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the only thing I really remember about KMart is when you'd go in there in the summertime there'd be gigantic crates of those frozen icicle packages you put in your freezer; it would be literally something like 200 count for $1.99. WoodrowSkillson posted:Its not really all that lol to question Lampert since his expertise is in a different field then being a CEO. He was fantastic in the market, and is terrible at being a CEO. Its like an engineer that questions climate change, or a doctor who denies evolution. agreed. He's good at making himself money; it looks like they didn't investigate any further lol Chinatown posted:Anyone fans of $.99/Dollar stores? 99 cent stores are really good for party supplies and stuff like that. they also have the big special "movie theater size" boxes of candy that are like $3.99 anywhere else. I wouldn't exactly buy electrical outlets from them though
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Mar 2, 2015 21:05
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Chinatown posted:Anyone fans of $.99/Dollar stores? Except the stuff that would be prohibitive to ship, you can usually get prices barely above cost online these days.
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Mar 3, 2015 01:54
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Welcome to BFC everyone.
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Mar 3, 2015 01:56
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I worked there from October to December, mine always had a lot of activity. I quit though because the place just sucked in general.
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Mar 3, 2015 16:57
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My friend told me a story of a guy that got fired from our local Kmart for smoking weed in his car in the Kmart parking lot before his shift
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Mar 3, 2015 19:38
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Valex posted:My friend told me a story of a guy that got fired from our local Kmart for smoking weed in his car in the Kmart parking lot before his shift We literally had this initiation poo poo where we sat in a 12x12 room and watched videos made in the 90s about how to properly work at Kmart for like 5 hours. It was the worst experience of my life. Also, that happened to like two people during the short period while I was working there.
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Mar 4, 2015 14:35
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Exigent posted:We literally had this initiation poo poo where we sat in a 12x12 room and watched videos made in the 90s about how to properly work at Kmart for like 5 hours. It was the worst experience of my life. Also, that happened to like two people during the short period while I was working there. I worked at McDonalds around like 2005 or something and we had to watch a god-awful flash animation training which was themed around two secret agents stopping an evil corporation from making McDonalds food inedible. 
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Mar 4, 2015 18:03
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social vegan posted:hustle. I forget the other game they overcarried. The GameStops had half the used Wii games were Cabela's for sure.
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Mar 5, 2015 18:34
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I worked at Kmart for 2 years. On the bright side I was promoted within 6 months to full time, but I'm pretty sure they don't promote people anymore. And I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as full time either. My old store closed last year after laying off more and more employees every year, starting with 75% of the full timers one year, then the next year the assistant managers. It was really depressing because the store was like a big family. My assistant manager who had been with the company for 35 years can't find a job because nobody wants to hire a woman in her 50's. It's a loving shame that the CEO can't fix the company. When I left two years ago we still had some Dragonball Z VHS tapes that were still at full retail, and GBA games in the electronics department. Oh, and lots of free AOL trial CDs and lots of old PC games that nobody ever bought. A few weeks ago I had an interview at Sears, I wanted to see what they would offer since I actually had experience with the company and such, including being a supervisor. They were going to start me off as part-time and minimum wage ($7.50) because they can't afford to pay people more than minimum wage. NOPE. Here's some jolly ol' Christmas socks I saw when I worked there: 
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Mar 5, 2015 20:00
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Dead Pikachu posted:When I left two years ago we still had some Dragonball Z VHS tapes that were still at full retail, and GBA games in the electronics department. Oh, and lots of free AOL trial CDs and lots of old PC games that nobody ever bought. Not purging/updating inventory sounds like a common problem with KMart stores. The entire corporation appears to have stopped updating things sometime in the 1970s, and like some giant, lumbering beast their old momentum is carrying them slowly forward. Even Big Lots seems to be more with the times than KMart now.
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Mar 6, 2015 02:36
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LLCoolJD posted:Not purging/updating inventory sounds like a common problem with KMart stores. The entire corporation appears to have stopped updating things sometime in the 1970s, and like some giant, lumbering beast their old momentum is carrying them slowly forward. Even Big Lots seems to be more with the times than KMart now. Hey, not doing poo poo for 20+ years helped out RadioShack... oh, wait...
