The Business Model Is Broken

From a long term employee....the business model that existed 20, 15, 10, even 5 years ago does not exist and it will never be back.

Have you ever walked into a Macys or a CVS and walked away thinking WOW, what an amazing shopping experience! Customer service was great, cleanliness was great, price was great, merchandising was great (ok I will make an exception for Macys at Christmas), etc....NO you haven't!!! You go to these stores for a coupon, sale, or you have no other option. It doesn't matter what happens in the stores or how miserable staff is, stock price above all.

The quicker you learn that JRC only cares about the bottom line and returning shareholder value the better you will be physically and mentally. Macy's and CVS have no staff in their stores, therefore you will never have the staff you want again in your stores. Customer experience is what you decide to do, but if that collides with profit, profit wins. It is hard, but recognize what you are up against. Do something else or stay and do the best you can with what you have... but make the choice and be happy with it. Don't let someone who has never visited your store and will never visit your store determine how your life goes. Life is too short!

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Me too. Only wish I had worked for FSS not Higher Ed. FSS new owners seem to be doing gang busters. Even afforded to keep family member BF on the payroll as a CEO.
But Higher Ed does have the Ivory Tower, better than Google!

As a former employee and a parent who put children through college......I don't care about the "wow" factor. What Follett sells is now a commodity that can be purchased from several other vendors in both brick and mortar or online format. When that happens the only thing that matters is price.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/27/walgreens-cvs-pharmacy-staff-walkouts-what-their-work-days-look-like.html

My store "Had" the wow factor... Up until last May. Sadly, JRC only cares about the $$ . New staff doesn't have a clue and sad to say, store appearance and merchandise standards are no longer a high priority. Oh well, no longer my problem.

Ivory Tower we---e! My store was profitable. My store changed merchandise every month. My store was full of energized staff and customers. JRC changed all that and guess what, sales and profit suffered!

As stated before, accept it (from an employee standpoint) as a job not a career.
Follett values days are over.
JRC values profit for their rich investors NOT each and every associate.
Do your job, go home and love your family, and let the Ivory Tower sweat the failure.
Remember, d-mb looks are always free!

Not looking to argue, but what Follett store had a wow factor the last 5-10 years when it came to merchandising, price, service, cleanliness….this is a retail trend everywhere. The internet changed a lot and our business also has the transition to digital course materials to deal with. But all companies look at the bottom line. Previous Follett leadership did too. We’ve had Portfolio stores for years. We’ve been seeing higher prices and reduced labor for years, well before JRC. Again retail trends. JRC has plenty of warts but you’re making it seem like Follett has been thriving the last 10 years. We weren’t. Still treading water.

Thread regarding Follett layoffs

The Business Model Is Broken

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