Looks like retailers are getting even more desperate than we thought

Beatcha Back @GeorgiaXplant ..my first job was at 12 years old delivering milk on a milk round at 3am... until finish at 7am .. 400 houses.. before school.. Just had enough time to get in doors, wash and change into school uniform and eat a 1/2 a bread roll which is what we were given for breakfast..sometimes cornflakes.. and then walk 2 miles to school

I'm not looking for any pity party, I'm just saying how it was in my family, abusive.. .... I worked every morning 6 days a week for my father who was the milkman at the time. and got paid nothing.. big fat Zero...my brother also worked for him as did my brothers' friend.. they both got paid ..I didn't..

When I left school at 15 and went to work 40 hours a week.. my father took my wage packet from me unopened and gave me just enough money to cover my bus fares to work ( 6 miles to work and 6 back ) ..nothing more, not even lunch money .
 

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"Georgia;
Dear me. Kroger is gonna find out that I got a speeding ticket (7 miles over the limit) 🏎️ on my 40th birthday. Reckon that will disqualify me?"

I doubt it. Around here they have big signs everywhere saying we will take ANYONE, NO drug tests. Inquire inside & prepare to go to work. $17.00+ an hr. A lot of places have closed because they can't get any help.

One thing I noticed was the places that are paying the $17 to 20.00 an hr. The food prices have gone sky-high. A plain Hamburg no dressings on it. is $12.50 & it's the size of a slider.
 

I can't understand why so many stores and restaurants are having trouble finding employees. All the Covid unemployment payments have pretty much expired, and most businesses are offering higher salaries than they were a year or two ago. Why the "reluctance" for so many to take some of these jobs???
 
One reason is that people who traditionally fill those jobs finally got just plain burned out from the abuse by customers.

Another is that a good many of the jobs are jobs held by single mothers. Many child care centers closed during the shutdown. Some that have been able to get employees have reopened but now charge much more than they did pre-Covid. For instance, a woman in Minnesota who had been earning $15/hr can't go back to work until she can find child care. The center where she'd been taking her kids closed, and the cheapest safe place she could find cost $16/hr.

I don't do numbers, but even I can see that those numbers just don't work.
 
hollydolly said:
I started work at 15 years old... straight into a 40 hour week.

When I look at 15 year olds today, I think how young I was to be sent out to work , but at the time, I just accepted it as something that had to be done, to bring money for my parents..
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I started at 16. It's for that reason I think it's too young. The laws passed in my country will allow kids to work until 11:00 pm. This could lead to all kinds of dangers for them since they are too young to drive. When I was young, the world or at least my world, wasn't quite as dangerous as it is now.
 
Don M. said:
I can't understand why so many stores and restaurants are having trouble finding employees. All the Covid unemployment payments have pretty much expired, and most businesses are offering higher salaries than they were a year or two ago. Why the "reluctance" for so many to take some of these jobs???
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Vaccine mandates to work.
 
Granddaughter 15 applied for a job when school was out last Spring. Hired to bake and do customer service at a pastry shop. Worked 35 hours/week all summer. Has continued to work 15 to 20 hours/week while in high school. Started at $7.50/hr. Has been raised to $12/hour due to her work ethic.
Granddaughter got CNA certification through the high school when she was a sophomore. Went to work in a local nursing home. Continued working there through her junior year. Graduated at semester her senior year, still working at the nursing home. Now 19, working 40+ hours/week at the nursing home. Picked up a part time job at a local doctor's office. And... going to nursing school. Paying her own way through nursing school, along with two scholarships. Purchased an almost new car with her own money. Has an apartment with another nursing student. This past weekend volunteered to fill a shift at the nursing home. Incentive pay... $30/hour.
So many businesses are begging for staff. Trying to find someone who will show up... show up on time... show up willing to stay off their cell phone... The work ethic in today's workforce causes a lot of the short staff issues.
But, it's not all the fault of the employees. So many businesses simply will not reward the excellent employees with advances in wages and responsibilities. No person living by themselves and feeding themselves can exist on $7.50/hour. If a potential employee has a child that needs childcare while the parent is at work, will lose money by working.
I really believe there is a significant change coming re workers in food service and other retail businesses. We'll see more self-check lanes. We'll see more on-line sales. We'll see shorter hours the businesses are open. We'll see fewer and fewer restaurants and bars that need more than the owner and one or two employees.
 
