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Tomorrow we start our first big Back to School sale. The worst month out of the entire year is upon me.
Yes, even worse than Christmas. First, we have school supplies in two locations on opposite ends of the store, so any school supplies that come in on a truck or get pulled from the backroom have to be stocked in both spots, making for lots of running back and forth. Second, the whiny kid factor goes through the roof, because they have to wear the clothes and use the things their parents pick out for them, and apparently life is not worth living if you must go through it without the ripped-up and distressed pair of jeans, or the 256-count box of crayons, or those cool new shoes. Third, the school supply departments will look like a tornado passed through inside of an hour of the store opening tomorrow, and stay that way for the next month. Customers don't bother to put back the things they change their minds on, and employees don't straighten because it's overwhelming and it will just get trashed again anyway. Finally, during Back to School sales don't keep up with traffic. The store will be wall-to-wall people, they'll all be asking questions and hitting call buttons, the floor people will spend half their shifts on the registers, things will start not getting done, and we'll still come in several thousand dollars under sales goal most days because all anybody buys is 15-cent notebooks and folders, and 25-cent packs of crayons and glue.
And the dreaded loyalty coupons are going out again. Funny thing there--there's a blurb in the ad flyer reminding people to use their loyalty coupons. Except not every loyalty card member gets a coupon. Those are doled out based on the members' purchasing habits. The cashiers have actually been told not to mention loyalty coupons to customers so they don't anger the people marketing deemed unworthy of a coupon.
One more thing--we got in some dorm fridges a while back. They're not supposed to go out on the floor until 7-31 when their planogram activates. What's pictured in the ad that starts tomorrow? Dorm fridges. So unless somebody notices this and puts them out on the floor someplace, we're going to be lying to people and telling them we don;t have dorm fridges when they're actually in the back and nobody's put them out for sale yet.
Such excitement awaits me in the month to come. I hope to be dead.
Yes, even worse than Christmas. First, we have school supplies in two locations on opposite ends of the store, so any school supplies that come in on a truck or get pulled from the backroom have to be stocked in both spots, making for lots of running back and forth. Second, the whiny kid factor goes through the roof, because they have to wear the clothes and use the things their parents pick out for them, and apparently life is not worth living if you must go through it without the ripped-up and distressed pair of jeans, or the 256-count box of crayons, or those cool new shoes. Third, the school supply departments will look like a tornado passed through inside of an hour of the store opening tomorrow, and stay that way for the next month. Customers don't bother to put back the things they change their minds on, and employees don't straighten because it's overwhelming and it will just get trashed again anyway. Finally, during Back to School sales don't keep up with traffic. The store will be wall-to-wall people, they'll all be asking questions and hitting call buttons, the floor people will spend half their shifts on the registers, things will start not getting done, and we'll still come in several thousand dollars under sales goal most days because all anybody buys is 15-cent notebooks and folders, and 25-cent packs of crayons and glue.
And the dreaded loyalty coupons are going out again. Funny thing there--there's a blurb in the ad flyer reminding people to use their loyalty coupons. Except not every loyalty card member gets a coupon. Those are doled out based on the members' purchasing habits. The cashiers have actually been told not to mention loyalty coupons to customers so they don't anger the people marketing deemed unworthy of a coupon.
One more thing--we got in some dorm fridges a while back. They're not supposed to go out on the floor until 7-31 when their planogram activates. What's pictured in the ad that starts tomorrow? Dorm fridges. So unless somebody notices this and puts them out on the floor someplace, we're going to be lying to people and telling them we don;t have dorm fridges when they're actually in the back and nobody's put them out for sale yet.
Such excitement awaits me in the month to come. I hope to be dead.
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