So here's a way nobody wanted to start off their 2011. Great, happy new years from BJ's everyone had a great holiday season and is enjoying the new year. Over the past few days we've been reading up on some interesting news involving BJ's start to 2011, and wanted to fill you in on the details. Five stores will be closing in the Southeast, which will shave 380 jobs, and another 114 corporate level employees will be cut.
"The Natick-based chain will close five underperforming stores, in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, which will result in the loss of 380 positions by the end of this month."
The stores are listed below, all with the closing date of January 17th.
- Sunrise, Florida: 3469 North University Drive. - 99 Employees
- Charlotte, North Carolina: No clear number of employees to be laid off has been announced, over 65
- McDonough BJ’s Wholesale Club 1990 Jonesboro Rd. McDonough, GA 30253
- Powder Springs BJ’s Wholesale Club 2435 East West Connector Austell, GA 30106
- Norcross BJ’s Wholesale Club 6344 Cash Ct. Norcross, GA 30071
The way they're wording the closings? "BJ's announces Strategic Actions to Optimize Performance'" [Press Release]
Laura Sen has said that these clubs have underperformed. Though we just came across their December sale numbers which read that sales are up big and comparable sales are up 3.8%
BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. (BJ: News ), an operator of warehouse clubs, reported that sales for December 2010 grew 7.3% to $1.25 billion from $1.16 billion in December 2009.The Natick, Massachusetts-based company's comparable club sales for December 2010 increased by 3.8%, including a contribution from sales of gasoline of 2.4%, compared to comparable club sales increase of 4.8% in December 2009.
Sales are great, the company is doing fine, this raises an eyebrow. Just as we previously noted, this is all a restructuring of "dead weight" (not our words) in order to sell the company.
"Management is trying to portray itself as having the ability to make the difficult decisions required to drive stronger earning growth perhaps to stay aboard under a new regime, while also displaying hidden value to would-be bidders,"- Brian Sozzi, Wall Street Strategies analyst.
Read more at: Boston.com Also: Boston Herald
Right now, it's all about selling this company, at least that's the way it looks to us. This flat out sucks, these 'strategic actions' are just the worst way to start the new year.
where are the stores in North Carolina and Florida that are to be closed?
ReplyDeleteWe have updated the post, they're also cutting 65 jobs from their headquarters.
ReplyDeleteAs a Person who works in corporate, bj's sells itself on the lie to their members. All the way from coupon booklets which i know everyone who veiws this can relate to they say that if they call membercare that they can be added to the list but those same members call month to month then its they take 6-8 weeks... its all bjs way to be the underdog when they, because they themselves dont have to deal with it... they leave it to in club or by phone they barely deal with pissed off members or getting kussed out.. In my opinion the whole " RUMOR" about the compnay being sold was true and bj's will slowly but surley wither to nothing like blockbuster and so many coprate giants and not because they made a mistake with budget but more because they dont know how to treat their consumers who keep thier business running and their employees who work their asses off defending them.
ReplyDeleteWell, as long as Laura makes her money, that's all that really matters.
ReplyDeleteIf you all had simply quit your whining and bought BJs stock when the takeover rumors began, you would have made 15% on your money. At this time last year, the stock was trading at only about $34. There's still a chance to make some cash right now, just buy BJs stock. It's expected that the buy-out will pay at between $50-55 per share, which is well above the current price of $45.34 a share.
ReplyDeleteThe business community is paying attention to the store closings and especially the layoffs at the home office (the home office was overstaffed anyway).
ReplyDeleteStores don't get closed unless they are losing money, but you kind of have to hope that Laura etc didn't make this move entirely to entice a buyer...
The general merchandise business has brought down the sales. You can buy a great TV at Best Buy for the same price with more creative financing.At BJ's the computer selection is... not great...furniture and clothes, JUNKY... Go to Costco and look at the array of cameras and see how well clothes sell there. No cheesy blow up decorations there, at the number one wholesale club.... BJ's gave up on the in store pharmacy...WHY??? If someone else can run it better, then why not sell the company? Seems like there is not a cohesive management team, turnover of CEO's every 3 to 4 years...
ReplyDelete"Seems like there is not a cohesive management team, turnover of CEO's every 3 to 4 years... "
ReplyDeleteWell said, just alone at the club which i am employed at, we have gone through 4 District Managers in 5 years. That should tell us something about this company. South Phily area, has had Adam Sokolov(who happend to be an a complete joke with all his complaining about dust on a display case),Laurie who didn't know her ass from a croissant.. Rafat Raghib(who was well respected in our club; wish he was still our D.M), Mike Waters(who has done a great job so far, IMO)
As a former TM of the Sunrise FL club, I will give you some details of how we closed shop.
