thats not so much kmart as a spineless/useless manager and you can find those anywhere

But I guess KMart managment expects associates to kiss people's ***** no matter how mean and nasty they get. My friend was told that it is not the correct way to deal with people like that. I figured not arguing with people like that WOULD be the proper way to deal with that kind of situation.

yea most places expect associates to kiss the customers ***. and there's a difference between one or two weasel managers and kmarts polices

A checkout person in trouble should turn on the check out light ( does KMart have these?) or press a manager request button when its happening. A good manager will be able to defuse and also tell if the customer is a jerk or if the employee is one.
that girl didn;t need to be written upif it indeed happened that way.

As a former Kmart employee myself I can tell you that is simply a poor manager.  The associate should have never been written up but its not Kmart's policy to simply write up an associate based on just a customer's phone call. 

Classic-Elements93 said…
This is not true.  Ignore poster/subject

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ah another hoffman crony heard from a bad manager should not be ignored. bad managers lower morale and kill any kind of loyalty an employee might have creating a bad atmosphere in the store and killing customer impressions and how likely they are to shop there hurting the only thing you care about income.

I just stumbled upon this posting, and I agree with goodole312, it's a bad manager problem, not a Kmart problem.  And yes, you can find those boot-lickers in all of retail.  A good manager can control the situation and have both sides come out strong, instead of always siding with just customers or just employees.

I think I'll start a new topic on what makes a good retail manager. I predict that we'll all have different opinions, but there might be some common ideas. Our customers probably have lots to say about this one!

I worked at kmart for a short time very short because of the lack of support i received from the management team while i was working as a cashier they need to really put some good training in place for their managers as well as a more detailed training for cashiers the 1 day of computer class and 1 day of register training didn't really help me that much.

Sorry to hear that, but were you able to ask for and get some help with using the registers? Sometimes the lessons presented in training make much more sense once you're on the job and can ask questions.

A word of advice for your friend:

If/when she is written up, she is under no obligation to sign it or give any indication that she is accepting any disciplinary action.

This is often a first step in firing someone. If they create a paper trail where you admit to violating company policy, then you have no recourse for unemployment benefits or wrongful termination when they do fire you. So don't sign anything admitting wrong doing if you can avoid it.

He said she said, hard to say. If the original post was correct then the problem customer should of been handed off immediately to management. If this worker had no past history a write up was uncalled for. A discuss of the situation and ways to better handle it was all that should of happened.

I see that there is a lot of conversation about this. As a former Kmart manager and as an associate for 17.5 years  I know from personal experience where the original writer is coming from. In short, the manger has to make the  call whether to interview an assocaite or not. There are always two sides. Perhaps her manager should have investigated a little bit more and then made the decision whether to do a paper interview or a verbal counseling as I have done many times. The verbal counseling would not have been a negative session but a session on how to best to handle customers such as the gentleman. In short, when a custmer starts to get rude etc, the associate should have a manager called and let the management handle the situation and step back out of the picture to help diffuse it. In retail, it is not always about right and wrong, the associate vs the customer but about how to take care of the customer as well as the associate. In retail, you put the rude customers behind you and give the customer service LOVE. You would be supprised of how many time as a Kmart manager and now as another manager for another company of how many times  I have walked up to an upset customer, extended my hand out and introduced my self while shaking the upsets  customer's hands and calmed the situation down from the start. The rest of the situation is listening to the customer and treating their concern as yours and then coming to a resolution. Most companies empower their GMs to solve the issue and retain the customer.

One of the previous writers is correct instating that the asso. does not have to sign the interview. Unless it has changed, the old Kmart would let a asso. be interviewed without having to sign the interview if they did not agree with what was written. However, the GM would have a witness in with him or her and would simply write on the interview Associate refused to sign and have the witness also sign and date the interview showing that this matter had been discussed with the associate. In this way, if this topic came up again, one had a record that this behavior had been discuss with the asocaite previously. 

You are exactly right, also a former employee who started hourly and left as a GM,

Poor judgement from the facts we were given.

There are a lot of traits that make a good manager. We could list them all out but what it comes down to is each individual's abilities as well as their experience in the field.

This is how kmart treats their stock holders, kmart goes banrupt our stock is no good then right after that they buy sears. Least to say stock holders are out of their money my husband and i were one of millions that lost their money.

blessedmary said…
This is how kmart treats their stock holders, kmart goes banrupt our stock is no good then right after that they buy sears. Least to say stock holders are out of their money my husband and i were one of millions that lost their money.

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thats why i work for my money instead of playing with stocks

Unfortunately, that is how capitalism works.  At the time of bankruptcy both Sears and Kmart were hurting -- times had changed, and unfortunately both these companies had not fully grasped it.  When Kmart (Lampert) bought Sears many would argue that they effectively saved Sears.  At the time, Sears was not doing too well.

Today, the companies are getting better.  It has taken longer than I thnk many would have liked, but I can see it locally.  Increased traffic in both Sears and Kmart, programs designed to help customers, and definitely an increase in customer service as of the past 6 months. 

While it is unfortunate you lost money (I did as well), that is how the stock market works.  Personally, I no longer invest in the stock market preferring to keep my future savings in CD's, T-Bills and other guaranteed forms of payment.  Yes, I don't earn as much but when I get ready to retire (in 30+ years!) I will retire knowing I have something instead of nothing.

I am encouraged and pleased by what I see happening, especially at Kmart.  I hope the customer traffic continues and I really, really hope to see some revitalization of the stores in 2009 and beyond.

 

Well said rstinnett.  The stock market is a beast, it can make you money one day and lose you twice that much the next.  It's all a risk, but like rstinnett said, Sears and Kmart are doing better.  Let me give you my perspective.

