"sf" > wrote in message
...
> On Mon, 4 Feb 2013 07:41:54 -0800, "Julie Bove"
> > wrote:
>
>> Just got an e-mail from a former coworker that said all K Marts and Sears
>> will be closing at some point during the next 3 years. They simply won't
>> renew the lease.
>
> I'm not under the impression that *all* Sears stores are closing, but
> some of them are. I suppose the less profitable locations go first.
> http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/12/2...b/interactive/
> K-Mart closed here a long time ago and I was glad to see it leave.
> They didn't take care of that store. It was always unkempt looking
> because they didn't employ enough workers to tidy it up and keep it
> neat.

Yes. That's the way I read it too. And it said that the "brick and mortar"
stores were having financial trouble. They do sell online and when I buy
from them, that's usually how I shopped.

The store where I worked cut back on employees so much that I was lucky to
see two of them when I went there. One in the pharmacy (which we did not
have when I worked there) and one cashier. There are plenty of people still
working there that I know. But I never saw them. I do worry about what
will happen to them. Most are my age, close to it or older. Employers are
not looking for people of that age.

I was talking to a friend the other day about the store closing. When she
and I worked there, they were *very* picky about how the store looked. They
literally did do the white glove test. And one manager went so far as to
stick a Q Tip in obscure corners to see if there was dust there. We had a
night crew who stocked the shelves and another who did the cleaning. And
the floor cleaning device kicked up a lot of dust. So each morning we had
to come in early and dust. Especially the glass shelves above the towels
that really showed dust. In the morning we also put away returns and
repackaged items. But repackaging was also done throughout the day when we
had the time.

At night we all stayed an hour late to straighten and front face the
shelves. In addition, each of us was assigned a random aisle and end cap
somewhere in the store. We were to keep these filled and straightened at
all times which was a perfectly silly thing to have us try to do, especially
if those places were far from the department(s) where we worked. But they
did try very hard to keep the shelves filled and the store clean.

Yes, we were overrun with pigeons (dead and alive), roaches and rats. But
we did try like mad to get rid of those things. It just seemed an
impossible task. The exterminator was in there at least weekly and we just
couldn't seem to make a dent in it. That was partly due to the poor design
of the strip mall with a common suspended ceiling and a poor landlord who
refused to make repairs and just didn't care. The roof caved in more than
once.

In those days, despite the large number of employees that we had (at one
point, about 200 including the auto shop), we still didn't have enough
people to provide good customer service. Nor were there enough registers.
We had 10. Almost always long lines. Advertised items selling out on the
first or second day. Believe me we lowly employees tried our best. But it
was a very poorly run company then and from what I hear now, even more
poorly run now. That's because they make all of these stupid corporate
decisions and those old farts who are on the top levels are clearly out of
touch with the way things work and what customers want. I could write a
novel on that but I won't.

Sad thing is, most of the former employees dislike the place so much that
they rarely ever go back. I think I may have been there 5 times. Maybe.
Maybe not even that many times, since we moved back here 8 years ago. I
mainly only went out of curiosity. And I rarely shopped there before I
worked there even though we had one just over 2 miles from our house. When
I was a kid, we had a Putt Putt golf near there. We'd often walk up there
and play golf all day, taking a break to walk to the K Mart for lunch. At
that point in time there weren't many other places to eat close by. I think
the next closest place was XXX root beer and to get there you had to walk
down a very busy highway. Then there was Henry's. That wasn't even the
name of the place. It was something like Sunshine Sundries or something
like that. But the foul tempered man who owned it was named Henry. My dad
made the mistake of buying ice cream from him once and he ordered us never
to go in there. The school also ordered us never to go in there. There was
a rumor that he sold drugs in there. I don't know. I was too frightened of
the place to go in there. But of course some kids did. The ones with the
bad reputation.

And then when I was in 6th grade and for a few years in Jr. High I did buy
some shoes, swimsuits and a few tops in there. I had a very hard to fit
body. Was extremely thin and tall. Kids clothes fit me around but were too
short. And most adults clothes were far too big. But they sold badly
fitting (for most people) clothing in there and a few select pieces did fit
me. Most of the shoes were crap. But I did get one pair of leather sandals
that were nice and I liked one kind of slippers that they sold. They were
also one of the closest places that sold 45 records so once in a while we'd
buy those.

Then in high school at back to school time they had a sale on odd candy bars
10/$1.00. My dad would send me in there to buy as many as they'd let me
have. We sold them at the Jr. Achievement meetings for 25 cents each. I
did the same when I was put in charge of the student store. My teacher was
amazed because we couldn't get candy from the jobber for that cheap. And
the kids usually didn't care what brand it was. It was candy and it was
cheap! So they bought it.

Other than that, I don't think I ever set foot in that store, unless perhaps
they had some kind of advertised item that my dad wanted to buy. But that
wasn't very often.