charles wrote:

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Why do we tolerate upper management that makes millions of dollars and unions that pretend to care and do very little if nothing? I have always been accountable and responsible for my actions in business and in life, and do not pretend to have a easy button for problems, but the situation as it is now is beyond understanding. It is an unacceptable situation, that I deal with a day at a time as the situation dictates. There is no trust in my heart for Kroger management or in our union.

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 This post comes very close to summing up where I'm at with the whole current retail landscape. Totally agree with everything Charles covered here.

Two other fields that chronically suffer the same abuses are nursing and education, and retail is going to follow their trend: eventually, we're gonna see some major turn-around in how employees are hired, treated and compensated. It's inevitable, because the current conditions are impossible for retail to maintain a solid profit.

Unfortunately, we're all gonna be dealing with a lot more sh!t before we start seeing any of these good changes.

Less wage increases, more aprons tshirts and accordion players!!

Anonymous wrote:

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this doesn't make since really.. as someone in the feature's comments stated, cosco seems to be able to pay well w/ decent benefits for it's employees. so why can't walmart do the same, what can't all big company do the same? greed is why, imo. that and bad management of the whole company, business planing.

 

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 It's doable, sure, but you have to have competent management that isn't greedy. Costco's CEO is one in a billion:

"Costco CEO Craig Jelinek Leads the Cheapest, Happiest Company in the World"

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-06-06/costco-ceo-craig-jelinek-leads-the-cheapest-happiest-company-in-the-world

Wisdom. (From GO's link above.)

[Costco] treats its employees well in the belief that a happier work environment will result in a more profitable company. "I just think people need to make a living wage with health benefits," says Jelinek. "It also puts more money back into the economy and creates a healthier country. It's really that simple."

Most retailers "see their employees as a cost to be minimized and typically end up underinvesting in them," says Zeynep Ton, an adjunct associate professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She thinks that ends up creating operational problems that shoppers are all too familiar with: surly employees in stores engulfed in chaos . . .

. . . happy employees are more productive, effective workers . . .

"If you treat consumers with respect and treat employees with respect, good things are going to happen to you.

kroagrr wrote:

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Wisdom. (From GO's link above.)

[Costco] treats its employees well in the belief that a happier work environment will result in a more profitable company. "I just think people need to make a living wage with health benefits," says Jelinek. "It also puts more money back into the economy and creates a healthier country. It's really that simple."

Most retailers "see their employees as a cost to be minimized and typically end up underinvesting in them," says Zeynep Ton, an adjunct associate professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She thinks that ends up creating operational problems that shoppers are all too familiar with: surly employees in stores engulfed in chaos . . .

. . . happy employees are more productive, effective workers . . .

"If you treat consumers with respect and treat employees with respect, good things are going to happen to you.

 

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 another good, telling, quote from the article is:

It will have to look inside, since Costco does not hire business school graduatesthanks to another idiosyncrasy meant to preserve its distinct company culture. It cultivates employees who work the floor in its warehouses and sponsors them through graduate school. Seventy percent of its warehouse managers started at the company by pushing carts and ringing cash registers. Employees rarely leave: The company turnover rate is 5 percent among employees who have been there over a year, and less than 1 percent among the executive ranks. Thats impressive, but it also suggests the company does not have a regular influx of outside views. Even John Matthews, vice president in charge of human resources, calls the company awfully inbred.

The fights for upper management must be ferocious.

However, the retention rate is staggeringly impressive. A company that actually wants their employees to be happy? It's madness and I wish more companies would follow in their foot steps. I know that if I were payed $20 per hour I'd show a lot of pride in my work and strive to do better and rank up in the company. With my current position and only being paid $8.75/hr after 6 years of hard work, training newbies, dealing with customers, trying to make the insane quevision "work", and no pay increase to going over to the service desk... it's a wonder that I don't just go somewhere else and get $9.00 plus my experience pay AND probably a raise after I show that I'd like to be a supervisor!

Hell, some of my good friends work there and are management in training, supervisors of departments, senior stock crew, and actual managers.... It would be like bringing the A-team back together xD