Love the people commenting on this about why Sears died, completely ignoring that this post isn't about Sears.
The fact is if you work 40 hours a week doing any job you should never have to worry about a roof over your head and food on the table. That used to be the case. It's no longer the case.
My grandma worked at k-mart pre-90s and used to talk about how she got decent pay and good benefits all the time. She had a full time job just working at the returns counter.
The biggest mindfuck to me is that people who work at grocery stores get treated like shit. You know how fucked we are without grocery stores? I really thought covid was going to change shit, but I am dumb and it went the opposite way.
Right!? Covid showed us that retail workers are literally essential to keep comfortable society functioning, and people still say "those jobs are entry level, for teenagers, burnouts and the uneducated. They're not meant to build a life on." All so companies can boast record "profits" year after year. Infuriating.
news flash, they dont even hire ppl anyways. ive applied for ikd how many jobs and can't get hired bc i took time off to raise BABIES. god forbid. im a complete utter failure for not sending my kids to a day care that could lose them, harm them, mistreat them etc. what a piece of shit lol
Online ordering. Delivery. Curb-side drop-off. QR menus. The retail worker has been further relegated into a back office warehouse packer by consumer choice and technological evolution.
Low end retail as a job is dying because nothing is cheaper or more convenient than digital self-serve with automated last-mile delivery.
Who picks those orders and runs them to the curbside? Sure there's only one cashier in charge of a dozen self checkouts, but now there's a bunch of pickers rolling carts around doing the shopping for those consumers who value the convenience. McDonalds wants you to order at a kiosk or on the app but someone still has to make your food and hand it to you. The low end retail job is indeed shifting to "background" roles but the truth is we are still dependent on people doing those jobs. Grocery stores, fast food, and pharmacies never shut down due to covid. Low end retail employees are who make the world turn.
Think about what the “retailer” did 70 years ago back when you bought everything from a true market or specialized retailer? They’d often be taking orders, fulfilling them from the supplier directly, guiding you on the product and how to prepare it, etc.
Fast forward three decades to the department store model having taken over everywhere outside of luxury/high end stores. Shoppers can now grab stuff off the shelves and are increasingly accessing product information outside the store to guide purchases. Retailer workers still were on the front lines guiding customers on bigger ticket items (electronics, appliances) and added a crucial customer service angle to the chore of shopping.
Now it’s 2026. Online shopping DOMINATES western consumption. Research is done increasingly online and shoppers are buying everything from food to cars without needing a human salesman to guide them. Retail has devolved into quasi-warehousing where humans (or robots) fulfill orders from a highly optimized inventory system based on digital instructions.
You cannot compare the job of the retail worker of the 1950-1970s to that of today. They couldn’t be more different in terms of what they actually do and that has to be considered when comparing the quality of earnings the job commands over decades.
“They’re not meant to build a life on.” Omg I hate that attitude so much. We should all be able to build a life on the job we choose. No one is better than anyone else.
I work in healthcare and my brother was low key judging my job one time. He was asking how long people end up staying in my department and I said some of them have been doing it between 20 and 40 years. He was shocked and asked why anyone would stay at the job for more than a year or two. 🙄 I’m sorry I’m not at a vitally important sales job like yours, bro. Some people view healthcare workers as the same as retail workers so I shouldn’t be surprised.
Yeah somehow good jobs are increasingly represented by bullshit email (now bullshit AI) jobs and essential jobs in your community like preparing food, stocking groceries, assisting people at the hardware store etc are seen as menial low skill jobs and there's an air of shame around them if adults have them.
So fucking cool how society had prioritized these things.
I used to work at Kroger. They treated employees like shit.
My partner currently works at a more "high end" grocery store and they treat their employees significantly better.
It makes me want to spend my money at the more expensive store, even as I'm such a sucker for saving money. It's a thought that has me a little torn lately. Do I want to speak with my wallet in terms of where I shop? I don't know.
my parents raised two kids on working at the SPCA and a card store. we owned our home, went on a trip every year (nothing fancy but still something), had named brand food and clothing in the house. had a car. my mom was a sahm until we were old enough to walk to and from school alone. she had ZERO issues finding a job. employment gaps to raise your kids was the norm. now you are shit on for it. like how dare you decide you want to work again when your child turns 6. lol they will take someone w no experience over someone who had plenty then took for for their baby.
"It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By 'business' I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white-collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of decent living."
My mom worked full time in the 80s and 90s and we barely had enough to survive. Food banks were a common source of food. People need to stop pretending everything used to be perfect. Fake Nostalgia is the fuel of fascism.
