I'd sign up for any handcuffs anyone wants me to wear just for the promise of working somewhere decades.Imagine working for decades with the promise of a pension and then it evaporates. Golden handcuffs are sometimes just plain old handcuffs.
Yea but when retail employment craters it's really going to be ugly out there.
Trees don't grow on money
I was last in a Sears store 10 years ago (just did the math, grandson was 9). DD had asked me to pick up 3 pairs of pants for him that were on sale starting that day, store being on my way home and a trek for her. I got in the store about 6:20, having stopped to indulge in mall food for dinner. I found the boys pants and his size quickly, then began the search for a cashier. I walked the entire store, no employees at all. After about 25 minutes I decided to forget it, laid the pants down on a counter and started out the door back into the mall. To my great surprise, it was locked and the alarm went off!! Mall security arrived very quickly, and they called local PD, per procedure if someone is locked inside a store.
I explained that I was trying to buy pants for my grandson, somehow got locked inside, and it was only just then a few minutes before 7 on a weekday, and the mall was (supposed to be) open until 9!! PD couldn't reach any Sears personnel either! All this time, I was still eyeing the pants I was supposed to buy for DGS, the officer asked how I was going to pay for them, when I told him Cash, he said, "OK, here, you take the pants, we'll leave the cash here with PD phone number." He took my information, apologized for the inconvenience and sent me on my way.
How Sears has survived the 10 years since then is a mystery to me. And that location still is not on the closure list!
I worked PT at Sears briefly, one Christmas. I had to pass a rigorous (retail fitness?) test to land employment. I suppose I rated "honest and trustworthy" because they assigned me to fine jewelry. I loved the CIA-level testing for a minimum-wage job, but hey. Shortly after that I got a major upgrade at my primary employer, so I happily resigned.Originally Posted by mschrisgo2
Fast forward many years, I ventured into a Sears to buy some home improvement stuff (the only products I ever bought there--such lackluster stock--ho hum). I stood in line for what seemed a long time, and when it was finally my turn, the cashier turned me away and told me to go upstairs to the credit office. I'm sure everyone in line thought I was delinquent or wanted for theft or something. Foolishly I obeyed--I should have just left--only to find that I needed to be checked out as legit since I hadn't used my credit card for some time. Are you kidding me? I think that was the last time I set foot in one of their stores. They are a textbook example of how not to manage everything from choosing stock to customer relations to staffing to responding to consumer trends and probably a lot more. Good riddance, say I.
I will not attempt to offer a final benediction for Sears because I hope it is not one for the American middle class as well. The vanishing of the department store is also one of the generation who worked their way out of the depression and served in many capacities during World War Two. Going to a department store was a big deal and not merely a transaction. If one walked into Wanamaker's or Strawbridge and Clothier in Philadelphia, there really was someone to help you who took their job seriously! It was not an anonymous worker in an Amazon facility running back and forth between storage bins.
Sears was well once a lot better than it was recently, a shadow of its former self. It's passing as a familiar institution is less important than taking note of the many people who labored there, including a long time friend. It's easy to overlook that a large part of many peoples' lives were spent working there. Ed Lampert will be able to sell the land and buildings to recoup his investment but they deserve recognition. bicyclist Oh and I had a J.C. Higgins bike sold by Sears)
I was watching a YouTube music video from the mid 1970s. And someone posted a comment:
"Let's face it. Back then was better."
I feel like American Culture jumped the shark at some point. When exactly, I am not sure. Maybe 1959? 1980? 1991?
For whom was it better?
That said, I would date the shark-jumping to the very early 1980s, when the prevailing mood shifted from "we're all working on making a bigger pie" to "watch out -- that group over there wants to steal your piece of pie".
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
I thought it switched from "We're all doing the best job for the customer" to "Profit uber alles--don't stumble or you'll be trampled!" (And don't forget to develop your "brand.") Shudder.
That fighting over the pie thing is a classic divide and conquer gambit, and it's worked its evil magic.
The founder of Panera Bread thinks the problem lies largely with Wall Street:
https://www.newyorker.com/business/c...t-led-to-trump
"Over the last few years, however, Shaich has come to believe that the current business environment is far less amenable to the process of building companies like his. Wall Street has embraced the idea that companies exist solely to serve the holders of their stock. Under this way of thinking, managers of companies should focus their actions on driving short-term value for their shareholders, and should pay far less (or no) regard to other constituents who may have a stake in the business, such as employees, customers, or members of the community."
In my life, 9/11 was the turning point. Our worldview became one of fear and risk, no more rose colored glasses for the Americans.
We then joined post world war 2 Europe in our world view.
Many of the movie theaters have only 1 way in and out so it does cross my mind but I still go. I was supposed to fly a few weeks after 9/11 and had to change my ticket for 6 months later.
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