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Mar 6, 2015 03:18
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I worked at Kmart from 2001 to 2003 when I was in High School. Some stories: - I think that was around the time there were a lot of store closings. Most evenings of the week, there were few or no customers, especially after 7 PM. If there were customers after that point, they were usually drunk or high. My store didn't close and was considered one of the better performers in the general area. However they had a skeleton crew basically to keep costs down. I was often responsible for the Sports, DIY, Automotive, and the Garden Shop all in one night. That was two cash registers that I had to watch regularly to make sure some pud wasn't waiting 5-10 minutes to get checked out. Again, since there were so few customers this rarely happened. When cash registers are unmanned, people generally just take their poo poo to get checked out at the front of the store because they assume the register is closed. - They were a bunch of cheating bastards too. You were supposed to get a quarter raise if you scanned more than 35 items per minute (or something like that) if you were able to do this for a month. Since I was scrimping and saving to go to college, I hit the goal for about two months. Naturally I wanted my quarter raise. Since I was going to school four months from that time, management told me that since I was going to be leaving in a few months, there wasn't a point in giving me the raise. Sure enough, I stopped caring about reaching that target and I went back to maybe 15-20 items per minute. Management got pissed and I was given a special assignment to sort fixtures in a hot rear end room. I'm pretty sure I just hosed around while I was there and was eventually reassigned to do something else when they saw how lovely of a job I did. - I'm not even sure why Kmart bothered to put out ads because we almost never stocked anything that was on sale that week. So it was a Sunday tradition to get bitched out by customers for not having an item we were advertising. I couldn't blame them for this but it wasn't like I could pull a $45 desk out of my rear end for them so I'm not sure what their bitching accomplished. We'd write up rain checks but it was often weeks into months until an item came in. - My store had cameras all around but there were little corners here and there where there wasn't any camera coverage. Sure enough, customers figured it out and dumped opened packages of stolen poo poo into these areas. Funny enough, the main site for this was where the trash bins were located for sale so the bins were almost half full every night of toy packages, DVDs, and CDs mostly. Management did not want to spring for a camera there so they told us that at least once per hour, we had to check this part of the store and report if there were suspicious people in the area. Since we all ran 3-4 departments for the night, this was hard to do. There was once a monthly meeting that we all got called in to attending and management reported they reported almost $1000 of shrink per month from that area alone. Why the gently caress they refused to buy a camera there was beyond me. I figured that if people were stealing ~$12,000 worth of stuff in a certain location annually, you'd think that they'd put something there to keep them from doing that. They never did but they bitched constantly about all of the store shrink going on. - Even if people stopped stealing and dumping poo poo at that corner, they could just walk right out the door with it. We never pursued anyone that kept walking when the detectors went off. Some of the customer service people recognized regulars who would just steal and walk away on a regular basis. The funny thing also is that customers stole the dumbest poo poo ever, mostly CDs. We often carried clean copies of albums so enjoy your stolen copies of the censored version of Dr. Dre's 2001 album, dumbasses. - The turnover rate was laughable. Out of six new hires when I got hired, at the end of the first month, I was the only employee left. One employee quit during lunch on the second day. Another up and ran away with her daughter and her sex offender boyfriend to Texas. The only way employees could get fired is if they got caught stealing. Yet most of them stole poo poo constantly and it was almost a secret understanding that most employees helped themselves to something every once in a while. They'd only get fired if it was too blatant to really ignore. I never stole anything, mostly because there wasn't much worth stealing. - The workplace romances were hilarious. Everyone under 60 was pretty much loving everyone else who was under 60 in the store. There was a lot of drama because of this of course: jilted lovers, 17 year old boys trying to show off for the 17 year old girls by doing donuts in the parking lot after closing, angry husbands and wives who caught their SOs loving other store employees, and romantic dinners of hamburgers and chicken strips at the Kcafe (or whatever the restaurant was called). I wasn't the best employee but I showed up on time and never stole anything. That was enough to keep me employed even though I think I got written up several times and I admit that they had a justification for doing so. Theoretically you're supposed to get shitcanned after three write ups but I know I had at least five and still got raises and "satisfactory" rankings for my job performance review. Kmart is a shithole but it was okay enough for an unambitious high school slacker like myself. The Experiment fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Mar 6, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 05:57
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:99 cent stores are really good for party supplies and stuff like that. they also have the big special "movie theater size" boxes of candy that are like $3.99 anywhere else. I wouldn't exactly buy electrical outlets from them though I saw some $1 earbuds and iPad screen protectors at the Dollar Tree a while back. Part of me wants to think that those items aren't complicated enough to be able to be screwed up too badly, and that lots of those things are probably made by the same factories anyway, just with different brands slapped on the packages. But, I'd still rather pay a few more bucks and get something that at least looks reputable.
