Glad to be here.

grocerythrower

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I am really glad I work for Sysco, I did 7 years at Fedex Freight, I was reading their board and everytime I do all those negative memories come flooding back, we ain't perfect here at Sysco, I mean we are told constantly what all we are doing wrong, and very seldom given a pat on the back for doing right and going the extra mile, but I will take Sysco over FXF any day, I really feel sorry for those guys, my best friend still works for them in the city, he hired on 3 weeks after me in 2000, he is at his wits end.

We have it better than most my friends!
 
Used to be much better, has steadily declined the last 5 years, will only get worse now with corporate running things.
 
Used to be much better, has steadily declined the last 5 years, will only get worse now with corporate running things.

Sysco or Fedex? We have new leadership in place and its getting better for us every day, these men don't play around, we are getting compliant, more efficient, the working environment is getting better and transportation is getting a much needed enema thanks to our new trans mgr. Things are looking great here!
 
Sysco, still bad, with low morale at our OPCO. They have fired around 10 guys with 10+ years in the last 2 years. Another 5 to 6 have just quit. Will be hard to retire from this company with the case counts and hours they want you to work the last few years. When I hired in over 15 years ago, a normal route was 10-12 stops, 500-600 cases, of course you know what the routes look like now. Our Trans managers are pretty useless, sit in the office on the internet, or write-up or fire guys. Ask you to lie to customers, when they build routes that can not be done in time, I have arrived late many times to places and was surprised to learn I broke down according to the customer. Lost a lot of good MA's the last couple years also, when they went after their pension and pay-cut. Pretty much they are treating everyone badly.
 
Sysco, still bad, with low morale at our OPCO. They have fired around 10 guys with 10+ years in the last 2 years. Another 5 to 6 have just quit. Will be hard to retire from this company with the case counts and hours they want you to work the last few years. When I hired in over 15 years ago, a normal route was 10-12 stops, 500-600 cases, of course you know what the routes look like now. Our Trans managers are pretty useless, sit in the office on the internet, or write-up or fire guys. Ask you to lie to customers, when they build routes that can not be done in time, I have arrived late many times to places and was surprised to learn I broke down according to the customer. Lost a lot of good MA's the last couple years also, when they went after their pension and pay-cut. Pretty much they are treating everyone badly.
Ok I remember you now, I'm at Sysco OK, every opco has their own deal, before this new leadership emerged we had leaders that went to the gym for 2 hrs during the day, MA's were quitting, they would route me out till 2100 knowing that I would finish by 1800, cram a 42 front to back, thats why I went to shuttle, I couldn't take it anymore.

I really think that corp recognized the problems in OK and sent us a new prez, then he went to work, and the work is on going, I really feel like this will become the best opco in the system under this leadership, I have been amazed at the changes. Honestly I had given up, thought this is how its gonna be, I gotta live with it, then we got our new prez and asses got thrown out and replaced with qualified leaders.

I hope that you see some positive change soon, I'm true blue Union, always will be, but these guys are making it easier. If we could replace some lower level mgmt that loves to retaliate and single guys out it would get even better, believe it or not that is happening right before my eyes, those guys are on their toes, its good to see!
 
Oh and I have got the breakdown story too, I had great relationships with my customers I ran the same area, so I told them the truth, I'm late because I had to much and route times were shortened to make the route look legal, my valued customers deserve the truth, nothing less, I don't lie to my mgrs and I never lied to my customers, I like my customers much more.
 
Sysco, still bad, with low morale at our OPCO. They have fired around 10 guys with 10+ years in the last 2 years. Another 5 to 6 have just quit. Will be hard to retire from this company with the case counts and hours they want you to work the last few years. When I hired in over 15 years ago, a normal route was 10-12 stops, 500-600 cases, of course you know what the routes look like now. Our Trans managers are pretty useless, sit in the office on the internet, or write-up or fire guys. Ask you to lie to customers, when they build routes that can not be done in time, I have arrived late many times to places and was surprised to learn I broke down according to the customer. Lost a lot of good MA's the last couple years also, when they went after their pension and pay-cut. Pretty much they are treating everyone badly.

It's not just you. I agree this isn't the same place it was a few years ago. A few years back if they wanted something done, say scan % increased, they'd make a contest out of it...scan 100% get a hat, top 3 guys get this...morale was decent and they got the end result they wanted. Now they give us a new policy to sign, scan less than 95% discipline starts..1st verbal, 2nd written, 3rd suspension, 4th in 6 months (4 days under 95% in 6 months!) we're gone. Doesn't exactly make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
I think mid-level mgmnt's feeling some of it too, at least here. The other day a driver asked our Director of Trans how he was doing and he said "Good, but like a lot of you I wonder if its worth it sometimes". I think corporate office and the executive level at each opco is leaning into them really hard, they're trying to protect their jobs and crap just runs downhill.
I just try to stay under the radar the best I can, do my job and go home.
 
