I think I over heard something (and could have been wrong) but I believe we don't provide Western Union service anymore at our Kmart. I remember reading that is one of signs that a Kmart being closed down is coming soon. Anyone can confirm this?
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Thank you!! Yes the point of having these services is to get people in the store to shop. We ALL know that. Unfortunately the people who come in and take advantage of these programs literally walk out after they are done. Excuse me if I plan on staying with a customer to help them buy a washer, etc instead of running to the western union machine. Sorry ma’am/sir, I’m the only one who knows how to do a wire transfer so your $500 purchase will need to wait. I think NOT.
@2goy; Quite right. It's the same with the check cashing. We're not a fricken bank, but we have people coming in to cash checks to the tune of thousands of dollars on paydays. They get their cash and turn around and walk right back out the door, probably to spend it at better stores. A waste of time for the service desk and whoever inevitably has to run back to the office safe to grab the money since the procedure for changing the bag amounts just for one or two days a week is a pain in the butt.
Sorry you feel I don't know what I,m talking about. When we closed we had very few hours or people. But I believe you should always do the best job you can no matter what. You are being paid to do a job. If you what to confirm my store in Meadville Pa closed July 24th 2017. I had 40 years with Kmart. I believe you should be part of the solution not the problem. Good luck to those still working I hope your stores make it.
At the last comment, you clearly have no clue what you are talking about. I’m glad you were fully staffed and had the time to deal with this along with the mountain of other crap.
All managers should know how. Great source of income, it should never be down. I was a manager before my store closed I did them all the time. Unacceptable to post out of order. If you want your store to succeed.
I'm surprised that WU makes any money with all of the scams. I worked in a store that had $10k worth of scams in 6 week period. People requesting transfer over the phone (despite all the training and signs all over the place tell you NOT to process transactions over the phone), using counterfeit money, etc. it's a waste
@ecc; Honestly, even when we did have a decently staffed service desk, Western Union was almost always a waste of time. This seems to be the case even when I go to another store, like a grocery store, and end up stuck in line at their service desk waiting on one person doing a WU. Even if, as is the case less than half the time, the person wanting to send or receive money is capable of fluent communication with the associate, there is so much data entry entailed that one WU transaction is going to tie up that person for at least five to ten minutes, as a line builds up. Meanwhile, the store makes a pittance in return from WU. That service fee isn't all going to the store. It's a net loss versus the labor cost.
We have all of two people who know how to do Western Union in our store. One only works perhaps two or three days a week, and the other refuses to do them. Thus, the machine is "broken."
It’s not that you don’t offer it (believe me you do- and your store is contractually obligated by western union to perform a certain # of transactions per month). It’s that no one has freaking time to deal with it! Western union is almost ALWAYS “down” in my store along with money orders, fish & game, and anything else that we don’t have the time or people to properly run. I’m sorry, but if I’m the only one in the store who knows how to do a western union, I’m not going to stop the million other things I have to get done and the 5 customers I’m helping at once to do a western union that will probably involve a complicated transaction. If we had the proper staffing we could actually perform all these tasks, but at the current 2-3 staff in the store at any given time, it’s not feasible.