Why the Word "Escape" is Used to Describe Leaving Retail
It's a bad look
“So, you left retail recently. Is that right?” I asked her on a video call.
“Yes! That’s right. I escaped after thirty years.” She replied.
Escaped. We hear that word all the time to describe leaving the retail industry. I don’t hear it often in other sectors. It seems unique to retail. Why?
Let’s talk about it.
The escape
The retail leader I was chatting with, I met on LinkedIn. She’d commented on my posts, and we’d shared DMs about the industry. I read that she’d left. I had to know more.
We talked last week, and wow—we both had a lot to say.
“Why do you use that word?” I asked her. “Escape.”
“Well, what do we escape?” she asked me. “Prisons and cages, right? It's like that.”
Whoa. Right. Okay.
But what’s happening?
Why are so many leaders leaving, and why do they always use that word specifically?
Here we go.
They question every decision.
Her experience was parallel to mine in many ways. (This will probably resonate with you, too, if you’ve been in retail stores for a while.) With a wide variety of experiences and a whole lot of tenure, we know our shit. We know how to run businesses and build teams. We tire quickly under micromanagement.
But micromanagement is what we’re fed.
We’re told by every company under the sun that we should “run our businesses as owners.” We should “do what’s right for the business.” We’re told that upper management “trusts its store leaders.”
But they don’t.
We may get some freedoms when business is good. But it will soften, as it invariably does. Then, upper management will tighten its grip.
They comb over our schedules. They question every decision. They invoke new “non-negotiables.”
Now, is it a district manager's job to be a safety net? Sure. But tell me why district managers lose their minds as business trends change. It’s immense pressure from the top that gets placed squarely on the shoulders of the DMs.
Here’s an example.
Say the store leader always takes Sunday off to attend church. It was always fine. It was fine when comp numbers were way up. It was fine for 500 days straight. But now, business has softened because the market has softened, and volume is down across the company.
Instead of asking important questions and strategizing, the company tells the store leader that she has to work Sundays now. The store leader has the same team she’s had for the past 500 days, but OMG, now Sundays are an issue.
This is what makes people escape.
It’s making a rule just to make a rule. It gives execs the illusion of control.
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Blanket decisions don’t always work
But businesses exist to make money, Kit.
I hear you. Yes, they do. And maybe that Sunday scenario is a legitimate concern for some stores. Maybe Sunday is their highest volume day, and they need a strong leader to run the floor. But these decisions need to be made on a location-by-location basis.
Retail companies often make hasty decisions that affect every store. But those choices are often wrong for most stores.
These new ideas to boost business are always "non-negotiable."
When you do that, you tell your store leaders that they don’t know what they’re doing. But you hired them to think like an entrepreneur. So, which is it?
These small tweaks and rule changes seem minor. But when you’ve been leading teams in stores for 25 or 30 years, you’ve likely navigated thousands of these changes. One day, your boss tells you that you can’t have Sunday off to attend church with your family, and you quit. Enough’s enough, you know?
Bend, don’t break
Do you want a leader with an entrepreneurial spirit or do you want a yes-man? (Yes-person?) Because it’s impossible to have both.
What do we do?
I scream about payroll a lot because every day, store leaders face the demand to do more with less, but let’s start with salary.
Hire leadership teams and pay them well. Salaries in retail for field leaders have plummeted over the past 30 years. Let’s fix that. Invest in people, and they will invest in your company.
Listen to the leaders in the field. What are they seeing in their locations? What do they need? Are they equipped with the right tools? Are their back rooms neat and organized? Would you want to take your lunch break there?
It’s time we start treating our retail associates as well as we treat our customers and our team at the corporate office. Give the store leaders some flexibility and autonomy. Have you ever heard someone say they quit their job because they had too much flexibility? No. No, you haven’t.
When companies lean into micromanagement, it means they don’t trust their employees. When they don’t trust, leaders lose the drive and initiative to be creative, innovative, and motivating.
When that happens, they feel the need to “escape”.
It’s a vicious cycle.
We can change it. We’re going to have to if we want staff stores. The savvy, experienced field leaders are leaving in droves. Give them a reason to stay and educate the next generation.
Or continue to scramble, micromanage, and keep your head in the sand. It’s your business.
Kit Campoy is an author and retail expert with two decades of experience leading retail teams. Today, she freelance writes for world-class SaaS Retail Tech companies.
"When companies lean into micromanagement, it means they don’t trust their employees. When they don’t trust, leaders lose the drive and initiative to be creative, innovative, and motivating."
I need this made into a Successories poster I can hang next to my desk!
This hit me today to the max. I have been in retail over 25 years and it’s disappointing of late to this happening.