ReplyDelete1) No more trucks [840, Burris, water, vendors]
2) The closing club finds out the day of
3) Regional LPs everywhere, and HO and HR TM's
4) Distribution TMs ship merch. to other clubs
5) Few TMs are let go ASAP, others get severance
6) Workshop on finding other employment
7) Consolidation of left over merchandise
8) Major markdowns aka firesale of merchandise
9) Leftover merchandise shipped to other clubs
10) Lots of trash removal as club is desolated
What happened to the "big news" on January 16th? i take it BJ's will be taking out an ad on Craigslist for a buyer?
ReplyDeleteCompany is as good as sold. They've pretty much gotten rid of most of the old guard...
ReplyDeleteBJ's can afford to shed their skin of a couple of those lazy RICM's and overnight specialists.
ReplyDeleteIf you guys want to stick it to the man, just unionize. Look at what's going on in Madison, Wisconsin. Private companies are buying off politicians to keep unions away. Wouldn't it be nice to know there is a union to protect you? I promise that NOBODY in this company will protect you from your senior managers.
ReplyDeleteBJ's and many other companies are being socially irresponsible. They keep cutting staff and payroll. We could make darn good use of 50 more employees at our club but no they are cutting hours and still demanding higher and higher standards. The greed is incredible at the top of these companies. Working individuals pay taxes and stay off public assistance, instead of that we states going broke, counties and cities in debt up to their eyeballs. Unemployment compensation debt to the Federal government, highest ever EBT use and graduates from high school who don't find steady work for years. The states should start passing requirements for how many employees are needed to operate these businesses. The employees pay taxes and get off public assistance. Taxing the companies more will only make them cut more jobs and will not solve the public assistance debt. Socially responsible companies should want to get people back to work not bully the workers they keep.
ReplyDelete^ Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhile BJ's corporate management should probably rethink its business model (because of staff issues you've mentioned), the fact remains that payroll dollars are based on sales. When sales drop, payroll drops. When sales rise, payroll rises.
Your club's staff level probably appears to be dropping because when people get pay raises, that leaves less money for everyone else. In my experience the payroll budget as a percentage of sales does not actually drop over the long term.
Most importantly though, I really wish public schools would teach serious economics. Corporate "greed" lets you pay your bills. Corporate "greed" lets the federal government collect taxes so it can pay ITS bills. In one breath, you talk about states going broke, and in another breath, you propose ideas that would hurt your own employer! You don't need to add BJ's to the phone book of retailers who have failed over the past century. Learn economics!
Yes, I agree that payroll dollars are based on sales, but can you explain to me why some clubs with the same sales and comparable cost of living, get consistently more payroll than others. Yes, I do know that my facts are correct because I see the payroll numbers for everyone in our region and the percentage of payroll to sales is between 3% to 5% within this zone. I know some zones play favorites and some try to squeeze more outof clubs to offset this, but shouldn't home office be more in control of these people?
ReplyDelete(Well, I dunno which region you're in. I notice 85 tends to get more payroll, probably because Rich used to be a regional).
ReplyDeleteIf a club has a deli, it needs noticeably more money than a club that doesn't have a deli. But yeah, a 3% payroll has got to be a headache.
Club #013 needs more payroll and more cashiers. There are never enough registers open at any time. And get some of the lazy managers to come down from upstairs.
ReplyDeleteI think #13 needs renovation. Whenever I've been there, the lighting seems dark. The freezers look old. There are cracks in the floor. The store's been open since 1980-something. By comparison, they gave 141 a refit and the store was opened like 8 or 9 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in hearing what Maple Shade employees think.
To Drazen - I know a bit about economics as I am sure you do too. I've owned and operated my own business before, I'm not hurting for funds. What I am seeing is an unwillingness of BJ's to take on team members or maintain employment levels. When I see register lines of 10 deep at the beginning of the month, largely due to EBT sales, (EBT sales are equilvant to cash/credit sales in every way to the business) and the club is on payroll alert I have to just shake my head in wonder. Front-end, front door, member services, DDR, receiving, cart people, asset protection, etc are in high gear all the time. Replenishing 300+ pallets (a 52' foot Cowan trailer)(mostly food) a night with 6-8 ticketers and 1-2 specialists is one hell of a task, and to mention also add in your mind the zone 2 resets, dropping, booming, signing, endcap changes, push items, milk, eggs, recovering HBA, electronics, clothing, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think the front-end and replenishment tasks are worthy of more staff. The individual sales departments, meat, bakery, produce seem to be holding up okay. (stress "seem to be") Receiving, asset protection and back office seem to be handleing it well. (stress, "seem to be" again)
And I would add as food for thought, many of our team members can't afford to shop our own club and have variety on their food menu. Although some shop the club selectively, others shop at the grocery competition.
