Complaint Review: National Wholesale Liquidators

To Shoppers and the Company

I am a current employee working at NWL. I have an insiders perspective as to the inner workings of the company and have come here to expose both employment and the product. First, for the employment.

As the name implies, NWL sells wholesale merchandise. We recieve these items on pallets and are very often so over stocked we have no space to put the items. Consequently, much of it lands on the  overstock and disappears due to more incoming merchandise that once again the store cannot hold. This job requires alot of backbreaking labor that is not well compensated. Few people make over $10.00 hour and those that do are over worked. For the most part, people are stuck at minimum wage and, even after years of service, will not have  pay grade that breaks double dights. A salary based job comes with the overbearing responsibility of having to work 60 hours a week, six days a week, which hardly makes it seem worth it. Full time workers are only given a single week of paid vacation. To make it worse, the holiday season requires managers to work 7 days a week, who in turn try to add more hour on their floor workers. This would not be a problem if this time was compensated as overtime and workers were given time and a half. My suggestion to everyone is to work here ONLY i you need a part time job to do on the side. Working part time does not result in the same mental anguish that comes with making this full time job. Some people have commented that the company is racist and has a preference for Indians. I do not think the problem is racism as much as a source of cheaper labor. While a large portion of the people working for the company are Indian or Pakistani, and it does appear as if they are preferenced, the common theme is that they are immigrants who do not speak english well, or understand American culture enough, to get hired by other companies. While the outsider may look at this as a good thing, an insider aware of the company's work practices knows all to well how abusive the treatment is for these people (see above). Immigrants are cheaper and will work harder to maintain a job that does not seem worth it to non-immigrant Americans. Finally, the managers, mostly Indian or Pakistani, are spineless and extortionist. For the record, I do not mean this to be racist, it is only an observation made after being with the company for over a year and, as a person who is not from that part of that world, makes me wonder if I could possibly make it into upper management. I feel as if I would remained a disgruntled floor person. Ironically, if you do more work and do your job well, you are not compensated with anything more than more work. Going the extra mile will not do you anymore good and is not worth it. Most employees half-a*s their responsibilities, which managers will pass over in fear that the employee will argue; indeed, once that employee calls the manager out, they get hounded significantly less. The floor people that do actually work get their attention more. These people they try to push them harder then, frankly speaking, the company deserves. Hard work is one thing but it goes in tandem with pay. People go to work, for the most part anyway, to make money so they can live their lives. If one stays at National their entire life becomes National. I have known people working full time jobs with the company that would have to work more than 80 hours between two weeks to make rent. If you ask the manager about getting more money per hour they will claim they cannot afford it. Personally, I do not know if I believe this but if it is the case than so be it. This will reflect in the work output the company recieves, which, judging by personal experience and reviews of the company read online, has been mostly negative.

Now for the products:

Since I am an employee that deals with the products that the company sells, I a generally leary of buying off the floor. As a rule of thumb, take it as a given that if it is a nice item for a good price, MOST LIKELY, it is refurbished, this is the case with the tech and many of the appliances the company sells. Read the stickers carefully. The announcer that repeatedly claims "... everyday low wholesale discount prices" is definately over reaching and, in some cases, flat out lying. The company does not sell anything for a lower price that does not come with a price of its own (i.e. being refurbished, or a knockoff or old). I know for a fact that many times broken or returned items are resold. Managers like to say that we need to make sure people do not open the packages. I honestly find it hard to bring myself to stopping them. Most of the regulars know the game: there are actually some gems in a store that is full of crap. The trick is finding them which is why they open the merchandise. If I stopped them I doubt they would ever return and the company would ever make money. I've talked to a number of people who refuse to buy certain items because it turned out bad. Case and point: FOOD. Again: READ THE STICKER CAREFULLY. Half of the food is expired, and or full of bugs. The food department is home to all types of critters and many of them make a house out of the food.

I do not want to say that everything that the store sells is bad. Again there are some gems, and with everyday household items like cleaning liquid, tissues, cups (disposable or otherwise) and general hardware the store does come through. This is one of the things I am grateful for about the company. Hell even the food can be good. AGAIN: READ THE STICKERS CAREFULLY..

I have seen that Mr. Degorter has previously responded to posts on this site and I actively encourage him to comment on what I have written here. Despite how I may come off, I write this post not out of hate but from a willingness to improve the company and make working conditions better for everyone. This however, requires a significant amount of change from the practices of the managers and the coroporate office. Better employee attitudes and output will be developed through better treatment and compensation of the company's floor associates. Considering that the pallets of merchandise will not unload themselves it is probably best the company take their employees treatment a little more serious. Truthfully, the director of lost prevention has already let  the employees know how he feels so it is my guess that what I am saying will fall on deaf ears. In a nutshell: do the work for what you are given or go home. Perhaps making these complaints public will create some kind of change. At the very least, the public, may very well understand why the people working for the store do not place customer satisfaction at their top of their list. Truely it is no offence to you, but if our work is our barganing chip for better treatment than we the employees need to cut corners. I have provided the numbers to each of the stores and the corporate headquaters for the reader to, hopefully, enourage the public to fight or better treatment for the company.

Sincerely

An insider

Brooklyn 718 307-0007

Long Island city 718 389-3311

Flushing 718 820-8727

Bronx 718 320-7771

West Hemstead 516-489-3300

Yonkers 914 377-4800

Middletown 845 343-1111

Jersey city 201 434 4650

Lodi 201 368-8000

Dorchester 617 929-3790