#retail

I hope it’s just a fluke and not a preview of what’s ahead.

There is a mass exodus of all job categories both in stores and at corporate in the state of North Carolina, dozens and dozens of jobs vacant in all areas (from high level corporate to entry level sales associate) all areas in almost all stores in the state of North Carolina.

Whoever did this is a mo--n. The way it shows up on the screen is completely confusing for customers and staff. To do this to us on Black Friday is ridiculous. Most of my customers DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH. Trying to explain this pricing to them is impossible they don't understand it. They should have just gone with the usual 25 or 30 percent scan label.

If you are an hourly lead, key holder, or associate you should not be required to text, answer calls, receiving calls, respond to a stores accidental or legitimate alarms when the store is closed, answer calls from alarm company due to false or legitimate alarm, or having to make calls any members of management regarding work related issues when you are not on the clock, including the store manager without proper compensation, this is a flagrant wage and hour violation from Belk. Any of these type of instances must be documented and paid as it is a work related matter.
Belk is now requiring hourly associates to act as salaried managers under the “key holder” and/or “lead” title which is a basic hourly associate position. Please beware and document any cases of where you are not being properly compensated.

Good luck selling shoes for 180 bucks ever again

So how come some stores that performed well on the leaderboard were closed? Because they didn't do enough volume? Well everyone in retail knows that they higher ups scold you for volume. They only want "quality" Some stores dug their own grave by gaming the system on leaderboard to be higher on the ranker.

IMO it's always been one of the worst parts about this job and part of the reason that they company loses out on so much. They would rather you walk a sale that retains a customer but whom isn't buying insurance, an add a line and 3 perks on premium.

RIF-Giving
RIF-pocolypse
RIF-Day

Whatever you want to call it is not over.

For certain, all Retail Senior Managers are actively being stack-ranked and your fate will be determined in the near future. So for you lazy store managers, you've already made your bed, and they know.

We only have a handful of positions and it's been ridiculously hard to hire. Anyone else have this issue? We've hired 1 or 2 that never showed. People have the worst resumes if they have one at all and some don't want to work the weekend! Hellooooo - it's retail. BOH is about the cushiest schedule you can get! Days only and not past 5 pm in my store.
I used to think the 'no one wants to work' wasn't true but now I know differently!

Do store employees earn commission on a phone sold to an employee? I was going to upgrade my kids phones for Christmas and order them online, but if an impacted employee can earn commission, i would rather go to the store instead.

Can you imagine all the random phones and accessories about to go missing from disgruntled laid off workers? I suspect airpods will be the biggest take.

Even the wealthy 1% are not spending at Neiman Marcus, they are getting sticker shock as well. Look at the prices compared to just 5 years ago, it’s two and three times what they use to be. $6,000 for a Prada bag that was $3,200 in 2020….come on’.

I’m almost positive that my Macys is safe from closure because we are always busy. However, I was wondering if anyone had any guesses as to which Macys will close in 2026.

Was this part of any of today’s announcements or is it still about to happen?

Is it safe to assume that if your store hasn’t been closed your safe?

I'm sure others have experienced this trend in their stores.
It will be orders where someone will buy prestige brands such as Northface, Polo, Nike, Hilfiger, etc, and fragrances buy the dozens. Most of them are being shipped to addresses in Delaware, Oregon, or New Hampshire and they are commercial addresses (usually freight forwarding or shipping companies) and not residential addresses. And instead of having common names it will be odd spelling such as DCPM. Fair to say, most of this is being resold, most likely overseas.
So I have to ask. If there's anyone here in macys.com or corporate, why doesn't this raise a red flag? Is this simply a matter of "well we know what's going on but this is revenue for the company and that's all that counts?"

My store was one of the stores affected. A Retailer is taking over. I joined Verizon not even 2 years ago. The new company is saying I can make a lot more money, but I doubt it. I wanna hear from retail not people who never worked retail Verizon. Corporate Verizon looks better on a resume than an authorized retailer. I joined the corporate store to stay in the company and move up. Former VZW sales reps, where did y’all go after selling for Verizon.

Or even if your store is in the closing, you may be losing headcount. Cutting bottom 5% little or specialists? True?

Off work today sweating bullets. I know my store is not closing but I’m not sure if full time reps are being let go

I'm sure a lot of you have seen others posts around retail but I got some solid numbers. 180 stores were impacted today which they are still required to work today which is very sh---y. 179 stores will divest and one will close. It is 30 stores per market. After everything we will go down to two markets. All of the teams will be either consolidated or impacted. This also means that territories and districts will be redrawn and that will cause impacts to local retail ops.

anyone know if california is affected? if so how bad? and which departments in retail?

Anybody got info on best buy

Any word from anyone is Wisconsin yet?

Current time is 0823am. I haven't heard anything from Ops, Retail, R2B, B2B, VEC...

Any word on any regions of retail being affected?

Has anyone noticed Belk has drastically reduced the amount of labor hours for the stores this holiday?!

They’re NOT choosing our uninspiring merchandising & they’re NOT choosing our prohibitively expensive prices. We 👏 aren’t 👏 competitive 👏.

Just once I’d like to see an earnings call that goes “We missed the mark.” Instead of blaming our performance on external factors.

Biggest market layoffs will occur in South Florida and the Carolina's

Heard it from my peers who work close to Jerome.

40 stores will be depleted.

Roles span network engineering, customer service, retail operations, IT, and enterprise sales—skills highly transferable to other telecom, tech, and infrastructure firms.

The broader telecom job market in 2025 remains robust, fueled by 5G/6G expansions, fiber optic buildouts, and remote work demands, creating 3.8–4.6 million new jobs globally. U.S. telecom operators and vendors are hiring tens of thousands for network operations, field services, and support roles.