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Mar 6, 2015 06:28
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The Experiment posted:I worked at Kmart from 2001 to 2003 when I was in High School. Some stories:
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Mar 6, 2015 14:07
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:I think if we knew the answer we'd all be fat-paid, but I would guess the answer is that it certainly could be considering Wal-Mart and Target are profitable? I buy clothes from Sears. Pants and sportscoats cheaper than Men's Wearhouse and not available at Wal-Mart. If Sears can convince poor people to take some God Damned pride in their appearance we may be on to something. Serious question about dying malls... With B class and C class malls suffering high vacancies leading to a death sprial, why don't the managers lower the cost of retail leases to get somebody/anybody in there to make the mall look less dead?
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Mar 6, 2015 21:06
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at the idea that some goon knows better than a literal billionaire but you have to differentiate yourself somehow; why buy anything from Sears if I can just go to Home Depot or Wal-Mart for the same abysmal customer service? At least with Home Depot and Wal-Mart you go in there expecting it. Sears used to be such a legit brand; it's crazy how quickly it became a joke almost overnight. Sad.
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Crazy Mike posted:
They have, that's why you see bizarre shops with handmade banners as storefronts and other weird stuff that 15 years ago wouldn't have belonged in a shopping mall. Lowering the rent to attract shittier businesses isn't really a strategy for success.
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Mar 6, 2015 22:25
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greasyhands posted:They have, that's why you see bizarre shops with handmade banners as storefronts and other weird stuff that 15 years ago wouldn't have belonged in a shopping mall. Lowering the rent to attract shittier businesses isn't really a strategy for success. I feel as though a lot of the (traditionally) anchor stores are closing up and that's what's really loving over the foot traffic.
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Mar 6, 2015 22:33
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ill start going to malls again when they put in an amazon stoer E: just realized this thread isn't in gbs anymore 
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Mar 7, 2015 00:09
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other forums >_<
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Mar 7, 2015 01:45
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greasyhands posted:They have, that's why you see bizarre shops with handmade banners as storefronts and other weird stuff that 15 years ago wouldn't have belonged in a shopping mall. Lowering the rent to attract shittier businesses isn't really a strategy for success. It's also what led to the rise and fall of Steve and Barry's. Their entire business model consisted of: Find a dying mall with an owner desperate to fill anchor space (because empty anchors lead to lower foot traffic and frequently entitle other occupants to rent breaks), negotiate a hefty tenant-improvement allowance, book the allowance as revenue, go to the next dying mall and show them your financial reports (inflated by the massive tenant improvement allowances you've been negotiating) to convince them that you are a legitimate anchor tenant deserving of a hefty tenant improvement allowance to keep your mall from hemorrhaging even more money, continue until you've run out of crappy malls that can afford to give you the allowances you've been getting and realize that you can't actually run an anchor store in a crappy mall and run a national business selling sneakers and sweatshirts for  .
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Mar 8, 2015 19:49
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Crazy Mike posted:I buy clothes from Sears. Pants and sportscoats cheaper than Men's Wearhouse and not available at Wal-Mart. If Sears can convince poor people to take some God Damned pride in their appearance we may be on to something. Malls are expensive to upkeep. There's a floor beyond which the mall is better off having a storefront empty than having someone pay less that it's costing to keep the power on.
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Mar 14, 2015 06:03
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Quick update on the K-Mart situation in Wisconsin. I feel that some people might think they are a WalMart type of store if more related events happen.
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Apr 2, 2015 23:44
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BouncingBuckyBalls posted:Quick update on the K-Mart situation in Wisconsin. The second I saw the headline I loving knew it happened in Racine.
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Apr 3, 2015 03:23
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BouncingBuckyBalls posted:Quick update on the K-Mart situation in Wisconsin. quote:At the time of her arrest, Jacobson was wearing a shirt with a picture of a dump truck and the phrase “Dropping A Load,” a cop noted.
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Apr 3, 2015 03:31
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Ah, my hometown. No longer the capital of murders-per-capita. Just a place where people take dumps in K-Mart. It's kinda an upgrade!
