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Retail corporations have shifted away from properly staffing stores with full time employees to grossly under staffing with skeleton crews of uninsured part time employees who couldn't care less. To top it off, the part timers are supervised by managers who are paid salary and expected to work upwards of 70-80 hours per week in some cases. This is essentially the Wal-Mart business model and it spread like wild fire to companies everywhere. As you can see though, in the past few years it has been starting to backfire. I know for instance that there are a number of items I use that would be cheaper at Wal-Mart. On many occasions, I skip Wal-Mart simply because the shopping experience flat out sucks. Add free shipping from places like Amazon into the mix and there's zero reason to step into these stores.
Our grocery store will hire a person as part time and then work them 40hrs/week with no benefits. My grandson-in-law used to there. He said that each department is allotted a certain number of FT workers.
I do almost all shopping online, except for groceries, which I buy locally.
We buy all non perishable groceries on line. We have one very nice independent grocery store, and a hardware store in our small town.
We reduce our non perishable groceries costs at least 40% over buying locally. It is one hour each way to drive to a bigger city with well known grocery stores. We save at least 20% buying on line over driving an hour each way to go to bigger stores. We order on line, and it is delivered direct to our door.
Example one item I buy two of each month, costs $8.95 locally. Drive an hour and it is $5. Order on line and it costs $4.44. They have a double size on line meaning only needing 1 each month. Price $6.66. On that one item alone, I save 33% over buying in their store, and 66% over buying locally. That is true item after item, and they will have multiple pack such as diced tomatoes of 6 cans at a big discount (Hunts). In all we save over $100 a month on line, save $10 for gasoline ($88 government says to operate car at 43 Cents per mile), 2 hours driving time, have to walk all over store, etc., and save ourselves an exhausting driving and shopping experience. Do it in half an hour on line, and all those time and expenses.
Will never go back to buying non perishable groceries in stores.
Our grocery store will hire a person as part time and then work them 40hrs/week with no benefits. My grandson-in-law used to there. He said that each department is allotted a certain number of FT workers.
Yes that's how it was when I worked grocery. Everyone was pt time except for the salaried managers, and those few "grandfathered" employees that haven't been forced out yet. If you wanted full time you needed to be a salaried manager whom work 60 hours a week for a 42 hour a week salary (much cheaper to have them stay and do the clerks job)
When I lived in Falls Church, Virginia, we had a wonderful old hardware store right downtown. I thought that I'd try to support them as much as I could. I didn't think that for long. Every time I went in to buy something, I would find it priced 15-30% higher than the Lowes or Home Depot just a mile or so away. I'd like to support local stores, but I usually can't afford to do so. (Not to mention their lousy selection).
I agree that customer service in stores has gone the way of the VCR, 8 track and phone booth....extinct.
Any time I am in a Home Depot or Wal-Mart, store employees avoid eye contact at all costs, turn the other direction, or just look right through you. In fact, if I have ANY questions on a particular product...I use online forums such as this or just Google. I usually get a more direct and satisfactory answer than I do from an apathetic and disinterested retail employee. If I do happen to hit the jackpot and find a genuinely engaged associate...sorry kiddos, but it's almost always someone over 35. I know that when I worked for Lowe's, we would hire retired plumbers, electricians, etc..to work the departments. They were called Lowe's pros and were generally men who were working as a hobby to fill their retirement years.
As for malls. All the rage back in the day...however they have turned into hangouts for criminals and car thieves. At least where I live anyway.
I was reading an article about several retailers laying off quite a few people.
I don't think it's the economy. I think it's the way stores are doing business.
For example, last Saturday I needed to buy a new man's wallet. I went to Dillards and Macys and found just what I wanted...if I wanted brown. Macys had a dozen of the exact wallet I wanted in brown, but not a single one in black. Yes, I am fussy about some purchases. So, what did I do? Continue to drive around to different stores? No, I went home, got on Amazon, and bought exactly the wallet in style and color that I wanted. And I was doing so, I thought about how often this has been occurring in the past couple of years. I've gone from buying mostly only CDs and DVDs online, to buying many different things online...due to stores not carrying a variety of sizes, colors, styles...where online I can find almost anything I want.
You folks finding the same thing?
I live 20 minutes from the nearest department store such as Target, Kohl's or Belk (which is a chain based in Charlotte NC and located mainly in the Southeast). I'm 40 minutes from the nearest mall with a Macy's, Dillard's, Von Maur and JCPenney. Shopping online saves me a lot of time and money (no travel expenses and usually lower prices).
I buy small appliances, clothes, electronics and almost everything else (besides groceries) online. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so I get free 2-day shipping on most items. If I need to try on clothing, I'll go to a store and, if I like it, I'll buy one of the item. Then I'll order more online or in the future once I know it fits.
Online stores are taking some sales from physical 'brick-and-mortar' stores and they're also forcing them to compete on pricing. Because physical stores have certain fixed costs (overhead), cutting back on employees is the most substantial way to reduce expenses. Reduced inventory is also a reality for a lot of stores (such as having brown wallets but not black). These are ways to save money in the short-term, but I think it will hurt them in the long-term.
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