Companies Likely Hiring Verizon-Aligned Talent

Based on current 2025 job market trends, here are key companies actively recruiting for telecom-related positions. These firms value Verizon experience in areas like wireless infrastructure, customer support, and network management.

I’ve prioritized major players with open roles in engineering, sales, and operations, drawing from industry hiring data and job boards. Focus on updating your LinkedIn and resume to highlight transferable skills (e.g., 5G deployment, VoIP systems, or CRM tools) for faster applications.

AT&T

Largest U.S. telecom rival; aggressively expanding fiber and 5G networks, adding ~400,000 postpaid lines in Q3 2025. No major layoffs reported this year; hiring to offset retirements.

T-Mobile

Fast-growing carrier with 1M+ new lines in Q3 2025; focuses on affordable plans and 5G private networks. Actively recruits from competitors for enterprise and retail talent.

Comcast

Entering wireless aggressively via MVNOs; needs Verizon retail and broadband experts for store expansions and customer migration.

Charter/Spectrum

Recent $34.5B merger with Cox boosts hiring in cable-to-wireless transitions; targeting infrastructure roles amid store growth.

Crown Castle

Tower infrastructure giant; Verizon’s 5G partners often transition here for site acquisition and maintenance roles. High demand due to neutral-host 5G builds.

Ericsson

Global telecom equipment leader; hires for 5G/6G R&D and deployment. Verizon enterprise team cuts create direct pipeline.

Nokia

Similar to Ericsson; expanding U.S. private networks for ports/industry. Seeks ex-Verizon engineers for hardware/firmware roles.

Granite Telecom

Mid-sized provider of enterprise telecom solutions; partners with Verizon for resale. Hiring for growth in VoIP and cloud services.

TDS Telecom

Regional carrier focused on rural broadband; entry-to-mid-level hiring for field and sales, with strong benefits for ex-corporate roles.

Additional Tips for Landing a Role

• Timing: November–December hiring slows, but January 2026 ramps up. Apply now via LinkedIn (use “Open to Work” banner) and job sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or Telecom-specific boards (e.g., FieldEngineer.com).

• Severance Leverage: Verizon’s packages include 60-day WARN notice, extended benefits, and outplacement services—use them for resume coaching and networking.

• Upskilling: Free resources like Coursera’s Google IT Support cert or CompTIA Network+ can bridge to high-demand areas like cybersecurity or AI in telecom.

• Networking: Join groups like “Telecom Professionals” on LinkedIn or Reddit’s r/telecom for insider leads. Former Verizon colleagues are already sharing opportunities in these spaces.

How many Verizon Corporate locations are in the US ? This will help scale the size of the layoff

The retail stores that are turning franchise are the following.

• Under performing year over year (all metrics, not just growth)

• overlapping/ redundant stores, including stores in congested markets (example, districts with stores within a 30 mile radius from each other)

• locations with upcoming expiring leases

• locations that have not been remodeled

• Mall locations (all)

The cuts outside of stores closing will be support channels, R2B reps/managers, Sr operations analysts, training, director consolidation, sr director consolidation, market presidents and VPs and their support teams (executive assistants, etc.) Retail stores with 3 assistant managers.

Is anyone else thinking of finding a better opportunity else where if your still at Target?

So believe me when I tell you right now their going to give up about 200 corporate owned run retail stores to authorized retailers or close completely some locations,but over the next few years Verizon plans to have no corporate owned stores .All 3rd party sellers.I believe if your on the Verizon Wireless retail side start planning to get out . Even if you survive these Layoffs over the year or 2 .The end is near

What's the prediction?

I’m afraid the holiday season will flop, and things will only get worse from there. Jobs are scarce, most of us have little to no savings, and there’s nothing to fall back on if it really hits hard. Maybe I’m anxious for no reason, but the vibe has never felt worse in my memory.

Have any stores been notified of being closed or converted to indirect? What about the ops support people? If these stores close down do they cut their ops person too?

What do you honestly spend more time doing every day, trying to sell anything or fixing the same simple problems for seniors over and over again? At some point it becomes pretty clear what the store has actually turned into, and that makes the whole closure feel less like a surprise and more like an overdue decision. We've basically ended up acting like a walk in help desk for the senior crowd instead of an actual retail location, and once that becomes the main part of the job, the writing’s already on the wall.

Belk is opening ANOTHER outlet in an old big lots store in Jackson Mississippi.

So kudos to people keeping slacks open to the public, most people probably saw the 29k reference. However I found a new one showing 200 people under Kevin Z... also OWBPA report was referenced. So it looks like the retail rumors are definitely true. One more week till we all know if we have a job or no job going into 2026. Really su-ks that this is our reality, hoping for the best.

Total head count by Q1 2026 will be over 35K employees accross whole company. That’s been confirmed by higher ups in my department.

They are mostly going after call centers and stores. AI implementation.

• Band 3 employee

Belk is the cr-ppiest company to work for. They want so much done. Like markdowns, markups, 5000 times the freight, customer service, credit, apps, sale sets, fullfillement, etc... all under minimum hours. Stores look like cr-p, can't recover, always on the register or having to do other things because God forbid they don't meet the numbers for them. Not to mention the dock, corporate watches the camera to see if your dock is cleared (he-l no it isn't, we have no hours and no time), they don't support there associates!!
But corporate has time to throw lavish parties in Charlotte and open new stores 🙄 that they won't staff correctly with a abundance amount of work to do. How about stop having stores hire if you won't give the stores hours to give them, common sence there. Do not work for Belk. They take all there associates and salary managers for granted. Less pay, less help, but more workload!!!!