Large chain fabric stores from a quilter's perspective.

[Kanalah]

http://thebitchystitcher.blogspot.co...ind-bolts.html

I realize a lot of this is old hat to people on this board, but it's the first I've seen of crafty people actually talking about what goes on behind the scenes in retail stores.

Most of the comments were other crafters asking how they could help, so that's always good.

[sms001]

I realize a lot of this is old hat to people on this board, .

Nice detailed look though, thanks.

[EricKei]

Corporate was exactly the same way at GameStore (they just did it weekly, though), regarding payroll. We had to watch our hours like a hawk; for anyone aside from the SM (who was salaried, and expected to work no less than 50 hours a week (and as much as 80 if the XMAS season was absurd, like the year of Katrina), you HAD to stop, clock out, and leave as soon as you hit 39.5 hours. It didn't matter if this meant leaving the store short-handed; if you were the only manager, you were required to call in another manager and MAKE SURE they could get there before you crossed the dreaded 40-hour line. Getting even fifteen minutes of overtime (even if you had no choice due to a delay in your relief getting there) was grounds for a First-and-Final warning (for managers) or for summary termination for anyone else. Their reason for doing so? Why, because this meant you were "stealing from the company," of course! x.x Yes, this even applied to people who had been with the company for years, with no prior write-ups. I left before the (recent) national change that requires companies to grant benefits to anyone working 30 hours, so I suspect that the time limit has been adjusted downwards to something more like 27.5 hours, now (many places cap hours at 28 to make sure nobody gets close to that 30 hour level).

The tasks there weren't as onerous (though the weekly price check/scanning EVERY item in-store, which could not be interrupted for any reason, and was timed), but the important ones took hours, and the bulk of them were managers-only.

[XCashier]

So, if you have ever wondered why Jo-Ann’s doesn’t just staff every store with someone always at the register and someone always at the cutting counter and someone always available to help you find stuff (or multiple someones in any or all these places), this is why. Each store is only allotted a certain amount of money that can be spent each week on payroll, but the number of things that have to be done in a given day doesn’t also go down if the payroll budget goes down, nor does the budget for payroll increase if there is more that comes up to be done.

Yes, yes, YES!!! Preach it, sister! This is the absolute truth. Our store has far too much to do and not nearly enough payroll hours to do it with. We have enough staff, but the staff aren't getting the hours. I've often said if we could bring everyone in four hours before opening one day, we could get the backroom emptied, the shelves fully stocked and the fabrics properly placed. But just try convincing Corporate to pry open their wallets and give us a few more hours...

ETA: At least one of the posters on the webpage said they'd forwarded the link to Corporate. I hope more do. I really wish Corporate would pull their heads out of their kiesters and realize that the company can't survive doing what they're doing. For the most part, I do like my job; I've got great managers and fantastic coworkers, and most of the customers are decent. It's better than any other retail job I've worked (though that isn't saying a whole lot...!) But there are many ways they can be better, and it all involves spending money to make money. More payroll hours, fewer hoops to jump through, focus on the fabric and crafts and less on the tchotchkes they keep trying to get us to push.

[Aethian]

No one has seemed to mention that the staff would have more time to help people if customers wouldn't leave things laying wherever.

[XCashier]

No one has seemed to mention that the staff would have more time to help people if customers wouldn't leave things laying wherever.

True, though I think that's a domino effect. We don't have time to properly straighten shelves, and more fabric than we have room for, so things end up getting put away rather haphazardly. Customers see this and think they can just pile their fabric where they want to or dump it on the floor instead of putting it back where they got it. Add to that the customers who are inclined to make a mess even if the section is perfectly tidy. So the mess gets bigger and bigger...

[wolfie]

for anyone aside from the SM (who was salaried, and expected to work no less than 50 hours a week (and as much as 80 if the XMAS season was absurd, like the year of Katrina), you HAD to stop, clock out, and leave as soon as you hit 39.5 hours. It didn't matter if this meant leaving the store short-handed; if you were the only manager, you were required to call in another manager and MAKE SURE they could get there before you crossed the dreaded 40-hour line.

80 hours a week? WTF! I know that for truck drivers operating into the U.S., it's ILLEGAL to work more than 60 hours in any 7 day period (or 70 hours in any 8 day period if the company runs all week long).

As for the managers, what would happen if due to medium-to-long-term absences (scheduled vacations, illness, etc.) it reaches a point where there IS NO other manager who can get there before the manager on duty hits 40 hours?

