Pros
Merchandising can be a laid back job if you get a good route and the pay is better than almost everyone else in the industry. You can probably live some-what comfortably on a merchandisers' pay if you're single with no kids... also, great benefits, company has money to spend (typically good food at every meeting, lots of events throughout the year), Company most likely isn't going anywhere since they own almost every product on chip aisle (job security), Merchandisers have a decent chance at a work/life balance
Cons
Moving up seems to destroy any hope for work/life balance (or at least for like the next 10 years of your life until u get your own route) so either you wait to get a route (as a merchandiser) that works for you schedule wise (but by the way, they all start between 2am-6am) and stick to the same pay forever (as far as I know Merch's don't get raises...?) or move up to eventually to make really good money, but you might be stuck as a relief driver with NO consistency in scheduling for probably at least a good 5 years before even getting a chance at bidding on a route, in which there's no guarantee that you will get one with weekends off, and you'll probably end up with a route that doesn't make the big bucks like you're hoping for. So, if you're a very money driven person, there is good opportunities to make really good money within this company, it's just a matter of how long you'll have to wait to get to where you want to be.