Originally Posted by
bragi
If you feel you need a car, get one. However, my experience has been that employers don't care how you get to work as long as you get there. No employer I've ever had has even asked me whether or not I had a car. I suspect that they just assumed that I did, but I never brought it up and I was never late to work, so it never became an issue. I have had jobs that involved driving, but the employers supplied the vehicle (i.e., landscaping trucks).
Food service is not a lucrative industry, if you're not a manager or server or bartender at a high-end place. I think it's pretty ballsy of an employer to not pay you much yet expect you to take on the expense of a motor vehicle for their convenience.
Are you sure you want to leave the warehouse industry? Even Amazon, which is a bit of a sweatshop, is still better than most food service jobs I've ever seen. (Personally, and I'm being totally serious, I'd rather work on an offshore fisheries processing boat than work at Chili's...)
1. We are car light. The finances won't allow another vehicle payment and I'm legally blind and shouldn't be driving anyway
2. It's not so much the employer expects a potential employee of obtaining a vehicle; I'm in the Midwest (or possibly the Southwest), and it seems like an employer presumes either you already own a car or want one for other pursuits than work.
3. I like the environment that I used to work in, even if it was usually in non-cooled buildings. I didn't have to deal with customers, rarely answered phones, didn't have to worry about employee theft as much, or being robbed. But my depth perception is shot and my visual field is rather limited- I'd be a liability on material handling equipment. And there's not too much demand for non-forklift certified warehouse workers in my area right now.
I suspect that a bunch of the employers that ask if the job seeker if they have reliable transportation equates having a car means a punctual employee. If you don't have a car of your own, then you are at the whim of whoever and run the risk of being late if you can't catch a ride.