It doesn't matter if a company or person deletes reviews on their end, Google still keeps the information floating on the internet. Google never deletes reviews from anyone I tried updating my review about Lassen Market I noticed it wasn't showing, so I decided to express my experience working at Lassen Market in Echo Park. Let me begin with this, the owner HATES GAY people, which is ironic because Joe who was the manager is a total fag! Mr. Lassen contributed 100,000 to STOP GAY MARRIAGE but refused to give employees a raise like he promised.
This market is a sweat shop and you will work like a slave I promise with no lateral way to move up. Management lies to everyone being hired!
The owner has a written policy 3 days NO SHOW, NO CALL, YOU ARE FIRED! And being in JAIL is NO EXCUSE, like traffic court. How interesting, I wonder does his WHITE KIDS follow the same policy? In the market area it's all about sales and cutting hours, and treating employees like shit! Especially people of color but give the white employees and their own kin high salaries, raises and opportunities, and admin positions. I used to work in the Deli it is the hardest and most stressful in any market. Let me be clear about this market there is nothing ORGANIC about this store or its products. Let's take the hot bar for instance working in the Deli I had tons of prep which is cutting and stocking food items for the salad bar and meats if needed. There is always something to do which is okay I don't mind staying busy and I busted my ass working hard, but I was lied to about my raise after 6 months and the owner refused to give me what I deserved, so I stole as much food as I could from that asshole.
However, to make all dishes organic you must have organic ingredients, and not all products purchased were organic. Nor were the products delivered (from vendors organic) or on time. In addition, the lack of staff in departments needing to work efficiently makes it hard to cover the department's needs. Poor work conditions are part of the reason over 80% of employees walked out. At times the load wouldn't come in on time or if it did there wasn't staff to unload it, so the food would sit outside until someone could unload it, this is unsanitary conditions for the food. Now understand when you are one person who has to unload 3 to 4 fucken pallets of food, you have to remove expired items, rearrange the self as you are making room for the other items, and make sure the expiration dates and names are properly labeled. This is a lot of fucken work which can take up your entire shift, but the manager expects people to do this in a couple of hours. Joe only sits on his ass in the office with the rest of the lazy-ass wads who do no labor!
As a worker in this kind of business, you can't just throw the food in the freezer or on the shelves understand?
A lot goes into this and you're having to work in a confined area that is extremely small because that is how Mr. Lassen purchases stores crammed properties with small work areas, BROKEN DOWN ONE HORSE LOCATIONS. Yet 100 employees or more work to accommodate each other in poor work conditions. Let's explore the meat dept, it was clean and had the most room to move around in until the stupid owner Mr. Lassen decided to have a Sushi Bar in the meat department which ruined the department. He is a scumbag and slave owner; people were walking out because of the poor conditions and no raises. Lassen only cares about how to have the Sushi bar, cramming it in a small area that is only supposed to be a meat department. Who the fuck is going to work the SUSHI? This asshole owner of 12 stores that I know of, he is a slave owner and most of his markets are in rural areas where the majority of employees are people of color who bust their asses for low pay. He steals money cheats employees out of pay which I made a complaint to the Labor Dept. and trains management to be abusive with mental and verbal cruelty.
Let's explore more of the kitchen and its contents, the stove was the first thing I noticed as I looked around at the setup.
The business before Lassen Market must have been a restaurant or something because the stoves were old and beat up, no dishwasher existed, and utensils and refrigeration were old and worn out. Instead of buying new kitchen appliances and kitchenware, the workers were being forced to use the old shit that was left behind by the previous owners. As for no dishwasher is really fucked up, everything had to be cleaned by hand. Do you realize how long that will take and if there is no one to maintain that area the dishes will pile up. Plus someone would dump BLEACH in the hot water to wash the dishes people were eating off of. If there is someone to work in this area, you need to work fast and have organizational skills because the kitchen is hard and just as crammed as the other areas of the store.
So, to get back to what I was saying about Organic, if the right ingredients are not available to make certain dishes or if we run out, workers have to make do with what they have.
People think this is easy fuck no and you will realize how hard it is if you are working the area and you have to fast-flip that hot bar. Also, for the prep, you must be quick, slow workers don't cut it. Organic is a Marketing Strategy. If you want ORGANIC, cook at home and buy the best ingredients and do it yourself, or grow it yourself. At Lassen Market, you are not getting what you think you are buying. There is not enough consistent flow from the time products are ordered, delivered and the daily problems within the store not enough staff to stock and cook all of it at a consistent flow. (Be mindful that many lazy fucken people, work here so not everyone will work at the same pace). Many lazy employees and ass kissers who never work hiding in the freezer and then there are employees like me busting my ass and picking up the slack from the losers.
However, society depends too much on corporations to process everything for us. STOP BEING CO-DEPENDENT!!! You don't know how other vendors manufacture food products before Lassen buys them. The concept of Organic is growing it yourself. Take oranges for instance you must grow oranges and then squeeze the fruit to make juice yourself, which is Organic. Of course, most of us can't or don't have room for an orange grove, so buying oranges is the next best thing, then squeeze the juice yourself. The more you DIY the better. You understand right?
The hot food bar is the hardest and it should be flipped 3 to 4 times a day.
All the prep that goes into the food daily takes hours. Mr. Lassen is a white man who treats people of color like slaves with all the labor but the white kids are given jobs as leads, front end, and managers and given raises compared to the rest of us who are not white! Joe the manager might still be working there, he was not only a backstabbing fag. He cheated employees on their paychecks at least I know I was and so was Jerry as he shared this with me. Before I left, Joe started blackballing people with dirty looks and derogatory remarks.
Joe and his cronies had once cornered me in the freezer threatening me which pissed me off, he just didn't like it I spoke my mind, 6 men against 1 woman. Another time the floor manager who only walked around doing nothing started talking to me knowing how busy I was unloading the pallets of food, I responded to his comments and when I looked up Joe was throwing me "dirty looks", it was a setup. If anyone was caught speaking while working they were being threatened. It was interesting when I asked for a transfer to another location, the manager asked me, "Why do you want to work here"? I wasn't sure how to answer him and didn't want to speak about the problems at Echo Park, so I said nothing, a week later he walked out and Amy took over his position.
Now I understand he was frustrated and hated the job is why he was questioning me? The guys in the meat department had come from the "Wholesfood Market" who once made $35 an hour, they all left as they were being blackballed. Lassen would only pay them 20 dollars an hour to be a butcher. YOU DO NOT WANT TO WORK FOR LASSENS, as you will NEVER get a raise or be treated well, this is why over 20 people walked out. I left soon after and of course, was given a 2000 dollar check for loss of wages, but Lassen owed me much more than that, it's because of that cunt Ms Hyne is why I was cheated from the LABOR DEPT. they too enjoy cheating people out of money instead of being honest. I should have taken my case to court and spoken to a Judge which I now know a person can do. Mr. Lassen, you can kiss my ass you white trash piece of shit! Never again but I have one more story of me walking out of Sprouts.