Thread regarding Sears layoffs

True that st Sears,it has always been PAs over sales as more important, has been like that for over the 30 years I have worked st Sears. You could have two associates, one with a $5,000 sale with no PAs,or an associate with a $2oo sale with a PA on it is the hero,whole the one without the PA can be written up for not using the PA brochure .

Has always been like this,all that is important is metrics, not sales.

After working at Sears all these years, I would be embrassed to tell anyone how much I actually earn,each year your income goes down, not up,making less now than I made 5 years ago,for myself,just trying to hang on for the next two years then retire,if we are still here.

Stuff runs downhill. Just remember that your SM is under pressure to make metrics not sales, that pressure comes from the DM who is under pressure from the Regional person or some VP of something and so on up the corporate ladder. Metrics make things look better than what they really are. If you can say that you have "x" number or PA's or credit card sign ups or SYW sign ups then it looks like people are coming into your store and buying and will come back. But in reality they are just coming in for a pack of gum or some on sale hand towels and you won't see them for another few years. But if you can get them to sign up for something you can sell the information to third parties and make a few bucks

I wouldn't spend much time trying to "stir the pot". That would be like trying to complain to the senior officers on the Titanic about the conduct of people on deck. They will nod politely, maybe even promise to do something. Then nothing of any real substance will happen. Store level managers are just responding to pressure from above.

Just take it as a lesson in corporate madness and be glad you are safely off the sinking ship.

I sold a home builder friend a whole set of appliances for a small development he was building. The sale included 15 washer/dryer sets, fridges, dishwashers etc. Over $40,000 of appliances with service agreements to a contractor with contractor prices. Fast forward 6 months and some of the people buying the houses wanted other models or colors and because of the SHC 30 day return policy they would not take the appliances back.

Now just to be up front the contractor has a delivery schedule for each house as it was sold and completed (another disaster in itself) but they would take delivery as the projects were completed.

It is now in court because SHC will not take back or change the order(even though they have not even delievered the product) because of the 30 day return policy. What is the thinking behind this?

The upper management is under pressure to push the non-product PA too, so don't waste your time trying to stir the pot. Its all about metrics and percentages.

They all know the goose is cooked.

Dont let this go.Now the fun starts for you.Get in touch with everyone you can.Not corporate people,but regional people and district people.Try your best to get email addresses and phone numbers (email works best).Contact these people and let them know about the lost sale.Trust me , heads will roll.Maybe some friends from your store can help you getting those emailsPhone calls go to one person.....emails get passed around.I am sure your district mgr will enjoy hearing this.Yes,they will complain about the lost PA money,but more so about the lost sales.Make this softlines mgr and the store mgr sweat.Good luck finding a job too.Remember,send emails to everyone,even if you think they are not relevant to the situation...let the fun begin.

Congrats to the OP for getting out of this mess. As mentioned below, the mindset appeared back in the 80's when Sears started having cash flow problems and service plans were the easy way (at least from the management POV) to squeeze more profit dollars out sales. The pressure to sell service agreements shows how bad things are financially for the company. They are desperately trying to get every nickel they can out of the dwindling number of customers. It's been a long time coming, but Sears retail is just about done.

Wow, as a former Kmart associate that is sickening. $16,000 down the drain because some A-Hole of a manage tried to ram a protection plan down a customers throat.

Then demean the customer and employee causing the employee to loose the sale.

I will just say this I feel sorry for the employee loosing commission on that $16,000 sale but he/she did the right thing. You should not have to tolerate that behavior out of a manager.

You did what you had to do. It's unfortunate that you had to walk out like you did. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Wow that is an awful situation but not necssarily happening in all stores. Any associate should not be that disrespectful to another associate when working in any capacity. It sounds like you were a great sales person for the company.

This mindset goes back to the early 80s , when MAs were touted as the backbone of the company and a sale was nothing if the MA wasn't sold with it.

Part of the Sears culture from years ago.

Great decision to leave now , you now have a head start on finding work over thousands of lemmings who are about to jump off a cliff because they believe what they are being told.

To the reply regarding severance: Eight weeks is not that much. I got a year from another company. The OP on this now has a head start in finding something else, instead of waiting to compete against everyone else in the store at the same time for a new job.

As was the case at our store, they only wanted us to act like robots and push the SYW and those dreaded "service contracts". I don't buy them and the customers only have trouble getting any help from them. Credit cards being pushed on them is also a problem!

Why happened to listen to the customer?

I've always said the customer only wants a few things, Available product, someone to give them informed and qualified service, good price and good follow up.

All the other stuff is just'stuff'

11 years service = 8 weeks severance, fyi...

Well if you had stayed until you get laid off, you would have received severance package. For 11 years services, you could probably get 22 weeks pay.

Good for you!

Wow. 16 grand in sales lost. You did right by walking away from this mess. It's like you got off the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, but before you had to jump in the ocean. You will do much better elsewhere, where common sense prevails.

Good for you bro, time to move on, you did yourself a great service.

Godspeed!