Pros
Good health and retirement account benefits if you're a loyal associate for many years. Lots of learning opportunities for business basics and many other things. Lots of different kinds of good, nice coworkers. Fast-paced work environment. Job security.
Cons
It's retail. Customers can be loathsome. Constantly overworked. Usually underpaid. Fred Meyer has also become much more corporate, hierarchical, and stagnant in the last few years, largely due to Kroger consuming it. For example, about 8 years ago I asked my manager for a raise due to my great job performance. She agreed and gave me a raise. However, when I presented my case for a raise again in 2022, with many facts/figures, I was rejected by some anonymous pencil pusher in the corporate office even though all managers at the store agreed that I merited a raise. Store-level management no longer has any influence to do anything significant to help associates. Corporate has made store-level management utterly impotent. I was told by my HR Manager, "I don't think Fred Meyer believes in merit-based raises anymore." However, the CEO got a $1,000,000 raise shortly after I was denied a small raise...