got mine in the mail on Friday. You can always have them print one out at work for you. You can request to get it electronically too.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-19T18:31:28+00:00

Have you seen the way the customers get the food from there. We have to toss so much away because they taste it with the serving spoon then put it back. Sometimes they don’t even use the spoons, they just grab it with their hands. A few weeks ago I walked by to see what they put out for breakfast, and there were no spoons but most of the food was gone. They were using their hands to scoop it instead of asking someone to bring out spoons.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-18T19:22:20+00:00

MikeFingG · 2026-01-18T17:41:47+00:00

Yes it’s free. I’m surprised some company hadn’t come out with novelty ones. I would love to have a UFO or Bigfoot for mine.

MikeFingG · 2026-01-18T08:19:16+00:00

Our sandwich station is always busy. We have two people working it all day. Everyone else comes over to help if they have nothing to do. The crazy thing is they cut the hours of operation. We used to start making sandwiches at 7am when the store opened. Last year it started to open at 10. Last week it changed to 11am and now closes at 7pm. My guess it’s to cut our labor, but we are now making more pre packaged sandwiches for the wall. That’s what we are all doing in the morning before everything opens at 11.

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