A few days ago I received the best compliment.
I was at work and two of my fellow associates walked by, deep in conversation. As they passed one of them said, “If there was a zombie apocalypse I’d ask Angela to be on my team - she’d survive.” I glowed. I also needed to hear that. “You know it!” I answered. “Not sure if I’ll survive this place tho.”
We laughed but our eyes were serious. We work retail but sales have been down since before Christmas. Hours are being cut to the bone and there is a freeze on new hires. Inside is tough but we all know we are lucky to have jobs. Outside is worse.
Abercrombie & Fitch is closing 180 stores. Sears and Kmart have both been vanishing with another 172 stores slated to be axed this year. Payless Shoes apparently hasn’t been getting paid enough and they are cutting 103 stores. Even strong names with fangirl/boy loyalty like the Gap and Espirit are dwindling as they let go of around 100 stores each. Worrying seems to have replaced shopping as a national pastime. (source)
The people I see every day are acting a little like zombies. We all stumble around tired with our minds on bills, taxes and fiscal cliffs. Customers put luxury items in their carts and then take them out and desert them later. Boxes of high end chocolate have been replaced by bags of potatoes for many consumers. We are getting more serious by necessity.
Survival is a state of mind and the way I see it we have two choices – adapt or be eaten. It may not be actual zombies doing the munching but if we don’t adapt we will be consumed by dysfunctional debt. Failure is not an option.
Now here’s some music to get us in the right mindset :)
love it!!