Since this is long, let me preface this by saying that I, as an associate of Publix, have been told by my immediate managers multiple times, "I wish we had a whole store full of you" so what follows is not the ranting of a lazy, angry employee, but a disgruntled hard worker and over achiever:
Effectively no benefits for part time associates, full time benefits are lacking. "Your smile is your greatest asset!" they tell us, but the dental plan sucks and you can't get it unless you're full time. The double-edged sword is that they rarely promote to full time. Any full time cashiers you see are, and I quote: "from the old days".
Evaluations are directly tied to promotions and raises, but in the economy the raises have been limited to such a low amount that management ***rigs*** the evaluations to prevent any raise above the set amount. So your performance reviews utterly fail at accurately predicting your performance.
Benefits are cut all the time. Just recently, Publix found that their sick day allotment was more than other companies, but instead of taking pride in that, they cut them. God forbid you get the flu, because you've only got 4 days to get better. Speaking of recognition and evaluations, your performance review does not take into account customer compliments, or the times you've came in when you weren't scheduled, or stayed late. Effectively, you can only go down with evaluations, not up. And beyond that, there is *effectively* no incentive program for associates who do their job well, because managers never bother to reward you, or even go so simply far as to thank you for a job well done.
And to end this brief rant: you don't get many hours, they're inconvenient if you do, and you get called in to work all the time (but if you're late getting there, it's counted against you).
Great job if you want to start out in school, because Publix has a great reputation, but get out as soon as possible.
