Five years ago, we published a post called “10 Confessions of a Kmart Manager.” Kmart and all of Sears Holdings Corporation aren’t doing so well right now, so maybe the company has tried to make some changes to draw and keep more customers? No, an anonymous front-line Kmart employee tells us. They have not.

Maybe this employee happens to work in a terrible store or district…but that doesn’t make it okay.

We’re still forced to ask customers to apply for credit cards.

“Employees will apply for the credit cards and take the hit to their credit score just to make our store manager happy. The management doesn’t inform the employees that their [credit] score will take a hit when they are denied, or about the huge fees and giant interest rate that they will be body slammed with if they don’t take the hit.”

We’re forced to get people to use or sign up for Shop Your Way rewards cards in the same way.

“It began that we had to keep our percentages (ie. scanning cards, new sign ups, update information) had to be at 60%, then they raised it to 70%, then they raised to to 75%, then they raised it to 80%. I could understand that growth pattern if the system wasn’t programmed so badly.

The SYWR is fundamentally glitched, they released it several years ago and it has done nothing but freeze computers and frustrate customers with coupons that don’t work, vanishing points, making it impossible to do a direct exchange if the person took advantage of the program and used a coupon or points.

They are slowly working out the bugs. I picture two little nerds trying to fix all the Kmart programming by themselves, much like 3 women handle ALL cash cage questions and issues.”

There are rewards for stores that do well, but only for the bosses.

“Corporate puts out competitions monthly between the other stores to get the numbers up. If our store wins our regional manager gets a $2000 bonus. That’s two and a half months pay for me, I’ve worked there for 6 years.

Similarly, the store manager, all the assistant managers and the FLOOR leads receive a bonus. The service desk and cashiers who actually do all that work for the bonuses don’t even get more hours, or even water bottles in a store you sweat in if you just stand there. There’s 1 fan for 6 registers that the cashiers will fight over.”

My manager hates his customers.

“A few years ago he was training another store manager (he was such an asshole he made our normal asshole look just plain normal) during the holidays. They were looking at a table of jewelry box’s at the very front of the store that were on sale. He proceeds to tell the trainee manager to print out a sign showing all the prices with the different percentages off, then he told him why he needed to make the sign.

He told him this in the front entrance to the store, with people walking in behind him. He insulted every Kmart customer saying that they all at most have a 9th grade education and can’t do the basic math.”

Here are some previous installments in our “Employee Confessions” series:
Best Buy Employee: We’re Not Always Trying To Upsell You Credit Cards And Warranties
Bank Teller: If You Have No Patience And Don’t Listen, Why Should I Feel Sorry For You?
Bleak True Confessions From The Junk Mail Factory
Customer Service Rep: Consumers Need To Take More Responsibility For Their Problems
Don’t Assume All Customer Service Reps With Accents Are Overseas
Best Buy Employee: Pressure To Cram Credit Cards Down Customers’ Throats Now Intensifying

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