"The uncertainty is here to stay several more months, if not longer." "I don't feel like I'm reinventing the business every two weeks like I was in 2020, but we have no idea what businesses we will have to run post-pandemic," she said. It stopped accepting deposits for many items, since it could not predict if - or when - those big-ticket items would come back into stock. The store is getting out of the furniture business due to backlogged shipping times and higher freight costs. Plus, she said, the latest wave of the pandemic could further delay the return to steady shipments of popular baby items, such as car seats and strollers. "I have very little hope that all of the sudden we are going to find all of these amazing people and bring them on." "I would anticipate our staff shrinks further, not gets bigger," she said. And she said the omicron wave hasn't yet hit the region - which could mean more employees calling out sick.
Job applications have slowed to a trickle, despite enlisting a recruiter's help. Its annual revenue grew to nearly $900,000 last year - 23% higher than 2020 and 14% higher than pre-pandemic sales in 2019. Harris, however, said she worries Green Bambino may have to cope with a leaner staff, even as its sales jump. Retailers may even be able to ask temporary holiday hires to stick around and work additional hours into the new year, he added. "Staffing levels aren't what they were pre-Christmas, so companies do have that advantage," he said. Rowley said the good news is that retailers and restaurant chains have at least survived the holiday rush. For example, an understaffed Chipotle location can turn off digital orders coming from its app and focus on in-store transactions instead while nearby restaurants fulfill delivery and online orders. Some companies have gotten better at using technology to notify customers about staffing shortages or store closures. "It used to be in retail you never changed your hours," she said. Now, she sees some corporate giants doing the same as they get hit by the "Great Resignation" and squeezed further by the omicron wave. It is now open five days a week instead of seven. The store has had to switch its schedule. She said she has had to toss out one of the cardinal rules of retail as she operates with a staff of four people – less than half the 10 to 15 person staff she expected to have. Morgan Harris owns Green Bambino, a Oklahoma City store that sells baby supplies including onesies, diapers and toys. "Retailers and restaurants are facing this in spades." "The labor shortages from goes out to almost any customer-facing business," said Rowley. He said pandemic-related changes may prompt retailers to permanently rethink store hours, particularly as more sales move online. Some stores are trimming back on weekdays when only a small percentage of sales take place compared with busier weekends, he said. He said the company is going to spend roughly $120 million more on labor to help its stretched-thin staff.įor short-handed retailers, reducing hours has become one of the first logical moves to make, said Craig Rowley, a senior client partner at Korn Ferry and head of the firm's retail practice. "There's been a high level of stress in the system," Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe said Thursday on a company earnings call. In the note, the company's leaders mentioned the many tasks that pharmacy staff are juggling - namely, giving over 55 million Covid vaccines and more than 23 million Covid tests, while still filling over a billion prescriptions annually. Walgreens sent an apology email to customers this week, acknowledging customer complaints about long checkout lines, out-of-stock items and delays for Covid vaccine or test appointments.
And other employers, including Starbucks, Chipotle and Nike have been forced to close some of their doors as they simply don't have enough people to keep them open. Walmart temporarily closed nearly 60 stores in December in coronavirus hot spots. Macy's cut store hours at locations across the country for the rest of this month. A soaring number of sick, exposed or overworked employees has caused retailers and restaurants to take unusual steps as their existing labor problems worsen.
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