K-mart tells a bunch of employees goodbye.

[tposts]

I heard on the local news,K-mart stores in the greater mid Ohio Valley region terminated a bunch of full time employees yesterday and to come back next week and they would talk to them about rehiring some of them as part time,no insurance etc...sounds like the company is still struggling even after buying Sears. I noticed before Christmas even out in the country 8 miles from the nearest K-mart they had posted signs along the road,advertising a 30% off sale kind of reminance of campaign signs for politicians. Looked to me like a desperate attempt to get the customers in the stores. We have a Krogers grocery store in the same parking lot of K-mart and it looks to me like Kroger's has more buisiness than K-mart.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

My wifes sister is a K-Mart employee. They've been in the midst of "down-sizing" for some time now. We live south and east of Louisville Kentucky. There's been a good number of K Marts closed already. Some were shut down 7 or 8 years ago.

Too much competition.

I sure hope they don't drag Sears under when they go.

 

[kenmac]

K- Mart had their chance to give excellent customer service B-4 Wal-Mart came about. They choose to give poor customer service- advertising items in the paper that they new they didn't have in the store, hoping you would buy something else when you came in. I hate it for some of the employees ( I say some because some need to go) that K-Mart is going down ,but they did it to their self . I haven't been a K-Mart in 5 yrs because the way I was treated by one of their employees. I called the main office to file a complaint against the employee & they said someone would call me back. I'am still waiting on that call.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Ken,
There is no doubt in my mind that you indeed did get bad service from one employee in one store, but I think its unfair to make a blanket statement that all K-Mart customer service is terrible, and that they did it to themselves, meaning K-Mart as a whole. I have gotten bad customer service from just about any type of store on occasion, but at other times there was no problem.

I feel sorry for anyone who loses his or her job, but honestly these people are not making much money to speak of to begin with. There may be a blessing in disquise, in the fact that those affected indiviguals can obtain a better job elsewhere.

This type of retail business, as best as I can observe from the outside, is difficult at best and unfortunately the employees are the ones who get hurt.

scotty

 

[PitbullMidwest]

If poor customer service is an indicator that your business is doomed, WalMart would have been out of business years ago.

 

[Bird]

Scotty, I agree that you certainly do not want to make a blanket statement about all the K-Mart employees, but there has definitely been some problems with management. When I bought my place in the country 11 years ago, the only Walmart was one of the old stores with no groceries and only open in the daytime. And across the street was a Super K-Mart, groceries and all, open 24 hours a day. It was also the closest grocery store to us. But we had to watch very closely when purchases were being "rung up" at the cash register because they very frequently rang up at a higher price than the posted price. And I don't mean occasionally; I mean nearly every time we shopped there. And many neighbors had already learned about that and had the same experience. IF you caught the error, they would change it. But even when we told the manager about specific items, and he apologized, and said he would get it changed in their computer, he didn't do it. I told him about specific items that he said he would correct, then went back a week later to find the same error.

In addition to the Super K-Mart store, K-Mart also had one of their major distribution warehouses in that town, and was a major employer for the city. Well, first they started closing the store at night, then they closed the warehouse and threw a lot of good people out of work, but told the employees that the store would remain, but then they finally closed up the store. Who was at fault? I don't know. I'm sure they had some good and some not so good employees, but management failed somewhere.

 

[gsganzer]

One of the closest stores to us, making it the most convenient, was a KMart. We never shopped there though, we always drove an extra five or so miles to a Walmart or other store. When it closed the other year, my wife and I tried to think of why we never shopped there. My wife's biggest peeve was that the aisles were too narrow and it made her claustrophobic and uncomfortable. I do recall the stores feeling somewhat chaotic and old style inside. I don't know why I never went there, just poor advertising I guess.

 

[Phils]

K-Mart will tell employees up to the last day that their store "isn't closing". My wife worked for one that closed. The auto shop manager "proved" they weren't going to close that store because the company was installing all brand-new lifts. But, shortly after the lifts were installed (along with other new stuff in the auto shop) the store was closed.

Must've been some write-off or some other reason to invest heavily in a store that'll be closed.

Phil

 

[GeneD14]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I feel sorry for anyone who loses his or her job, but honestly these people are not making much money to speak of to begin with. There may be a blessing in disquise, in the fact that those affected indiviguals can obtain a better job elsewhere.

This type of retail business, as best as I can observe from the outside, is difficult at best and unfortunately the employees are the ones who get hurt.

)</font>
AMEN!

Kmart failed to change with the times. Not only were there stores laid out retro-1970's but there Corp Headquarters in Michigan was to far gone. I talked with a lawyer that helped negotiate the deal with Sears and he said that he was totally shocked when he went to the main Kmart Head Office. A large % of employees still refused to use a computer for even very labor intensive activiities like: invoicing, accounts payable, etc... He said there were desks everywhere with piles of paper forms and documents that were waiting to be manually processed. He said that even if Sears had not come along that Kmart was on the verge of a magor overhaul.
Having lived through corp. restructing I really feel sorry for the employees...they are people.

 

[kenmac]

Scotty, I also hate to see anyone loose their job, that's why I didn't make a blanket statment about all employees. I said some not all employees,& yes, you have that select few at every store & managment should weed out those select few. I agree that Wal-Mart is the same. In the begining Wal- Mart gave better customer service than they do now.If a new discount store came to town & offered better service,Wal- Mart would start to see problems. I can remember when Home Depot came to our town, they had employees everywhere asking if they could help you. Now that they are up & going, you have a hard time finding someone to help you.I guess it's the American way these days to get bad customer service. If & when I get the option to shop places that give good customer service I do.If I'am spending my hard earned money , if not excellent,at the least, I expect a good cust. service.