Rural Outfitters

Philly loses a 90-job operation to South Carolina.

by Doron Taussig

On April 18, the employees of the Urban Outfitters call center at 1700 Sansom St. were pulled away from processing catalog and online orders to attend a mandatory meeting. There, a company representative --"some guy we've never seen before," according to one employee — congratulated them on orders being up and explained that as a result, Urban needed to expand the center. So, they were going to close up shop and move to Edgefield County, S.C.

Urban is one of the several large corporations that Philadelphia is proud to host. Plans haven't changed for the company's new headquarters scheduled to be built at the Navy Yard over the next two years, which will house about 500 employees. But South Carolina offered Urban a 15-year moratorium on its state corporate income tax to lure the call center; the retailer expects to save millions by moving. Additionally, said a company spokeswoman, the new facility is equipped with high-speed sorting equipment that will enable the center to process 200, rather than 20, orders per hour. Company officials say 90 workers will be affected.

Most of the call center employees were aware of the plan before it was officially announced because managers gossiped about the relocation packages they'd been offered. When the move was made public, employees were told that Urban would reimburse them up to $1,000 in expenses if they moved with the company. But, says one employee, a job at the call center isn't the kind of gig you leave home for; most of the workers are in their 20s, and turnover is high. It's a short-term arrangement.

For those who chose not to move but were willing to work until the center closes on July 1, Urban offered a severance package of between $500 and $1,500, depending on experience.

Duane Bumb, Philadelphia's deputy commerce director, explains that Urban wanted to combine its call center with its distribution center, and that it wanted that new facility to be further inland and nearer to the highway system than Philly is. But, he says, the new headquarters make Urban's restructuring "99 percent a great story. ... We're getting ultimately a job gain and higher average wage paid per job."

Of course, those jobs will probably not go to the current call-center employees, who reacted to the official announcement with "mostly silence," according to one worker. "The funny thing was, everyone kind of knew about it already. [After the meeting], they gave us a real long break, and then we went back to work."