[EricKei]

wolfie - the restriction applies for truckers and other OTR personnel mostly because their vehicle will become gigantic wrecking balls if their drivers can't see straight. For others, generally speaking -- at least, here in the US -- the law may establish a minimum time on salary (40 hours) but no federal maximum; it MAY be the case that the number of hours cannot effectively drop someone below minimum wage, but I am not really sure.

As for that store -- At GS, non-salaried personnel were restricted to 39.5 hours a week, no matter what, but they were "allowed" 39.75 to account for people clocking out slightly too late, etc. Exceeding 40 was grounds for a First and Final warning, threatening potential termination on the grounds of "stealing from the company". The ASM and 3rd key were at that limit, and even I was at that limit for a couple of weeks as a lowly wage slave, simply because I had seniority.

To explain a bit better -- I was living in the New Orleans area at the time, and working at one of the busiest GS stores in the nation -- it was also THE best-selling Madden Football store in the nation for several years; our typical turnout was 7-900 preorders each year, with 2-300 showing up for the midnight release party.

Anyhoo. Picture this, if you will:
- Katrina year -- 2005. This was the year the XBOX 360 was launched. This knowledge will come in handy later. Bear with me.
- Much of the area was still in the early stages of recovery, having been cleared for unrestricted public access maybe a month before.
- About half of our stores were a complete loss (including the one where I worked, but it was big enough to get re-done after HAZMAT finished what they were doing) -- one was still under water at that point; another, which is still going, was untouched by the storm, but had been looted to hell and back by some guys with a forklift. They didn't manage to break the lock on the big metal security gates O_O...so they just bent the gates AROUND the lock.
- EVERYBODY had a temporary foodstamp card and a FEMA disaster-relief cash card with a couple thousand bucks on it (no debating their doing this, that's why we have Fratching) -- No application aside from proof of residence, they just said "fuckit" and gave them to anybody willing to stand in line for hours in 90+F degree heat and 98% humidity in the deep south
- People used the latter cards to get a new fridge (best-case scenario for most people: 5+ weeks of food in a fridge with no power ), as the old ones had to be tossed
- The balance of the cash cards was meant to be spent on immediate needs such as fuel, clothes, the now-late power bills (you didn't think Entergy would stop running the meter just because they couldn't supply us with power for over a month, did you? Pssh), basic repairs until low-interest loans/grants came through, and food to cover what the foodstamp cards fell short on
- Naturally, many people spent the excess money on absolute necessities such as new TV's, game systems, and video games. Yes, this included the XBOX 360...We re-opened our store about a week and a half prior to that launch.

Long story short -- tho it may be too late for that -- we did a MILLION-dollars in gross sales that December, with the SM working the 80 hours for 3-4 of those weeks. He didn't see much of his family that month. (which sucks, as he was the best manager I've ever had the pleasure of working with)

To give you an idea: Picture a deep-format mall store -- 3-register cash wrap, enough room on the far wall for about 10 racks of games, side-by-side; back wall with slanted sides, about 4 racks wide. The lines of human cattle stretched from the cash wrap up front, along the back wall, along that side wall, and out into the mall from about 9AM to 10:30PM, all day, every single day from our opening date in late November through the last official day/last day to make gift returns, January 16. We were able to handle it, as most of the workers were displaced managers from shut-down stores in the area.

It was pure hell, though the SM did one thing for which we were all grateful: Corporate normally forces stores to hire a bunch of newbies to help out during the XMAS month, knowing that, at most, one will have a job after January 16th. They give us enough payroll hours to give them about 4-5 hours a week EACH, assuming an even split. They wanted him to hire like 10-12 of these guys -- he took in three, as I recall, and all they did was face the shelves/re-alphabetize, all day long. Nothing else. He used the spare payroll allotment to give the rest us hours, as we were company veterans who knew exactly what needed to be done in order to keep the store from imploding

[notalwaysright]

I apologize in advance

Thanks, XCashier for pointing this thread out. I don't get over this way very often, and that article is just perfect. It's exactly right. Even down to the first picture with those soaps. And the tote bags! Those are soooo hard to sell. I heard we are the lowest in our region for selling them. There is a reason for that, corporate! Since our town banned plastic bags, everyone has the reusable kind already! They don't need/want one more! Plus, many people make their own. That's right, it's a CRAFT store, and people are crafty and would rather make it themselves, than buy an ugly pre-made one.

