Sears
June 22, 2017
I had heard a few weeks ago about Sears filing for
bankruptcy and it broke my heart to hear that I had worked there almost 15
years ago. I had since gone into the store to buy a few things as I still
actually shopped there and to my surprise the store looked barren, disorganized
and just overall like it had given up. It had fallen so far from when I had
worked there in 1998 (I think?)
I had just moved here from Ontario and had brought
forward some personal debt with me after a messy break-up. In retrospect it
wasn’t a whole lot of money that I owed to people but at that time it was a lot
of money to me and I wanted to pay everyone back. Not to mention I was out of
work and had to borrow money from my sister just to get here, so needless to
say I was in a bit of a hurry to pay everyone back as quickly as I could.
I already had a part time job working at a ski hill
with my mom, it worked out great as we could carpool but it was only 3 days a
week. I needed something that was a bit more permanent, so I heard Sears was
hiring and decided I would drop off a resume and interview that same day. Lucky
for me, I interview well and they offered me a part time job. It would only be
over the holidays and couldn’t guarantee me a permanent position come the New
Year. I accepted and figured the extra income couldn’t hurt. I started off a
couple days a week but that quickly progressed to 4 days a week, which meant I
was working two jobs and working 7 days a week. Looking back on it, I don’t
know how I did it and how I didn’t get sick more often…but I didn’t. I worked
my butt off and made a payment plan for everyone.
Back in this day, I wrote a lot of post dated cheques
and had a calendar hanging on my wall to let me know when I would have payments
come out of my bank account. I know it sounds a little archaic but back in that
day, that’s how things were done. After about 5 months of working 7 days a
week, I had paid off all my outstanding debts. I was surprised that it took me
that short of a time period to pay everyone off but when I did get everyone
paid off, I was pretty proud of myself.
Anyhow, back on track here…when I worked at Sears we
had to be there 10 minutes before our shifts so that we could be up to date on
the latest specials and what we had on hand and what we didn’t. I usually
worked the night shift as no one really wanted this shift but I didn’t mind. I
enjoyed the quiet time and the fact that I could make sure that the area was in
tiptop shape before I left each and every night.
My old Supervisor’s name was Elaine and she was such a
nice woman and looking back on it she was able to accommodate almost all of our
requests. Keep in mind this was coming from all of us 20 year olds who always
seemed to have something going on and needed time off. She was a good
supervisor, she was stern but not in a bad way. She laid out the expectations
that she had for us and the department and I have to say they were pretty
strict. Our department had to be cleaned every night and had to be in showroom
condition for the morning shift. No shoes hanging around and not put away, no
garbage or anything from the shoe boxes laying on the floor. Even the shoe
display’s had to all have tags on them and the display shoes were always the
left shoes. It took a little bit of time to figure out the routine but once you
got it, it was actually pretty easy.
Looking back on how strict things use to be compared to
now…I just can’t fathom how far it’s come from where it use to be. What
happened? Well, we all know when a company starts to get into financial
trouble…the stores start to suffer. However in this case, the stores are bare,
large areas of the stores have old display cases in them, piled up just sitting
there.
This once pristine and well kept store was just a free
for all. I miss how nice the store use to look and it truly makes me sad to
know how far it has gone. The signs are all there, despite them filing for
bankruptcy protection…I can clearly see that the stores are going to close,
it’s just a matter of time.
