Sears, Roebuck and Co. confirmed Tuesday that it would eliminate nearly 7,000 more jobs in a consolidation of duties that will take effect April 1.
Beginning then, staff on the selling floors of Sears stores will issue temporary Sears charge cards and gift certificates, look up customer account information and process customer charge card payments, according to a statement. Those duties were handled by staff in customer convenience centers in each store. Those jobs are being eliminated.
Personnel in those 1,000 full-time and 5,900 part-time jobs will be transferred to other store positions, though the company acknowledged that the shift of duties could cause layoffs. People not placed in other jobs will be offered ”reorganization” benefits, or severance pay, said the company, which has been moving to reduce costs for 1 1/2 years by eliminating jobs.
Sears also announced, in a change that could have a far-reaching effect on its financially troubled catalog operation, that it would begin testing Jan. 17 several options to deliver catalog merchandise to the customer rather than to a store for pickup. The tests will be conducted from 32 stores across the country.
”Because of changing lifestyles and shopping habits, more of our customers prefer direct delivery of merchandise to their home, workplace or other locations rather than picking up orders at store catalog desks,”
Everett Buckardt, Sears Catalog president, said in the statement.
Buckardt noted that direct delivery ”also helps us cut our costs.”
Direct delivery will allow Sears to eliminate the cost of merchandise unclaimed from stores.
Elimination of the nearly 7,000 non-sales jobs, which was reported in Tuesday`s edition of the Chicago Tribune, is being facilitated by the $60 million purchase of 28,000 computer terminal/cash registers, the installation of 6,000 automated customer-service kiosks and the upgrading of software used on the firm`s cash registers.
From early 1991 to April 1992, Sears will have converted about 676,000 square feet of back-office space into selling space, the equivalent of about seven Sears stores.
”We continue to make substantial progress in improving our levels of customer service while lowering our costs,” Sears Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Brennan said in the jobs statement.
Elimination of the 7,000 jobs will reduce operating expenses by about $50 million annually. Sears has eliminated another 44,000 jobs in the last 1 1/2 years.
”Fifty million dollars is minor in the context of everything else, but it is a step in the right direction,” said Richard Nelson Jr., retail analyst for Chicago-based Duff & Phelps Inc. Sears stock closed at $38.25, down 12 cents, on the New York Stocks Exchange.
