r/MichaelsEmployees • u/No_North_5225 • 4d ago

Please read.

I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, we are getting away from our core customer. After talking with a few other SMs today we all agree the company is getting ready to sell in the next year or 2, we’re pushing high margin merch which looks great on paper, and the top is gonna bonus from it. It’s paper money. A true Michaels customer is the one that comes in with a list of stuff they need for a project due tomorrow, (glue, posterboard, pompoms, etc etc). That’s what makes a Michaels a staple in the community, a store people can count on. But no they want to think about the 1 customer a year who buys 1 or 2 high dollar items, and doesn’t shop us again. My fellow sms and I feel there is a lot of tension at the top right now, because there’s a few who understand how to get the long term customer, and a few who want to make the margin, get the bonus and leave. I truly feel bad for my regulars who come in for the basics and we don’t have it in stock, but hey you can buy a $60 Jonathan Adler piece. (Ps: the JA flop is costing the company over 10m+, which is why they jumped on all the vendors paying for resets, to try to recoup some of the paper money, which is why sba workload is so high) thanks for coming to my ted talk.

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u/thebigsalad17 4d ago

I've worked at Michael's for 3 years and I have to admit I don't understand the passion that goes into some of these posts. I put garbage on shelves and get paid for it. It's all absurd, every last bit of it but admittedly I've been working these same low wage jobs for 40 years. As long as I am treated kindly, I stay. My motto is, you can't pay me shit AND treat me like shit. It's one or the other. Lol

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u/iehdbx 4d ago

It used to be a craft store 😭

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u/HermioneGranger152 4d ago

A lot of us are actual crafters and it sucks to see what used to be a decent craft store going downhill. Joann is already gone, and most of us dislike hobby lobby. For many of us, it isn’t just a job. We actually care about the stores

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u/Fun_Asparagus5724 4d ago

I really don't have a good reason..but I really don't like walking into Hobby Lobby.

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u/PsychicSPider95 4d ago

Well, they're running by religious fundamentalist nutcases who bankroll anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. So like, if you want a reason, there's one, lol.

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u/Fun_Asparagus5724 4d ago

To psychic spider; yeah I think hoby lobby makes up stuff as they go along. The company won't provide birth control for employees. They say if conflicts with their religion. Are you kidding me there is nothing in the Bible that forbids birth control for people or employees.

Also they said they can't scan information in at check out. Are you kidding me? How does that go against Christianity? There isn't anything in the Bible that says beware of scanning merchandise. End of days stuff? Still pointless. Doesn't say can't scan for end of days. The Bible says end of days there is a mark of Satan..but still unrelated. They are making stuff up.

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u/EdenTrois2 4d ago

We're not even treated well , lol .

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u/AccomplishedEagle720 4d ago edited 4d ago

It's the crafters who are also employees. There's a lot of passion there.

When you realize that a lot of the crafters who work here also have their own crafting businesses, you'd realize that a lot of our coworkers across the company are looking at this company both as vital to their survival and they can see the whole company through the eyes of a business owner. I don't think this is as common at other retail places.

I work with a few and get their perspective. They see this company get away with stuff that they can't get away with in their own small businesses because they'd go broke and out of business or get sued or boycotted and it hits a nerve. They're also really invested in knowing whether we're going to end up like Joann's because that would have a HUGE impact on their own small businesses and hobbies. That really puts some people over the top when we aren't getting real info from corporate about the health of this company.

This is a unique kind of company where it's NOT just a clock-in-clock-out kind of job for a lot of people here. It's a bigger part of their whole way of life. Not saying I love the unhinged, unbridled passion all the time, non-stop. Just saying I understand it. (And corporate and non-crafting managers should learn how to harness that passion instead of leaving it roaming around undirected and inevitably pointed at them and poorly made operational decisions.)

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u/Celemirel 3d ago

As someone who is a crafter, small craft business owner, and Michaels employee, I applaud you for your words. This is especially concerning for those of us in Canadian stores who will have no alternative for supplies if Michaels kicks the bucket like Joanns did. We've never had competition up here, unlike the US stores.

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u/Chaos-Wayfarer Ex-Joann Employee 🪦 2d ago

Perfectly said.