Anyone else work in retail? Is the economy hurting you?

[JWerner2]

I work in retail and the economy I must say is not hurting us but I would say we are not doing as well as we could.

I work in the Pet trade so just like a grocery store as a large chain we get a steady source of customers with responsibilities that must be fulfilled. Sure we have not beaten our day in a month but we have not fallen far at all. We have lost most impulse buys in the last week but are still doing a steady amount of business. Hours have been cut for some of the employees that really need them. I have my fall backs and have been saving those fall backs since the steady rise in fuel a few years ago but I have yet to face a cut in hours and if I don't face a cut I have been thinking about giving some of mine to those I work with that need them. It sucks cause some of them have big families and need the hours or they get cut out from insurance.

Well, does anyone else work in retail?


Do you have a hard time right now with business do to the economy or are you lucky to work in a area that still does well?


What have you done if effected to keep things in check?

 

[Glorywagon]

Sure playing hell with trucking.

 

[The Rev]

I work at Staples. It definitely has hit some of us hard. My GM lost lots of money in his 401k (Staples matches contributions with stocks, and our stock took a hit, so his 401k value declined) a few other people have lost a lot in their 401ks (I'm 20 and can't get one til I'm 21 so I'm unaffected by this).

Sales are definitely down, I'm the electronics dept. manager and I haven't hit my budget since Q1. Hours are getting cut (my store had to cut 70 hrs each week for about a month now) all over the board. Customer service metrics have plummeted because of this. I'm on vacation because they need to cut hours, and vacation hours technically don't count for payroll purposes because Staples has already accounted for these and expects to pay them, which sucks for me because I'm still an hourly associate. If I was salary I would work longer shifts because it doesn't hurt payroll.

On the bright side, the employee stock purchase program dictates that at the end of a 6 month period Staples will buy stock based on your contributions (10% for me) at a 15% discount of the LOWEST price it was over those 6 months. Thats great for me because I'll get a hell of a discount, and Staples stock will rise again because of the purchase of corporate express. Staples is still opening stores, a whole bunch are coming in Texas they say.

Who knows, but its definitely not good for stores. Corporate is panicking though, trying to save as much money as possible.

 

[MonsterMark]

I was going to go to Office Max tomorrow to buy a case of paper. I'll go an extra 5 miles out of my way and buy a case from Staples instead. Hope it helps ya.

 

[JWerner2]

It really sucks. Its the small things also like if hours get cut and they plan on making it long term then some of these employees get reduced to part time against will and end up loosing all full time benefits. I work along next to them and they are good people with large families that well face it don't live in a economically stable environment so as it is. Also if they end up leaving the company we are out of some good employees cause they really do need full time jobs so they will be forced to go else where.


Today the Drs. office called for a follow up on my 1 year old sons blood work that was recently taken. Turns out he is slightly animic. Not a really big concern, well to a parent when its his child it kind of is all he needs is more iron but its times like this you are very lucky today to have some benefits in healthcare and such.


It really makes me feel bad for some of these guys.

 

[jhargarage]

My biz has a lot of auto aftermarket and this year it has just completely stopped. People can't afford goodies at the moment. Thank God it is not my only income or I would be in deep .................T

 

[n8bachelor]

I work for an engineering firm and we do primarially site development for retail stores (Walmart, Target, Lowes, Murphy oil, Sonic, etc). Our business has really taken a hit. Starting Q2 2007 we have had several layoffs and losing months. It really sucks to see some of your friends and colleages lose their job in a hard time like this.
Things have started to look up for us in the last couple of months though... back in the black. Since the company was not making money they put a hold on all pay increases and stopped our 401k match. It's been 18 months since I have gotten a raise (used to getting COLA each July on top of any merit based increase).
I know I've really been pinching pennies lately, trying to make up for the fact that all my expences have increased but my pay has not....

 

[The Rev]

Yeah Staples put a hold on non-promotional increases a while ago.

Bryan: Thanks for the support, also if you have the Staples Rewards card you'll get 50% back on that case of paper ending today. At the minimum that's a $16 rewards check on that purchase alone.

Around here people never talk about Office Max and Office Depot, there just aren't any around.

My store is the 3rd store ever opened in the company, so we have a strong customer base. So much so that one of our stores they opened about a mile (why so close I'll never understand) away from us is closing next month, because people still come to our store instead. We're hoping that the economy will improve. It's times like these that our part timers will work harder to earn those hours.

2 years ago we had 33 employees in my store, now we have 19. That explains some of it.

 

[Glorywagon]

http://www.bushmackel.com/pics/bestbuy_vs_circuitcity.gif

Circuit City to Close 70 Stores, Change Management

 

[Redwingvksm]

Unaffected. I work at Ford for their R&D labs, and I run the wind tunnel/dynamometer. Even with the layoffs at Ford, I know I'm safe. Only a handfull can run the tunnels the way the engineers want...lol.