Upper management is completely horrendous in every way imaginable.
Terrible communication (timeliness, lack of info, blatant lying and purposefully withholding info would happen), micromanaging of both store level managers and clerks/cashiers, awful business decisions and planning, refusal to listen to concerns of employees, and ignoring industry trends and changing retail environment.
Some within management are unqualified and unfit for the positions they hold. Some also promote a toxic culture and hostile work environment or simply ignore the problems that are occurring.
A shrinking budget was always a concern, often to the point of several employees having their schedules reduced to one day a week. Printouts of time-sheets were posted in the break room and employees were told to take longer lunches to ensure they were not over 40 hours per week. Having as little as 3 minutes of extra time was enough for this to occur. Managers wouldn't even attempt to call in employees for coverage if someone called in sick. This was especially problematic on days where we were already short staffed and clerks were scheduled to cover multiple departments.
Buying decisions were poor and the amount of freight sent every week was substantial. Too many of the same products. (you don't need 20 different coffee makers) Some products sent in one massive bulk shipment, not only is space to store items limited, many times the store could not sell through the large quantities that it was sent. Due to this store to store transfers were common and were very inefficient.
Inefficiency in general was a problem. Things as simple as automating the process for picking Lucky Number Tuesday winners were ignored in favor of a slow, time wasting use of managers time.
The company is very cheap and it shows. Many stores are in desperate need of updating or repairs that won't happen. The technology is old and frequently has problems. This creates frustration for customers when the registers crash and reduces employee productivity when the telxon units freeze and need to be reset a dozen times a day.
Store managers and assistants are not paid well, and because they are salaried can make less on an hourly basis than the clerks due to long hours. An average of 50-55 hours is not uncommon, and managers are required to work 6 day weeks during the holiday season.
Turnover is high. At one point about 20 employees left in a 9 month span.
Benefits could be better. 401k doesn't match contributions. Stock dropped dramatically last year.
New procedures and policies were created without as a reaction to minor issues and did more harm than good because they were not thought through.
"Employee Owners" have no say in anything.
The company lacks any sort of values and the culture is abysmal.