And payroll. I don't think the article directly mentioned it, but managers might be denied their yearly raise (which is small to start with) if the store was regularly over in payroll. Our store is larger than the example store, I think we have nearly 50 employees. And we tend to be over by 50-200 hours in payroll each week. And of course, customers don't care, they just want no line and someone on the floor to baby-walk them through their project. I do wish we had more coverage, absolutely. I also wish customers would be reasonable. Haha.

Like yesterday, Senior Discount day. We had three cutters. The wait for the cutting counter was 30-60 minutes long, all day, from 9:30-5:00. Most people were pissed. I wouldn't have waited in that line as a customer, either. But we sell cheap fabric, and as the article pointed out, corporate has priorities other than customer satisfaction. Also, only one of those cutters had an eight hour shift. I was scheduled 4.75 hours, as was another cutter. I work five days this week, and only get 27 hours. And that's HIGH. Normally we aren't supposed to exceed 26. I've been averaging 22. But I go back to school soon, and I will get enough financial aid to get through. Then you'll have to hear me complain about tech support.

Oh, did the article mention customer surveys? As far as I know, anything other than a perfect score (a 5) counts against us. And if the survey is particularly unpleasant, corporate makes a manager call the customer to try to make it right. Yes, corporate makes US deal with it. As if the managers don't have enough to do, they have to call an already mad person and offer a coupon or refund or whatever.

Okay, I'm done now. I've had lots of coffee today so I could go on. All my friends will just roll their eyes when I get going like this.

[XCashier]

And the tote bags! Those are soooo hard to sell. I heard we are the lowest in our region for selling them. There is a reason for that, corporate! Since our town banned plastic bags, everyone has the reusable kind already! They don't need/want one more! Plus, many people make their own. That's right, it's a CRAFT store, and people are crafty and would rather make it themselves, than buy an ugly pre-made one.

Yeah, I hate those ridiculous things. And the manager is always harping on us to push them to the customers. Gotta "suggestive sell" the tote bags, number one priority. Um, I thought selling fabric and craft items, like what's in our store name, was the priority?! And they're not selling well for the same reasons you listed; we've got a bag ban, everyone has loads of tote bags already, and they're ugly. And expensive. Why pay $29.99 for an ugly tote bag when you can get a nicer one at Goodwill for $1-2?

The soaps are another matter. Everyone can use them, they're only $1 a bottle, they smell nice and work fine. But still, we're supposed to sell fabric and craft supplies. Why are we branching out into other areas? We're pretty much the only game in town, we can afford to focus on our main areas without all the peripheral stuff. And if Corporate would focus on the main areas and give us the payroll we need, they'll find themselves making the money they want without bringing in nonsense like ugly tote bags.

[EricKei]

$29.99? For those?! Dear Gord o_O... Please excuse me for a minute, guys, I feel a headache coming on...

[notalwaysright]

$29.99? For those?! Dear Gord o_O... Please excuse me for a minute, guys, I feel a headache coming on...

*sigh* The deal is, they are $29.99 normally. If you spend $30 or more before tax, you get the bag for $9.99. And I don't know if the tote was in any of the pictures on the blog, (it's not those green see-though bags) it's quite heavy and has multiple zippered pockets. The quality isn't bad. I personally really don't care for the colors.

Also, I just dislike the sneaky marketing involved on both ends. For the customer, it's shameless... I don't know. Just one more push, more crap. On the employee side, it's stressful. They compare all the stores, and we get emails with rankings. We have specific goals of how many we are to sell each day. And then the managers say, "we aren't getting any more, so if you don't like them, sell them faster and then you'll be done!" When I know full well that if this campaign goes well, corporate will just do it with something else.

[EricKei]

Y'all have my sympathies anyway. I only saw the shitty see-thru bags in the article's pics ^_^;> I'd willingly pay ten bucks for the one you described, tho.

[XCashier]

The green see-through bags are the store's shopping baskets. Having a mesh bag instead of a standard basket prevents small items like strung beads from slipping through holes. (And yes, I have had people offer to buy them from us!)

The tote bags they're trying to make us sell look like these. They're practical, but they really could've picked better colors. And you can't force someone to buy something they don't want to, which is what Corporate doesn't understand.

[Seanette]

You can, however, annoy customers so much with the constant pushes to buy more that they start going somewhere else because their in-store experience is so unpleasant. Corporate types don't get that, either.