Patch said:
Granddaughter 15 applied for a job when school was out last Spring. Hired to bake and do customer service at a pastry shop. Worked 35 hours/week all summer. Has continued to work 15 to 20 hours/week while in high school. Started at $7.50/hr. Has been raised to $12/hour due to her work ethic.
Granddaughter got CNA certification through the high school when she was a sophomore. Went to work in a local nursing home. Continued working there through her junior year. Graduated at semester her senior year, still working at the nursing home. Now 19, working 40+ hours/week at the nursing home. Picked up a part time job at a local doctor's office. And... going to nursing school. Paying her own way through nursing school, along with two scholarships. Purchased an almost new car with her own money. Has an apartment with another nursing student. This past weekend volunteered to fill a shift at the nursing home. Incentive pay... $30/hour.
So many businesses are begging for staff. Trying to find someone who will show up... show up on time... show up willing to stay off their cell phone... The work ethic in today's workforce causes a lot of the short staff issues.
But, it's not all the fault of the employees. So many businesses simply will not reward the excellent employees with advances in wages and responsibilities. No person living by themselves and feeding themselves can exist on $7.50/hour. If a potential employee has a child that needs childcare while the parent is at work, will lose money by working.
I really believe there is a significant change coming re workers in food service and other retail businesses. We'll see more self-check lanes. We'll see more on-line sales. We'll see shorter hours the businesses are open. We'll see fewer and fewer restaurants and bars that need more than the owner and one or two employees.
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Sounds like she's got a great start!!
 
Patch said:
Granddaughter 15 applied for a job when school was out last Spring. Hired to bake and do customer service at a pastry shop. Worked 35 hours/week all summer. Has continued to work 15 to 20 hours/week while in high school. Started at $7.50/hr. Has been raised to $12/hour due to her work ethic.
Granddaughter got CNA certification through the high school when she was a sophomore. Went to work in a local nursing home. Continued working there through her junior year. Graduated at semester her senior year, still working at the nursing home. Now 19, working 40+ hours/week at the nursing home. Picked up a part time job at a local doctor's office. And... going to nursing school. Paying her own way through nursing school, along with two scholarships. Purchased an almost new car with her own money. Has an apartment with another nursing student. This past weekend volunteered to fill a shift at the nursing home. Incentive pay... $30/hour.
So many businesses are begging for staff. Trying to find someone who will show up... show up on time... show up willing to stay off their cell phone... The work ethic in today's workforce causes a lot of the short staff issues.
But, it's not all the fault of the employees. So many businesses simply will not reward the excellent employees with advances in wages and responsibilities. No person living by themselves and feeding themselves can exist on $7.50/hour. If a potential employee has a child that needs childcare while the parent is at work, will lose money by working.
I really believe there is a significant change coming re workers in food service and other retail businesses. We'll see more self-check lanes. We'll see more on-line sales. We'll see shorter hours the businesses are open. We'll see fewer and fewer restaurants and bars that need more than the owner and one or two employees.
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@Patch, your granddaughter will be a great nurse!
 
My grandson and I went to one of the Dollar Trees in our area. The manager was at the register and a line longer than I'd ever see in there had begun to form. When someone complained, he said he had no help. A couple of people asked if they were hiring and he gave a resounding "YES" but he was not taking applications there. They have to be submitted at dollartree.com. One of the other Dollar Trees we went to had a big "We're Hiring" sign in the window. People say "Oh there's plenty of jobs" but one thing they need to realize is it's not always easy to hire those who are competent and trustworthy. My husband had retail establishments for decades and he went through several employees because they were neither of those things. It winds up being a waste of time because they have to be trained, then after all that...turn out to be busts.
 
