Vantaggi
I started out as a Warehouse Associate PT, starting at pretty good hourly wage for the area. The Branch Manager that hired me was probably the best manager I ever had, but he retired in my 2nd year in...too bad. I got promoted to a Customer Service Counter Associate, but I still felt like I was doing warehouse duties and stuck behind the showroom. I DID IT ALL...PHONES, COUNTER, WAREHOUSE, IMR, and OSS duties with the branch Account Managers. You get the opportunity to grow with the new duties learned in a short period of time. If you are like me, who can basically learn every position in the Branch, you will prosper....but it all depends on who you know.
Svantaggi
I DID IT ALL, but was not promoted or compensated for it. I was told many times by management that I was invaluable to that particular Grainger branch. Like I said, it really depends on who you know. The 2nd branch manager I had didn't suit the particular branch for that area. We were a high volume branch with customer retention, but the BM seemed to push for more sales instead of customer satisfaction, not understanding that the frequent customers were the one who were bringing in the big bucks for the branch.