Avantages
The pay at Aldi is what keeps us going back to work every day. We're a group of people who have largely never seen the inside of a college, aren't the type of people who care for (or can find a job in) manufacturing, but want to make an honest wage. We can safely say that we make as much or more than at comparable jobs throughout the industry. Benefits are also good. Health, Dental, Life and Vision are all available to full time employees (which is classified as 20+ hours a week at Aldi). The rates are cheap, and the company will pay you $50/month for opting out. Retirement plans are available in the form of a 401k through T.Rowe Price. The company pays 5% of your salary into the plan regardless of your contribution amount. This is, obviously, only a plus if you're paying less than 5% into the plan. The payments also seem to be discretionary, but have been paid without a hitch thus far.
Inconvénients
The company largely disregards labor laws with regard to breaks. The few employees who have pushed to receive their lawful breaks have been given them and then terminated for some unrelated reason a few months later. This wouldn't be so bad if we were working at a normal grocery store, but when you're running a store with no more than 2 or 3 people on staff at any given time it starts to get to you, especially when you're working a longer shift. Theo Albrecht is the 10th richest person in the world, and it's no secret that pinching pennies is how he got there, but when you're working in a store that's pushing $30,000 in product through the doors each and every day, it stings a bit when you're told that an extra $120 in labor costs would throw the budget off. Another big downside, (also related to our small staff), is that there is very little sympathy for out of work obligations. Aldi offers no support for their employees who need days off for college, children, 2nd jobs, etc. We are told that we need to make ourselves available from 5am to 11pm without exception.