Phone interview with Regional HR Manager. Face to face panel interview with Regional HR Manager and the Distribution Center leadership team. Acehardware is a terrible organization. I interviewed with the company a few weeks a back for an HR role at their distribution center in Princeton, IL. The company has made numerous poor decisions that have negatively impacted their workforce. They recently instituted a bonus structure that provided their associates with a living wage, likely for the first time in the history of the DC, only to take it away a few months later because it was eating into their bottom line. (BTW, they shared this with me during the interview process. Their 18+ year tenured leaders definitely don't know how to be good brand ambassadors for the company.) This, coupled with the exceptionally low starting rate at which they compensate their associates, is a major reason that they're having a challenging time retaining staff. I'm surprised UFCW hasn't tried to organize these people. It seems like they need representation. It took the hiring manager over 2 weeks to get back to me, and she did so only after I sent her multiple follow-up messages. It was after I messaged her the last time and stated that the lack of follow-up was completely unacceptable (I had made the decision not to work for them at that point and didn't care that the feedback was not positive) that she made an effort to reach out. In her email she stated that she left me a voicemail on 5/15 at 5:32 PM - which was completely untrue. (I have a screen shot of my phone call list verifying that I did not miss a call from her. And she never left me a voicemail.) We finally did connect a while later. During our conversation, she told me another person had been hired. She said, "we think your background is excellent but we selected someone with DC experience." On a side note, I noticed today that the position was refreshed online 4 days later so it wasn't filled. It's okay to tell someone that you don't believe they'll be successful in the role. You don't need to be dishonest. I'm a big boy - I can take feedback. Her lack of integrity and courageous leadership speaks volumes about the Ace Hardware organization as a whole. Furthermore, I took 5 hours out of my day and traveled 290 miles to go to this interview. Do you think the company would reimburse me for the mileage? Nope. I had to follow-up with hiring manager again a week later because she never answered my question about mileage reimbursement. In an email, she implied that because I accepted the interview I should just suck it up. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by her response given how the company low-balls the people who actually work there. (By the way, I have never before been asked to drive over 50 miles for an interview where mileage and meal reimbursement weren't offered by the company prior to the interview. How disrespectful! Here's a tip: when you're clearly not an employer of choice, you should at least ensure that the people you're trying to hire have a pleasant experience.) When Ace Hardware does finally collapse, they have only themselves to blame. It used to be my favorite hardware store and I will NEVER shop there again. Everyone I know will hear this story each time Ace Hardware is brought up in conversation.