Originally Posted by fabric whisperer

I have been a long-time lurker here, and this one makes me speak up! :)

I was a #2 manager at a local JAS -- I recently left because of the politics. I heard many people mention untrained staff, long lines, fabric quality, overworked staff... I am not allowed to divulge too much, but since I quit, I can finally speak up a little.

I am hoping this buyout will really rattle things in a positive way. "Corporate" mandated "making budget" everyday. They wanted us to convince customers to buy more/highercost items... BS your way in if you have to. Sorry, I had morals, and left the company. (I would not toss 5 extra skeins of yarn into that 80-y.o. lady's basket to make her buy more!)

Corporate would set a magical $ amount for our store; budget not met daily = employee hour cut to "make budget". What did this mean? Two-man coverage at smaller stores for most of the day, and we were still expected to get stock out, help customers, cut orders, run register, clean the store, setup new plan-o-grams (sectional product layouts), etc. If the standard work didn't get done during our normal shift, we managers would get written up. Nevermind that I didn't get to finish a plan-o-gram because I was busy helping customers -- my philosophy has always been "if I don't help my customer, someone else will -- without happy customers, there is no business".

Needless to say, mgmt positions are very stressful at JAS, and if nothing else, I hope this company actually will let the managers have more staff hours to that the stores can be brought back up to par. Please understand, my District Manager chewed me a new one, in front of customers, because my new floral setup didn't get completed... I didn't get it done because we were busy with customers until 5 minutes before close... Needless to say, I chose to help the customers!

I agree the fabric quality has declined, many fabrics they are now selling are from China -- thin, damaged bolts upon delivery, I have sewn for over 30 years, and I wouldn't buy them. But they do also have the better quality stuff, you just have to know where to look. They still sell RJR, Hoffman, Springs / VIP, Kona, many great names. I was the merchandising manager and took my job & store very seriously, I was constantly complimented on good selection / well stocked / clean store while I was in charge. I am a scrapbooker, painter, sewer, quilter, crocheter, musician, and 4th generation artist. My store now looks like doodoo since I left, the new merch mgr just wanted the higher paycheck, she doesn't care about aesthetics or what the customer wants.

I hope it will be a good thing. Oh, BTW the "no debt thing" -- they got out of debt by making us run medium-sized stores with only 2 employees/shift for a long time. Meanwhile, corporate was building a "workout center" across from HQ for millions... Um, we are working ourselves into heart attacks while you're spending the cash-flow on a new rec center? That just wasn't cool IMHO.