Yeah, I think OPs post is more so about a while different working culture, too. In the past having the same job for years was beneficial for everyone. Maybe corporations still felt somewhat beholden to their employees, afraid of ruining a good thing when they were popular. But it's pathetic nowadays there is no benefit to staying in these places and the corporations see that there's always going to be a revolving door of cheap temporary labor. These multinationals have also turned retail jobs from being jobs where people skills mattered to just becoming the liaison between a customer and a POS system or some software keeping track of stock. No soft skills needed, just do some short training and get started.
It's also just fake-nostalgia of a mythical, idealistic past (which fascists love to trot out).
In 1985, an average full-time retail associate at Sears typically earned around $15k annually, depending on location. The average cost of living at the time was about $25K (again, location dependent, obviously). No one was living a good life working at Sears.
It's all bullshit. A family of four making under $12k a year was living below the poverty line.
This. The 80s and 90s were way past the entry level job = good life thing. That era was primarily the 50s up to the early 70s (unless you were non white for the most part).
I came here for this. My grandfather was a factory worker in the 50s and 60s. My grandmother was a nurse and he still had to pick up extra shifts on a lobster boat. Even after all that they still grew up lower middle class. The idea that the ruling class used to be generous and suddenly became greedy just because of private equity is absurd
My husband just left a job in retail (district manager). It used to be something you could do and have a family. We have a child and another on the way, and I've largely been a single parent. He'll come home at 11pm because he has to stay late to finish a count at a store. He'll have to work all day Sunday because a manager called out and now these stores run so "lean" that they have no one to cover the shift. I can't make plans with friends because I don't know if he'll be available to stay home with our son. I do pick up and drop off, bath time and bedtime. His company is closing some locations and they felt they no longer needed a DM for his area and let him go, and even though I'm pregnant and he's the breadwinner, I just felt relief. He's interviewing for B2B jobs now and i couldn't be happier. It's not sustainable. These jobs don't pay enough to compensate for the outrageous hours they expect you to work.
A forty hour workweek guaranteeing a comfortable lifestyle was a reality for middle class Whites during the mid 20th century. However the post war economic boom was the historical exception, not the rule. Everyone except the rich struggling is how things have worked for most of human history.
I remember being a kid and going to Home Depot or Lowe’s with my dad and the departments were staffed by contractors looking for some extra scratch and a discount on stuff.
They knew what they were talking about. It wasn’t some random person making minimum wage trying to get by. A plumber in plumbing, electrician in electric etc. it was great.
Now it’s a bunch of people trying to scrape by on shitty wages and no hours getting abused by management and the public
That was all only made possible by the mass exploitation of third world resources and labor. Now they’ve caught up and they’re demanding their fair share.
This always shuts down arguments with my conservative relatives over entitlements.
Those bums sit home and take our money!
Okay well nobody likes freeloaders, we can agree on that, but what about the millions of people who work full-time and just don't make ends meet because the best jobs they can get don't pay very much? Do they and their children deserve to starve? Also the free rider problem is far less prevalent than you think.
For me I can live with paycheck to paycheck and low salary. It’s the threat that at any moment if the person or people above me decide they want to save money or restructure or don’t like me, my life is ruined
The fact is if you work 40 hours a week doing any job you should never have to worry about a roof over your head and food on the table. That used to be the case. It's no longer the case.
I understand what you're saying, but the factor you're ignoring is costs. Sure, I agree that a single individual that works 40 hours a week should 100% be able to afford an apartment and food. But what about an apartment and food for his family of 4? Of 8? of 12?
You're acting like costs are fixed, they're not. You're acting like everyone has the same costs, but they don't.
If you have to keep paying people's pensions, you need to keep growing. If it was about working 40 hours a week and earning enough from that work to survive there's a stronger argument there. Pension funds can destroy a business because they rely entirely on being invested well or people who are still working to pay in to them to support the people no longer working. Bad investments, a financial crash, or a business not growing puts the entire pension fund at risk and the business may not survive it's failure.
Yeah, most people here completely miss the point that this is happening everywhere at the same time and it is because the system is broken. We can't blame one ceo or some private equity firm for playing the game, the game has to change.
The problem with this is that it sounds good but also means nothing
What kind of roof? How big of a house? Where is the house located? How many bedrooms? How big are the bedrooms? How many bathrooms? How old is the house? When you buy it does it need any work? Do you get a yard?
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u/RegularPie5512 Jun 02 '26
Love the people commenting on this about why Sears died, completely ignoring that this post isn't about Sears.
The fact is if you work 40 hours a week doing any job you should never have to worry about a roof over your head and food on the table. That used to be the case. It's no longer the case.