Payroll is cut so regional managers on down to Gm;s get their bonuses. If sales increase, payroll is still cut. One of the worst things Bj's did was to accept EBT. It drove away a good many of the paying members who spend more dollars at club level then EBT shoppers do.
ReplyDeleteWhen this Buyout happens, I hope there are a great many changes made in management and at club level.
The clubs that are being closed lost the company about $5million. There is one store that is being closed because their lease was up and the owner of the land wanted to renew their lease on a monthly bases. You can't improve or add to a store whose lease could be done in a month. They are closing that store and looking to rebuild nearby.
ReplyDeleteEBT is great for business. No way it'll ever go away. 3:52, I don't understand why you think it's driving other shoppers away.
ReplyDelete7:30, yes, lines are too long in this chain. Corporate leadership does not exist on this issue. They would make both the employees (notably FLS) and the customers happy to ensure more dollar signs for front-end payroll. This is an issue that hits the members in the face, and in most cases it's definitely nobody's fault on the front end; there just isn't enough payroll.
Running a club is all about having a good strong Regional and a good GM. Management needs to work as a team to get the job done right and all managers should be included and aware of what is going on within the clubs. Payroll will always be an issue. What the cllubs need to do is get the right team members into the right positions and have all of them crossed trained so they are able to work where they are needed.
ReplyDeleteWait till after all the reviews go out this month.......
ReplyDelete7:51, what you say is true, those are important things to have. But still, you can read stories in the media about BJ's Wholesale Club, and those stories talk about long lines. A club can have all the right people in the right positions, do everything right, and still lose customers because of long lines. And... does corporate BJ's understand that something like 40 or even 50 percent of members hate those self checkouts?
ReplyDeleteBJs corporate is changing all the old self checkouts to the new ones which are much better than the old ones and if you have the right attendant on self checkouts they are really good and members like them but when you have attendants that don't respond and help the members out by scanning their water and packing their carts for them they don't like them. Visit a new club that have the new self checkouts and good attendants and the members leave happy....
ReplyDeleteCutting hours at out club caught up with our Dm. He strolled through passed the deli during his weekly visit to find out that 2 out of the 3 deli clerks had called out for the day, leaving one to fend for herself while the line of members we're getting angry. The DM walked by and one of our regular went up to him and tore his a new ass. She told him to expect a all to home office to complain about the lines as well as the increase in her membership.
ReplyDeleteThey better hurry up and sell BJS while they still have employees......people starting to talk about unions in this club and a walk out....Looks like shi- is going to hit the fan....
ReplyDeleteWhy would you want a union at a BJ's store?
ReplyDeleteUnions are the only thing protecting anyone from a corporation now. I fought BJ's hard when I worked there, and I ended up with nothing. If I had a union to support me, I would still have a job. I wasn't a lazy employee either, I followed everything to the book, and they still got rid of me once I decided to take them head-on like an American. I pray those in Wisconsin and Michigan make their voices more heard, because without a union you can't win.
ReplyDeleteA union won't fix bad HR decisions (this is coming from someone who has watched in horror *many* bad HR decisions). The only thing a union can do is put a representative in the room -- see NLRB v. Weingarten -- if disciplinary action is going to be taken against an employee.
ReplyDeleteGet Lu, the personnel manager OUT of #13, she don't do squat!!!!! And YES, UNIONIZE NOW!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI can see the rest of Jimmy's hairs falling out as he reads this.
ReplyDeleteAt least with all of the payroll cuts the Upper-Crust can once again travel to Florida to get their shit off!!! Thank you BJ's Manangement for taking advantage of your Team Members.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder why BJ's can't touch Costco or Wegman's when it comes to best retailer to work for. Cya in hell, Laura.
One of Laura Sen's finer moments.
ReplyDeletehttp://money.cnn.com/2009/05/01/lifestyle/roadwarrior_sen.fortune/index.htm
This year's "FF" trip to Florida should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean "Final Fantasy"?
