S Mart
It was announced last week that two retail giants are merging. Sears and Kmart are joining forces to try and topple the 800-pound gorilla called Wal-mart. I wish them all the luck in the world. I have a unique perspective on all of this as my father has worked for Sears for 36 years and I put in 7 years at Kmart.
I worked at Kmart from 1988 and quit in 1994. It was a job that allowed me to meet friends that I still have today. It also allowed me to earn some money in my college years. Money I would spend on beer and pudding. (As Mike Shields would say.) Working at Kmart always carried that stigma. It was the most un-hip store a teenager could choose to work at. I guess for me that was part of its charm.
However, working there you did meet the dregs of society. I have so many stories of run-ins with bearded ladies and sweat pants wearing men that I would need to write a book to tell them all. While working there, Kmart tried to do everything in their power to change that image. But lets face it, Kmart equals cheap. However, there is nothing wrong with that. Customers figured if they needed some discount merchandise Kmart was the place to go in Bridgeview, Illinois. That was until Wal-Mart opened.
Wal-Mart announced it’s unholy presence in our area in 1991. That is a direct correlation to when it ceased being fun working at Kmart and started to really suck. The store had to stay open later because Wal-Mart was. We had to be open on Thanksgiving because Wal-Mart was. (This is not mentioned in the Wal-Mart cares adverting program.) We had to do things with fewer employees because Wal-Mart did it that way. It caused all of us stress, which we took out on the customers. Back in the day at Kmart I knew that I would be on the floor for customer support. My main job was stock boy but I knew that most of my time would be spent answering questions and looking in the back stock room for merchandise that was not out on the floor.
As soon as Wal-Mart opened predictably our sales started to slump. The truth is we just could not compete with the prices that Wal-Mart charged. So, simple-minded management would schedule less and less workers for a particular shift, which impacted customers and drove them away in droves. Kmart never recovered and store 4681 (The Kmart I worked at) is a now a dump.
Most of the info I get on Sears I get second hand from my Dad, who started when the company still used the Roebucks part of the name. I still shop at Sears but it gets tougher and tougher. Sears likes to blame Wal-Mart for it’s woes but it is Kohl’s, Best Buy and Home Depot that have killed Sears. All of those stores offer similar goods for lower prices. Sears used to mean quality and it still does when you talk Craftsman and Kenmore. However, when you can buy a Maytag washer and dryer at Best Buy for a fraction of the cost of a Kenmore at Sears, why buy the Kenmore. I often ask myself why buy a pair of pants at Sears when I can go to Kohl’s and pay five bucks less for the same pair.
The deal makes sense to me in that, now Kmart can sell Craftsman tools and Sears can sell Martha Stewart linen. Also, with two companies like that merging it can demand lower costs from wholesalers and pass the savings onto Joe Six-pack. I know I will continue to shop both stores. If, for only to give consumers a choice. We need these stores to thrive if for no other reason then to stop the Wal-Mart Steam roller.
I worked at Kmart from 1988 and quit in 1994. It was a job that allowed me to meet friends that I still have today. It also allowed me to earn some money in my college years. Money I would spend on beer and pudding. (As Mike Shields would say.) Working at Kmart always carried that stigma. It was the most un-hip store a teenager could choose to work at. I guess for me that was part of its charm.
However, working there you did meet the dregs of society. I have so many stories of run-ins with bearded ladies and sweat pants wearing men that I would need to write a book to tell them all. While working there, Kmart tried to do everything in their power to change that image. But lets face it, Kmart equals cheap. However, there is nothing wrong with that. Customers figured if they needed some discount merchandise Kmart was the place to go in Bridgeview, Illinois. That was until Wal-Mart opened.
Wal-Mart announced it’s unholy presence in our area in 1991. That is a direct correlation to when it ceased being fun working at Kmart and started to really suck. The store had to stay open later because Wal-Mart was. We had to be open on Thanksgiving because Wal-Mart was. (This is not mentioned in the Wal-Mart cares adverting program.) We had to do things with fewer employees because Wal-Mart did it that way. It caused all of us stress, which we took out on the customers. Back in the day at Kmart I knew that I would be on the floor for customer support. My main job was stock boy but I knew that most of my time would be spent answering questions and looking in the back stock room for merchandise that was not out on the floor.
As soon as Wal-Mart opened predictably our sales started to slump. The truth is we just could not compete with the prices that Wal-Mart charged. So, simple-minded management would schedule less and less workers for a particular shift, which impacted customers and drove them away in droves. Kmart never recovered and store 4681 (The Kmart I worked at) is a now a dump.
Most of the info I get on Sears I get second hand from my Dad, who started when the company still used the Roebucks part of the name. I still shop at Sears but it gets tougher and tougher. Sears likes to blame Wal-Mart for it’s woes but it is Kohl’s, Best Buy and Home Depot that have killed Sears. All of those stores offer similar goods for lower prices. Sears used to mean quality and it still does when you talk Craftsman and Kenmore. However, when you can buy a Maytag washer and dryer at Best Buy for a fraction of the cost of a Kenmore at Sears, why buy the Kenmore. I often ask myself why buy a pair of pants at Sears when I can go to Kohl’s and pay five bucks less for the same pair.
The deal makes sense to me in that, now Kmart can sell Craftsman tools and Sears can sell Martha Stewart linen. Also, with two companies like that merging it can demand lower costs from wholesalers and pass the savings onto Joe Six-pack. I know I will continue to shop both stores. If, for only to give consumers a choice. We need these stores to thrive if for no other reason then to stop the Wal-Mart Steam roller.
posted by 10withmop at 9:25 AM
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