Waiting for the background check to come back so that I can start the new job. The manager said that depending on how busy HR is, it could take up to two weeks. Waaaaa!:cry:

It's gonna be hard to go to work tomorrow and bite my tongue about leaving. Before I started there I was told there would be a $250 sign-on bonus after six weeks and another $250 after six months. After six weeks...no bonus. What? Then eight weeks went by so I brought it up. Oh...they forgot to tell me that it was changed to 10 weeks before bonus would be paid. I got (ahem) assertive and insisted. Finally got the bonus 12 weeks after my start date.

A couple of weeks ago there was a notice posted that there would no longer be a sign-on bonus but that any manager who referred an applicant who was hired would get a $500 bonus after new hire had been there six weeks. Apparently, if hourly employees refer someone, there's no "bounty" paid. What?

The shop manager referred someone two weeks ago, and her name started appearing on the schedule. As of last Saturday, she still hadn't shown up. Maybe she changed her mind? Could be. It could also be that she's not exactly dependable. The shop manager, who's off on Mondays because she has to go to drug court and then drug "school", met her there.

It occurred to me yesterday that their new policy means I wouldn't get the additional $250 after six months anyway so leaving before the six months are up won't matter.
 
Traffic and service here is getting terrible. We have thousands of sno-birds coming down for the winter and stores and restaurants are not able to handle the rush. Help wanted signs most everywhere you go and long lines at coffee shops drive one crazy. Walmart has gone all self checkout and notice a lot of retailers are going that route. Our CVS drug store has gone to self check out too.
 
I don't understand all this snowbird activity. There has been practically no snow in my neck of the woods for years now, probably thanks to global warming. Every winter, we seem to get one light snowstorm which melts away by the next day. So what are all these northerners running away from?

I could understand the big migration to Florida if our winters were getting colder, but the opposite is happening!
 
@Sunny The winter weather may not be colder or sNOwier where you are but it is in a lot of other places. I'd hardly call Maryland a northern state. The latitude of Baltimore, for instance is 39deg N; the latitude of Duluth, MN is 46.7867deg N. That's quite a difference.

Don't overlook the fact that many Canadians are sNOwbirds, too.
 
Pappy said:
Walmart has gone all self checkout and notice a lot of retailers are going that route. Our CVS drug store has gone to self check out too.
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You’d think all those who lost their jobs would be heading to the places with Help Wanted signs.

Here they’ve had TV news stories about people, when they even bother to apply, who don’t even show up for interviews.
 
Tom 86 said:
"Georgia;
Dear me. Kroger is gonna find out that I got a speeding ticket (7 miles over the limit) 🏎️ on my 40th birthday. Reckon that will disqualify me?"

I doubt it. Around here they have big signs everywhere saying we will take ANYONE, NO drug tests. Inquire inside & prepare to go to work. $17.00+ an hr. A lot of places have closed because they can't get any help.

One thing I noticed was the places that are paying the $17 to 20.00 an hr. The food prices have gone sky-high. A plain Hamburg no dressings on it. is $12.50 & it's the size of a slider.
Click to expand...
 
hollydolly said:
Beatcha Back @GeorgiaXplant ..my first job was at 12 years old delivering milk on a milk round at 3am... until finish at 7am .. 400 houses.. before school.. Just had enough time to get in doors, wash and change into school uniform and eat a 1/2 a bread roll which is what we were given for breakfast..sometimes cornflakes.. and then walk 2 miles to school

I'm not looking for any pity party, I'm just saying how it was in my family, abusive.. .... I worked every morning 6 days a week for my father who was the milkman at the time. and got paid nothing.. big fat Zero...my brother also worked for him as did my brothers' friend.. they both got paid ..I didn't..

When I left school at 15 and went to work 40 hours a week.. my father took my wage packet from me unopened and gave me just enough money to cover my bus fares to work ( 6 miles to work and 6 back ) ..nothing more, not even lunch money .
Click to expand...
I certainly can relate to this kind of treatment and worse...my heart reaches out to you....you are a kind person....hugs
 
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