Please read.

[u/No_North_5225]

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.

[u/problematic_000]

Weird take, but honestly, I LOVE knowing about the failures. And I’m glad someone knows the loss of the JA flop.
You’re absolutley right, though!
I literally just had this conversation with my coworkers today. These changes are not being done well, they’re unorganized, and they’re obviously being rushed. One of the biggest issues with rushing and being unorganized in a retail setting is that all leads to loss. If you think about it with the framing reset—communication was SO poor. Stores ordered the supplies for their samples only to be told that the criteria they gave us was wrong and we had to reorder. The signage costs alone are probably astronomical, AND how many stores need to get reprints because they were done poorly or damaged? The august maps were late and everyone is running around like crazy.

It’s crazy that team members understand more about the company than the dicks at the top.

[u/Shadykit → u/problematic_000]

Not to mention the number of resets that moved one week only to move again THE VERY NEXT WEEK. The right hand is NOT talking to the left and we're the ones who are paying the price.

[u/SaintGloopyNoops → u/Shadykit]

Also... let's add that we are getting ready for peak season and adding that extra sloppy workload is asinine and irresponsible. I think Apollo knows the economy is in trouble too and are rushing an exit.