One of the clubs in Illinois I used to work at during my time with Sam's remains probably the best run operation I've been part of all these years. I was the only overnight dock associate on a crew that numbered around 20 people, most of whom were in their early 20's. Every associate had a legitimate lift license and all ten of our lifts were in use every single night. We'd receive an average of 15 DCs per week which were normally all in the door when we arrived. The system was that I unloaded all the trucks and staged all the freight, and three or four associates would come off the floor to take it to the steel or drop it off to be stocked. Normally by first break, all the DCs were done, usually including a water truck and one or both fresh trucks. After first break, there might be another water truck, paper truck, McLane, a third fresh truck, Coke or Pepsi, etc. Regardless of who it was or how many there were, they were unloaded, keyed-in, tagged, run out to the floor, and in the steel or stocked. I used to key in the entire McLane delivery (12 or more pallets of c-gare–es, candy, etc.) and it was in the steel or stocked as well. Most nights I was done in back by 4AM and I'd hit the floor to do whatever needed to be done, which was usually grabbing everyone's trash, removing stacks of pallets, etc. Needless to say, by 5AM, the receiving area was an empty space of cement. There was literally nothing left behind for the morning crew to have to deal with. Out on the floor, there were typically 2 in hardlines, 2 in center and electronics, 2 in grocery and candy, 1 in the freezer, 1 in the cooler, 1 in HBA, 1 in clothing, and 1 in liquor/beer/wine/soda. The manager and team lead jumped in wherever they were needed, and if there happened to be anyone else, they just went wherever they were told to go. The club was always a hundred percent, every single morning. We had time and the people we needed to do resets, change steel out, clean, all of it. We were store's department of the year two years in a row. Other clubs sent their overnight managers and team leads to us whenever they needed to train or get ideas on what kind of system they should follow to achieve the most success. Our steel was never overrun with freight because we always dropped and worked as much or more than what was coming in every night. Whenever a water truck or paper truck came in, it was in the steel 15 minutes after it was fully received. Similarly with all DCs. It was eight hours of productivity that is no longer possible in our current system. We even managed to have fun every single night as well because we knew we were accomplishing something and we were important to the proper running of that store.
I'm sure there were a number of clubs that had night crews that were efficient on this kind of level and unless those who make the decisions with regard to how we do things in our clubs want to get back to that, this company will never see productivity like that anywhere ever again. It's just not that important to them anymore and that's a damn shame.