Source
r/newzealand•
Vegetablemann

Is Mighty Ape a responsible employer?

Discussion

I use Mighty Ape a lot. The customer service (in my experience) is excellent, they consistently get my orders to me within one working day (top of the South Island) and I generally have no issue getting them to price match.

I paid for the thingy (primate?) that gives me free shipping for a year as I ordered a new PC screen, which was going to cost the same as primate for a year.

Overall, I think they're fantastic as a consumer.

​

What I want to know is, how do they treat their employees? Is there anyone here who works for or has worked for them and would like to let me know?

Posted Oct 2, 2019, 11:23 PM UTC

8651
benvegan•

I've worked here for almost 10 years, and Mighty Ape are by far and away the best employer I have ever had. Still family-owned, and despite the size still feels like a family. Without any hint of bias, MA are a really good, caring and ethical company and I hope to work here forever. PS Can confirm we are all geeks ;)

110
VegetablemannOP•

Wow, to be honest that's not the response I expected. I'm amazed that it's still family owned.

Makes me feel much better about spending my money through you guys.

34
benvegan•

Thanks for the support!!!! Yeah, Simon and Vicki Barton still own MA and are both very involved in the day to day running still :)

22
VegetablemannOP•

Fantastic. Great to hear.

11
therewillbeniccage•

I worked there a few years ago and it was a great environment run by a family. They made sure we were all looked after and even would ask me once about my mental health as i looked stressed.

Yes, they are a good employer

23
04fuxake•

This makes more likely to use them now.

12
[deleted]•

So... either you're a retired vegan or your name is Ben.

5
lerde•

How’s the new place in Silverdale? Do you guys get a safe work environment?

3
benvegan•

It’s amazing to be honest, it was built for scratch for us, so it’s really nice. Super safe :)

4
Gottage•

I know this handle is legit 'cause I was in Silverdale recently and skimmed through the MA booklet which was laying around. I want to attribute the write-up of Doom Eternal, touching on your memories of shareware to you - but maybe you wrote another article, I don't fully recall...

3
benvegan•

Yeah that was mine, thanks for reading! :)

6
Gottage•

Ha, good times! I don't personally enjoy the new Doom games as they don't generate the nostalgia that re-playing those old FPS ones do. The likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D, or Blake Stone....

2
benvegan•

Hell yeah, I haven't thought about Blake Stone in YEARS! Great memories :) Loved Duke Nukem 3D as a teen when it came out hehe

2
ireshine•

Friend works in the warehouse position, says its better than his last job and their staff discount.

40
VegetablemannOP•

Getting a staff discount at all is a bonus I guess. My big concern is that they become the NZ version of Amazon. Though generally here we have stronger unions.

16
ireshine•

They would like to be "the Amazon of New Zealand" but there a better change of Amazon coming here.

12
VegetablemannOP•

Well I mean in terms of treatment of their employees is my concern. In terms of product offering I've no issues, they certainly have a lot of stock.

8
soapbox89•

Left my other job of 9 years (where I was very happy - just ready for a new experience) to come to Mighty Ape. Didn't realise how bad by comparison my old job was! Absolutely love it at Mighty Ape. Very healthy and positive work culture <3

34
VegetablemannOP•

That's fantastic, great to hear.

4
[deleted]•

Had a friend work in the warehouse. Said it was hard but fair work

22
MajorXbox•

I worked in the warehouse and a few other bits and bobs while at uni over 10 years ago and it was great. They were a great bunch of people and it was really good work. I still support MA.

5
Swanzenegger•

Got a couple of mates working there, I've heard no complaints. Sure they moved further out from most people, but it's against traffic, making for an easy drive for them!

13
MrCyn•

Mate works there in the office, its a great atmosphere, proper kind employers that are on the right side of give and take, everyones a bit of a geek, and lots of free food

12
BugWeather•

Knew two people who worked at MightyApe, they've both since moved on to other higher-paying jobs but they were both happy at MightyApe while they were there

12
VegetablemannOP•

Seeing only positive responses so far, pretty cool to see.

