Pros
Some of my co-workers were very nice
Cons
Low pay Low hours No heat in the winter No A/C in the summer even when it's 110 degrees outside No room to move up in the company Ancient registers that have to be rebooted at minimum once every single day No communication between managers Bad overall management Not enough workers through out the day As a cashier we are expected to interrogate every customer who comes through our lines by asking if they have a Shop Your Way Rewards card, if they don't we have to try and force them to sign up for one. Then we have to ask if they are paying with a Sears credit card and if not then we have to try and force them to sign up for one. Depending on the time of the year we also have to ask if they want to donate to St Jude or the March of Dimes. If we don't ask the customers all this crap management gets pissy. By the end of the transaction the customer and cashier are frustrated beyond belief. Kmart is all about pushing people to have a SYWR card and not about a good customer experience to bring people back. There are even arrows on the registers that keep track of the percentage of people with a SYWR card. We are expected to stay above 70% every single day. And if at the end of the week our overall average is in the 60% range we're told to do better but if we're at 59.9% we have to go to HR for a write up and are then threatened with the possibility of fired for low scores. I can't help that the old grannies who still shop Kmart don't have emails to sign up with or don't want to give out the info required to sign up for SYWR. The front end cashiers all work 4-5 hour shifts a day, 6 days a week with no way to change that if you happen to be in school and can only work 3 or 4 days a week. Management doesn't want cashiers standing around at the registers if it's a slow day which is understandable. But we aren't allowed to work in a department that we don't belong to. Basically we have to walk around the registers and pretend to pick the magazines or check dates on the candy so avoid getting in trouble. Certain employees are allowed to do whatever they dang well please, while everyone is yelled at for the slightest thing. Management has gotten numerous complaints about these 2 certain cashiers who stand at each others registers yell, curse and use racial slurs in front of the customers but nothing is ever done about it. Our breaks are 15 minutes long but some people will be gone for 30-45 minutes at a time and never get in trouble. Others go 1 minute over that 15 and it's like they've committed a horrid crime. This goes back to bad overall management in the store. Sale prices are NEVER in the system the correct way. Every other item requires a price check. The electronics in the weekly sale ad are never in stock and can't be put on a rain check. If a customer needs help finding something in the store there is never anyone out on the sales floor to help. Or it takes 30+ minutes for anyone to show up. Front end cashiers are forced to cover breaks and lunches for the electronics department but are not allowed to do any kind of work back there since it's not our department. But if we're just hanging around back there we get in trouble. So we end up walking around in circles just to appear busy. Overall don't bother with working at any Kmart unless you have no other choice. It's no worth the pain and suffering you go through on a daily basis.