Thread regarding Sears layoffs

You have a responsibility to turn in safety health issues. You want disease in your store?

I went through the downsizing phase of Sears maintenance before the QMT program .

Those of us that "made the cut"as QMTs were kept busy with non-maintenance tasks like moving departments around. A secondary layer of semi-skilled maintenance was formed , but the majority of those folks that were any good moved on to higher paying maintenance jobs that really involved building maintenance. Not playing musical chairs with end caps and registers.

There were several layers of management at that time , clinging to those moves as the foundation of their careers. When you added up all the salaries and overhead involved in a move, plan-o-gram or not, no one took into account the salaries of those calling for the moves.

Or the cost of the labor.(which when pulled from their real job of maintaining the building, was considered "free")

Or the cost of materials. Or the labrynth maze of internal purchasing, which materials often cost more than a regular retail outlet.

Or the effect of a move on the store's electric or HVAC load.

Or violations of building codes not taken into consideration.(or ignored)

Building maintenance was secondary .

Only real impact to the organization was downsizing the help on the sales floor and sales support.

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IN reality, the competition beat Sears in price and volume in stores that were cookie cuttered in layout.

And that was proven before the Internet became popular.

When the Internet came......the Internet just took it to the next level.

You are all reaping the benefits of that lack of any forward vision, 25 years later.

The "green-screen" that you see MPU or store management use is actually a mainframe system (old-fashioned centralized computing). The mainframe computer is located at headquarters; it is about as big as a large refrigerator. Every store has access to this system for inventory and transactional purposes. It is pretty old as it dates back to the 1970s (the software anyways) but it works.

To be fair, a lot of companies still use mainframe systems--especially banks. At my store, we access this system through a modern Windows desktop PC with a special software program. I would hope that stores aren't still using the actual 1980s "green-screen" terminals that you see in movies. I have a couple of these stored away in a closet in my store that have been hiding back there for some time.

I don't know if this is the case for other stores but the POS systems in my store are the IBM SurePOS (circa 2000-2004). They look old but they aren't from the 1980s or the early '90s like everyone seems to believe. Equipment that old would not be able to run the software necessary to keep payment card and other customer information (e.g. Shop Your Way, credit inquiry) secure. From what I've seen, these seem to be consistently present throughout the rest of the company. Still, these POS systems are very outdated from a technological standpoint.

In my experience the hardware is relatively reliable given its age. It's just the godforsaken touchscreen software that SHC cobbled together. I don't know how many help tickets I've had to open ever since the touchscreen interface was rolled out to the store. Coincidentally, the registers lock up a lot more frequently ever since the "upgrade" took place. SHC IT isn't really useful with resolving issues, they just shoot off a reply along the lines of "did you reboot?" with no regard to the long wait times that customers would have to go through if we're busy. Once in a while I will get a third-party tech (NCR) to come to my store. They walk out without fixing anything because it's the software!

Fortunately, the Sears/Kmart POS systems are running a modified Linux operating system which is quite secure and have been for quite some time. It may not be fast or stable because Linux (or any other modern, up-to-date operating system) won't function all that well on 15-year-old hardware.

The QMT's installed those registers in the early 90's.

How about the store software? IS yours as old as ours. Ours is from the 1990's according to some of the older people that work with me. I wasnt around back then. This stuff looks like what I see in the movies from that time.

When you walk into my Sears store from the mall entrance there is such a difference in temperatures that you can feel the cold air pouring out of the store in the winter and in the summer the heat hits you in the face when you walk in the doorway,no wonder people do not want to try clothes on. Sometimes I would actually go out of our store into other close by stores just to try and get warm ,there are only so many layers you can wear,some associate never take their coats off, I often wonder what customers must think when they see sales associates wearing coats and gloves on the sales floor. We have had customers ask why we are running the air conditioning in the winter.

Allegedly, our air conditioning works but it has never kicked on so I can't be sure of that. Our thermostats are set at 80 deg F for cooling, so our store is hot but will not be hot enough for the air conditioning to kick on.

We can technically set the temperature on the thermostats as they have an override option. However, it all stops there: the rule is that corporate controls the temperature and store management cannot touch them under any circumstance. If you are a store manager/ASM, do not get tempted and touch them or your head will roll. A store manager in my district was in deep trouble for overriding the thermostat to get the temperature down to something more bearable As a result, there was a $500 increase in her store's monthly electric bill.

As far as things breaking/not working in my store, I've had very little issues. Old, worn equipment? You bet, but my district QMT is excellent at keeping things on track and getting things fixed when they break. Even still, there's only so much fixing that can be done until it's time to call it good and replace things.

Overall, I feel kind of jealous when I shop at a competitor's location and the fixtures are newer and in good condition and the temperature is nice and cool. I even envy the staffing levels they seem to have. As a result, customers are getting service, shelves are being stocked and the salesfloor and/or aisles are tidy.

The store I worked in was becoming dangerous. Yes, the roof leaked and the drop panel ceiling tiles absorbed the water. At times, we would have to replace tiles because they would become soggy and collapse. Luckily, no one was ever struck by one of these falling tiles when it did collapse. There were issues everywhere, inside and out. Working in uncomfortable sweaty conditions during the summer months was common. I could go on and on with very specific things but I won't.

mold can be called to health department anomalously? we'd be shut down. the vents pick it up (when they are on) and it goes through out the store. horrible

Wow its at other stores too? I thought our store was just an exception! At the Sears store I work at when it rains the water leaks through the roof and soaks into the ceiling tiles. When its really bad we have to put out bucks to catch the water. Doesn't look very good to members, but at least the clothing is on the ground floor so only tools and appliances upstairs get wet!

The winter set point is 65 degrees for heating and summer set point is 75 degrees cooling on the sales floor only when the store is open for customers ( I hated calling customers members and I never did). All associate areas are 60 heating (even on the dock with the door open) and 78 cooling. Night set back is 55 heating and 78 cooling in all areas. This was sent direction from corporate for all Sears and Kmart stores. I bet Eddies office is just right even when he's not there.

This seems the same in most Sears,we have not had heat during winter months for years,in the summer there is no air conditioning, customers are always asking why it is so cold in the store in the winter, and so hot in the summer,when it rains it rains into the store in certain areas ,recently toilet paper is at a premium in the ladies room,there are no associates doing any kind of maintenance in the store at all. What a shame the stores have become.

You need to call the Health Dept about the mold and you need to call OSHA about the forklift. You can call both of them Anonymously. Now that you know about these issues and fail to act then you are just as guilty as Sears Holdings if someone gets sick, hurt or killed. I was a QMT and did the building maintenance until my job was cut the first of March. There were QMT's cut all across the country.

Gee, why are sales dropping? People love to shop in poorly maintained stores with no HVAC!