With the disappointing Holiday season behind us, the layoffs and retail store closings are continuing to mount:
Today, Home Depot has announced that they are closing their line of Expo home design centers and trimming support staff, resulting in 7,000 reduction in staff. With both home sales and the economy down, shoppers aren’t looking for high end home design solutions right now. The retailer is quick to note that the layoffs will not impact any customer service positions at the Home Depot proper chain.
It appears that their Expo stores weren’t performing well during the housing boom, so it’s no surprise that they would be doing even worse during the current economic conditions.
Another victim of the housing slump is Williams-Sonoma. On Friday, the retailer announced an 18% reduction in their workforce. In addition to stores being effected by the layoffs, the retailer will also close a call center in Pennsylvania and a distribution center in Memphis. I think the high end housewares stores have been hurt badly by both the economic downturn and mid-market retailers like JCPenney and Kohl’s.
Starbucks, who closed 600 stores in 2008, is expected to eliminate 1,000 jobs at their corporate headquarters and reducing district managers and field employees. The published report, prepared by investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, speculates that these layoffs will happen in early February and won’t effect store-level barista positions.
And don’t forget that last week Circuit City announced that they are closing all US operations with job losses effecting up to 35,000 people.
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Read more about: Circuit City, employment, Home Depot, job loss, layoffs, pottery barn, retail industry, starbucks, store closing, unemployment, west elm, williams-sonoma
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Social Shopping is an emerging field and E-Commerce Times has a great post that explains what is is, provides a rundown of different social shopping services, and opportunities for retailer involvement within the field.
With social media transforming the way we work and interact, there becomes less of a distinction between the time we spend on and off the clock, so to say. Steve Bendt provides a great look into the ramifications of wage laws in the United States and the impact they have on retailers who look to use social media to connect with their customers.
Get Elastic is talking about the viral marketing video campaign from Office Max that ties in to their Back to School “Penny” marketing. I really like this campaign. It is a series of fun videos that ties in well with the overall brand position for Officemax for this season. Good job by Officemax, I think.
Just two quick links for today:
In regards to today’s earlier entry about the perils of catching a shoplifter, I came across another recent story on the same topic. Last week, a shoplifter tried to stab a Home Depot security guard with a screwdriver he just stole.
Then there’s an article from the Billings Gazette about how retailers and others are recruiting teenagers to fill Summer jobs. Good look at a local American Eagle Outfitters location and how the manager there goes about recruiting new employees, as well as some of the methods used by others to fill other, non-retail, jobs.
Over at Lightheavyweight, Finn has posted some excellent advice for recent college graduates who are seeking their first job. While geared towards recent college graduates in the design field, I think the advice is worth re-reading for anyone who is going through the job hunt at any stage of their career.
Two of his pieces of advice, “Be prolofic” and “Show your passion” are two things that I think are often forgotten by people as the grind of a job wears them down. During the first tech bubble in the 90′s, I remember looking around at some of the other people in my field who were just getting into technology for a quick buck. In 1998, a comp-sci degree became the new business degree and the industry was flooded with people who had no passion for development or the technologies they were creating.
I think Finn’s dished out some good advice, worth reading no matter what stage of your career you are in. Sometimes we need to look back and rekindle the passion that got you to love what you love, no matter what it is, in the first place. Whether it is design, development, marketing, customer relations, or any of the million other things people do every day, be passionate about what you do and never forget that.
Circuit City has announced that they are cutting an additional 850 jobs, on top of the previously announced 3,400 jobs that they cut earlier this year. Now they are targetting store executives, cutting some stores down to 3 managers from the 5 that all stores had. They are also cutting 200 jobs at Circuit City corporate.
It is a shame to see any company cut jobs like this. I wonder if Circuit City has taken a look at the root of the problem – what caused the company to get to the point where they need to make this decision? Have they thought about their customer service policies? Their training? Their merchandise assortment?
When I talk to my tech-inclined friends about Circuit City, they all say the same thing: they don’t enjoy shopping there. Prices aren’t good and sales people are undertrained and unknowledgable. This isn’t a problem at one location; this is a problem across the chain. People don’t enjoy shopping there.
The retailer has also announced plans to open 165 new stores, after closing 60 earlier this year. The new stores will be a smaller, redesigned layout that is more customer-focused. Good, but is that too little too late?
No doubt that Circuit City can prove the layoffs as being a financial necessity right now. However, with some better forethough, some revamping, and some twaking of policies over the past few years, Circuit City could have remained competitive in the marketplace. Their underperfomance is nothing new. By constantly evaluating what is working and what isn’t over time, 4,000 people wouldn’t be out of a job today.
