k-mart going bankrupt?

[kiddiesunshine]

that's sad. are they gonna have a clearance sale?

[batboy2001]

I am there! Ah, a shame, too bad.

[Jedigreedo]

"Attention all K-Mart shoppers, blue light special on every aisle."

[Chibi Kageboshi]

when will they be closing?

[Joe Tully]

Well, they were "considering it" in the article that I read this morning. I have a feeling that it will probably happen. Apparently, they are so far in debt that no one would ever want to buy them.

[ClarkKent]

Seems like they replaced they're Chairman.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020117/bs/kmart_5.html

[Calhoun07]

I never shop there. I guess I never felt much of a need to find all my Martha Stewart products in one place.

[killercroc]

I hate it for all the people that will lose their jobs, but K-Mart really does suck. They deserve to go under. I have had countless bad experiences there.

One of the most annoying things they do is advertise something that they don't have in stock. This happened about six weeks in a row when I was trying to buy a crib. There's more, but I won't bore you guys.

Just seems like they have really bad leadership, and care even less about their employees than they do their customers. If that's possible.

[Calhoun07]

Yeah, one thing this country doesn't need right now is for more people to lose their jobs. :(

[Trent Lane]

Man! Now where will all those angry mothers in curlers go to beat their unruly children? :D J/K, my apoligies to those who'll most likely be looking for a new place to work...

[The Penguin]

I worked at my local K-Mart for two summers. I don't have some big, strong K-Mart loyalty though so it doesn't matter to me what people think about it.

The people I worked with were for the most part very nice and for that I liked working there.

But they also had us do some stupid things.
Example:
If any of you notice those small card-like signs that stick out from the shelfs with prices on them, they're called "wobblers."

Well this past summer, corporate came up with a policy that there had to be 50 of those dang things per aisle :rolleyes: So I got paid $7/hour to write on those things with a black marker and put them on the shelf for eight hours a night.

Many things we did were a rip-off of things at Wal-Mart. Those stupid signs--I've seen them at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart let people cash their tax rebate checks, so we did it too.

The worst one: Many of you have perhaps seen the Wal-Mart commercial where a group of employees are in a huddle and scream "Go Wal-Mart!" We did that too :rolleyes:

Here for your enjoyment is the K-Mart morning cheer:

"Blue Light!"
(clap hands)
"Blue Light!"
(clap hands)
"Who's number one?"
"K-Mart!"
"Who's really number one?"
"The customer!"
"How we gonna prove it!"
"Beat (or race) ya to the customer!"

To make matters worse, one time our manager said we didn't do it loud enough and we had to do it again! Right it front of the service desk as customers came in :rolleyes:

Still there are a lot of good people there (even the managers) and I'd hate to think they might lose their jobs :(

[Bird Boy]

ugh, I hate Kmart...good fer nuthin' poop heads...they don't even stock their Star Wars toys very well....

When I go in there..it's always naked..it's NEVER busy. I wouldn't be surprised if they went bye bye..

-BB

[DR. BELCH]

We haven't had a K-Mart in my town for years. It went belly-up back in the early nineties--the cash crunch was so bad they were even selling the light fixtures off the ceiling to turn a profit. I've heard of "liquidating your assets" and "everything must go!", but that's a bit ridiculous....

[killercroc]

Originally posted by The Penguin

Many things we did were a rip-off of things at Wal-Mart. Those stupid signs--I've seen them at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart let people cash their tax rebate checks, so we did it too.

The worst one: Many of you have perhaps seen the Wal-Mart commercial where a group of employees are in a huddle and scream "Go Wal-Mart!" We did that too :rolleyes:



To make matters worse, one time our manager said we didn't do it loud enough and we had to do it again! Right it front of the service desk as customers came in :rolleyes:

Too bad they didn't emulate Wal-Mart in other aspects.

LOL on that cheer, also. It's funny that it says race to the customer, cause at the ones around here it always seemed like a race to avoid the customer.

[Supernovametalstar]

How the heck could they be going bankrupt? I go there regularly and it's always doing good business. :confused:

[Calhoun07]

K-Marts in certain areas must do better than others, but not enough of them are doing well enough to support the ones faltering. The store Supernova goes to must be run by managers that care and employees that care, but I guarantee you not all K Marts are like that. Heck, not all Wal Marts are like that, either. There are Wal Marts that are faltering, too, but since there are more ones doing well, they help support the faltering ones. Too bad you got a good one in your area, Supernova. Knowing that good workers will lose their jobs makes it harder. Imagining people losing their jobs that didn't care in the first place actually feels kind good (for the stores that did poorly)

[James Harvey]

All the K-Mart's in my area flopped, too. I think The Daily Show said it best, last night, about the business going belly up:

With shares down, you should be able to find K-Mart for sale...at K-Mart.

