Those of you who have been with either platform (Sears or Kmart), what was it like 15-30+ years ago? What is different between then and now? What is still the same, even after the merger, if anything? How long have you been with either company?
23 replies (most recent on top)
Up until 25 years ago, our store had 2 Christmas parties.....One was an in-store catered luncheon and the 2nd was a dinner outside the store at a large restaurant or hotel banquet room.....
The outside the store dinner was scaled back to a manager and leads only dinner for a few years before that was eliminated as well.
The in store luncheon was scaled back to where now, it is primarily a potluck luncheon where associates are asked to prepare and bring in dishes and desserts....The money for parties is no longer in budget....and some years the Store manager pulls out his own credit card and has some catered food brought in for the Christmas luncheon.
I worked part time in the Catalog department at a Sears store in my hometown back in the 80's. My schedule was 27.5 hours per week; pay was 50 cents above minimum wage with time and a half on Sundays. I earned 5.5 hours of holiday pay if I worked either the day before or the day after a major holiday. I earned pro-rated vacation time so was able to take an occasional day off with pay. Customer service was key. Exchanges were accepted with no questions asked if the item was anywhere in our stock database. Condition of the item and receipt were irrelevant. If a customer was unhappy with our merchandise we took it back. Period. The money I earned at Sears went into my college savings. When I graduated from high school, my department leaders threw me a nice party. In short, my time at Sears was one of my happiest teen memories.
@1ujj See I always think that's horrible when someone says something like that. I don't think most have the nerve to say something to me like that as they know I will respond back......such poor manners so many have these days.
My time at Sears goes back nearly 50 years. Every department had a full time manager. Most of the store help was full time. A large chunk of the stores sales were from employees
All had a living wage .
When stores opened on Sunday's, the hook was double time.
There were 3 building maintenance men per store. They actually maintained the store rather than moving departments around helping to downsize the payroll.
Auditing departments , customer service, credit departments and cashiers were in store.
Computerization eliminated those departments . Even the PBX operators disappeared.
Departments combined. Job duties expanded .
Subsidiary companies ( i.e. Allstate, Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker) were formed and then quickly spun off . And off the stores footprint.
Maintenance depts shrunk to two men, then one, then the QMT program shipped out a bunch. And left the stores with a second tier wage PMT or third tier FSA. Translation- you get what you pay for.
Full time long term employees became an endangered species. Most long term ones were bought out, others were " helped" out the door.
Which brings us to the point where I left. Handwriting was on the wall. The ones below me thought they had the gold key to the crapper. After an honest conversation with someone from Hoffman Estates, I decided to pull the plug . Sears was dying.
Shortly after that, the company was purchased by Kmart. To say I'm amazed that 13 years later it's still around is an understatement.
Started at Kmart 15 years ago, the job s---ed, but the women, damn the young women our SM would hire. OMG, just amazing. He left his wife and ran off with one of them, went to Walmart in the next town over.
I miss those days...
Up until 30 years ago, Sears paid time and a half every Sunday in our store....Commission folks in D/9 and 71 earned base hourly raises each year and made commission on top of that.
Appliances and Electronics were full of associates dressed in suits and ties and earned a very good living.
We closed for New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.....Associates were encouraged by their bosses to apply for higher positions to improve themselves..
1987 was a major turning point in the company....as it was the year that Wal-Mart took away the #1 retailer position from Sears.....and the downward slide accelerated from that point for Sears.
I used to be proud to say I worked at Sears and people would actually say that I must really love my job and that I was lucky to work at Sears. Now i just tell them I work in retail and if they find out I work at Sears they ask me if we are going out of business or they give me some horror story of an experience they had with shopping at Sears or delivery from Sears or Service from Sears. Or worst of all they say, "I haven't been in a Sears in years. are they still in business?"
Agreed...Eddie is awful. How dumb you people are for thinking he gives two sh--s about the company or you. Haha.
What I got for 10 years of Sears a @e service was high blood pressure .no retirement nothing in 401 k.A pure waste of decade
@Qzw0aCC-ena Pretty much this. Eddie knows that neither Sears or Kmart have much of a future in the retail world but he is going to exploit them instead to help line up his stock portfolio and get as much as he can from the stock.
"but he was dumb enough to keep pumping money into it all this time and you got a job out of the deal so I wouldn't be complaining."
He was also dumb enough to waste $6 billion on share buybacks. If he hadn't done this, the loans wouldn't have been necessary. Giving Lampert positive credit for anything here is a stretch.
As for what it was like decades ago at Sears, it was an entirely different reality. Good part time workers were encouraged to take full time jobs (and that's a full 40 hours) with benefits. Cashiers could eventually make 3-4 times the minimum wage. People could advance from store level all the way to VP or even CEO. The company would push for product improvements instead of lower prices.
