Most people consider Kmart’s merger with Sears the marriage from hell. It should come as no surprise that this sinking chain is leaving thousands of upset customers and employees in its wake, which perhaps explains a letter we received marked “10 Confessions” from a person identifying his/her self as a Kmart manager. The confessions, inside…
“I’ve been reading the Consumerist for a long time and I absolutely love it. I’d like to provide some insight about my job, as a manager at Kmart, and what I’ve learned about the company since the merger.”
1. The cashiers and service desk people are not properly trained.
The turnover in this area is astronomical, and we usually stick them out there with little to no training. So when they don’t know about prices, sales, special offers, or even how to deactivate EAS tags, it’s not their fault; they probably don’t know any better.
2. We have a very small budget.
This is why you can never find anyone in a Kmart. The few employees you may encounter are running around, trying to put out product, marking things down, and resetting counters. Customer service should be the most important thing, but it rarely is.
3. The mystery shop is king.
Our bonuses, raises, and pretty much everything else are dependent on our mystery shop scores, not how many complaints we get or how hard we work.
4. No one gets their performance review anymore.
The store manager is, in so many words, instructed to not rate people too highly because they would get raises, and the company can’t afford that. So the manager rates them a 2 out of 5, skips the review part of the process, and the employee gets nothing. It’s not about their actual performance. It’s all about saving money.
5. We still don’t know what to do with your stimulus check.
We got an email around the time of the press release, and a few flyers, but we would probably give you a blank stare if you came in with your check and wanted your 10% extra. A black hole exists between corporate and the front line managers, through which little information passes.
6. When you call the 800 number, you’re talking to an outsourced call center employee.
They email your complaint to the store manager, who probably already talked to you before you left the store. You will never talk to a district manager or someone in corporate. So you might as well take the 10% discount we give you in the store for complaining, because you won’t get anywhere with the number.
7. We hate Sears just as much as you do.
When we have to call them, they are just as rude to us as they are to you. There is no corporate culture, no meeting of the minds…and we can’t use our employee discount at 90% of their stores.
8. Sears credit cards are HORRIBLE.
Corporate pushes them on us and sends us nasty emails when we don’t get so many applications per customer. We are forced to ask you to fill one out. Upper management and the cashier receive a (very) small commission on every approved application, but the only reason we ask is because we have to.
9. The stores are dirty because they don’t give us money
…to replace fixtures, the leaking ceiling, the horrible bathrooms, or even decent cleaning supplies. We scrub shelfs with window cleaner because we aren’t allowed to order new fixtures or take anything off the shelf that might actually clean anything. That costs money, you see.
10. Corporate just restructured the Loss Prevention position.
Most of our security personnel, who had been with the company for years, were terminated. This is a huge liability problem for our employees and our customers. Expect higher prices in the future as people steal us blind.
Hope this helps,
A Very Disgruntled Manager
(Photo: Getty)
@quail: I worked on one of those stores. Great summer job for a high school kid or hell even a college kid. I think it was 12 bucks an hour for 30 hours a week.
of course the money was all for booze and smokes and what not. nothing good came of it. And the store that I worked at was gone in a couple of years. pretty funny.
They also make/made the employees call the managers Mr. and Ms. Headinass or whatever.
When I was in highschool, I worked at a Kmart part time. It was a very lonely and boring job. I often was told to clean my keyboard with a q-tip and alcohol, but not even that could take away the stains of time. I also learned that our Kmart had only one security guard, and she was never there. In our training video, it was stressed that security personnel were the only people allowed to stop a shop lifter. You could watch someone stick something down their pants, and you were not allowed to say anything. I let all of my friends know.
KMart was my first “real” job, and at first it was ideal for the simple fact that it was not food service. But the only training I got was “Don’t Steal Stuff” and after about a month my poor, sensitive, 16-year-old self couldn’t deal with the horrible customers.
@backbroken: That’s what I thought. I could have sworn K-mart went out of business like 4 or 5 years ago. I haven’t seen one in Houston for at least that long.
#6 is true about most customer service centers. No one handles their own customer service lines anymore.
My last encounter with a mystery shopper left me with a huge grin on my face. He reported back that I was in my twenties! I’m 39! lol!
hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaha And this is news why?
Sounds like somebody’s goin’ CompUSA!
