Pet Food Express reviews

3.0

37% would recommend to a friend

(414 total reviews)
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Denyelle Bruno

20% approve of CEO

31% positive business outlook

Pet Food Express has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 414 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Pet Food Express employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

414 reviews
2.0
Jul 23, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits for full timers are pretty good. Especially for retail. PFE stocks a wide range of high quality products and usually keeps the icky portions of the pet food industry out of their stores. Having enough people on the floor to help customers is a priority. The employee discount is phenomenal.

Cons

If you've been reading through all the reviews of PFE on here you probably noticed that the company had stellar employee morale up until a year ago. That is about when the so far bottomless descent began . For years the company prided itself on providing knowledge and autonomy to its employees. You were encouraged to forge real relationships with customers and tailor your services to their particular needs. There was no chance of competing with online pricing so the company gave customers everything that online shopping couldn't: friendly staff, expert knowledge, and a laid back place to shop with your pet. Fast forward and the laid back corner pet supply store that was brimming with genuinely friendly and helpful staff has morphed into something more like a car dealership. Walk in and prepare to be set upon by a “Sales Consultant” immediately. If you brush them off because you'd like a moment to browse the “Floor Captain” will use electronic surveillance to make sure a second sales person latches onto you in record time. You can keep swatting them away but there will always be another. You will never be left alone. If you eventually surrender to dealing with the staff you will find that regardless of your needs or budget that PFE will only try and sell you two brands that are difficult to get elsewhere and are extraordinarily expensive. All of the knowledge and goodwill that the long term employees have is off limits to you the customer since upper management has decided that selling anything other than the two chosen brands equals poor job performance. Which version of the company sounds more appealing to work for or shop with? The PFE of old where you were encouraged to use your knowledge and enthusiasm to provide honest recommendations to customers that fit their needs. Basically sales with a big serving of ethics to go with it! Or the new PFE where you are required to push specific items, hound customers incessantly, and to endure the constant threat of mystery shoppers who will swoop in to make sure you are sticking to the script and performing like a robot rather than a human being. Staff morale is low to the point of causing depression and the long held belief that upper management cares about their employees has vanished.

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Pet Food Express Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback! We stand by our commitment to support rescues (we are super excited about sponsoring the Bay Area Pet Fair coming up and the hundreds of pets that will find a forever home!) along with ensuring that we have top-quality products, happy customers (i.e our amazing return policy), and continue our monthly meetings with the stores to meet with the corporate staff. Developing a strong sales team is one aspect of our educational program and we are continuously working on being the best at what we do. We’re more than happy to discuss any more feedback you may have, feel free to email us at welovefeedback@petfoodexpress.com
1.0
Jun 1, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I had great, fun co-workers, and the best regular customers, especially the dogs.

Cons

Where do I begin? First, you'd be wise to look at the reviews from last year through February 2020. You'll notice maybe 1 per month, mostly around 2.5s. Suddenly, starting February, they're all 5 stars, perfectly written, maybe 5 or 6 a month. I can tell you they are struggling to find employees, and these look like scripts written by Corporate employees. You be the judge. But I'm telling you, they're fake. People are leaving like rats from a sinking ship. It used to be fun. There was a sense of community and there was a fun culture. Then we had to all 'floor coaches, which meant we couldn't help the customers, but had to stand there with our walkie talkies on directing traffic and telling the employees what to say . Maybe we could have just been trusted to train our employees well enough to be autonomous, instead of feeling like they needed to be micromanaged this would not have been necessary. We were overworked and underpaid. We were constantly being pushed to write employees up, or move them out if they didn't meet the ridiculously high standards. If you had a great sales consultant who was happy in their role, we were coached to help move them out of they weren't planning on moving up, but who wants the headache of leadership with them? Managers hadn't gotten raises in years, because the only way to get one was to get a higher volume store or to move up, but there weren't many opportunities to move up. When there were, they hand picked their favorites, rather than opening it up to other candidates.

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Pet Food Express Response
5y
Thank you for this review and the feedback you've provided on your experience working with us. Pet Food Express values the integrity of Glassdoor as a platform for our employees to share honest feedback about their experiences working with us. We respect the feedback that we receive, both positive and constructive, and it's usefulness to us in our efforts to always stay evolving, learning and growing as a company and would never encourage or support employees to write fake reviews. Not all feedback is easy to hear, but it it always helpful and valuable to receive. If you'd like to connect us to share any additional information, please contact us at recruiting@petfoodexpress.com and our Employee Relations Manager will reach out to you. Thank you again for your review.
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Glassdoor has 418 Pet Food Express reviews submitted anonymously by Pet Food Express employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Pet Food Express is right for you.