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Ingles supermarkets offer customers a wide variety of nationally advertised food products, including grocery, meat and dairy products, produce, frozen foods and other perishables, non-food products, including health and beauty care products and general merchandise, as well as quality private label items. Some locations have pharmacies and gas stations. Ingles is a competitor that some other grocery stores need to watch.

Ingles supermarkets corporate office is located in Black Mountain, NC. The corporate office is where they process payroll and fill trucks with products to be delivered to different store locations. Ingles supermarket has approximately 203 stores across six south-eastern states. Ingles grocery stores are located in North and South Carolina's, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama.

Ingles has been owned by the family for three generations. Mr. Robert P. Ingle died in 2011 due to an illness. "Mr. Robert P. Ingle founded the company in 1965 and served as Chairman of the Board from the Company's incorporation in 1965 until May 2004 and thereafter has served as a director. Mr. Ingle has served as Chief Executive Officer since the Company was incorporated in 1965 and served as President from 1965 until 1982. Mr. Ingle was 77." (Ingles Markets) Now his son Robert P. Ingle II is now the CEO of Ingles Markets.

I was a bookkeeper from 2007 until 2011 employed at the Ellijay, GA location. When I started there they had just built the new store in the plaza where the old store was located. It was a very exciting time and Mr. Robert P. Ingle was there for the Grand Opening. That was one of the greatest Ingles stores in the area. Just until recently the store was a 24 hour store. Due to the economy the corporation felt it necessary to close our store during the night to cut the loss of theft. The night grocery stockers were stalking the shelves and could not watch the front of the store while they were in the back of the store. They would not hire a cashier for that particular shift.

When the new store opened up here in Ellijay, we were all happy to be there and portrayed that when dealing with customers. Then the new phase ended after a month of being opened. The company sent in secret shoppers to make sure that the customer service level was where it needed to be. When the manager received the report that the secret shopper wrote, then the employee listed on it got talked to. Everyday new rules were applied like no drinks at the checkouts and dress code was pushed all the way down to if you had a belt on. After all these changes, employee satisfaction went down.

Ingles would prefer to have all employees part time except management. Ingles has to pay out 1,000 to 3,000 dollars for every full time employee every year. The managers make better yearly bonuses by staying within a quota of full time employees. If you are a manager at an Ingles supermarket then your position is safer than if you were just employee. The turnover in part time employees is outrageous. Next time you go into your local grocery store think about if you know the cashier or if you get a different cashier every time. Where the Ingles stores are located local customers like to check out with a cashier they have been to on a previous shopping trip. Like in most supermarkets the managers want employees to work really hard and keep customers happy. However, if the employees are not happy then the customers will pick up on it.

At Ingles the customers are the number one priority. If the company that employs you makes you a lower priority than the customers than the employee is going to have low job satisfaction. For an employee being appreciated is important to feeling satisfied in your position with the company. Ingles does not show enough appreciation to their employees. Customers will not be taken care of if the employer does not take care of the employees. For the full time employees they get a $50 gift card for their Christmas bonus. The part time employees get nothing but working on the holiday and missing time with their family. Being a past employee I have seen a lot of employees come and go. Some employees were great and some we couldn't wait for them to leave every day. Some made more mistakes then others and some started rumors.

These employees usually were high school kids. The employees would rather be hanging out with their friends or on their cell phones. Their parents are trying to teach them about work ethics. Most of the high school kids were not there to earn money, but there because their parents made them get a job. These high school kids learned real fast that they were not satisfied working at Ingles supermarkets. As a bookkeeper I got to see how the management responded to the high school kids. Every day someone would talk to me about how unhappy or unsatisfied they were.

Why do Ingles employees have low job satisfaction? The employees have several reasons why they are not satisfied in their position at Ingles. The pay starts out at minimum wage and if you are lucky and liked by management you will get a yearly raise. There are a few employees that started there four years ago and still waiting for their first year raise. Not only is the pay ridiculous but then the managers only scheduled them for two or three days a week. Who can live on that?

Another reason for their low satisfaction is because they lack job motivation because management never tells them what a good job they are doing. When I was employed there I only heard negative things about my work and the store manager was joking around with me about getting out late because he knew it bothered me. The management at our local Ingles is not the best management a company should have running their store. The managers used to joke all the time and play childish games with the other managers. Sometimes the high school kids acted more mature than the managers did. One of the customer service managers always got her way. If she didn't like somebody she and the store manager would make that employee mad enough to eventually quit.

Have you ever worked in a service industry? Some customers are so rude and fight tooth and nail for the cheapest price. They have the right to want things bagged whatever way they want because they spend their money there. The managers would tell the employees that the customer is paying your paycheck. Without the customers we would not have a paycheck. While yes that is true but the customers would not have their wonderful store to shop in if it was not for the customers. While everyone says customers are the first priority I believe that customers and employees should be equal. Without one another they are nothing.

Every day the employees go in and do the same thing they did yesterday. Job satisfaction could be low because the

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