<p>My friend’s 19 year old college D took a part time job selling jewelry at Sears and is heart broken! She lost her job - not because she couldn’t sell jewelry(she sold a wedding set her first day!), but because she didn’t sell enough credit cards! They were required to open 40 new ones in a month and she only opened 37. In other words, she thought she was hired to sell jewelry, but she was actually hired to sell credit cards!</p>
<p>I will be taking my appliance business elsewhere and H will no longer be purchasing his tools there.</p>
<p>Does anyone else find this action on the part of a retailer outrageous?</p>
<p>I do think it’s a little inflexible, particularly given that she was only working part time, but in the big picture, it’s just a blip in the road for her.</p>
<p>Wow, is every employee required to open 40 new credit cards for customers each month? That’s a lot of pressure. I think the fact that a part-time employee was able to open 37 accounts in one month is very impressive. I’d say Sears is the loser in this situation. I hope your friend’s daughter will find another job where her efforts will be appreciated.</p>
<p>she’s better off without a job that is that inflexible. In this economy? People are cutting up, not opening, credit cards. Plus, if she wasn’t fired for it this month? She’d spend every month feeling like she had to open 40 new credit cards. Bad employer, if this is true. They’d be better off offering incentives for those who go over 40. JMO</p>
<p>1) I have been boycotting Sears for years because they have very shady practices.</p>
<p>2) That’s how retailers work. I once worked at Kohl’s for 4 hours (quit right after the orientation) and in that four hours I learned all employees were expected to sell x amount of credit cards every month as well. Haven’t you noticed every time you go ANYWHERE they ask you to get one of their cards? They either get a cut (incentive) or are required to sell them to keep their job. The company more then likely makes a lot more money on interest from those store cards then they do on selling stuff. The other day I got asked three times in ONE transaction. I was in that same store store a few months ago and I saw a manager coaching an employee on how to offer a credit card and she told them they are required to offer it at least three times while doing the check out process. At least the girl was doing what she was told. </p>
<p>3) That being said, she was hired to sell things, period. Cards, jewelry, etc. If they plucked her from jewelry and put her in kids clothes she’d be expected to sell that… even though she was hired for jewelry. So if they feel she isn’t meeting one of her numbers they can just let her go. At my work, if you are not meeting one number (just making stuff up, but say you aren’t meeting credit cards) but say you are meeting another number (like jewelry sales) they may give you extra coaching and extra help to help you get all your numbers up because they would hate to let you go and have to train someone all over again just because you didn’t meet one number. However, if you’re still not meeting it after a few months who knows what would happen. People don’t realize how stressful jobs in sales are. If you don’t meet your numbers you will probably be shown the door and they will try to find someone who can meet them on a regular basis. Are you sure she wasn’t told about it before? I had an ex boyfriend who worked at Sears probably about ten years ago in electronics. He got fired for being under his quota of TV’s or computers or something like that. I remember one of his friends even came in and bought a computer to try to help him out. I also had another friend who worked there about 10-15 years ago in shoes and she was strictly commission. I remember her telling me that she’d go in for a 4 or 5 hour day and come home after earning 15 dollars most times.</p>
<p>dadx, Walmart does ask also. I have a cousin that works there and he’s required to ask everyone if they want a credit card. He says that he won’t ask more then once and he doesn’t press it because he hates being hassled like that when he goes shopping. I am not sure if he has to reach a certain number or not but he certainly doesn’t try very hard to get them so I don’t think he does. He’s worked there for about two years now so they must not make too big of a deal about it. One thing I did learn from him is that they get bonuses. He’s not sure how they calculate it but we think it must be based on the stores sales or something because his bonuses after the holidays are always more then they are the rest of the year. He says they might be 50 dollars or they might be 200 dollars. Not too bad for a kid who goes to college and only works there part time every other weekend and during holiday breaks.</p>
<p>Let’s do the math … customer buys a $500 piece of jewelry and puts it on the new credit card. Margin on the sale? Let’s say 15%. Interest rate? Let’s pick something middle-of-the-road … 17.99%. So if the customer pays twice the minimum payment monthly, does the retailer make more on the original sale … or the financing?</p>
<p>I don’t know. I just thought that was interesting. I’ve been in stores in several different states and can’t recall ever asking. Maybe they do ask, but I just zone out? ;)</p>
<p>My cousin said he feels stupid asking sometimes. He was joking to me like gee would you like to open a credit card while you purchase that stick of gum? He said he thinks they should only ask if your purchase is over x amount of collars or something.</p>
<p>I think she has learned something valuable. When you are hired, listen to everything they tell you. (And ask questions about the whys. The best employees are asking me why we do it this way. They are the ones that will go far.)</p>
<p>The kids that work for me are <em>required</em> to have certain interactions with customers. Sometimes it feels stupid to them – but as retail management, I have my reasons for asking them to perform in a specific manner. Now, I am likely to explain to my employees exactly why I want them to do x, and I bet it’s never been explained to a fast food cashier exactly <em>why</em> she’s supposed to ask if they want fries with that, or to a jewelry clerk exactly <em>why</em> the credit card accounts are important.</p>
<p>At one pet store I know, the employees are <em>required</em> to ask browsing customers if they would like “to exercise and socialize a puppy.” The reason is that a customer holding a puppy tends to become more interested in buying. It’s also good for the puppy. But it’s a required interaction. If you don’t get 10 puppies out of the cage and introduced to customers in your shift, you won’t have too many shifts to work!</p>
<p>It’s too bad she lost her job over this. Having said that…I get asked about Credit cards almost everywhere I shop…Macys, Target, Walmart, Penneys, Sears, Kohls, ALL of them ask me every time I shop and every time I graciously decline (I do have a charge at one of them…but not all). I also find it annoying that they ask my zipcode when I shop and I won’t give that out either.</p>
<p>Credit card interest is the biggest form of revenue for many (most) of these bigger retailers. It’s like the merchandise itself is just a means for the retailer to earn more interest on the balance - never mind the profit on the sale itself.</p>
<p>The other big form of revenue is the ‘extended warranty’ sales these retailers do - it’s mostly profit. Think about that the next time that’s offered - i.e. if they make so much money on it - why buy it? - they’re betting the thing won’t really break and they have the hard data as to whether it will or not.</p>
<p>While I don’t think it’s outrageous to fire a salesperson who isn’t performing to the ‘expected level’, I don’t think it should be a surprise - i.e. I think the company should have clearly stated up front what the criteria was to hold the position and what the expectations were. If they weren’ up front with this info then it’s shady and unethical in my opinion and worse, something not nice to do to this 19 y/o or anyone.</p>
<p>Thenwayto relieventhempressuremon all employees is for customers to refuse to ever open a store charge on the spot. Apply only via the store’s website.</p>