4 ms·

I don't know, this has been my experience with employees of all ages at many different large retailers in the US. You'll get the old "we don't have that" at man

by tdeck 8y ago

I don't know, this has been my experience with employees of all ages at many different large retailers in the US. You'll get the old "we don't have that" at many places. It's not the employees' fault. Employers don't want to pay for their staff to study up on the store layout, or to pay enough to retain people for a long enough tenure that they'd learn it themselves. And the inventory is huge and constantly changing. Meanwhile these people have constant work to do in the shop moving and re-organizing things. Helping customers find things is just one part of it.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
It's not the employer's fault either. Customers will choose the store that sells for $1 less, so how can an employer invest in smart, knowledgeable employees when they would lose business to one that uses minimum wage labor?
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  I went into a Walgreens in San Francisco and asked for an Allen wrench, and nobody on the staff knew what that was. They didn't speak fluent English. But hey, Walgreens is exactly the type of store your comment applies to. I went into the Macy's flagship store on Union Square to ask for long underwear, and the salesman... didn't know what that was. He didn't speak fluent English either. He did eventually guess "do you mean... thermal?" At that point I'm pretty comfortable saying it's the employer's fault. A tourist-attracting flagship is not in a cutthroat pricing competition with everyone nearby.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    I don't see how that claim can be made unless you know the ins and outs of Macy's cost and revenue structures. Also, from various articles, flagship stores famously lose money due to exorbitant rent and are actually marketing expenses. Considering the fact that retail store equity prices aren't high growth and they shut more stores than they open, I would bet that they are under considerable pressure to contain costs as people will just shop online or another department store. The only retail that can afford to pay their employees a professional wage is probably the super high end like Zegna or Hugo and the like. Found an article talking about Macy's financials: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/business/dealbook/retail-wall-street-macys-jc-penney.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/business/dealbook/retail-... There's no way commodity retail that caters to middle and lower class can be profitable with highly paid employees, you just won't move enough product. The fact that there isn't a chain that exists with that model is proof.
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      > flagship stores famously lose money due to exorbitant rent and are actually marketing expenses That makes Macy's look much worse; show me the store commercial where a customer walks into the store only to be stymied by the staff's inability to understand the local language.

by tdeck 8y ago

lotsofpulp 8y ago

It's not the employer's fault either. Customers will choose the store that sells for $1 less, so how can an employer invest in smart, knowledgeable employees when they would lose business to one that uses minimum wage labor?

thaumasiotes 8y ago
I went into a Walgreens in San Francisco and asked for an Allen wrench, and nobody on the staff knew what that was. They didn't speak fluent English. But hey, Walgreens is exactly the type of store your comment applies to. I went into the Macy's flagship store on Union Square to ask for long underwear, and the salesman... didn't know what that was. He didn't speak fluent English either. He did eventually guess "do you mean... thermal?" At that point I'm pretty comfortable saying it's the employer's fault. A tourist-attracting flagship is not in a cutthroat pricing competition with everyone nearby.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  I don't see how that claim can be made unless you know the ins and outs of Macy's cost and revenue structures. Also, from various articles, flagship stores famously lose money due to exorbitant rent and are actually marketing expenses. Considering the fact that retail store equity prices aren't high growth and they shut more stores than they open, I would bet that they are under considerable pressure to contain costs as people will just shop online or another department store. The only retail that can afford to pay their employees a professional wage is probably the super high end like Zegna or Hugo and the like. Found an article talking about Macy's financials: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/business/dealbook/retail-wall-street-macys-jc-penney.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/business/dealbook/retail-... There's no way commodity retail that caters to middle and lower class can be profitable with highly paid employees, you just won't move enough product. The fact that there isn't a chain that exists with that model is proof.
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    > flagship stores famously lose money due to exorbitant rent and are actually marketing expenses That makes Macy's look much worse; show me the store commercial where a customer walks into the store only to be stymied by the staff's inability to understand the local language.