Thread regarding Big Lots Inc. layoffs

Nothing to report, really. Management has lots of tele-conferences, but very little is covered or required to be shared with the rest of the store. Only price changes or policy updates get bandied about. There are no store meetings, just plenty of wall hangings of policy and useless sales numbers to make it look like everyone is engaged in the process. The break room (filthy ho-e in the wall) is the worst with the laminated propaganda plastered on every wall from floor-to-ceiling, and folded reminders about sales tactics on the filthy tables.

Management pay ain't great, but it makes them feel like kings and queens compared to what the regular underlings make. But, though the pay is low, the stress levels are low, too, as no one really gives two hoots in the hot place about what goes on, other than just making sure stuff gets on shelves, sold and out the door. It's a job that, truly, starts when you punch in and ends when you punch out. Mindless and middling.

Holiday junk (decor, trees, ephemera) sales are strong since, well, people tend to toss out their decorations from year to year, especially the outdoor LED light stuff, which is more delicate and prone to failing.

The low pay of $10 or less for employees (Competitive Pay, they call it!) still generates plenty of apathy and heel-dragging when it comes to associates' work "drive"-- there's no sense of urgency or order to any of the processes from truck unloading, stocking, cleaning and ringing sales. The whole ship just chugs along making okay $$ from closeout merch and older, closer-to-expiry food items.

They still want just high school kids and expect a revolving door of turnover for employment. Holiday help will get dumped, as usual, right after the big X-mas days.

What is amazing is that the store is a full-service store, even though it is little more than an indoor flea market. All because of furniture: Broyhill sells well b/c it's cheap and plentiful. Forget that it is mostly cheap, thin, synthetic fabric stretched over sheets of foam stapled to ultra-flimsy driftwood rejects, and standing on hollow, molded plastic feet. People walk in and expect to be waited on hand-and-foot in every aisle, from old cereal, to holiday gift wrap tissue paper.

Joe and Jane Six-Pack still expect everyone in the store to know everything about every junk, as-seen-on-tv product and every electric kitchen gadget, despite the fact that everyone who works there is just there for a check and not enthusiastic about product features, sales figures (no commission, so why bother tending the same customer for more than a minute or so?) or being any customer's BF.

Folks need to just go in, find some random, cheap junk and limited, near-expiring grocery item, and get out.