Anyone ever work for Coke?

[April]

The husband got his class A CDL last month. He is trying to avoid on the road driving. on Monday, he had an interview with Coke and was hired pending the UA and background check results. From reading online, I have seen A LOT of complaints about working for Coke, from all areas, merchandisers, drivers, warehouse workers. one of the things that was worrisome, is some people were saying drivers get paid by how much merchandise they deliver, and they are supposed to push stores to stock more and create special displays.

He asked about pay during his interview, and he was told a flat rate pay, no selling or anything. I'm a little worried about him starting, and finding out he was lied to. He has a few back up plans, most which involve OTR driving, but he would really like to stay local. Anyone have any experience here?

[EricKei]

No exp with Coke itself, but does he have a contract specifying what is expected/how pay is done?

My father used to both run routes for, and, later, act as regional manager, for a potato chips/snack vendor back in the 90's. He was expected to do displays and such (granted, with much lighter items) in both positions (for the latter, it was more checking on stores to refill displays and to cover for drivers who weren't on duty), tho I don't know if his salary was based upon it. When I worked at grocery stores - and as a customer since then - I have found that most "snack" vendors require their delivery guys to at least stock the actual shelves. When it comes to big displays (like the massive stacks of 12-packs typical around football season), I believe that the drivers would be expected to at least get the pallet of goods into the proper area; I dunno about actual setup (tho something like that would take *hours* solo, so hopefully it would be left to the staffers).

[April]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I know he is supposed to restock displays, but I've read on line that some f the drivers were required to try and push stores to put in more displays, sell them, if you will. He doesn't have a contract yet, since they are still waiting on the background results to come in. I told him he should have requested it in writing from the beginning.

[Kheldarson]

My dad works for Coke (technically now for Red Classic Trucking). I've never heard him complain about a bait and switch in terms of jobs. Then again, he's management so....

But Coke's treated my family well in terms of money and benefits. So there's that.

[Zellie Crescent]

D'andre has been working for them for 2 weeks, stocking shelves and filling displays. So far he loves the job and hasn't said a bad thing about it yet.

[crazyofficeclerk]

It might depend on where you are located. When I worked for a grocery store, the driver only delivered the merchandise and stocked what went out on the display. Occasionally, he would have to create a stand alone display but that was rare. Most of the drivers would do no ordering. Our regular guy would occasionally do an emergency order if he would deliver and we would be out of sale product, but that was really a rare occurrence. It would also depend on your sales rep. Some prefer to be the ones to set up the displays and do the merchandising.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

No, but I have worked for pot.

jk. I've never touched the stuff.

Anyhow, at the swamp the Coke guy comes by at least once a week (Monday) and mostly just refills the shelf. He doesn't push for extra displays; they have to go through the corporate office for that.

The same guy delivers the merchandise and stocks it and generally leaves little to no excess behind. By contrast, Pepsi does not seem to stick to a regular delivery schedule, and one guy drops off product which then sits for a couple hours until another guy comes in to stock it all.

[EricKei]

Pushing for more displays? O_o that's Manglement work Of course, if he can get Corp to play along, he could just ask "How much to have a 3-foot endcap put in?" -- Dunno how common/blatant it is elsewhere, but back in NOLA, stores expected vendors to pay for display space in cash. Preferably in unmarked envelopes, if you catch my drift. In the late 90's, one Dad's employer refused to deal with wanted $3500 for "placement consideration" for a temporary endcap display-- on an el cheapo product that was unlikely to net that much in profit in an entire year.

[Aislin]

I worked as a receiving clerk for a big box store. We had 2 coke merchandisers who did our floor work and stocking and pushed extra product to the manager. Neither drove the truck. They would be there before the truck arrived to work their back stock and would help us check select pallets for accuracy and do the paper work on shortages and overages. The driver would help pull in the pallets and wait for returned damages and then pull out to the next store and merchandiser team down the road.

[Javarod]

It varies in market if not route, sometimes the driver and merchandiser roles are combined, sometimes not. If they are combined, yes, he's expected to upsell to the client (the store). Depending on how they pay him, it might not be a bad thing, question is whether he gets a commission or a bonus on route performance.

[dendawg]

I hear that Coke and other pop companies forbade you buying competitor's products, under threat of being fired. Was that ever a thing, and if so does it still happen?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Dunno how common/blatant it is elsewhere, but back in NOLA, stores expected vendors to pay for display space in cash. Preferably in unmarked envelopes, if you catch my drift.

This would be very much forbidden at the swamp; it would fall under "conflict of interest," "Unethical behavior" and so forth.

Displays and upselling will be different for every store on the route. Some places the displays and promotions are tightly controlled by corporate and the store has little to no latitude to create additional display locations (this is how the swamp operates). Others let you put up whatever wherever as long as you have the space and feel you can sell the product.

[Kaylyn]

I hear that Coke and other pop companies forbade you buying competitor's products, under threat of being fired. Was that ever a thing, and if so does it still happen?

Yes. At least while on the clock or on Coke property. I'm sure Pepsi is the same way.

I drove for Coke for a couple of weeks before I was let go. Didn't make it out of training, but that was partially my fault. The trainer wouldn't allow me to learn hands-on and insisted on continually just telling and showing me what I needed to do, when I learn best when guided through it while I'm doing the task myself. Unfortunately for me, my irritation at the trainer for not working with me rubbed one of the vendors the wrong way and they called the boss, who immediately let me go the next day.

For what it's worth, for the OP, the job didn't have us doing mandatory sales or anything. We delivered to stores in the area, and some places like Wal-mart just had us drop the pallets off, while others had us stock the shelves ourselves. We were expected to rotate the stock properly and bring back damaged and expired product, and keep the displays generally tidy. I didn't run into where we had to make new displays for promotionals or sales because I wasn't there long, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was expected. And we were to ensure that Pepsi products DID NOT intrude on our alloted space in the store. Oh, the rivalry there...

But, yes, drinking Pepsi products on the clock was grounds for immediate dismissal.

[EricKei]

it would fall under "conflict of interest," "Unethical behavior" and so forth.

So...., par for the course for Louisiana, then That's kinda what I figured. Nobody gave such things a second thought there, nor ever bothered to report them. Even the larger chains like Voldemart and the Green Wall did this.

I hear that Coke and other pop companies forbade you buying competitor's products

We didn't have any explicit policies along those lines back when I was slinging pizza for DaddyJim's. We sometimes were allowed to "trade" pizza for other food with other fast food joints - even we got tired of eating the stuff at times. One time, we traded with another pizza place (the one with the dots on the rectangles); we wanted to try the cinnamon thingies they had recently begun selling, iirc. While the boss was a bit upset, he really only cared that they brought the food to us instead of vice versa.

[April]

thanks guys! this might have been a moot point, because they still haven't called him after a week of waiting for the UA results and the background check to come back. They keep saying that they want him, but they haven't had the results come back. So it's seeming a little weird. I work in a position that sends UA's to companies for processing, and we get results in 2 days at the most. He may end up going with one of the long haul jobs instead. :/