Poll Results, Comments: Jan/Feb 2010: Star of Year, Lawsuit, Vacations, Oh My!

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings everyone, thanks for the out pour of comments and emails the past two months!

The poll we had up has just closed, here are the results:

Question: Do you like the idea of BJ's creating more 85,000 sqft stores?

Yes: 81 (69%)


No:  35 (30%)

Looks like most of you do like the idea of smaller stores, check out our new poll to the left of this post.  If you'd like to suggest an idea for a poll send us an email!

Okay, onward and upward, as most of you know BJ's 4Q numbers are being released this coming Wednesday, until then we thought we'd review this past post's comments and discussions that have been flooding our email accounts:

Lawsuit

Anonymous 'expects more Payroll cuts to offset this pay out [from wage and hour suit]...."

Anonymous says "Today's hourly wagers are not uneducated or dumb. HR would do well to see that respect is a two way street."

Anonymous said that 'Home Office has to realize that its the workers that make or break a business, and if they keep on doing the things they have been, there will not be a BJ's in the near future as today, there are many alternatives for the consumer...'

Anonymous said 'the Sad thing is, even with this lawsuit settled, there are Gms still running their clubs this way. They wont learn a lesson until the Labor board gets involved. The communication between management and hourly is atrocious.'

Anonymous wonders 'Why do you think there are so many Overnight Manager Positions listed on BJ's Employment site?'

One writer gives their first hand experience of the lawsuit

"This is not about Costco, or Sam's club, This is about BJ's and things that happen there. Nothing will ever improve if people just shut up and let things go on as is"

And one anonymous poster thinks if the club would become union, it would instantly become an under performing store and shut down.

 One poster says remember you must pay union dues, while another says 'Oh big deal unions collect dues'

Star of year 

Anonymous wonders how a cart-person can win SOY.

Anonymous tells us three things they look for in the SOY


Anonymous says "Its a favoritism thing. At our club, a part timer who is late a great deal, texts on his cell phone during work, etc got SOY but because he is a butt kisser, he gets on avg 45-50 hours a week"

Anonymous thinks the SOY program creates more disconnect and resentment than good.


Anonymous thinks SOY is completely arbitrary, while another thinks the award is well deserving to certain workers.

Vacation

Anonymous wants to know if anyone feels "the new system for paid Vacation and sick time is going to screw us?" 

Anonymous thinks the new program is better than the old.

Anonymous says it "seems that we are losing three weeks vacation time under this new system."

Anonymous wonders if that is true [losing three weeks vacation] why aren't we seeking union protection?

Anonymous says that "Misinformation abounds. No one is losing vaca time"

And Anonymous says "The biggest obstacle to union organizing efforts is simply the high turnover among the rank-and-file of a typical retail store. In some places, 60 or 70 percent of the staff can change in a typical year."

We'll have more to speak about on Wednesday, until then let the discussions continue and thanks again.  

Related article

• Wal-Mart Cutting 10,000 Jobs At Sam's Club (huffingtonpost.com)

BJ's Wage and Hour Suit destroys Q3 Numbers...Expansion details...

Image via Wikipedia

We know this story has been re-published throughout the blog, just bringing it to everyone's attention.  The story broke about three weeks ago...

We'll take you through the timetable:

BJ's has an abysmal Third Quarter.  (Read the entire Q3 report at Yahoo!.)

Further research to BJ's Wholesale Club dissatisfying Q3 numbers has BJ's and investors scapegoating the $11.7 Million Dollar wage and hour lawsuit which was settled during the end of the quarter as the main contributer to the terrible Q3 numbers. 

More on the Lawsuit:

Press Release:  http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2663574/

Klafter Olsen & Lesser LLP has reached a $9.3 million settlement of an overtime pay class action lawsuit against BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (NYSE: BJ). The settlement, which is subject to Court approval, is intended to resolve claims that BJ's misclassified certain Mid Manager employees as exempt from receiving overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

Plaintiffs claim that they were misclassified because their primary responsibilities included hourly duties such as loading and unloading materials, stocking shelves and other activities which are not exempt under federal and state overtime laws Under the settlement, approximately 1,500 current and former Mid Managers employed by BJ's since November 2007 will be entitled to make claims to share in the recovery, based on the number of weeks they were employed by the company. 

From BJ's.com, quote: "The settlement of the lawsuit is not an admission on the part of the Company of any wrongdoing. "

What are your thoughts? Any company wrongdoing here? Lot's of people complain that they do work outside their job classification, which allows companies to take advantage of most workers, what are your thoughts?


As far as chain expansion in the coming months:

"Chain expansion, club renovation, our technology roadmap and team member training and development. Our preliminary expansion plans call for 79 new clubs, including two in Massachusetts, one in Metro New York, one in Orland, Maryland and a club relocation in Rhode Island."

Keep the emails and posts coming,