@circles wrote:
@Meowingkitty wrote:
That's what happens when minimum wage went up to $10.00 - $15.00 an hour. The stores can't afford to pay people to stand around and do nothing but yap and fold shirts, so I'm sure they either let them go or have them work when the store is busier. I've noticed that it's like a ghost town in almost all department stores. When you want help you can't find it, when you don't want help you have to chase them off with a stick.
I haven't Mall shopped in several years...even back then it was difficult to find a sales person to help you...and that was way before minimum wage went up...it was annoying as heck to search out an assistant or to have to walk way back to the cashier or front counter to have someone called then have to walk back to where you were...and many times no one showed up anyway....thats when i started online shopping exclusively..
I don't feel sorry for stores that are closing...its their own fault..i feel sorry for the help...though its part of their fault for being lazy..and unhelpful...
It really makes me sad, as a former JCP sales associate who lost my job due to my store closing, to be labeled as "lazy and unhelpful" and have part of the blame for that store closing laid on my "lazy, unhelpful" shoulders. I assure you, our store did not close because we were a "lazy, unhelpful" sales team. The dynamics of a retail store succeeding or failing is far more complicated than that.
There were many days, as our store struggled to succeed, that I ran an entire department alone for a full eight hour shift. I was responsible for being at the register ringing up customer's purchases, taking online orders for merchandise not in stock, retrieving customer's online orders that came in, answering the phones and servicing the phone customer's needs, keeping the counters free of returned items and other clothing, reticketing merchandise, helping customers on the sales floor, cleaning out the fitting rooms, sorting those clothes onto racks and then putting them back on the sales floor, straightening, folding and organizing tables and racks, picking up clothes thrown on the floor and on top of racks and putting out new merchandise...by myself.
Did every one of those chores get accomplished during the course of the day? Of course not. Most days were spent at the register helping the customers in line and answering the phones. Did I feel bad when the fitting rooms were full of clothes because I spent the last four hours at the register and couldn't get back there? Of course. Did I feel bad when the register was finally free from customers and I literally ran to the fitting room, and had to pass by clothes tossed on the floor and thrown over the racks and pass by tables in disarray? Of course. No time to do more than scoop up the fitting room clothes, toss them in the cart and run back to the customers who were now in line waiting to check out. Did I feel bad when, at the same time, I had customers on hold on both phones, customers on the floor asking for help and six customers in line waiting to check out, while I was alone at the register on the computer trying to find a piece of merchandise online for the customer in front of me? Of course.
Did I ever, for one moment, feel "lazy and unhelpful"? Never! Was I thankful that I didn't have my hours cut and was the one they trusted to come in to work alone every day and make the most of a bad situation? You betcha!
I came to work every day and counted my blessings, right up until the last day. We were a great team and we walked out on the last day with our heads held high, knowing we gave it our best.
This kind of bad situation in stores (poor staffing, sales floor in disarray, etc.) are the result of decisions made at the corporate level. Trust me, no retail store manager would choose to run a store like that. Just like at home, you are given a budget and you have to make it work with the resources you have been given. To put the blame for the failure of a store and it's closing on the shoulders of the store associates who do not make those decisions boggles my mind. Those who label retail workers as "lazy and unhelpful" should walk a mile in retail shoes. I promise you, the view is different from the other side of the counter.
Retail workers don't get much respect and stereotypes abound. Did I ever work with "lazy, unhelpful" people? Yes, I did. I'm sure most of you have, as well. People who are lazy by nature will be lazy, whether they are retail workers, office staff, UPS drivers or government workers.
Sorry for for the long winded rant but I just hate being stereotyped. Kindness and understanding will take a person a long way. I know, it's part of what made me so successful in my job working with the public.
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