One and Only Bitch about Black Friday!

[Guest stardust]

Management does something called a "read" every single hour, and when we first get there, we get a "one minute." During the one minute we're told the sales goal for the day, what we're doing so far (if we get there in the middle of the day), our ONA goal, how many we have so far, UPT and conversion goals and what those are. Every hour during the read they give us the current numbers and tell us if we're up or down on sales (we're supposed to make a certain amount of money every hour), and at closing someone will usually say what we're at sales-wise. We've never been told that we can't discuss numbers, and considering the fact that the MOD normally does the read up front at the registers where customers can her him or her telling us those numbers, it probably isn't a big deal.

 

Hell, you can just look at how much GAP Inc. stock is worth or look up the company's year to date sales on certain business web sites and tell that the company (GAP Inc. in general, and especially Old Navy) makes pretty damned good money (GAP Inc. is actually the second most profitable retail chain behind Wal-Mart, well we were like six months ago, at least). And at our holiday meeting, we were told how much money our store has brought in for the year, that we're up on the year by quite a bit (I don't remember the exact number), what the overall company sales is at, etc. And it's constantly being hammered into the sales associates that we drive sales and that it's our responsibility to make sure we meet our sales goals and UPT goals, etc. In short, they make sure we know how much the company is making. What I wanna know is if the company's making so much damned money why I'm only getting 10 hours a week and barely making enough to survive paycheck to paycheck.

[Highland]

They make nice profits partly because they pay their employees poverty level wages; all the successful business do that.

[Guest stardust]

Well, yeah, I know that. I was told when I was hired that I would be making $7.00 an hour after I'd been there a year. I've been there 13 months and am making $6.47 (and that's after a raise). Granted, I'm at new store and stuff...it's a long story and I don't feel like getting into my rant about how I'm making less money than everyone else at this store, but GAP Inc. could definitely afford to pay their employees more and still make a very, very nice profit.

[kkktookmybabyaway]

Wow, an employer said one thing during the interview and acted differently once you got hired. I'm shocked.

 

*dust, if you're only getting 10 hours per week why don't you find another retail job?...

[Guest stardust]

Because they've been telling me for the past few weeks that hours are gonna pick up. Plus, there's a lead position open that I need to talk to one of the managers about to see if I can get it. If I can't get it, or if I can't get more hours, I am gonna look for another job.

 

I just get such a damned good discount. Granted, that discount does me no good when I have no money to spend.

[Slayer]

Wow, an employer said one thing during the interview and acted differently once you got hired. I'm shocked.

 

*dust, if you're only getting 10 hours per week why don't you find another retail job?...

I'd be more shocked that her boss doesn't even remember her name

[Guest stardust]

Nah, they all know my name, trust me.

[SamoaRowe]

Time for the annual bump.

 

Best Buy might have something interesting going on with the Xbox 360 on Friday. The media supervisor was setting up a huge display of 360's in the front of the department while I was leaving this evening.

 

Otherwise, I know there's going to be a set of good 2.99 dvd titles, apparently the ad is online somewhere, because tonight people kept coming in and asking us to honor the Black Friday sales early just for them.

[Thoth]

Tomorrow is my last day at Target.

 

I have spent a couple days preparing things politically. None of the managers are going to bother talking to me anymore since I've managed to fake the threat of a health-related lawsuit. I can't be fired. If they try to badmouth me to my new boss, my new boss used to work in my very store, in my very department. Under the same people. Dear lord, I'm going to have fun.

 

I start a real career on Monday. Thank the lord.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Being in distribution is so awesome. Fuck customers.

[SamoaRowe]

I actually had the best Black Friday yet this year. For some reason the customers were mostly very friendly. It was very strange and I almost began to wonder if I was dreaming or not.