Four years. I worked at Kmart (One of the flagship stores for that matter) for four years. Every single thing the article says is true. Ever since the merger it has become terrible. I quit last October. During my 4 years I was tossed all over the place when all I wanted was to be where I knew what I was doing. Electronics. I was made Electronics Manager at one point. But after 8 months they decided to secretly train a replacement, demote me to register jockey and put him in my place. Eventually he got taken to CVS by a friend who also went there and left them without a manager. At that point they tossed people in all the time who knew NOTHING about Electronics all the while I would be on registers. You know, because the best place to put your most knowledgable person is not in the department he is knowledgable in. That would actually make sense.
The owner of Sears and Kmarts just bought them for the property. Nice locations and low property values made them a steal. Its all sad for the employees and the shoppers.
I know of a person who has worked at a k mart for the past 32 years that was fired today because of a new manager. Said manager made up lies and what not and this person, who has been a loyal employee there for 32 years, lost his job, his benefits because of a miserable manager which is rumored to want a relative or friend to get this job. Its not right, that a new manager can come in and after a person has been there for that long, dismiss him on one person’s decision.
I just love my job at k-mart, I get to clean stuff all the time, cook, use my wonderful customer service skills, only downfall the lazy ass that I work with sometimes, thinks shes a boss, and leaves for extended periods of time, doesn’t clock in and out when she takes off for her extended periods of time, and shows up late, when Im coming in on my day off to help her ass out. Yup, theres always a few people got to make it worse for the people that will bust their ass. The place is a dead-zone. funniest thing in the bathroom stall it says Walmart is better. lol Probably is but I waited 30 minutes in their deli line. Dont have to wait that long at the one I work at.
my brother talked to the labor board out it indiana because some of his follow employees told him not to let this manager get away with his actions, the labor board said Indiana is about the only state where its ok for a place not to give you a break or lunch hours, so basically they can treat you however they please and this same kmart just fired six other people in the past week, I will never shop at one again
well, kmart is still causing problems for friend that was let go after 32 years. manager that fired him is slanding his name all over the town where he lives making it difficutl for him to get a job and said person who did the firing apparently wanted that job because he now has that job. Why are people allowed to get away with this kind of stuff. Friend did call the main office and complained.
same person that lost his job after 32 years, and now manager’s relative in his twenties is now working there. Person was denied unemployment reason misconduct. As everyone in the store said it was a setup deal to get other person in. No wonder kmart is turned into a mess with managers like that. Said person is not able to find a job because manager is spreading the lies all over town. So he will probably lose his home next and then his car. I hope this manager can sleep at night because a person is going to become homeless because of his lies and actions
Just wanted to add one more comment, that the manager that fired my brother just got fired himself from the coporate bosses, hopefully now my brother will beable to get his unemployment, manager that caused all the trouble also lied to the employment office stating that he allowed my brother to keep his medical insurance and other things which he did not. Sure hope they turn him down for unemployment. I guess every so often there is some justice in the world for the good people
I actually work at a K-mart store in upstate New York. I am the menswear, kidswear, and infants lead. Yes, you heard right. I would just like to say that this article is the absolute truth. Our budget is constantly getting cut because we dont have good sales, but yet there are few employees around to help achieve corporate’s goals. And yet our store added a home appliances section… why would they do this if sales were so horrible… by all means this does not make sense. It is not just corporate that’s to blame but sometimes assocaites in the store who are completely in it for themselves. If this business is to succeed we have to help eachother. And management has to realize this, our budget gets cut and yet all the same pressure is on the leads of each department when they have nobody to help them. As a confession I would like to say that i worked my way up the ladder around the store and here’s what kind of pressure i face in a day. There is the ding-dong of the fitting room bell constantly because we have to keep it locked to prevent theft. Then there is the code 1000 to layaway or jewelry when there is nobody there to cover it. I have also on many ocassions covered the service desk, as well as ring at checkouts and assist the customers. And by all means I am not the only associate facing the problem… one lead in the store is constantly called for stock calls and still expected to get his work done. Most associates will help out each other but others are in it for themselves. Not just the associates are over worked and underpaid our managers are the same. I have seen some of our managers stay at the store from open to close and be the only manager on the entire sales floor. So let me close this simply by saying that in order for this chain to succeed we have to work together to develop a solutions to this gruesome dilemma.
I used to ride the little merry-go-round outside of K-mart when I was little.