Treating employees and customers well paid off. Gross profits as a percentage of sales was nearly double what it is today. Sadly the concept of making money by serving the needs of others seems entirely lost on Eddie and his minions. To them it's all about "return on investment" and stock gains. The approach doesn't work in the retail industry, but Eddie seems unable to learn much of anything from experience.
I didn't work that long ago, but I can say from previous workers how the company was much more different. From a guy that worked at Sears for 30 years he said how he saw it change. He said their was raises, chance of advancement, bonuses, party in the holidays. He said little by little everything changed until now the most recent changed the SM in our store basically got rid of all that.
The first time I ever saw the SM he really gave you a cold vibe by body language and the way he talked. I am not saying the SM is the cause of this, but the guy basically made it seem it changed a lot with him their. I felt their could of still been a little good out their for others.
I have heard that their is no chance of raises. Their is and it seem the SM has the final say or actually a big part of it. I have to say this because when we had a cashier lead he never got a raise while minimum wage kept going up. The big reason he didn't get a raise was because the SM didn't like him he wasn't a s--- up. Funny thing is later on a girl applied for coordinator for jewelry and it was rumored she got a raise so lots of favoritism out their.
I just speak of what I heard it seems before their was a lot of more happy employees environment was better now you just go to work unhappy going for your pay check either waiting to find another job or ending it when the company finally goes under.
When I started 30 years ago the quality/competency of the managers and employees was so much higher. I quit a couple years ago but over the preceding 10 years it was just staggering to watch the caliber of employees that paraded through the doors (managers included). The work ethic of so many of these people was non existent, and their morals s---ed too (not such a good thing in a commission department like appliances). Probably a reflection on society as a whole, with the advent of the millenial generation. I hate to say it but I grew embarrassed of my "coworkers".
Lol..Eddie saved Kmart..ok...Just saying how things changed.Guess somethings right for staying so long..
If it wasn't for Eddie, KMart would have been toast at the first bankruptcy. You should be thanking him for having your job all this time.
Dude obviously has no clue how to run a retail company, but he was dumb enough to keep pumping money into it all this time and you got a job out of the deal so I wouldn't be complaining.
Over 20 years here at Kmart. Wow Have things changed. No raises..no Sunday pay..paid birthdays..recognition breakfasts..Christmas parties..No match 401k..The morale is so bad..Store looks like crap..Layouts behind, pricing never done..stockroom full of junk..Time to end this pony show. So sad how things have changed, for the worse.....Thanks Eddie!!
35 yrs ago I interviewed at Sears and was told I probably wouldn't fit in their culture. I landed working for 2 of the largest private companies in the WORLD & retired 18 yrs ago as a millionaire
Thank you Sears for giving me a life 😍
35 years ago , when I started, the biggest news maker was that Sears and Kmart as competitors, were fighting for the spot of the #1 retailer in the country. I believe for a couple quarters, Kmart surpassed Sears as number 1 back then! That was the biggest thing in the news about these 2 companies. Never believed that Kmart would fall so far, let alone that these 2 companies would ever merge together! Different world back then in 1982!
KMart was debt free because it skated on its obligations in bankruptcy.
Eddie is a piece of sh--. What he is putting the associates through is hell. I have an ASM and a SM who feel like walking out everyday. (I'm a key holder) I couldn't be in their shoes...the district manager comes in and gives them 15 more projects every time he visits. There is no staff at my store. We are upfront ringing all day. We have two trucks that still have to be unloaded. Another one coming. We are behind in layouts, freight, pricing, short dates, everything. When we hire we straight up tell our new associates the deal. Over worked, minimum wage, no raise EVER. I understand y people just say we need to close. Kmart is a sh--ty place to be. I hope Eddie is happy for what he does to his associates. #CloseSearsForever
Sears is a cancer and the worst thing Eddie ever did was but Sears. I dont know how the hell Kmart became the red headed step child but when we bought seats the company was debt free, the stock was at 200 and we had 2000+ stores.
For the Sears side we got yearly raises, Christmas bonuses, didn't work on Easter or Thanksgiving, and got paid for those days. We also had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners catered and if you had 401k the company matched dollar for dollar. Sears was a more family oriented store back then. Their was no harassment about credit, SYW didn't exist and the company actually was pro customer and pro employee. People enjoyed shopping at the store and we had brands people liked to buy. We actually sold Nike shoes in our store before the merger happened. Now fast forward, we have no staff, under manned checkout lines and to many rules and regulations just to buy a simple item.
As a recent Kmart retiree, I can tell you it is completely different now. I was with the company almost 40 years. It used to be fantastic to work there. Generous with raises, more associates and customers than you can imagine... a real mindset of teamwork. Stuff got done. The store looked amazing. You actually felt appreciated. A person doesn't mind giving their all when they are appreciated and rewarded for hard work. On top of that we had FUN. We got Christmas bonuses, birthday gifts, recognition breakfasts, employee of the month got a day off with pay, Christmas parties, doughnut Fridays, picnics, coffee in the break room.... I left because I couldn't stand what was happening.