Company Blog

Caring vs Turnover

by Adam Zack — March 29, 2023

As the owner or the manager you have to sincerely care.

Retail powers the U.S. economy. 29 million people work in the retail business, which represents roughly 20% of the 140 million jobs in America. Retail generates nearly $2.6 trillion in sales.

With that much effect on the economy, why is the turnover rate in retail, especially grocery, so high? According to Daily Pay Retention Rates the turnover rate in the grocery industry is 100%. That’s right there with fast-food. Ouch. In fact, according to Money Magazine, some of the worst places to work in the country are grocery stores. Kmart (are there still Kmarts? I guess a handful), Family Dollar and The Fresh Market all make the top 20 Worst Places to work. Why is that? Poor communication, low wages, poor benefits, boredom and the idea that retail is not a job for educated workers contribute. It’s just not sexy. You work holidays and weekends, early mornings and late nights. Doesn’t sound like much fun on paper. But I think the number one reason that turnover is high is that some of those companies just don’t care. It costs approximately $3,600 to replace one supermarket cashier (turnover cost), so if you care about money (and who doesn’t, really?) success can be helped by focusing on your turnover. There is good news. Really good. On Fortune Magazine’s list of 100 best employers, several grocery stores were cited. And on their list of top retailers to work for, grocery took three of the top 100 spots (way to go Wegman’s, Nugget and Publix). It comes back to the culture of caring. Even with the stress of meeting budgets, dealing with the seemingly non-stop employee legal issues (it seems everyone is a protected class now), government regulations, online competition, and all the other BS it’s harder to have fun! But the bottom line is they gotta know you care. As the owner or the manager you have to sincerely care. Maybe some people can fake it, but employees are smarter than that. If you really don’t care, it’s time to sell the store or find a new job. Because if you don’t, then they will. $3,600 at a time.