The retail industry is saturated with too many businesses. The competition is fierce & Kmart cannot compete. While everybody has raised their wages paid to employees, Kmart still thinks they can get away with paying $7.25. They expect you to do multiple people's jobs because we are understaffed. The checkout process asks way too many questions for what should be a simple transaction & the lines were long during the holidays. Corporate thinks staying open until midnight is a great idea although nobody comes in past 9 or 10pm. These are the reasons why this business is failing. The bigwigs in Hoffman Estates, IL do not know how to run a business. They concentrate on this REIT transaction when they should be trying to figure out how to save this sinking ship. I think it's too late to save Kmart. The damage has already been done & they continue to lose customers. Customer service is a joke at this place. Why, do you ask? Because when you have unhappy employees who are already frustrated with the situation & then a customer comes asks you a question, do you really care about providing good customer service? No. Happy employees equal better served customers. Another memo Kmart missed out on. Stick a fork in it Kmart, you are done.
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I agree with everything I've read. The employees are treated like trash really. No raises, and the way people are let go because their positions have been cut. I am very surprised there haven't been strikes, but I think maybe that's because people might feel it would be useless.
I was part of the management and left a year ago. The district manager was worthless and they promoted through the buddy system poor managers to a new position to oversee all of hardlines in their district....this guy was let go for performance at another retailer, but at Sears got a nice raise while all the people doing the work make 7.25 to 10 per hour depending in your part of the buddy system. The store is a joke and often told people to check out lowes or Home Depot for appliances. I also told people to go to the outlet stores and wheel and deal for tractors.
I got out of Kmart a week before Thanksgiving. Best decision I have ever made! It's funny how there was no money for raises but as soon as myself and some other Customer Service supervisors starting giving notice they were more than happy to offer more than our new jobs would be paying... Nope sorry I just wanted out. I worked at the San Leandro store when it closed. The lease was up and the building was falling apart. We were told 5 days before the liquidation began. You were given a 60 day notice that you would be out of a job and were only going to be eligible for unemployment if you stuck it out or were fired . I'm sure there are going to be many more store closures this year. My advice is if you have a chance get out now before it is too late.
I work at Kmart and their training sucks . They put you in a department with no training and at the end of the night you get a ear full.Now for raises not.. they ask you to be a pal trainer and days later they tell you no raise . But heres the dipper in that they gave a raise to some one that only been there for less then a year after they told us no one is getting a raise . LOL on the one that work hard and do as they ask us. If you want my info. they all can drown for all I care. JUST A HINT 83 AND ST.CHARLES.. THIER BATHROOMS ARE NASTY ... P.S all the good workers are living and thats the ones that cared about how things worked.
Me too. Used to work at Kmart around a year ago but left. Just could not take the insanity anymore. Love the people who worked there and loved the customers. Just could not take the company changing directions every month or two. First we were going to improve the grocery selection. But that just became a glorified 7-11. Lots of prepacked food with no milk or bread.
Then we were going to be the leader in electronics. They shrunk that department and got rid of the leads. And on and on it goes.
Now it is the Blue Light Special but we have only had one in the last couple months.
But the real kicker is the returns. Some days we get returns that are 1/4 to 1/2 our sales.
The DM's are a joke. Constantly having meetings and accomplishing nothing but yelling and making everyone feel like sh**. Way to build a team and keep moral up.
Anyway, not long until the whole thing is over
I used to be a manager for Kmart a few years ago. I left because I knew in just a year or two my store would be closed. Unfortunately it doesn't have to be that way. The company has hemorrhaged millions of dollars on that stupid Shop Your Way program. When I worked there I was lead to believe it is the end all, be all for Kmart. When I left, I realized the public really doesn't know or understand it and frankly doesn't care. They just want low prices and good service. Something Kmart has positioned itself to be unable to do. Payroll was a joke. There is no way a store can take care of the customers and then complete all the useless programs they keep adding to the workload. The district managers are the biggest hindrance to the company. They are all cowards and refuse to speak up to upper management about all the problems in the stores. The force you to lie about results and cover up many misses, some things being illegal so their distirct can all check complete on some project, et... They are totally clueless. If a Kmart DM tried to even be an Assistant Manager at a normal Walmart Supercenter they would fail miserably. The company is decades behind in its technology in the stores. Just look at how often the registers shut down, freeze up or perform something wrong in the transaction. It's sad. Kmart could have came back after the bankruptcy , but they killed themselves.
Just like on our store. Old computers. No raises for the last 8 years. Laid off most of the department leads so their work does not get done (no one is going to take on more work and responsibility without more pay). Long lines with customers leaving carts behind because of old computer system and to many questions.
Got yelled at by a customer last week for asking about signing up for Shop Your Way and credit card. She said she was sick of being asked every time she came in by multiple people. I told her is was company policy and we were required to ask. She apologized to me and said she was going to contact corporate to tell them what a stupid policy it was and how it turned off customers. You go girl!
I hear ya. Don't really understand what they think in Hoffman Estates. We were told today that we had to do more work with less people, all of our training (which takes hours sometimes), move certain departments etc,.. All while they get rid of more people and cut hours.
Sounds like our sears store.
Agree.