ReplyDeleteWatch out BJ's Team Memebers. It appears the deal is about to go down. That investor (LGP) firm has the info needed for due diligence. It appears to be the only one. There has been no assurance that the benefits package will stay intact (-eg, health care)full-time status hours, vacation plan, personal days, birthday, sick days and pay rates. What do we know about what's going on? Nothing! We could be sold up the river. Currently, as a publicly traded corporation we each had the option of being stockholders, this will change when a deal goes down. We were kept from joining any union, meat cutters were paid union wage but will this stand? Have you ever wondered why BJ's has always been behind Costco? Costco is union and blows BJ's out of the water in every sense. Costco has less stock keeping units (SKUs) is open less hours per week, has better bennies and employees have representation (a union). Costco members are happy to shop there, employees are happy to work there. Too many things at BJ's are a sham, The Team Member concept is used as a way for management to bully us into cutting another employees throat, Star of the Month/Year is only a way play favorites and oh yes how about that great job bid process???? HAHA HAA Does this make sense to any of us? The Star of the Month gets a day off with pay??? If they are such stars and team players then why do they get a day off? The rest of us have to bust ass even more because they aren't there. Oh and by the way...only one star each month per club??? come on people wake up. The stars should be given an extra days pay but have to show up to work with the rest of us, after all they are essential, they are the stars!! It's the ole carrot on the jackass trick. Contact your local RWDSU office and at least look into what can be done. What we should is have a company wide call out day, just to get some respect. As for the managers who are going to cut this down, you have no idea what your future is either. Do you?
ReplyDeleteBJ's is just a lame joke. I watched so many good hardworking employees in that place get fired and screwed out of their unemployment, while stupid lazy "senior managers" sit up in thier little office eating cake and talking smack. These people should be the ones who get cut, while they promote hard working hourly team members who will do their job for less money, and do it right. You let people go who are doing way more than their own job description because they are making $11-$13 hr, simply because you want to pay some new hire who has no idea what they are doing $8 and work them to the bone. It is disgusting and I think all those stupid corrupt greedy upper managers are going to get it in the end. All their good employees are going to move to the competition, and the company will fail. There's no place in this world for a company so full of evil, greedy two timing a-holes. who have no respect for decent hard working people. This company can bite me, and don't try do defend yourselves it won't do any good. All you people are losers, and you know who I am talking about. nothing you say can justify your actions. Also I am very sorry for all the good people getting abused and mistreated by this company. I've seen and met laura sen and she is a horrible stuck-up evil person who deserves to go down in flames. We can only wish though, unfortunately we have to suffer for a while until things all work out for the better.
ReplyDelete12:10, if you're going to say those things about senior managers in your club, you should also tell us which club it is you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteI am interested in hearing more about employees being "screwed" out of unemployment. That seems difficult, next to impossible.
Sounds like a disgruntled NJ deli clerk.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet it sounds like a lot of clubs, It isn't as far from possible as you think. All it takes is a lie and call to home office, then they fight your unemployment by having someone sign as a witness, falsely. Since everybody is afraid of losing thier jobs due to payroll cuts, the bad economy, and the fact that they can't even use their own time off, they won't defend you. Sorry Drazen, I'm anonymous it's club # etc...
ReplyDeleteI'll stick the number in at a later post; it's not all of the seniors, but there is at least one egocentric senior in every club. The basic end result of everything is as long as the managers get thier bonuses than nobody else matters. I just feel bad for those who lost their jobs over money rather than work ethic.
ReplyDeleteanyone know the story behind herman asam's departure? the heads sure are rolling..
ReplyDeleteHow does someone get screwed out of unemployment?
ReplyDeletePayroll is based on sales. So are Bonus'.
what's goin on with this sale?? what's the holdup, its annoying having clubs cut payroll seriously to look profitable.
ReplyDeleteclubs i think are just getting bad my club really took advantage of this one kid who took over as personnel manager only to get kicked out of personnel because he was in college by the lp manager who is the new personnel manager and acts like she is the gm while the real gm does nothing and the kid was placed in DDR for awhile then receiving supervisor but after our inventory he was told he is no longer useful to them and is now a cashier fighting to keep his full time status because she wants him at part time 20 after taking money away from the kid said he was going to call home office but im sure that will do no good
ReplyDeletewhich club?
ReplyDeleteThat's club 156 in Vineland NJ for you
ReplyDeleteThat may be the longest run on sentence I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteI regret helping Club 156 with their inventory earlier in the month. All of the team members looked like trolls and gargoyles. I was glad to get out of Vineland NJ before midnight, never again!
ReplyDeleteso anonymous who said we were ugly where did you come from to help because alot of the people who helped our club was ugly
ReplyDeletehttp://bjtmvoices.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteBJ's Team Member Break Room
BJ'S SUCKS!!! Get out NOW!!! After January 1, they are going to strip you of all the benefits you have now!! Bye-Bye vacation, sick, and personal/birthday time!!! No more Dental Insurance and sucky medical insurance!!! Unionize NOW OR LOSE IT ALL!!!!
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