I work at the local Kmart. Despite my employee discount (which doesn't work for half the stuff in the store) I still do most of my shopping elsewhere because Kmart prices are more than I can afford. They routinely cut employees hours because they aren't getting the necessary payroll from corporate but we are still expected to get the same amount of work done with fewer employees on the clock. I just looked it up - Lampert is worth 3.1 billion. That's billion, with a B.
The Kmart card doesn't work like most do (where you get the sale price if you have a card), instead they make it so complicated most customers who have one don't know how it works. You get points for every dollar you spend and points accumulate on the card, which you can redeem for a few dollars IF you know your PIN, yadda, yadda, yadda. I get tired of trying to explain it to customers who are understandably frustrated with it. That's the Shop Your Way member-focused business. It's a nightmare, you can't even sign up without an email address, disqualifying a lot of older people who used to shop at Kmart on a regular basis. They make you answer so many questions at checkout - do you have a card, do you want to donate to something, etc.. I call it the question gauntlet, that I've heard many people walk out the door saying 'I'm never coming back here.'
I've also lost count of how many frustrated customers left because our store doesn't carry a lot of the stuff they advertise in the national flyers. They don't price match, a lot of the sale signs have small print disqualifiers that make them seem very misleading . . . it goes on and on. I'm surprised they have any customers at all.
This was the only job I could find after I got laid off from my last job. Keep looking for another job but . . . everyone's heard this part of the story.
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