ApplianceAdvisor               Kmart Comment

November 18, 2004

From ApplianceAdvisor.com in response to Kmart comment below:
We were over-the-top in our characterization of Kmart employees.  I dislike Kmart, and have never had a pleasant experience using Kmart, but that's no reason to besmirch the biggest victims of Kmart management, the employees.
The lines he references were changed.

From an ex-Kmart Store Manager
I meant to shoot you an e-mail yesterday criticizing you for your rude comments regarding Kmart store personnel (something about them being homeless people, I don't recall the exact phrasing you used), but I see you have since toned them down somewhat either of your own accord, or someone else beat me to the punch.

Regardless,  "unmotivated methadone clinic wannabees" is still not polite, and throwing in the disclaimer of "perhaps this is just our local Kmart" doesn't cancel it out.  What's the point?  You have already made the insult.

I was a Kmart store manager for a few years after college until I came to my senses and jumped off the burning ship.  Many of the problems that drove the company to bankruptcy two years ago existed 12 years ago.  I am often amazed at how long a company like Kmart can bleed like a stuck pig for so many years until they finally keel over.

Anyway, back to store personnel.  The people I worked with in my time with the company were good people.  They worked hard, were mostly un or under educated, and would all give their shirts of their backs if you asked them to.  The employees at store level had very little to do with Kmart's failure, in my opinion.  I instead submit the following reasons to you for your consideration:

1)    The stores were understaffed due to corporate pressure to increase overall profitability.  The reason for this was to continue to fund the significant remodeling, expansion, or relocation of most of the stores in the 1990s.  It was a necessary evil though, the company had let their stores get too junky looking for too long and needed to compete against Wal-Mart.  The irony of this policy was that it required staff to maintain the new store after the "refurb" team left.  Most of the time, the store fell back into disarray.

2)    The corporate buying office was not competitive in comparison to companies like Wal-Mart, whose growth in the 90s was generated in large part straight from the hide of K-Mart.  To cite examples, our store sold a pair of jeans for $8.94 to meet the Wal-Mart price.  Our regular price?  $12.99.  Our cost?  Probably around $8.99 (30% profit margin).  See the problem here?  5 cents profit on a pair of jeans.  High turn diapers were also sold below our cost to meet Wal-Mart's price.

3)    Poor inventory control existed at store level.  For example, in the early 90s, over half the store's merchandise was not shelf edge marked (bar coded) or inventoried using a computer system.  Instead manual counts and adjustments were made on a monthly basis.  Unfortunately, the corporate office never made the adjustments they were supposed to.  Instead, since they did not have a firm grasp of what the stores had on hand, therefore, they would just ship merchandise to a store based on what they thought the store needed.  The result of this problem was too much of one item, and not enough of another. Inter-store transfers were a norm.  The problem with that was it cost money, which reduced profitability.  Even with SEM, there were still problems getting used to the new system.  I still remember when we first started shelf edge marking manually adjusting an inventory count on baby strollers because I had too many.  Two weeks later, I received even more of what I didn't need.

4)    Poor security policies were also a problem.  Store personnel were instructed to never stop a suspected shoplifter.  Only "security" personnel could do so.  The problem is that they were all instructed to keep suspects in their line of sight, and if they didn't, they couldn't stop the person, even if there was still a lump in their pocket the size of the cordless drill they had just stolen.  Basically, the policy was "Shrinkage" only occurs in paper work.  Very few people shoplift.  Therefore, it is cheaper to let them walk out  the door with merchandise than it is to get involved in a lawsuit."  Word got out.  The stores were hit relentlessly by shoplifting teams once the word got out about our "policy."

In conclusion, corporate incompetence more than anything else is responsible for the problems at K-Mart.  Their "merger" with Sears will most likely not improve the situation.  Two sinking ships tied together do not cancel the other out, they just drag them both down even faster.  Lay off bashing the hard working people who work in the stores.  In many cases, they are doing the best that they can, given their life circumstances.

Sincerely
ex-Kmart Store Manager

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