Not a unique problem, we see these posts every few days. I've worked for this store for over ten years (single location retail, only person above me is the owner and her partner). I was hired as a manager, and I'm in part of Maryland that actually has a $15 minimum wage so I've received somewhere regular raises as the employees that were making $12 got a raise to $13, etc, to keep in line with the minimum.
I completely drank the company Kool aid, and then since COVID lockdown, my boss continued to make terrible decision after terrible decision. She was doing weird things like changing store policies that didn't harm her and had been in place for 15+ and it started to isolate the customer base. In fact, it was driving customers away. She started to get extremely aggressive and mean to customers, and that made it even worse. There were days where I would come in and would find a note that she knew we were out of change, don't bother to go get any, just don't give people coins.
All of this behavior was out of character from pre-COVID, I talked to her a few times and she shrugged it off that nothing changed. We had multiple employees quit in ways that would screw her over (they like to quit on days I'm not there, I guess for extra impact.)
The past 6 months have been extremely slow, and she was doing weird things that eventually led me to believe she was just going to close the store. Three months ago I confronted her about it, told her it was fucked up to hide it because we have employees that will need to find jobs and that takes time and just coming in to find it's your last is fucked. Was assured that wasn't the case, it was just slow.
Beginning of December, same conversation, but this time with the things she was doing that made it 100% obvious she didn't plan on staying (putting certain fixtures out for sale being a big one.). Again, was told that wasn't the case, she was just trying to make space and clean up a bit and we were going to get a big truck so we'd need the space.
Got back from the holidays on Monday, EVERYTHING is on sale for our going out of business sale and we need to be out by the end of the month. Completely lied to. Thankfully I told all of the employees when I first confronted her that it would be a possibility and gave them all reference letters.
So, I've been applying to places. I have a good work history. Would we eligible for unemployment? If we are, do we have to wait until the store is actually closed to apply? Just looking for a little guidance.
Thanks in advance, sorry for the ramble.
Tl;Dr My boss is a lying piece of shit and refuses to admit we were closing our store because it would have left her with no employees, now everyone needs to scramble for work.