SPOKANE, Wash. — Customers at a local craft store are navigating around thousands of boxes of unpacked inventory to find what they need.
Boxes on top of boxes sit in multiple aisles of the Joanne fabric and craft store on Spokane’s South Hill. Employees said they just don’t have the time to unpack and organize the merchandise.
The national chain store filed for bankruptcy protection in March. Both customers and employees are worried the store won’t be able to keep up with Black Friday demand.
Dianne Folland recently stopped by the South Hill store and said it was difficult to navigate amidst all the boxes.
“It was hard to find anything. You could hardly get a cart through the aisles, if you could even find a cart,” she said.
The South Hill location has about 20-25 employees, but recent shifts have seen as few as two workers available to help customers at a time.
“Thankfully, customers have been really understanding about it, but it does get very stressful. I just worry that if we have moments like that during the holidays, that is just going to be an entire wreck,” said Peggy Sue, manager at the South Hill store.
Peggy Sue has worked at Joann for two years and said, so far, this holiday season is the busiest.
“I think five times a day I’m answering the same question about the boxes. Corporate doesn’t want to give us hours, so we can’t take the time to actually get stuff out,” she said.
Some employees from other Joann locations have come to help unload the freight, but it’s not enough.
In the meantime, the fire marshall was called to ensure the boxes don’t pose a threat to customers.
Some members of the community are even encouraging shoppers to boycott the store until workers are paid fairly.
Peggy Sue said she and her coworkers just want the store to close to customers for a day so they can focus on unpacking.
“I’m at a point where I am tired of seeing my coworkers crying and working themselves to the point where they are physically sick and tired,” she said.
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