So I've noticed work gets easier and easier by the day

So last night I was working a 2PM-11PM shift. I have employees coming over to me all night long asking me what else needs to be done. I actually am starting to have a hard time thinking of things for them to do. You see with hardly anyone in the store things usually stay the way they need to be.

All last night I was actually walking the store looking for something that was out of stock that maybe we had in the backroom, looking for anything that didn't have a sale sign, any kind of opportunity to drive sales. As I did this it it came to my attention that for the 9 hours I was at work last night we had on average perhaps 15 people in the store shopping at any one time.

I actually have customers coming over to me almost daily now and asking "There is no one here are you going out of business?" or "You have so many things out of stock. Are you going out of business?". No I tell them. We are one of the biggest retailers in the country we are far away from that point.

But I have to wonder how long that will be true.

Sales maturity company wide is running double digit negatives when compared to this time last year... and if you remember my posts from last year sales had already tanked extremely badly by this point. We are doing far worse than last year. Things are getting worse not better.... and the only way we seem to be able to get people in the door now to even THINK about buying is to mark product down to the point we are sometimes even taking a loss on it.

I can only wonder what will cause this to turn around. Right now there seems to be no end.

$5000 to spend as they like, rather then propping up failing banks. People spend, creating a manufacturing demand, putting people to work making stuff, which goes to the stores for people to buy from the people working there who get paychecks and then spend them creating a manufacturing demand...

The economy only works properly from the ground up. The top tier, the bankers and money managers, are supposed to get their money by trickle-up, not by direct infusion.

penalties on those which have abandoned America.

Sometimes a little protectionism is a good thing. Just ask the EU.

Hire the unemployed and teach job skills. Run the place as efficiently as possible. (lean manufacturing) give the profits to the workers as shares in ownership. When the ownership by employees is 51% the government backs out and sells it ownership.

:hug:

I think I'll join again. Their goal is social justice for all. I really don't see what's wrong with a little socialism now and then to help people along.

We took back the government now let's make it work for us like the right makes it work for the wealthy.

A lot of us went to college and vocational school and graduate school because we thought it would help us get jobs.

It didn't. I have a doctorate that I wasted five years getting while working full time.

That J.D. has yet to get me a job of any kind.

Lots of us are over 40 and overqualified.

and improving the country. I think we are wasting our best talent and not replacing it.

to have degrees for the work we're doing now, but that work did not require a degree 20 or 25 years ago.

And if your are 45 or older, there isn't a degree out there that will help you at all with getting a job -- they want younger folks.

to build an energy infrastructure built on renewables.

Released from the shackles of costly fossil fuels (and don't kid yourself, $40/bbl only looks like a bargain after the commodities bubble, it's not), industry would be able to grow and be competitive with low cost labor countries.

The role of government in the past has been to create the infrastructure that industry relies on to develop and grow.

I don't think governments do manufacturing all that well, actually. They are unable to respond to changes quickly enough and have little reason to innovate.

My idea is that the government puts up the capital and the business is run by they same type of people who would run it if it were privately owned. The government doesn't have control over management decisions.

I worked as a controller for manufacturing companies and the toughest thing is to come up with a product that sells and makes a profit.

Manufacturing creates wealth buy taking material labor and overhead costs and selling them in a product for more than they cost the manufacturer. Also there are jobs at all skill levels needed.

Manufacturing can create more lasting middle income jobs than the temporary construction projects we are going to have.

By giving workers a stake in how the operation is run, workers would naturally seek to make manufacturing as efficient as possible. Their paychecks depend on it.

I favor a government that would set up a structure in society that encourages and protects the development of a co-op sector in the economy. That structure, in simplest terms, would be a public bank that capitalizes existing co-ops, buys out failed or failing businesses, and reorganizes those firms into labor co-ops. At the same time, it could also offer consulting services to co-op firms, such as the latest in business techniques to increase productivity. In time, the economy will be split between a private sector and a co-op sector. If true competition is allowed to occur between the two, I have no doubt in the end the co-op sector would be the dominant sector.

David Schweickart, whose views I tend to agree with, calls it economic democracy. I call it socialism. Others may call it other things, but in the end, I think it is the right way.

People who think their jobs are vulnerable (and that's just about all of 'em) are going to bank that money for when the axe falls.

Two years ago it might have done some good.

Until we manage to convince people their jobs are safe and that there are other jobs available if the boss is an asshole, you can forget about any direct payment doing any good, at all.

Of course, it would help shore up shaky banks almost as much as TARP will.

You'd do more good for this economy if you got Congress to rescind the tax credit for offshoring jobs and institute punitive measures for corporations that do.

and it seems the companies that are continuing to survive are those with the best customer service. Those that are cutting back on customer service staff - anyone on the "front lines", dealing directly with customers - are the ones finding their sales slumping. And those that go out of their way to take care of customers and show them they're very important are holding on or even doing well.

Of course, that sort of longer-term thinking can be hard when you're several steps removed from those front lines, and you're looking at very slow sales. (Not you, obviously) But I throw it out there because I found it made complete sense. (I work for a non-profit, and in a way this was applicable there, too - those of us who take very good care of the relationships with our constituents will probably come through this at some point stronger than before).

So take the time you have to be extra caring of the customers you do see, and you may be buying your store long-term loyal customers. If only corporate was looking at it that way, too - huh? Good luck to you.

laid off entirely.

for anyone who is not in management. I tell new hires that I interview to not even THINK about trying to use a non-management position at our store to pay the bills because they simply won't be able to. Most regular employees take home $200 every two weeks right now.

People will not buy now if they rationalize they can buy the same later on for cheaper. It is a vicious cycle that is difficult to break once it becomes entrenched. In the past, there was very little that could be done. You simply had to wait for things to hit bottom. Nowadays, the Federal Reserve tries to cancel out deflation by stoking inflation: By a process of creating new money and then making it cheaper to borrow that money by dropping interest rates. In the long-run though, this means a currency that becomes increasingly debased in value. Eventually, a regular loaf of bread will cost $10.00.

are getting busier by the minute though.