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Retail-employment war is raging here By GREGORY J. GILLIGAN AND ELIZABETH ESFAHANI Staff Writers Richmond Times-Dispatch
August 30, 2003
Local upscale women's clothing retailer Frances Kahn recently lost one-quarter of its workers.
The manager for the new Soak! shop at Short Pump Town Center quit less than three weeks before the bath and body products store was to open.
And a handful of servers from Hondos restaurant and Sharky's Bar & Billiards in the Shoppes at Innsbrook off West Broad Street are gone.
Those retailers and restaurants - and many more - have taken casualties in an intense retail employment war in the Richmond area.
The workers at Frances Kahn, Soak! and the two restaurants left their jobs to take positions at one of the new stores or restaurants opening Thursday at Short Pump Town Center or two weeks later at Stony Point Fashion Park.
"In this kind of market, the competition is so fierce for employees," said Veronica Brock- well, owner of Soak! "It is intense out there."
Frances Kahn owner Rusty Lester said one representative of a national chain was bold enough to walk into his store in the River Road Shopping Center and ask employees if anyone wanted to come work for that retailer. Three of the shop's 12 employees have quit.
"Those [existing] stores are here for the plucking," Lester said. "There isn't enough retail help out there for the number of new stores."
Retailers and restaurants have been racing for weeks to find people for the 6,000 jobs that will be needed to staff the new shopping centers.
Many stores say they have filled all of their job slots. But many more still are looking.
Brio Tuscan Grille, an Italian restaurant chain that will open in Stony Point, still needs 30 servers and a couple more cooks. The restaurant has hired about 110 workers.
"This has been one of the toughest markets we have opened in," said Phil Boeglin, the restaurant's general manager. "It has been slow finding good people."
And, there's a new twist to hiring here, he said.
"I am being interviewed more than I am interviewing," Boeglin said. "I am the one getting questions. Then they say they have some offers in the fire and that they will get back with you."
Many of the new stores and restaurants offer better salaries and benefits and, as a result, they will have the pick of workers, said William Mezger, chief economist for the Virginia Employment Commission.
"It is probably going to make hiring in the retail sector a little bit more difficult than it has been in the last couple of years," Mezger said.
Mezger estimates that about 4,000 net jobs will be created, and most of those positions will be part time.
Retailers are going to have to work harder to find employees, especially during the upcoming holiday season, Mezger said.
"It is going to be probably a tighter labor market especially for the retailers than it has been for the past three years," he said. "That will undoubtedly put more pressure on existing retailers."
In the past month, managers from Mexican-style restaurant Rio Grande Cafe spent hundreds of hours approaching workers at Richmond's hangouts - sometimes staying out until 2 a.m.
"You can't hire between 9 and 5, so you have to go out in the evenings," Valerie Voges, marketing director for Uncle Julio's Corp., parent company of Rio Grande Cafe, which will open at Stony Point. "It's bad news for us because it takes longer, but it's worth it. . . . The tradeoff is wonderful."
Recruiters from several retailers made their way to the Saxon Shoes store on Parham Road, owner Gary Weiner said.
But, luckily for him, he said, none of his employees has left.
"I find it impressive and flattering that businesses like Saks and Nordstrom are trying to hire my staff," Weiner said. "That is the ultimate in flattery."
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