Take your jobs and shove them is troubling message for company on the rebound

Hacketts President Herbert Becker has a bunch of jobs he wants to fill at his company's department store in Ogdensburg. St. Lawrence County has a bunch of people out of work. It doesn't get more yin and yang, more ham and egg, more Tracy and Hepburn, than that.

Except when Becker offered up jobs, the jobless said, “no thanks.” Yin gave yang the brush off. Egg kicked ham off the plate. Tracy and Hepburn .... well, they're just dead. Maybe that wasn't a good comparison.

In any event, Becker was shocked when he got no response to advertisements seeking applicants for 12 clerk, cashier and sales positions at his store.

“It seems so strange. I thought we'd put up a few notices and we'd be overrun, but we're not getting anybody," he said in a recent Times article. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20091005/NEWS05/310059979

It does seem strange on its face. Like a homeless person refusing to accept free lodging because the drapes in the apartment being offered clash with his Army green knapsack. Or like me turning down a cheeseburger. It is not something that you would think would happen.

But it did. And maybe it isn't so strange. Hacketts hasn't been the poster child of stability lately.

It was a cool store for a long time. You could buy a high-end All-Clad frying pan or a plunger. A Woolrich brand sweater or fishing tackle. A weed whacker or bottle of Drano. It offered quality, variety, and stayed open until 9 p.m. on weekdays. People liked Hacketts.

It grew from its Ogdensburg roots and added stores. It got bigger. It got sold. It got bigger. It got bigger. Then it tanked. Financial troubles led to months and months of nearly empty shelves in its stores. Workers in the stores would tell tales of being kept in the dark about the company's problems. They'd come to work each day with little to do and only a sliver of gratefulness that they had jobs at all. People started liking Hacketts a lot less.

Then stores started closing. Watertown – gone. Canton – gone. Massena – gone. Potsdam – gone. Jobs – gone. Massena rose from the dead and reopened. Gouverneur received the death sentence but got a last-minute stay of execution. Store closings and near-closings aren't the kind of things that makes potential workers bang down the door for the chance to wear a Hacketts smock.

At least that is what Becker – hired to turn the struggling business around – is finding out. People want jobs, but more than that, they want job security. Becker can promise them that a turnaround is on the horizon, as he does in ads that shout in bold letters, “Hacketts is here to stay!” But words aren't the best building blocks of confidence in a company. He needs to roll out the turnaround and let people see it for themselves. Until that happens, he should expect some rough going on the hiring front.

It may take a while to remake Hacketts into the store it once was – the one that people liked. I hope Becker succeeds, because I am one of those people. My winter coat was purchased at Hacketts. I bought two of my bird feeders there. I kept Yankee Candle in business with birthday, anniversary and Christmas presents from Hacketts over the years. The paint in my living room came from its shelves. I have been a fan for a long time. It would be sad if the company ends up like Tracy and Hepburn.