So with all these layoffs that just happened in HE, any news about when will there be cuts on the retail side? We know it’s gonna happen soon. Usually around this time of year there are cuts in the stores.
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I think this July they are going to eliminate mostly all the remaining ASM's and make them supervisor (huge hour cut) along with maybe eliminating AP (probably a good cut since APs dont do nothing but walk around) and maybe as I heard before getting rid of the SM and having one SM handle 2 stores (I have 2 stores that are 50 minutes away so it could work in my store).
About the only positions that are "safe", barring a store closure or an eventual shutdown of the entire company, are consultative sales associates, softlines cashiers, store support (backroom), the hardlines and softlines ASMs/zone supervisors and the store manager. That's the bare minimum and although not impossible, I can't fathom any of those positions being cut by and large. The stores are hobbled enough as it is.
However, you need to still watch out for these things if you are someone in the group I described above:
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ASMs - you are at an extremely high chance of being demoted to an hourly supervisor if you are still a salaried manager. You will have to reapply for your position but you will usually move over to the new role. I don't think any ASMs exist at this point in the game but there might be a handful of stores out there with ASM positions.
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Crackdowns on performance, resulting in the lower performers being let go. For those of you who are salespeople or cashiers, step up your game if you want to keep low your chances of this happening to you.
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Reductions - if you have more people in a given department than necessary, like 15 cashiers when it is determined that your store only needs 10, then they might let some of them go, and performance may tie into those decisions.
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Full timers (excluding hourly zone supervisors) - There may be a push to get rid of as many full-time associates as possible through attrition (aka - pushed out, take that as you will).
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More cuts in scheduling/hours - even though this is not a layoff, don't be surprised if hours are heavily reduced, again. Since they've taken just about everything but the bare minimum out of the stores, as far as positions go, it's only natural that scheduling requirements will be reduced.
Now, I do think these positions are in jeopardy: Leads and coordinators of any and all types, operations supervisors and store-level AP associates and supervisors/managers. If you are in any of those positions, I would be prepared for the worst case scenario if the rumors of store-level layoffs turn out to be true.
Because the company has made it clear that it intends to run the stores with the absolute bare minimum, these positions just do not fit in to the equation as they will just have your workloads absorbed by those that survive any additional cuts. The workloads of leads and operations supervisors can be shared between the hardlines and softlines supervisors as well as store manager. In-store AP will just be farmed out to district AP. Many stores are doing all of this already. Is it optimal? No, but the company isn't looking for optimal solutions for anyone working in the stores.
Next cuts will continue to be at HE. I would guess they are going to get HE down to around 500 by years end. Whole departments will be eliminated. Stores will just keep getting hours cut.