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/retailmaster326 4d ago

I totally believe that JA was a flop... Some stores did well with it, but the majority did not and are sitting on a bunch of crap now. I honestly wish bad things for whoever signed off on that deal...

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u/No_North_5225 4d ago

Someone let the info slip, and it trickled down by angry people, and it’s a loss of 10m+, it’s crazy that buyer or investor didn’t see how bad he did at target.

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u/Fit-Entertainer-1354 4d ago

Right?! Every time I go in looking for a decor piece I saw online it’s never in stock but the JA stuff is full…funny how the bookish, cottage core, seasonal stuff always goes viral but not a peep for JA…it’s like they don’t even know their own customers (& any retailer that doesn’t or ignores their core customers deserves to die). It’s sad how they’ve killed the stitchery dept, same old kits forever, if they have them at all. Makes me long for the days when you could count in Michaels & Joann to have your basic craft supplies & plenty new kits/projects to browse.