I work at a major US retail chain that has locations all over the country. In the past year we have either closed or are currently in the process of shutting down stores.
The first store closed not long after my company changed it's minimum wage to $15 an hour for cashiers. The second closed not long after the first, and then the third. The fourth is under way for closing. To investigate we had one of the employees at the “rumored” closing store ask one of our vendors to look up our contract with them, the contact had been closed out (for anyone who doesn't understand, no contract for vendors means no product, no product means no influx of money, no influx of money means the company doesn't expect to make money from this location when the contract ends).
So now we have a fourth store in our area shutting down. I don't live in a small town or anything, I'm in a major southern US city.
The people working for these stores didn't even get a heads up. None of the employees at the other stores even knew their store was marked for closing. They just lost their jobs with absolute silence.
I transferred from one of the closing stores. Talks about closing it have been going on for a while, since I was working there, not just talks but actual actions for closing the store. It's literally through blind luck that I have “security” in my job. I don't feel secure. This feels like a ship with massive holes.
My district even had a hiring freeze in effect for all of 2022. We have a store with a grand total of 3 shift supervisors (4 but the fourth is always sick or injured or something) and 3 cashiers. When the other stores closed the hours they had available for employees became “extra hours” for any stores left open. Our store got something to the effect of about 1,000 hours worth of “extra hours” that we (shift supervisors) were having to offer to each other and the three cashiers we have. No one wants them, for multiple reasons.
We're already overworked. We have two shifts at my store, we're supposed to have three, a morning a mid day and a night, we have day and night. While we have had these hours I've had at least 25 people call about a job, needing a job and wanting to work. I've had to tell each one of them we arent hiring, for some god forsaken reason.
I'm guilted for not being able to have 100% open availability to help my store more. But I have a son and i can't just not be home and never see him (night manager here). We're supposed to be getting two cashiers in a week or two, but I don't know all of these changes started taking serious effect once our new CEO got cozy in their position. They're still a “new” CEO. I don't feel safe in this company.
I mean hell, I still don't have my employee discount card, I haven't gotten all of my training and I haven't gotten one of the tools I need to complete my job despite asking for it daily since hire.
I don't really even know why I wrote this. I'm just scared, sick of this place and tired of getting texts asking me to come in early every… Single… Day.