As a manager at Sears, I have seen many of the internal changes that have been put through the pipes, and honestly, in the past year, most of the changes have been quite amazing.  The have a lot of extraordinary VPs who have joined in the past year that really understand the retail game from the bottom up.  They have streamlined processes and in many cases make our job easier so we can focus less on reports and more on the customer.

When the retailers released their reports in recent days, even Walmart was dissapointing.  But one company stood above and its stock rose almost 24%, and that was Sears Holdings.  We had double the expected earning per share and even Jim Cramer from "Mad Money" said "buy Sears!"

Sears Holdings is going to stay around, that's a fact.  Our sales were slightly down to last year and we are working very hard to increase the effectiveness of our salespeople and cashiers by hiring better managers so we can better serve the customer.  As Sears Holdings streamlines their business more, managers will treat their employees better and employees will be able to focus more on giving the customers the great experience they deserve.

Good insight thatmanguy, and I'd like to add that sales were down -- but look at the economy.  The real bright spot was Kmart with only a 1.1 percent sales drop.  Most retailers would have killed to have only a 1.1% drop last quarter.

Kmart is really pulling itself back together.  Four years ago, Kmart was just ready to die off at any moment.  I remember going into a Kmart store and it was like World War III.  Nothing was shelved right, there was no customer service and customers were nowhere to be found. 

They have turned that around and even though they still have a ways to go -- you can see improvements happening. 

Most retailers would kill for a 1.1% decrease, but not at the expense of years of previous sales declines.

Kmart hasn't figured out the game until it manages to turn directions and have sales increases.  Do you and your "domestic partner" pat your kid on the back when their grade goes from a D to a D- "because they figured the game." 

Our Kmart, Jamestown, ND is up for the year, despite having a new sprawlwalmart.  Actually, business has increased d/t them opening a larger store and closing the Sam Walton type one, as many people do not want to walk that large of a store.  Also, they cut out the selection of items as well, cutting down in shoes, clothing and hardware etc to push food sales. Also, Kmart's double coupons and aggressive early black friday pricing on elctronics, tools, and clothing helped as well. We also had a program earlier in the year that empahsied customer service which was a great boost as well.  Many positive comments from customers on how good tthe customer service is at our store compared to Wal-Mart where your treated like a number.  All they need to do now is spend some capital to  freshen up the stores and get the distribution system better.

Keep the sales coming.

 Not sure what information you have access to but what it boils down to is what profit is on the bottom line. The double coupons are great for a draw. Hopefully the consumer is buying other  high gross items to offset the gross nutrition lost due to the second value of the coupon being redeem. Maybe KIH, old school, has it worked out where the vendor takes care of the second value of the coupon without effecting the agreements with advertising allowances, %s off invoices, volume discounts etc. and you bottom line net profit These also may hit your SPA line or come off of your sales line.  Ask your GM, and keep it to yourself to show you the Month End report if he will. He may not, as I use to be a GM and the sales $s and actual profit dollars I kept conf. If competion knows how you are doing then they may change their approach or you may find a new store down the road. 

Even on this web site you should keep your stores sales and location off of it. You must always be aware of your competition. All one has to do to see what your sales are is to go down to the tax office and see what taxes you paid and one can figure out your yearly sales etc.

Old School

I women I work with was telling me her and her husband was talking to the manager at our Kmart and he was telling them no more business than they get it at the store that he wishes they would close it down so he can draw unemployment. the store has more than one manager so don't know which manager it was. If the manager thinks this way then it can't be good for the shoppers. I don't want to loose our store. Most of the time stock is low at the store. When into the store a week ago and was surprise to see there weren't hardly any shoes. They should be getting in the stores soon. i know because we are shipping them. They are coming from the DC now.

The shoe departments went from being run out of house by Footstar to being taken over in-house.  They went through and clearanced out the old stock.  Now I agree it could have been done better than to just have empty shelves, but I know the local Kmart here had signage saying that a new shoe department was coming soon.  So at least they were keeping people informed.

 

Don't remember seeing any posting. we were told at the DC when we asked about why the shoes were so low what happened was the out of house was told when to stop shipping the shoes to the store and they stopped two or three weeks before they were suppose to. maybe they will get nice shoes. They way they come into the DC we aren't able to see what shoes comes and goes. They are going out of the DC like crazy. That is most of our work for now and merch. for spring.We were told our DC along will ship about 1 million shoes a year. we were also told Kmart is the number one seller for shoes in retail. Hope we get shoes in the stores that will bring people in to buy.

You can do a Google search for "Footstar" and read about what happened.  Basically Kmart had the opportunity to save a lot of money buy bringing it in-house and they did just that.  The good news is most of the former employees in the field for Footstar were hired on, so minimal job loss.

 

No NO's. That's the current Sears policy. Customer's hate to hear the word No.

So, Sales Associates do the best they can, without saying the "bad word".

Should the word really need to be said, we save some tire marks (from Customers going over-our-heads) and page the Manager on Duty early on.

My favorite conflict resolution is over Sears Service, being discussed (often loudly) at the stores...

And, yes.

Write-ups are an endless ordeal, that really improves all the Associates' (including mine) morale, after having been issued.

I have been out of the Kmart end for a while. What ever happened to Meldisco. They had the shoe area we I ran my store and the Kmart end was paid to unload and check the shoes in and then Meldisco took it from there. The Kmart end collected a fixed % of their sales so the better they did the more we made on our end.

when im a customer id rather hear a flat out honest no then a 20 min round about not what i really wanted yes any day