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The people I knew that worked there(in IT) said it was an absolute nightmare with low pay and poor management. That said, they aren't a tech company so...

by tjr225 7y ago

Pfhreak 7y ago
That I would believe. I worked in the warehouse, not in headquarters. But the systems we used to look up and track inventory were basically terminals. Old school green and black terminals with arcane commands. I would absolutely believe that they don't want to try and compete with the tech sector for talent, and their management doesn't have the same understanding of tech that they do of running a warehouse business.
- eej71 7y ago
  I bet those old school terminals are faster than what most corporate IT systems would deliver with an over the top modern framework. It's probably cheaper to train new employees than give away millions of dollars to an outside IT tech firm which may not result in an improvement.
LilBytes 7y ago
Costco might be fantastic to work for when you're front of house staff, but IT staff in the retail sector are nothing short of expendable. I lasted 9 months in my first and only retail job and the shocking standards that the company enforced. I've worked in IT for the retail sector and I'd never, ever do it again. I was a Dev/System Admin/System Engineer/DBA/Network Engineer & Help Desk person. I needed a job rather desperately and took the first one that was available to me which at initial view I thought was promising. As an example, if you worked on call which was restored 1 in 3 weeks, you didn't earn anything extra in wages on the days you were on call. But instead I earned 0.5 hours of TOIL for every hour that I was restored on which was from memory. 07:00-20: 00 Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays. And 07:00 -> 09:00 and 18:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday. I would get calls at all hours because we supported retail stores in New Zealand, Australia, US & Canada. We had local staff in those areas but for the gaps in follow the sun support we had the on call person fill that role. This might have been a good deal if you didn't get many calls. But for the larger part it was a full time day of work on Saturda, Sunday and Public Holiday when _no one was working_ except the on call person. And on an evening and first thing in the morning for shop close and open you frequently got calls before and after your shift started. All for 0.5 hours for every hour worked! This doesn't even begin to cover the problems we had with retaining staff (understandably) and an absolutely awful work environment. My manager did his best to foster a positive work environment but the C levels clearly had no desire to do anything but bleed their staff dry. Wrapping up my tirade, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the standard across the retail industry for IT staff and developers. Based on those I've spoken to outside of my own personal experience, this seems to be close to true. For all the glory that Costco holds for paying higher than average wages, I'm certain their IT department fucks over it's staff in a way that closely resembles my own.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
  Can you explain what you mean by "restored 1 in 3 weeks" and "every hour that I was restored on"? Also, to be clear, your experience was working in IT at another retail company, not Costco? I'm not sure why you would expect these to be the same: as the article explains in detail, Costco's model lets it do some things very differently from, say, Walmart.
  - LilBytes 7y ago
    Typo, was meant to say rostered but auto correct got the better of me. I didn't work in either of those chains. I'm replying to a comment directly above mine where OP says, they knew some one who worked in IT for Costco and their conditions were terrible. As was mine for another large, multinational retail chain. Costco are great in comparison to say, WalMart or Kmart/Target/BigW in Australia. But I assume they're under the same pressure to penny pinch as any other retail organisation because of their incredibly small margins for profits.
inferiorhuman 7y ago
I'd expect that (similar to public sector jobs) Costco pays well at the low end, but salary for more skilled jobs isn't competitive. Their web site is atrocious though.
- jfim 7y ago
  It also crashed during the last black Friday[0], so perhaps investing more in their IT would pay off. [0] https://www.thestreet.com/technology/costco-thanksgiving-day-website-crash-cost-it-nearly-11million-15185344 https://www.thestreet.com/technology/costco-thanksgiving-day...
  - inferiorhuman 7y ago
    I signed up for a Costco membership through Groupon (hey it came with a bunch of coupons). I bailed in large part because the in-store part of the sign up process included a bunch of upselling (upgrade to our more expensive membership please!). Apparently Groupon signed me up for a bunch of Costco email spam (as I didn't give the store my email address). By the time I got home after that trip I'd gotten a ton of spam from Costco. Trying to opt out was futile. Each message had an unsubscribe link. The landing page worked, but whatever was supposed to handle the form time out or 500'd each time. Hold time at the Costco call center was 10+ minutes... to unsubscribe from opt-out garbage. Unsubscribing from the membership itself was a bit of a comedy routine where the manager kept suggesting I keep the membership and patronize their warehouse (instead of the one I signed up at). It's fair to say I agree that Costco would reap benefits by investing in their IT infrastructure.
- redis_mlc 7y ago
  > but salary for more skilled jobs isn't competitive That's an old myth. Because of COLA (and on top of that, pensions), the public sector in California pays more than private jobs now, aside from FANG. I once asked my dental billing technician (yeah that's really a thing in the USA), "Who got the best benefits?" Answer: "Oh, public employees are royalty."
  - 7y ago
tptacek 7y ago
What's the reference point? To other technology roles at other companies?
- tjr225 7y ago
  Interestingly I heard this from colleagues at another retail company where I was doing sysadminy stuff and was quite happy.
rizzom5000 7y ago
It's interesting to note that their website was down for hours last Thanksgiving sale. It is estimated they suffered 11M in losses during the outage.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

The people I knew that worked there(in IT) said it was an absolute nightmare with low pay and poor management. That said, they aren't a tech company so...

by tjr225 7y ago

The people I knew that worked there(in IT) said it was an absolute nightmare with low pay and poor management. That said, they aren't a tech company so...

