Thread regarding Sears layoffs

@1ibq The Kmart cheerleader sustains his denial by thinking that every closure will be the last - now they've finished getting rid of the bad locations and the company is exactly the right size. Oh, another closure already? Now it's the right size. etc etc

@TpEWZpz-dwi LMAO can't believe your manager actually thinks this is all fake news. The stores are closing how is that fake. Walmart and Amazon are just the giants in today's. Sears was once in the top leagues now its just trying to survive as much as it can since the end is coming soon.

I was going to wait for unemployment and take a 6 month vacation because that day is coming but hours kept getting fewer and fewer so unemployment would have been less than what I would have received if I got laid off even 2 years ago. The manager left and we got sneaky Mr. Sears who is corporate on the outside but a true snake on the inside. When it was announced that hours were getting cut further for the holiday season, I knew it was time to go. Still work in retail so I'm working nights, holidays & weekends at not great pay but I am relieved to not worry constantly about losing my job. If I mess up bad, I might get fired but it feels more in my control. It's a relief.

Everyone from HE (where I used to work) to the store level knows that SHC is doomed and for the most part we don't care about anything. the only ones who still care are the ones who drink the kool-aid or who are too blind to see the end.

I now work at store level. My manager, bless her heart, still thinks that Kmart/Sears is the #1 retailer in the world. She constantly tells us that SHC makes more than Amazon and Walmart and the the media is just posting fake news about SHC. She has worked for Kmart/Sears since she was 15 and has never had another job so I can sorta understand. She isnt the only one in our store. Most old timers, 20 years plus, belive the same thing. the rest of us are looking for other jobs or are just waiting for the end

@fwh - I totally agree. Sears, Roebuck and Co., aka the "real Sears" was gone as soon as Kmart Holdings merged with us, and the old ways were put to pasture in favor of some kind of weird Ayn Randian contraption that does one job and does it well, and that is to keep customers away.

It's little things like forcing us consultative people to ring our sales on the iPad (and then move it to the register to finalize it), causing an extremely long wait time and frustration for not on!y the salesperson, but the customer (but-but-but it provides a WOW member experience!). It's things like the fact that a customer can't get the help he or she needs with their defective/broken product and has to wait weeks for a repair, and no we won't take it back and exchange it because it's outside of the 30 day return policy. It's things like pushing out the knowledgeable associates who care in favor of anyone with a heartbeat and the ability to breathe, who passively ask customers what they want and answer their questions by reading the features/benefits card or by responding "I dunno" .

There's more ways Sears pushes its customer base away but I'm sure we are all too familiar with the ways the do it.

@eez "watch/clock repair", wow! My store never had that, or it was way before my time if they did. Everything is so disposable these days. :-( It did have portrait studio, optical, and hearing aids, all gone for years.

I got out of Sears earlier this year after 27 years with the company and moved on to another company....I was hanging on hoping for a miraculous turnaround of the company and finally came to the conclusion that the company is just too far gone to save.....The mood and morale in the store became absolutely depressing.

@ztm I think it all depends on your department. We have a really good guy in charge of our department, so there are promotions/raises with promotions still. Of course you have to be promoted, for the most part, to get raises. I think it's normal for people to look regardless. I have looked but actually find that Sears pays pretty well in the scheme of things.....so I will keep working as long as I have a job. Our working conditions are fine....nothing wrong at all with them so nothing to complain about there.

I used to work at corporate. It got bad after about 2014 but I stayed 2 more years. People were getting promoted but it had nothing to do with quality of work. I got no raise or promotion for years. I finally left at the end of 2016. My salary went up 20k. I heard from a friend that still works there that they tried to hire 1 level up to do my old job and nobody on the team could do it. Not that there is real work being done over there anymore. Mostly nothing gets done except a little for show. There was some business as usual but the part I did no longer gets done.

@TpEWZpz-eez - Treasure the memories of what your store was! I started working for a Sears store in my hometown while in high school. It was the greatest job, my colleagues became true friends, and the store threw a graduation party for us! People actually wanted to shop there. Angry customers cooled off when we invoked our policy of "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" for anything we sold, no receipt needed. I came back to Sears years later and found a company that looked for new ways to drive EVERYONE away on a daily basis. The name "Sears" may survive online or in a different retail format, but the fun and pride of being part of the true Sears Roebuck & Co. is long gone.

I saw the writing on the wall and left Sears in 2013 when my full-time position ( 37 hours/week) as the HR person/office manager was reduced to part-time ( < 20 hours/week ). Years prior, our store was fully staffed and profitable; 3 floors including an optical center, watch/clock repair, portrait studio, Lands End shop and auto center, but corporate fired Jim, our Store Manager, because they didn't like the way he ran the store. Jim didn't do things by the book, he ran the store as if it was his own. He let the ASM's run their own promotions to drive traffic/sales. We had store picnics, Christmas parties, catered lunches on Saturday's, sales/credit app contests between departments, goofy hat day, etc.... we were a family. Jim was replaced by some dunce who worked previously as the manager of a Chuckie Cheese. He was in way over his head and spent most of the time in his office with the door closed. When he was on the floor, everything was run the "Sears way". Metrics such as credit app's, SYW and PA's in appliance/electronics were his number one concern, gone were the picnic's, parties, contests, lunches, etc. Hour's were cut, ASM's were let go or demoted to associates, commissions were reduced ( because the people in tools, appliances and electronics were making too much money) The store was put out of its misery and closed in 2015, the building is still sitting vacant. There is no turn-around, Lampert will strip Sears of all its assets and then file for Bankruptcy... its only a matter of time.

I think the kmart cheerleader is a paid PR person. Huge waste of money as well, since they aren't convincing anyone.

With the exception of the infamous 'Kmart cheerleader', who I think is just an overenthusiastic customer rather than an employee, I don't think anyone who still believes in a turnaround is on this site for very long. Either seeing the information here changes their belief, or they stop looking at the site out of fear that it will change their belief.

Everyone!!!!!!!!!!