Kmart reviews

3.6

56% would recommend to a friend

(6,688 total reviews)

Edward S. Lampert

58% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Kmart has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 6,688 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Kmart employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

7K reviews
2.0
Aug 11, 2014

I got paid little and treated poorly.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The job was easy to get but, honestly, that really is the only pro to accepting a job here. Otherwise, there's nothing.

Cons

- You will not get the right training. This was the most frustrating thing of all--- and I'm even including the terrible pay. I started out pretty motivated. Given, the stuff you'll be doing at minimum wage isn't fantastic, but any charitable feelings I had were swept away when I was constantly put in positions where I didn't know how to respond and wasn't encouraged to ask questions. - The pay is bad. The hours are bad. The upper management WILL take advantage of you.

1.0
Aug 10, 2014

Dismal

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mostly lovely coworkers, learning new things, working with customers and meeting new people.

Cons

Oh, my- it is a very long list. Outdated clothing and accessory choices for most sizes, with the exception of Juniors departments in some stores. Management is completely useless- the only times I saw management step up and actually do anything worthwhile was in the week or so before any corporate visits or during inventory. Clique culture- if you aren't "in", you're not getting the hours or promotions, period. Dingy, outdated storefronts. Everything just looks dirty, no matter how often you clean. All hardware, form computers, to phones, to RMUs, is old enough to be in a museum. Software constantly full of bugs, and always being updated RIGHT BEFORE a fast-paced season, like Thanksgiving or Christmas sales. Plumbing and HVAC systems were also super old, and constantly falling into disuse because of lack of repair or maintenance. I cannot begin to count the amount of times I was asked by management to unclog a toilet. Yeah, not my job! Customers sweating and complaining of heat in the store at all times. Employees are not trusted at all, so there are tons of nitpicky small rules that make things impossible. At the same time, loss prevention is a JOKE. We did not have even ONE LP Officer in the four plus years I was there. So employees are scrutinized and even fired for not following certain "employee loss prevention" procedures, but customers were stealing our store blind every single day and not ONE thing was done to stop it. We were not allowed to approach employees if we saw them steal something. They were allowed to walk out of the store with purses and pockets full of unknown amounts of merchandise, and if the police happened to catch them, great. If not, bye-bye merchandise! Even the detector alarms at the door were almost always turned off, so people could be walking out with small electronics or cosmetics or anything at all that had those useless little sensors and no one would know. Not enough employees on any given day to actually finish everything that needs to be done. Sometimes we had ONE employee covering ALL of softlines- meaning, one employee covering fitting rooms, returns to the floor, straightening the shelves/racks, helping customers with clothing/shoes, manning the jewelry counter, price checks for shoes/accessories/jewelry/linens/bath/kitchen... the list goes on. ONE PERSON doing ALL of that on a Saturday night. Imagine. As Front End Lead I was expected to do a multitude of things but also to cover for all the holes in the schedule that day. Many others were expected to do similar things... to be on a cash register, to sell credit cards and SYWR, to do returns of merchandise to the floor, to do price checks, straighten shelves, clean around the check-outs, retrieve carts from outside, move where-ever I needed someone to fill a hole in the schedule. Countless times I would close the store until 1am, and be back at 6am to open. At least once a week this would happen, more often during the holidays. Black Friday is a joke... Great deals advertised, and next to nothing actually in the store that matches the ad. No organization for these types of sales either, no lines or cues, no "take-a-ticket". Food and produce selection is extremely lousy and, more often than not, products are past their expiry dates or on the brink of expiration, but still sold because they didn't want to take the loss on the product. Broken or damaged returns would not be processed as such and would be put back on the sales floor. This happened often and was a matter of policy, the SM wanted it this way. Losses would be underreported so the SM wouldn't be in trouble with RM or DM. As for the RM and DM, oh my- what a joke! They were nothing more than an email address to send a bunch of useless reports of useless numbers to at the mid-day and end-of-day. Store visits by the DM were dreaded because he was of no help in any area, just lectured and instilled fear in all employees. Too many lazy teenage high school employees who would rather text and chew bubblegum than actually work.

3.0
Jun 20, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you get on the good side with your manager, you may enjoy working here more. Usually there are opportunities for more hours if you want. If you work hard advancement opportunities are decent.

Cons

Favoritism is a HUGE thing within this company. I don't know if it's just my store, or the company, but just about everyone I work with agrees. HR plays favorites and gives good hours to the ones she likes more. Our policy is garbage, and management is too afraid of getting a negative review to tell a customer "No.". The shop your way rewards card has to much focus and if the associate doesn't have over 75% of their customers to have a rewards card, they get in trouble. So we have to shove the card at our customers and practically beg them to sign up. It's too much stress for such little pay.

Viewing 151 - 153 of 6,688 Reviews

Glassdoor has 7,010 Kmart reviews submitted anonymously by Kmart employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Kmart is right for you.