I had the worst job at Kmart.
After my first year of college, I took a summer job at Kmart. It was close to our house and they were hiring.
I learned what not to do more than what I did at my previous job, even though I was 19 at the time. It took another 30 years to get to the point of three stores out of a high of over 2000 remaining, if the Kmart in St. George, Utah, was like the other ones. If you make these mistakes, your business will go the same way as Kmart.
I needed money for school so I wanted to work as much as possible. I was offered 20 to 24 hours a week by Kmart. Great! I turned down an offer to work at Walmart.
They rarely scheduled me for more than 16. I asked why. The HR manager told me that the Kmart policy prevented part-time people from working more than 24 hours a week, so they kept the hours below that.
Are you telling the truth to get people on board? Is it possible to encourage them to work from home, or flexibility, or raises, and then pull them back once they start? Tell the truth and be upfront.
I scanned thousands of items while I was a cashier. They came up with the wrong price.
In any retail environment with thousands of SKUs, this is to be expected. As a cashier, I dutifully noted every wrong price and turned it in to the shift manager at the end of my shift. I thought they would fix the prices.
I began to notice that the items came through with the wrong price. Customers don't complain when something doesn't ring up as expected. The cashiers reported pricing errors, but no one was actually changing them.
Do your employees tell you things you need to fix? Listen to them if it's true. Front line workers are more knowledgeable about your products than you think. Listen and fix.
The computers went down. We had to go throughout the store to get the prices for every item. The front-end manager told the cashiers that they would not get breaks because the store was so slow.
The entire management team ate lunch together at the in-store cafe after leaving the mess of angry customers and long lines.
They were laughing and talking at the cash register.
If you start to think, "Well, I'm a founder, I get this privilege, or I've worked my way to the top, so my employees can suffer too." The working culture is very different today than it was in 1992. If you pull this type of behavior now, you will likely see your employees walk out.
Think about how you can help your employees. Don't focus on making your life better. If your employees don't get breaks, you don't get a break. What are the perks? Employees need to get them before you do.
How can I say that? I will answer in one word: shoes.
Retail is standing on your feet all day. No sitting! We wore hard-soled dress shoes to work.
It makes sense if we were trying to sell high fashion and we needed to look the part, but this was Kmart. Customers came in tube tops. No one cared about our feet.
The policy came from corporate. Everyone should wear shoes. The cashiers stood behind the register. Rules are rules, but no one saw my feet.
What is the hard-soled shoe rule? You have in place something that makes no sense. Is it possible to require everyone to come into the office? Is it possible to monitor the hours of exempt employees? Why do you have rules and regulations? It is time to end it if there isn't a good reason.
I am not arguing that all Kmarts were bad, but clearly, this store was not the only one with problems. You have to learn from their mistakes.
I contacted Kmart for a comment. I will update if they respond.
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