Pfhreak 7y ago

That I would believe. I worked in the warehouse, not in headquarters. But the systems we used to look up and track inventory were basically terminals. Old school green and black terminals with arcane commands. I would absolutely believe that they don't want to try and compete with the tech sector for talent, and their management doesn't have the same understanding of tech that they do of running a warehouse business.

eej71 7y ago
I bet those old school terminals are faster than what most corporate IT systems would deliver with an over the top modern framework. It's probably cheaper to train new employees than give away millions of dollars to an outside IT tech firm which may not result in an improvement.

LilBytes 7y ago

Costco might be fantastic to work for when you're front of house staff, but IT staff in the retail sector are nothing short of expendable. I lasted 9 months in my first and only retail job and the shocking standards that the company enforced. I've worked in IT for the retail sector and I'd never, ever do it again. I was a Dev/System Admin/System Engineer/DBA/Network Engineer & Help Desk person. I needed a job rather desperately and took the first one that was available to me which at initial view I thought was promising. As an example, if you worked on call which was restored 1 in 3 weeks, you didn't earn anything extra in wages on the days you were on call. But instead I earned 0.5 hours of TOIL for every hour that I was restored on which was from memory. 07:00-20: 00 Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays. And 07:00 -> 09:00 and 18:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday. I would get calls at all hours because we supported retail stores in New Zealand, Australia, US & Canada. We had local staff in those areas but for the gaps in follow the sun support we had the on call person fill that role. This might have been a good deal if you didn't get many calls. But for the larger part it was a full time day of work on Saturda, Sunday and Public Holiday when _no one was working_ except the on call person. And on an evening and first thing in the morning for shop close and open you frequently got calls before and after your shift started. All for 0.5 hours for every hour worked! This doesn't even begin to cover the problems we had with retaining staff (understandably) and an absolutely awful work environment. My manager did his best to foster a positive work environment but the C levels clearly had no desire to do anything but bleed their staff dry. Wrapping up my tirade, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the standard across the retail industry for IT staff and developers. Based on those I've spoken to outside of my own personal experience, this seems to be close to true. For all the glory that Costco holds for paying higher than average wages, I'm certain their IT department fucks over it's staff in a way that closely resembles my own.

9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
Can you explain what you mean by "restored 1 in 3 weeks" and "every hour that I was restored on"? Also, to be clear, your experience was working in IT at another retail company, not Costco? I'm not sure why you would expect these to be the same: as the article explains in detail, Costco's model lets it do some things very differently from, say, Walmart.
- LilBytes 7y ago
  Typo, was meant to say rostered but auto correct got the better of me. I didn't work in either of those chains. I'm replying to a comment directly above mine where OP says, they knew some one who worked in IT for Costco and their conditions were terrible. As was mine for another large, multinational retail chain. Costco are great in comparison to say, WalMart or Kmart/Target/BigW in Australia. But I assume they're under the same pressure to penny pinch as any other retail organisation because of their incredibly small margins for profits.

inferiorhuman 7y ago

I'd expect that (similar to public sector jobs) Costco pays well at the low end, but salary for more skilled jobs isn't competitive. Their web site is atrocious though.

jfim 7y ago
It also crashed during the last black Friday[0], so perhaps investing more in their IT would pay off. [0] https://www.thestreet.com/technology/costco-thanksgiving-day-website-crash-cost-it-nearly-11million-15185344 https://www.thestreet.com/technology/costco-thanksgiving-day...
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  I signed up for a Costco membership through Groupon (hey it came with a bunch of coupons). I bailed in large part because the in-store part of the sign up process included a bunch of upselling (upgrade to our more expensive membership please!). Apparently Groupon signed me up for a bunch of Costco email spam (as I didn't give the store my email address). By the time I got home after that trip I'd gotten a ton of spam from Costco. Trying to opt out was futile. Each message had an unsubscribe link. The landing page worked, but whatever was supposed to handle the form time out or 500'd each time. Hold time at the Costco call center was 10+ minutes... to unsubscribe from opt-out garbage. Unsubscribing from the membership itself was a bit of a comedy routine where the manager kept suggesting I keep the membership and patronize their warehouse (instead of the one I signed up at). It's fair to say I agree that Costco would reap benefits by investing in their IT infrastructure.
redis_mlc 7y ago
> but salary for more skilled jobs isn't competitive That's an old myth. Because of COLA (and on top of that, pensions), the public sector in California pays more than private jobs now, aside from FANG. I once asked my dental billing technician (yeah that's really a thing in the USA), "Who got the best benefits?" Answer: "Oh, public employees are royalty."
- 7y ago

tptacek 7y ago

What's the reference point? To other technology roles at other companies?

tjr225 7y ago
Interestingly I heard this from colleagues at another retail company where I was doing sysadminy stuff and was quite happy.

rizzom5000 7y ago

It's interesting to note that their website was down for hours last Thanksgiving sale. It is estimated they suffered 11M in losses during the outage.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]