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Apr 3, 2015 04:15
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Can any current/recent Kmart employees explain what exactly "My Gofer" is/was? I worked at a Kmart for a summer a few years back, and I remember seeing it mentioned in training materials and there being advertisements for it. Whenever I asked other employees about it, though, nobody seemed to know what it actually was, and they told me not to worry about it. Management seemed so busy just keeping the store in basic operation that they ignored all of the stupid promotions and rebranding initiatives that corporate sent out. That never translated to actually stocking the shelves or doing anything about the 15+ minute checkout nightmares that occurred daily, but the store was technically open for business every day 
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May 1, 2015 03:32
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jarvis cocker posted:life philosophy: sometimes you have to walk through a sears to get to a macy's Hoooly poo poo, thanks for laugh.
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May 1, 2015 23:53
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The K-Mart in my town closed down a while back, and is being turned into some kind of massive trampoline party outfit. Or, at least, it was...they've been working on that for like a year now, and still no sign of an opening last I heard. How long does it take to cover the entire floor of a K-Mart with trampolines? Longer than one would expect, apparently.
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May 3, 2015 05:42
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K-Mart is hosed (and even other Sears CEOs are pointing the finger at Lampert
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Jun 9, 2015 03:02
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Well seriously, how could anyone turn Kmart around? They can't compete with Wal-mart on prices, and that was literally a good chunk of their clients, and they aren't as "nice" as target either. Sears on the other hand, seems to be having a smaller revival in smaller stores that just feature tools and home utilities.
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Jun 9, 2015 03:10
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My Mom always loved to say K-Mart has everything except what you're looking for when I was a kid. Sadly that's probably the most wittiest thing she's ever said to me.
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Jun 14, 2015 19:58
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TLG James posted:Well seriously, how could anyone turn Kmart around? They can't compete with Wal-mart on prices, and that was literally a good chunk of their clients, and they aren't as "nice" as target either. Target is doing pretty well and various dollar store chains are thriving, so it's at least possible.
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Jun 14, 2015 22:17
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yeah but target's image among consumers isnt in the fuckin garbage like k-marts
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Jun 14, 2015 23:23
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Vox Nihili posted:Target is doing pretty well and various dollar store chains are thriving, so it's at least possible. I'm not even sure Kmart can break into the dollar store chain market - it seems pretty drat crowded to me. Meanwhile, Walmart's sucking all of the small-scale grocer oxygen out of the room with its Neighborhood Markets.
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Jun 15, 2015 17:46
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The Experiment posted:- Even if people stopped stealing and dumping poo poo at that corner, they could just walk right out the door with it. We never pursued anyone that kept walking when the detectors went off. Some of the customer service people recognized regulars who would just steal and walk away on a regular basis. The funny thing also is that customers stole the dumbest poo poo ever, mostly CDs. We often carried clean copies of albums so enjoy your stolen copies of the censored version of Dr. Dre's 2001 album, dumbasses. To be fair, most major retail places specifically forbid employees from attempting to chase down or detain shoplifters. Anything that goes wrong there (either a thief fighting back or a customer getting wrongly accused) could equal serious legal trouble. Though if you had people regularly partaking of the five-finger discount, how could it not occur to anyone to call the police? apowe posted:I saw some $1 earbuds and iPad screen protectors at the Dollar Tree a while back. Part of me wants to think that those items aren't complicated enough to be able to be screwed up too badly, and that lots of those things are probably made by the same factories anyway, just with different brands slapped on the packages. But, I'd still rather pay a few more bucks and get something that at least looks reputable. Actually, quite a bit of engineering goes into getting earbuds to put out respectable sound (though the law of diminishing returns starts kicking in around the $100 mark). I once tried a pair of dollar store earbuds just to see what they'd be like, and ended up throwing them out in a matter of minutes.
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Jun 17, 2015 03:43
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Jun 30, 2015 04:43
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Hey, Eddie Lampert needs that land back to do actual productive poo poo with it.
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Jun 30, 2015 11:27
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save money, feel better
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Jul 2, 2015 20:28
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Your Dead Gay Son posted:save money, feel better I feel like that fits better in an ad for escorts
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Jul 4, 2015 16:48
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I mean, in fairness, thats a store that is being picked clean before it closes for good....
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Jul 4, 2015 20:53
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