6
MajorXbox•

Yep I'm in that boat. MA were great! Awesome family business.

2
oh-about-a-dozen•

I hear good things from the workers in the warehouse

9
vourukasha•

They are great from what I know. The customer service are always pretty positive - and coming from retail myself, you can always tell when someone hates their job and is using their fake customer voice.

8
dingoonline•

It's going to be depressing when Amazon inevitably invades here and competitively prices MightyApe out of business. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/amazon-warehouse-workers-have-to-pee-into-bottles-2018-4?r=US&IR=T

7
VegetablemannOP•

Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen. eBay never made it work here, hopefully it’s the same story.

3
Cptcutter81•

We're not big enough for Amazon to bother specifically with us, they barely bother with Australia and they're a much larger market. best we would hope for in terms of Amazon is NZ priced assets coming across from Aussie distribution hubs in which case Might Ape would still have better delivery times.

2
nickelbackenthusiast•

The warehouse workers get at least minimum wage I assume. Commute is probably hell since they moved though.

Source: just guessing

5†
SteveRayban•

Most people are going against traffic both ways so it's not *horrible*

3
jewelofthenilenz•

Where'd they move to?

1
pictureofacat•

Silverdale. Quite a nice looking place, well the front area is at least.

4
BrotherReclusiarch•

I have played a few Warhammer 40000 tournaments there at their warehouse (they have a retail space in the front where we were hosted). The staff from the delivery warehouse would come out on their breaks, and I talked to a couple of them. They said it was alright. Very busy but they liked their discounts. They were all very young as well. Hope that helps.

3
VegetablemannOP•

It does. I expect it would be busy, they must churn through the volume.

1
SteveRayban•

Current staff member AMA

1†
[deleted]•

[deleted]

7
SteveRayban•

no one said they hired smart people

13
Cptcutter81•

Used to work there in the warehouse after the move north for a year, pretty nice company overall. The owners still have a lot to do with the day to day on the warehouse floor and the management genuinely did seem to care. The other staff were all great and while they had a lot of pressure around numbers it's to be expected in a company where the entire game is shipping and speed. They treated their workers really well and had a pretty chunky staff discount depending on what you were looking for.

The pay wasn't astonishing (almost dead minimum before the whole minimum wage went up, not sure if anyone new signing on is now just on minimum or if they bumped it up as a result) but a solid 70-80% of the warehouse staff were under the mid 20's with a huge chunk of high-school part timers on the side, and it was fairly basic low skill menial labor so that's also pretty expected.

Moved to a different job in the time since but still very happily buy from them having seen what the other side was like. Sure there's pretty-much always somewhere decently cheaper, but it's convenient and they don't treat their staff like slaves so it's a worthy spend in my opinion.

1
VegetablemannOP•

Nice, thanks for answering.

2
V_for_Vaeltaja•

Uhhhhh

1
TeeKawittyNae•

That's a really odd question.

0
VegetablemannOP•

Could you elaborate?

1
Fabulous_Anywhere•

Who cares?

Everything they sell is double the price listed elsewhere.

-34
Hoitaa•

You're paying for their workers to be treated like humans.

22
VegetablemannOP•

I care. I am happy to pay a little more knowing that employees are treated well, on the basis that I expect to be treated well at work.

I also find their prices to be more than competitive.

TBH, dunno what you're on about.

17
tirohia•

Not everything's about money.

For some who can afford it, the fact that they treat their staff well is a decent incentive. I stopped using bookdepository when I found out that it's a differently branded part of Amazon. Local book store costs more, but I'd rather support them.

12
ohmegalomaniac•

I use them a lot, and I never understood anyone who says this. Their electronics are the same price, if not slightly cheaper than competitors. (They end up being a lot cheaper during their sales). Their household products are usually a dollar or so extra, but I haven't seen anything outrageously overpriced.

They also have the best shipping I have seen from any company in this country.

12
phforNZ•

Yeah, no. They're cheaper in quite a few things.

9
MrCyn•

My 12 pack of sugar free rockstar drinks, disagrees

7
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2