Shaw's – My observations as a former Ellsworth Maine Shaw's employee.

My observations as a former Ellsworth, Maine, Shaw's courtesy clerk.

This is a complaint regarding the Ellsworth, Maine, Shaw's store from the former employee side of things. I was a Shaw's courtesy clerk from December 23rd,2024 to August 21st, 2025.

First off, I genuinely enjoyed helping the Shaw's customers, and I have always been a people person and have always given my absolute best in employee performance wherever I have worked, but this time I have noticed some things that I wanted to report to the internet public.

For a few months after the most recent winter thaw, the Ellsworth, Maine, store roof leaked dripping water through the ceiling down below onto the floor in at least three different aisles for many weeks until that was fixed this summer. The parking lot was full of cracks, and there were numerous potholes everywhere that were endangering customers and e-commerce (DUG) employees at risk of tripping and getting seriously injured if not watching where they stepped. Eventually, this year, all the potholes were sealed and covered, so there is no more risk of getting hurt.

At the time, earlier this year, I personally witnessed fourteen times as a courtesy clerk excessive speeding by customers or drivers just passing through a formerly unmarked pedestrian zone going at least 25 to 30 miles per hour in a 5 MPH pedestrian zone. There are service animals, the elderly and families with children that walk and run into and out of that store from the parking lot and at the time I would witness drivers like a bat out of hell going way too fast through that parking lot and I was so concerned about this that I actually emailed Albertson's Corporate based in Boise, ID(Alberstson's owns the Shaw's brand.) about these problems at the Ellsworth store that they actually came through and funded the upgrades to the store. Steve Silva the main manager of that store told me angrily during a meeting with him that they were in talks at the time to get the store upgrades and improvements done before I was even an employee but the landlord of the property and the Statewide Property Management company were basically dragging their feet for a long time and were doing nothing to make the upgrades possible until I came along and pushed for the upgrades to actually happen and upper management never thanked me at the store for actually helping to make things better as an employee. Now the roof is no longer leaking, the pedestrian zones are in place, the parking lot is fixed, and all potholes have been eliminated because I actually pushed for the problems to be dealt with as an employee, and Albertson's Corporation actually listened to me. Steve Silva was furious with me because I, as an employee, went over his head to get these store problems handled.

Also the TOMRA glass recycling machine 1 of 3 was constantly malfunctioning for many weeks which I had to sometimes shut down and I took a short smartphone video of the machine failing reporting onscreen that the bins below were full when they they were indeed empty or had very little broken glass and a older manager BOB on crutches at the store behind me asked what was I doing and I told him that I was taking a video of the glass crunching machine to contact TOMRA corporate based in Norway to try to get an answer as to why this specific machine kept giving problems. BOB ratted on me and told me to go into Steve's office for a little chat.

Shaw's main manager, Steve, told me that they had a contract with TOMRA and that the machines had problems and known issues with them, and that they did not want me to contact TOMRA corporate, and to not interfere at all, and to destroy the short video which I took, which I kept anyway and archived.

Another time recently this August 8th at night I worked off the clock for at least 30 minutes because I ran out of time to complete all my assignments and volunteered on my own time to collect all the parking lot carts to put away to make it easier on everybody at work the next day so they would have carts to use the following morning. I told one of the managers the next day that I did this, and hell came down on me because I did a kind thing. Five days later, I was escorted into the manager's office, yet again written up and put on notice that Shaw's found this was a very “SERIOUS VIOLATION OF THEIR CORPORATE POLICIES” and that if I did this again off the clock, they were going to fire me. I only worked off the clock twice to help out, and the written notice says I did this on multiple occasions. See how managers lie?

The majority of the Shaws' customers were fun to be around and to help them all as best as I could; however, there were some that were just complete slobs and must not have been human. Real refined, cultured humans do not litter and throw down plastic food containers, load up shopping carts full of store flyers and garbage, cigarette butts, wrappers, and discard food peelings everywhere across the parking lot like I experienced every day there as a courtesy clerk, which I had to pick up. Some of the Shaws' customers were just outright human pigs on two legs, not caring about the low-wage employee who has to frequently pick up their messes that they left behind.

Also, some of the Shaw's employees would leave a break room mess for me to clean up every day, and the Shaw's customers would throw down discarded paper towels on the bathroom floor, also for me to clean up.

More than once I had to clean up blood and fecal matter in the MEN's front bathroom, smeared everywhere, and at one time, I found an orange-capped drug needle with a leather belt sitting on top of the wadded up paper towels inside the trash ca,n which management properly disposed of after I notified them of what I found. I have pictures to prove it.

Fast forward to August 21, 2025. There was a low-life piece of male scum that popped up yet again that day, and several days before had messed with my bike near the reserve cart area, who was verbally threatening to use his bolt cutter, implying he was going to steal my TREK bike at some point. I informed the Ellsworth Shaw's management of this threat and BOB, Joyce, and Tim, two other managers, that I was having a problem with this guy, and they came out to act as witnesses. I yelled at the scum ball bike thief predator to get off the property, and I told him that he was the one who tried to steal my bungee cord off my bike rack the first time. Apparently, I made quite the scene because Tim, one of the managers, threatened to call the police on my mother and I and banned my mother from the premises. My mother told the manager, Tim to “Take a laxative because he was full of [censored]”

In conclusion, I did everything that I was asked to do as a former Shaw's courtesy clerk. I busted my [censored] hustling to take care of all of my duties everyday I was there. I took care of the customers at the bottle recycling room, retrieved the numerous parking lot carts OVER AND OVER again, took care of any glitches with the TOMRA bottle recycling machines as needed, recovered all the Shaw's baskets as needed and put them where they belonged, did all of my janitorial work faithfully and whatever else I was asked to do and this [censored] manager Tim threatened mom and I and the bike thief with law enforcement or arrest if I didn't shut up and after everything I did for this company Shaw's this is how I am treated by management? That is seriously fkd up.

After a while, I hated the job anyway. It was mind-numbing, boring often, and I was not paid what I felt I was worth.

I will miss some of the customers(I was very well liked.) and employees but for the most part I am glad my mom intervened, spoke up about the injustice to get me fired for helping me to lose the job. I credit her for helping to break the stranglehold over me. I could have done this myself but hey, my mom is like a feisty Irish woman.

I was way underpaid, overworked, and underappreciated by the Ellsworth Shaw's store upper management. Never received any thanks for the good work I did for them. That saying, “You are a dime a dozen and can get easily replaced,” is so true when working for soulless companies. Indeed, they do NOT CARE. It's all about profit for them.

In the end, I did what I was asked to do in full. They are the idiots who lost a valuable asset. It's their fault and their problem.

After 42 years of being a low-paid wage slave grunt, I am so done with the private sector because they are abusive and can *UCK OFF. I am so done. Enough.

Nuff said.