This company needs to do an overhaul in its senior management. District Managers have been around for a long time (some of them 10 plus years) and think that they have "Expert" level business insight, however they have only ever DM'd at RCL. They do not have a world view understanding of how to manage Managers. They are essentially using old school methodologies to manage new school Managers. Also, favouritism is rampant, and if you are a new Manager from outside of the company you will never get a fair shot or they will try to micromanage you and your business. All the DM's want are a bunch of "yes-women" to agree with their every word. Listening to conference calls is enough to make you wretch.
I supposedly ran the "flagship" location, however if we were lucky we would see 550-600 traffic maximum a week which is pathetic...
The customers have been trained by Penningtons to treat the employees of the stores like garbage. As a Store Manager this did not sit well with me as my team is my most valuable asset. I found myself on several occasions asking the customers to speak to my team with respect, even if previous manages allowed this, it did not fly with me.
Customers are horrible, in all my career I have never seen such a filthy, lazy and completely disgusting customer base. They stink, have poor hygiene, try clothes on then then step on them in the fitting rooms and often the clothing smells so bad after they try on we are forced to write them off as damages.
There are no succession planning programs for Store Managers and therefore no growth once you hit Store Manager level. So unfortunate.
Reitman's needs to invest in programs if they want to remain competitive or else you will continue to lose strong Store Managers.