The single biggest problem is understaffing. Their payroll formula does not provide enough hours for the staff to run things smoothly without cutting corners Management knows it, everyone who works there knows it, and now you know it. They put two people on shift. During the summer you get a few hours of triple coverage here and there but it’s never enough. Keep in mind this is for running registers, making ice cream, making sandwiches, stocking the entire store, making food, making various items to order. It’s just a mess. Most gas stations have two people on shift to cover less than half the responsibilities they pile on at Stewarts. And there’s never any help, never any accommodation. There could be a snowstorm coming, or they could have some big promotion, or there could be difficulties on your shift. It doesn't matter- you get two people, that's it, and they just expect you to muddle through. I really can’t overstate how much this increases the stress. You can never take a break, you can’t call out when you’re sick (I was told to come in thinking I had the flu), and on top of that it leads to lots of meanness and backbiting as everyone gets mad at everyone else when stuff doesn't get done.
Stewarts is really tightfisted in other ways too. They don’t pay a competitive rate for mileage (Actually if you’re a partner they don’t pay you anything for mileage even if they make you drive halfway across the state.) When equipment breaks down they replace it with “refurbished” equipment that often doesn’t work properly.
Management was generally bad. I had three managers while working there. Two were okay but one was awful; they were verbally abusive and caused some of my coworkers to break into tears. The District Staff were generally personable but two-faced. I had little contact with Upper Management, though I did read some of their smug letters they sent out with our pay stubs, where they complained about how hard it is to make a profit in the convenience industry when labor and health insurance is so expensive (just the message to improve your underpaid staff’s morale, right? Keep in mind they're raking in millions of dollars) There was one thing that particularly annoyed me. There was one guy from Corporate who would do inspections at the stores. When we heard he was coming the District Staff would keep us there until like 2 A.M. getting the store in shape. If he had actually wanted to improve the stores he might have discussed the problems we were facing with the managers in a collaborative way. But it was clear that this was just an ego-trip for him. He would strut in making believe he was a prison commandant doing a uniform check and everyone would suck up to him while he found stuff to chew them out for and never anything to praise. It was kind of emblematic of Stewarts management as a whole- smug, willfully ignorant of actual problems, and thoughtless toward the people doing the real work.
I could continue- about how they don't give breaks and lie to make it seem like they do, about the quid pro quo stuff that went on behind the scenes, about how they punish employees when customers steal from them, about the labor laws they violated, and so on. But there just isn't space to get to everything.