I won't miss it.

[Nightflower]

LOL! Thanks for sharing that cheer with us Penguin, I laughed myself silly. But I pity you poor suckers who had to sing it.... poor dears!

[Joe Tully]

Well, K-Mart, you weren't the greatest store in the world...but I did buy some videos and underpants from you, and for that I salute you!
*salute*

Oooh, I bet I can get some cheap DVDs off of them when they start to close. :D

[killercroc]

Originally posted by Joe Tully
Well, K-Mart, you weren't the greatest store in the world...but I did buy some videos and underpants from you, and for that I salute you!
*salute*

Oooh, I bet I can get some cheap DVDs off of them when they start to close. :D

I got my copy of Return Of the Joker there, so that is one good thing they did for me.

They already had some pretty good deals on DVD's so the deals should be stellar now. Unless they sell all their merchandise to other companies. That could happen, also.

[Trent Lane]

I feel your pain, Pengiun. We had to get in a circle, hold hands, and chant "Up with sales! Down with shrink!" while thrusting our held hands into the air... ugh... and for those out of the retail lingo, shrink is the loss of good, from customers, vendors, and even employees...

[pencilsharp]

Okay, this little rant is coming from a different part of the retail sector entirely, but it offers a clue of what really happened to KMart...

Simply put, there is a little thing that Scott Adams came up with called "The Dilbert Principle." It's an expansion of the "Peter Principle" (which says that people are promoted to their incompetency level), in which Adams says that incompetent management is promoted continuously to limit the amount of direct damage that such idiots can do. Since they're not doing anything that can kill or maim customers (and these people can, believe me... :( ) then things should work out all right.

Until, that is, you've promoted those fershlugginer fools so far up that all of the talented, intelligent people won't stand up to them for fear of losing their own jobs. That is what happened to KMart, and it's happening to a lot of places. The place where I work (won't directly mention who, let's just say that they hate ABC... :o ) are now rapidly approaching K-level incompetency.

F'r instance, these guys just chased off their first vendor of the year, after blowing out about four of them last year, which was up from two the year before... Now, I didn't particularly care for this idiot vendor, either, partly because they belonged to a particular other retailer (who shall remain Wal-less), but before our idiots could kick these other idiots out, ours gave theirs PLENTY of opportunity to load us down with the most worthless dreck they had in their warehouse. What would a supermarket be doing with any type of central air filters, much less three cases of ONE kind?!

Pray for me...

pleeeeease...

[The Penguin]

Originally posted by flhero311
I feel your pain, Pengiun. We had to get in a circle, hold hands, and chant "Up with sales! Down with shrink!" while thrusting our held hands into the air... ugh...

Well I guess it could've been worse then. ;)

[Terminatah]

Speaking of cheap movies at K-Mart, my mom's car was once broken into at a K-Mart parking lot and they made off with some rental videos. Those things cost like $80, too. I really hope whoever took em is currently on the K-Mart payroll.

-Terminatah

[Elven Moon]

The K-mart about a mile or so from my house is closing. I saw some workers removing the sign yesterday. I'm not really that sad, though, because I pretty much never shopped from them, give or take a few school supplies. My uncle used to be the Vice President of one in New Jersey, but he isn't anymore. I've always pictured people who could be dead-ringers for Jerry Springer guests shopping there. I know, that's really mean, but I can't help it :D I feel sorry for the people who will be losing their jobs as a result.

[Jimmy Kustes]

Service Merchandise is going out of business as well. K-Mart is going out of business because even Rosie O'Donnel didn't shop there, who is even in the commercials! :eek:

Wal-Mart and Sam's Club make out like bandits because they are in rural poor areas where the people are too dumb to know you can get stuff cheaper elsewhere. No offense to anyone who shops there! :p

Funcoland, Electronics Boutique, SCAMelot, Coconuts, Software Etc., Babbages, and KB Toys have the opposite effect. People that go there have more dollors than sense because they like "specialty stores". So they shop at place that thinks $5 above retail price is a sale! Trust me I used to work at an Ice Cream store that charged $12.99 for a half-gallon!:rolleyes:

Target, Toys R' Us, Circuit City, and Best Buy are in college-educated suburben areas so you have to keep the prices low because the customers compare prices. But I work at Target, and I can tell you the "guests" are the most spoiled people! They think they should get everything they want, I know because I used to be one of those customers! :o