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Ah, the joys of retail hell

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  • Ah, the joys of retail hell

    Things are getting pretty bad at the store. If the economy were ever to improve, I believe the hellhole store I work at would see a mass exodus out the doors. The only thing keeping many of us there is the fact that there are no jobs in Michigan. And I mean NO JOBS!

    My store can't keep cashiers. Let's face it, it's probably the worst job in the store. They're paid minimum wage + 15ยข and given just enough hours to keep them under the minimum amount you need to average in order to qualify for paid time off, holiday pay, health care, etc. They keep hiring new cashiers but few of them stay. Just this past Memorial Day weekend, 4 of the last 6 they hired didn't bother to show up for their shifts...and never came back. On Mother's Day weekend, several cashiers quit together and just walked out.

    Management is also now refusing to work around your schedule if you have another job...which most new hires need because they can't survive on 24 hrs/wk at minimum wage. This has forced some of them to quit also.

    Since the cashiers are leaving in droves, there's no one but us peons on the floor to run the checklanes, which we do on a daily basis. It has gotten so bad that the work in my dept is so far behind.

    I have to go up there everyday, sometimes 2-3 times a day, for several hours and so do most of my co-workers. In the meantime, returns pile up by the cartful, fitting rooms fill up with unwanted clothes, price changes don't get down, clearance doesn't get done, stock is continually piling up in the back room because there's not enough time to get it out. There are articles of clothing still hanging on our conveyors in the back that have gone on clearance but no one has time to mark them down and get them out on the floor.

    And what's management's answer? Let's cut hours!

    Now, there are only two people to 'close' at night, one of which is almost always running a lane. Breaks are missed, the dept's trashed and I'm now forced to work 2nd shift one or two nights per week. I've been with this hellhole store for nearly 10 years...I should't have to work 2nd shift, dammit!

    Anyway...

    Everyone is stressed to the breaking point and some are at each other's throats. There are 4 in my dept alone who are so angry with another co-worker that one has filed some sort of claim with the union against another, and the other two harrass each other on a daily basis. Saturday night they had a terrible argument in front of the manager. (I was gone by the time it happened) The manager pulled them aside and 'talked' to them about their attitudes.

    But then tonight (Sunday) it got so bad between these last two that I really thought punches would be thrown. One of them even said to the other, "Just stay away from me or I will kill you."

    I think I believe her.

    I asked them to calm down and go to seperate areas to work. I left shortly after this happened so I hope they survived the night. The manager is gone for a week.

    Yeah, it's fun going to work these days.
    Retail Haiku:
    Depression sets in.
    The hellhole is calling me ~
    I don't want to go.

  • #2
    You live in MI? It think I worked for the store that you work for. Sounds like that major chain that is trying to be the next Walmart. Does it start with an M? If it's what I'm thinking of I worked there LITERALLY 3 days, when they kept trying to get me to stay late when they KNEW I had to work my other job in a few hours (I was working 3rd shit there) I walked off. First and only time I've ever done that.

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    • #3
      Wow, when I first began reading your post, I thought you were talking about where I used to work, another place that's trying to become the next Walmart, but it starts with a T. It had gone so downhill in the last few years I was there that I dreaded going to work everyday. But I, too, couldn't leave because there was nowhere else to go.
      "So, let's build a snowman! We can make him our best friend. We can name him Bob or we can name him Beowulf! We can make him tall, or we can make him not so tall!"

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      • #4
        Quoth searssoulslave View Post
        (I was working 3rd shit there)
        Why do I think this was NOT a typo?
        Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end.

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        • #5
          I'd say it sounds like either of those two places given recent experiences around here.

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          • #6
            Quoth Primer View Post
            Why do I think this was NOT a typo?
            LOL! It actually was but gotta love the kind that lend themselves into the perfect pun!

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