What the ... nobody's buying!!

[Pixilated]

The Mart of Wal seems a bit puzzled at the lack of buyers out there ...

[Raveni]

That's a case study in what happens when you cut labor while trying to increase sales.

The stuff that needs to get done to move inventory doesn't happen. In this case, literally their shelves are empty while the back rooms are overflowing, and there isn't anyone to fill the shelves.

[Pixilated]

I think you're right. People can't buy what they can't see. (Didn't they start out with huge numbers of employees in each store?)

[XCashier]

That's a case study in what happens when you cut labor while trying to increase sales.

You have to spend money to make money. The trick is spending it wisely. Spending it on staff to stock the shelves and make the store look good is a wise investment that'll bring in the buyers and their money. Pity more corporate bean-counters can't figure that out.

[mathnerd]

There's also front end staffing. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into Walmart, looked at the lines at the front registers and walked out. I'd rather spend a little bit more money at Publix and not have to wait 30 minutes at the check outs, thank you very much.

How many times a day does that happen in a chain as large as Walmart? I'd venture a guess they're missing out on at least 10-20 thousand dollars in missed sales chain wide every day due to poor front end staffing.

[blondemarmot]

Every day I work there I hear them paging for staff from the floor to cashier. Then later, in the break room, I hear the department managers complaining about being yelled at by upper management because the floor doesn't look good. Well duh upper management! You took the only person scheduled in that department away for HOURS. Of course it doesn't look good.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

There's also front end staffing. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into Walmart, looked at the lines at the front registers and walked out. I'd rather spend a little bit more money at Publix and not have to wait 30 minutes at the check outs, thank you very much.

How many times a day does that happen in a chain as large as Walmart? I'd venture a guess they're missing out on at least 10-20 thousand dollars in missed sales chain wide every day due to poor front end staffing.

There's a special place in hell for the bean counter who decided it's a good idea to reduce cashiers and just pull people off the floor to run registers when it gets busy.

Our lines rarely get super long, and we only have 8 registers, but it would be nice to get through a day without hearing a page for backup cashiers.

[Pixilated]

And of course when they page for backup, there's no telling where the "backup" is at that moment, nor what they may be doing, which will affect how long it is before they can get to the cash register.

The bean counters have lots of spectacular theories about why this sort of thing should work. And of course they've never been in that position personally, so from their POV there's no reason why it won't work.

Reminds me of the paper I was laid off from: a little bird told me there is now a whole four editorial staff ... this, on a daily paper. When I worked on the weekly, 10 years earlier, we had four staff there ... in fact, we had a few heady years where we had SIX editorial staff members. But the bean counters decided long ago that advertising makes it and editorial takes it. Of course, that doesn't stop them from whining about how editorial needs to get more stuff in the paper that people want to read.

[mathnerd]

There's a place in the scheme of things for back up cashiers. Every once in a while, despite the best effort at projections, there's a rush of customers that can't be planned for. It's when the bean counters start depending on the "back ups" to handle predictable rushes that it becomes a problem. The problem is multi-faceted. I refuse to go into a store where the cash registers are piled 20 deep unless it's a day like Black Friday or a grocery store the day before a major holiday. If the store is pulling their back ups, then there's nobody on the floor, which means the floor is a mess and if I need help I can't get it. Then after I've had the frustrating experience of having to dig through a mess and maybe or maybe not find what I need, I have to wait in long lines at a cash where the operator may or may not know what they're doing, since that may or may not be their regular job and they may or may not have enough experience to do it well (not the fault of the back up cashier, by any means).

No thank you. I'll go down the street to Publix, where there's plenty of staff both at the cash and on the floor, the aisles are well stocked and there's always somebody nearby to help me if I need it. It's worth the 10-20 extra bucks for my order to have a pleasant experience.

[Pixilated]

*snip*
It's worth the 10-20 extra bucks for my order to have a pleasant experience.

You know, I think THAT is what has not yet gotten through to many of the Suits. They just assume that if people can save a few bucks, they won't mind standing in line forever and a day. But customers are slowly coming around to the idea that their time is also of some worth, and are willing to pay a few extra dollars to get good and fast service.

[ComputerNecromancer]

What's happening is that the bean counters haven't realized that you *don't* staff for the *average* amount of work (ie cashiers needed or whatever).

Y'see *by definition* that means that 50% of the time you'll be understaffed (and the other 50% you'll be overstaffed).

It's been too many years since I learned stats, but I know there's a fairly simple way to take the mean & standard deviation and calculate what level you need to have the proper staffing 75%, 90% etc of the time.

But the bean counter types aren't aware of that and think that staffing for the average is the right decision. It's not, but I don't think that you'll ever get them to realize that they need to staff for "level to cover X% of the time" instead of just 50%.

[Skarredmind]

Oh no, that can't be possible. Walmart has computers that tell them how long it should take to unpack a pallet of merchandise! As we all know those computers can't be wrong... or programmed by blithering dolts.

It doesn't matter if that pallet is full of entertainment centers that takes (in reality) 15 minutes to unload or HUNDREDS of tiny boxes of air fresheners (that can easily take an hour or more to unload.)

Walmart's solution to all of this has, for the most part, been telling people to work faster, and if they can't keep the breakneck pace, fire their asses. (Because, you know, training new people doesn't take any time at all.)

One night they asked me to move 27 fully laden (and poorly stacked) pallets from one end of the store to the other, in 30 minutes. Even just running back and forth without pallets I couldn't have made it. When the 30 minutes were up they paged me to the back room (so the whole store knew I was getting disciplined) and gave me a write up *ahem* "coaching" on it. The fact that superman couldn't do it flying was unimportant.

Bah F walmart, and all the people in the company chain over there. Worst job I *EVER* had.

[fireheart]

I would LOVE, just once, for the bean-counters to actually work in the stores for a day and see what happens (yes, I'm aware of undercover boss, but it needs to apply to EVERYBODY). No cameras, no publicity stunts, no media awareness, just working down in the low-end jobs for at least a month (and whenever a new line they want comes out).

Of course, when that happens, I'll be living in a solid gold house with a rocket car.

[lordlundar]

I would LOVE, just once, for the bean-counters to actually work in the stores for a day and see what happens (yes, I'm aware of undercover boss, but it needs to apply to EVERYBODY). No cameras, no publicity stunts, no media awareness, just working down in the low-end jobs for at least a month (and whenever a new line they want comes out).

You're missing two of the most important parts:

-No Extra authority than anyone else in the position. Too many bean counters would love to pull rank so it's easier for them.

-No ability to retain job for failing. The same bean counters would love to say "Too hard, I'm going back to my regular job." They need to realize that they lose their job if they don't perform to snuff.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

One night they asked me to move 27 fully laden (and poorly stacked) pallets from one end of the store to the other, in 30 minutes. Even just running back and forth without pallets I couldn't have made it. When the 30 minutes were up they paged me to the back room (so the whole store knew I was getting disciplined) and gave me a write up *ahem* "coaching" on it. The fact that superman couldn't do it flying was unimportant.

This sounds like one of those things retail managers often do when they want to be rid of somebody. They give you tasks that are impossible, or at least very difficult, to do in the time allotted, and document it when you don't finish it. Along with further documentation for other "issues" real and imagined.

You were supposed to set 10 endcaps today but only did 8. Here's a write-up. A customer complained about you on a customer service survey. Here's another write-up. Your section of the floor looks crappy even though you spent all night on a cash register. Another write-up.

Then you either quit or they have enough documentation to fire your butt. And because your firing for was for cause, good luck getting unemployment.