Waldenhell, and now Borders

[valis2]

So Borders employees are being told that if they don't sell the value club, they might lose their jobs or get hours cut, even though Borders might go out of business any minute, leaving the customer holding a valueless card that they paid money for.

I swear, this makes me insane. So Waldenhell infected Borders with their Preferred Reader program and their methods. Ugh. I've already covered my history with Waldenhell, and suffice it to say, no sir, I don't like it.

Reading the article made me just about break out in hives, seriously. I still have nightmares about being forced to sell the Preferred Reader program.

Comments

[pandora-nervosa.livejournal.com]

ETA: See that you did Walden's when it was KMart owned. When I was there, Borders owned the Walden's stores. I wonder if Border's purchase of a failing Walden's was the cause of this bankruptcy? Who knows...economics makes my stomach hurt.


Oh, girl, this is nothing new. At least not to employees.

When I left Conn in um...2005? I moved down here with my family and got a job at the Walden's in the mall. I loved my co-workers, the job, everything.

I was told to "offer" the card to every customer. I tried to but most already had theirs out if they were regulars and if they were not regs, they were those "book report" sorts that didn't normally read.

A few weeks later, was reprimanded for not pushing the card. I explained and I also mentioned that I will not interrupt a person on their cell to do it (although unless a dire emergency, I personally do not call someone during a transaction).

Was told I needed to push more cards or lose my job.

Way to stay classy, Borders.

That Walden's closed down two years ago.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I started when they were K-Mart owned,and then they merged with Borders and I worked there for another year or so, I think.

I couldn't stand that I was supposed to offer it to every single customer as this sort of impassioned entreaty, even if they were just buying a magazine. UGH. And it cuts down on talking to the customer and actually having a little bit of a conversation. That made me mental!

And yep, it was all about pushing cards or getting fired. That's why I kept getting written up. It sucked, big-time.

omg, the book report people!! YES. They never wanted a card.

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

This sounds EERILY like the Big Chain Pet Store I worked in... The slide from "we all worked together pretty well" to "new manager" to "another new manager... and other replacements" to "by the way, try to sell this upgrade" to "sell x of this upgrade each week" to "sell x+1 upgrades each week" to "there will be consequences if you do not sell x+n upgrades"...

I went through all of that. Including reduced hours, stupid managerial meetings about charts and paperwork and monitoring our sales, and the ever-increasing pressure to sell the upgrades despite a complete lack of research into the market (hint: stop comparing us, a store in a small rural area with a high transient/student population, to a store in a major established city! We are not going to outsell Store-In-Major-City; most of our customers are not affluent!).

I had a manager tell me he was "surprised" I was still around, after all the store had been through. I said something bland and manager-hearing-suitable, but inwardly? I knew I was going to leave when I graduated, and took great private satisfaction, in having -- as Aral Vorkosigan says -- outlived the bastards. (And they were going to be bereft of the -- at that point -- employee who had worked there the longest, which meant that I knew how to do, and helped with, everything.)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Loyalty cards are definitely a good thing for many companies, but I think there's a point where they start to saturate the market and the company needs to be careful about pushing them too hard. I mean, I understand that people paid $10 each for them and they were important for revenue, but they were also not really cost-effective for everyone, and it was kind of a pain for many customers (like people who only bought mags) to hear about them each and every time.

And yes, the charts and paperwork! The monitoring! The pressure! They spent so much money generating all of that and making it the be-all and end-all. In the end, we were a bookstore! Not a Preferred Reader card store.

Ugh for selling x+n upgrades. I hate that stuff so much. :(