The only thing to do at sysco is stay under the radar. Our supervisors are useless. We are a warm body in a seat that is it at this company. What till us foods comes over I bet my paycheck it will get a lot worse. We have some of our biggest ma's leaving and selectors gone to. The loaders I think they wear blindfolds but I have a job.
 
Over all how is Sysco doing? A woman who I used to work with at a job I previously had, her son worked as a selector at US Foods in Cleveland and she said that her son liked US Foods in Cleveland said they are a good place, she said that there sales department was pretty much kicking Sysco's behind all over the place, and apparently the way they interpreted it, was US Foods was enough of a threat to Sysco that Sysco felt the best way to deal with them was buy them out. I know US Foods had bought out many larger food companies over the years like Alliant and Ricroft.

I know where I used to work we were a pretty good customer for Sysco and Sysco lost our account Hillcrest Food Service which is bigger local food service company pretty much exclusive to Ohio and Western PA they came into where I work and pretty much were able to beat Sysco's prices on pretty much everything, or at least all the major, major items that really counted like cheese, chicken, liquid margarine (that's where all the good flavor comes from) and chicken wings, I think wings were a tad on the expensive side and we blew through them pretty quick where I worked we had fairly decent wings.
 
Over all how is Sysco doing? A woman who I used to work with at a job I previously had, her son worked as a selector at US Foods in Cleveland and she said that her son liked US Foods in Cleveland said they are a good place, she said that there sales department was pretty much kicking Sysco's behind all over the place, and apparently the way they interpreted it, was US Foods was enough of a threat to Sysco that Sysco felt the best way to deal with them was buy them out. I know US Foods had bought out many larger food companies over the years like Alliant and Ricroft.

I know where I used to work we were a pretty good customer for Sysco and Sysco lost our account Hillcrest Food Service which is bigger local food service company pretty much exclusive to Ohio and Western PA they came into where I work and pretty much were able to beat Sysco's prices on pretty much everything, or at least all the major, major items that really counted like cheese, chicken, liquid margarine (that's where all the good flavor comes from) and chicken wings, I think wings were a tad on the expensive side and we blew through them pretty quick where I worked we had fairly decent wings.

US Foods , at least here, has taken some business away, but it's because they're giving the food away at very low margins . Sysco salespeople after training are paid strictly as a percent margin on what they sell; built in incentive to get as much as you can for the food. From what I understand the US salespeople here have a guaranteed base with some type of commission or bonus on top of that.
Canned peaches = Canned peaches no matter who's labels on the box, in a down economy where restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open price is king. I don't think Sysco necessarily saw them as a threat, but more of an aggravation that kept them from being able to sell at the margins they want to sell at.
 
US Foods , at least here, has taken some business away, but it's because they're giving the food away at very low margins . Sysco salespeople after training are paid strictly as a percent margin on what they sell; built in incentive to get as much as you can for the food. From what I understand the US salespeople here have a guaranteed base with some type of commission or bonus on top of that.
Canned peaches = Canned peaches no matter who's labels on the box, in a down economy where restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open price is king. I don't think Sysco necessarily saw them as a threat, but more of an aggravation that kept them from being able to sell at the margins they want to sell at.

When I worked in the restaurant industry, one of the guys who I worked with was a culinary school graduate and he said that generally whole sale grocery is pretty much razor thin margins and all the money is made up in volume. Where I worked that's pretty much how they saw it, Tomatoes are Tomatoes doesn't matter if it says Sysco or Dutchmaid.

One day we had Tyson Chicken Breasts the next day we had Brakenbush. The one thing though that I always found interesting is when it came to pizza cheese we used to have Sysco Nino Brand and then they down graded I think maybe by one tear to Sysco Aldo Brand I guess. I couldn't really tell a difference, but the owner of the place told me he liked Nino Brand a tad better, but the way pricing was going they switched to Aldo Brand. We even used for a brief time that pellet pizza cheese where the cheese looks like little cubes they beta tested that cube cheese decided they like shredded better, but they thought they were going to get more bang for there buck out of the cube cheese. This was back in 2008 when flour prices and cheese prices shot through the roof and the pizza business was feeling it, it wasn't pretty for the pizza business in those days where I worked we were getting creamed on cheese prices and flour prices for dough.
 
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