This has been the absolute worse holiday season ever. We do not not have enough registers open, the club is a mess, jewelry is running out of boxes and bags, associates are stressed and barking at each other. We do not have enough door greeters, cart runners, you name it, we don't have it. They pull people from all over to work the front end, gives breaks at the door, fetch carts, help with click and pull, then they fall behind on their job. The MSS' are being pulled in every direction, it is enough to cause a nervous breakdown. The phones rings off the hook. I feel for the poor members who keep calling and calling and then are put on hold for a half an hour. I love my job and co-workers but I cannot wrap my head around what home office is doing to the clubs. They think they can force people to use self checkouts, scan and go and online shop. Perhaps the younger members will be happy to use technology however the older ones do not want it. What is so troublesome is the management is nowhere to be found. When the club is slammed, it should be all hands on deck helping out.
10 replies (most recent on top)
Sounds like 6335 in the very top post. No carts, or associates. Members getting mad cause they have to get their own carts, phones not being answered in liquor store due to associates on their phone all the time, members complaining inside cause of no registers opened. We never have enough associates on any day to fill the positions at cash registers, Seems that CORPORATE just dont care and is just paying GM for nothing if they dont hire more associates. SAMS 6335 will go down for good
Nothing is going to change as long as members continue to pay for that membership and shop there but it is starting to decline. Negative increases the last month and will be worse next month. When the big shareholders start sellIng there stocks then someone might finally stop and see what’s happening. Associates opinions are no longer wanted we are suppose to keep our mouths shut and do as told without question. Most clubs are told when visitors are coming so they can get the clubs looking like they expect but if they really wanted to see what the clubs looked like they should drop in unannounced. More club managers would be fired because they cannot get the clubs where they need to be especially on block scheduling. Red Prarie didn’t work and block will not work as well. I donut know of any club who’s evening crew gets out on time at 11:30 pm.
Think about it. Everything has been going downhill since block scheduling came. Does anyone really think it’s going to get better?
I left a year and a half ago. Whenever I shop, the employees I know tell me how bad it has gotten, how short handed they are. The store has holes in displays, random zoning and pallets everywhere. So many long time people are gone. There were 3 maintenance people, I haven't seen any in the last six months or so. I have had team leads and managers ask me to come back, I just say thank you but no thanks!
We were left with two cashiers at 7:30pm. No self check. One cart guy. One desk lady. And one member bragging about how he was saving our jobs by not using self check. Who do you think I wanted to curse?
You know who has got it exactly right. I was in my local Sam's a couple of hour ago. What a mess. Club was dirty. Merchandise on pallets in the aisles. C-ap falling over. Not a staff person to be found if you needed one. Cart corrals filled to over flowing. Place was doing a land office business. Your leadership has figured out that no matter what the shape of the place is, at the right price people will still wait in line, get thier own cart, step over the pallets and while the might b–ch about it - they still buy. As long as they are buying, margins are better and stock prices go up.
It s—s to work there, but that is all right too. If the long timers all quit, we will hire two snow flakes to to their one job and while we wont get much out of them, we aren't going to pay them much anyway.
Welcome to the new world of retail 2020 style
It’s like this every year
The ones that sit in their ivory tower in Bentonville aren't concerned with what goes on at your club - or anyone else's for that matter. The only thing drawing their full attention is the value of the company's stock and whatever possible approach they can apply toward increasing its value. Increasing the budget to hire more associates is not conducive to their goals and, therefore, not in their future plans. If your store is struggling, you and your co-workers will be shouldered with the blame. It may not relieve you to know this, but you are not alone. This is going on all over the company and none of the inhabitants at the upper reaches of the illustrious Home Office (i.e. the executives themselves) is interested in taking an honest look at the operational downturn that has been brewing for the last several years, thanks to their pursuit of doing more with less. While their chief competitor in the Brick & Mortar form of this channel of business - Costco - remains steadfast in maintaining their own standards within their clubs and continues to do what they have always done, our fearless leaders continue to find ways to not only break what isn't broken but whatever has been broken, break it even more. These are not the kind of policies that are practiced by those who consider their customers to be important, much less their employees. This company has long believed that no matter what it does, people will continue to flock to their stores and spend their money, and they have yet to be proven wrong. Costco notwithstanding, there isn't another competitor out there, other than maybe Target. For those who are willing to pay more for clean stores and better live customer service, they can go to those places. As for everyone else who still wants to physically shop, we're here for you and we'll always be glad to take your money. Outside of that, Walmart is going all-in on e-commerce because that's where the future is and it doesn't involve the same kind of massive payroll that they have to shell out to keep thousands of stores running.
Sounds like my club in Arizona. I can't keep doing this. I'm reaching my breaking point.
Here in Florida We have only been at 35 hours all of December