Thread regarding Whole Foods Market Inc. layoffs

Perishable teams would be meat, produce, seafood, meat and pfds. I realize Bulk and Dairy should be perishable, but for whatever reason they are not.

How are these teams non-perishable?

Most large retailers run North Florida stores out of Jacksonville, Florida or out of their Atlanta districts. It's silly for a region based in Fort Lauderdale to open stores in the panhandle. You end up spending a lot of money to ship products halfway back to where they came from in the first place. It's called logistics, something we seem to be clueless about. Also, Destin is a seasonal tourist town, and Tallahassee already has numerous grocery options that are outstanding including the local New Leaf Market which has two locations, about 9 Publixes, a Fresh Market and a TJs. Also: Tallahassee is virtually empty from June through August and for much of December during school and legislative breaks. File under: Reasons why we are idiots, part 9,567,213

I love coming on here and reading about WFM. It makes me feel very happy with where I work. Salaried? Don't TLs only start at $25 or something? Bahahaha! Seriously if you are a good TL, go to Costco. You will make more money and have more stability for you or your family. We won't take everyone but we will take the best of you because at that wage, if you're good then you deserve a lot more. WFM is a nightmare we now make fun of. If you don't have a Costco near then Wegmans or Trader Joes will also now pay you a lot more that Hellarious Foods with the way they are restructuring their pay for employees in Leadership roles. The future is bright, just get out of that low wage, overworking cesspool.

Under the new overtime rules if they call you a "manager" (like a TL) but you're not at desk, but actually just a glorified worker with a few extra responsibilities and they put you on salary, the labor department will strip the exemption and the company will be forced to pay overtime. One of the categories that the labor department is looking at is retail management. They're some of the worst abusers.

@IMzFrnS-onv

Team Leaders in the UK are already salaried. I worked 60+ and never got OT even on public holidays.

The most important metro area in the south is Atlanta area, and we've wasted incredible time and money instead opening stores in hick towns many hundreds of miles from our warehouse. Even today we still don't have stores in Peachtree City, Stockbridge, McDonough, Lawrenceville, Gainesville, Dunwoody, Woodstock, Canton, Sugar Hill, Buford, Suwannee, Athens (just north and east of the Atlanta metro), Hamilton Mill, Cumming, Decatur, East Atlanta, Five Points, Midtown 14th Street area, Georgia Tech, West Paces Ferry, Vinings. In North Carolina we finally got to Charlotte, the second largest city in the south and we have a whopping two stores, one of which is in a tiny old Food Lion with horrible parking and a Bojangles in the parking lot and the other is in the most expensive piece of real estate we could find in South Park. The overhead is insane. We're NOT in Matthews, Mint Hill, Ballantyne East or Ballantyne West, Fort Mill or Tega Cay, Rock Hill, Concord, Indian Trail, Moorseville, Southend/Dilworth, Plaza Midwood or Noda. In the Triangle Area, which is another massively important metro area that equals Charlotte and is growing faster, we have nothing in Wake Forest, Downtown Raleigh, Apex, Morrisville, Pleasant Valley, Duraleigh, East Six Forks (helllo TJs and Costco), North Hills, or Weaver Dairy (N. Chapel Hill) or Holly Springs. The list of important locations where we AREN'T goes on and on, and the reason is that we have a some serious rectal-cranial inversions taking place in top leadership that thinks it's important for publicity to be in hellholes like Jackson Mississippi and Mobile Alabama. MEANWHILE, Publix first entered North Carolina about 3 years ago and in Charlotte's metro alone (including the South Carolina part of the metro) they are now up to 17 stores and about to open #18 and #19. We have two there. This situation is repeated all over the place. The examples I've given are just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is NOT competition. The problem is our LEADERSHIP not understanding their markets and DISMISSING the competition. That's what happens when you're legends in your own minds.

"vsn" - Sounds like your region has some real doozies when it comes to just plain stupid location choices. We have a few here in FL, like Destin and Tallahassee. Let's hear from other regions about their worst locations! And give us some color as to why because 99% of us have never visited stores in your area.

"onv"- I first heard the rumour about maybe making TLs salary something like 2 years ago. It was being discussed (along with other radical cost saving ideas) at the yearly leadership network meeting all of our STLs attend in every region.

The posting at the top is referring to what is the implementation of something that was announced to leadership at my store (and many, if not most, others in the FL region) around last full inventory. So that was around July 1st. We were told then about the combining of teams that eliminates four TL positions and probably some ATLs, beginning with the slower stores now and working up to all but the busiest stores eventually. The time frame was super broad: from something like 6 months to 2 years to get all stores done in region. Tallahassee (probably the slowest store in the region) I think is already done or is still in progress. Destin is in progress or done also. The first step at Pompano was recently when they posted for just a grocery/whole body combo TL after the grocery TL moved to another store. There were 7 combo TL positions posted yesterday (Monday the 8th.) The current postings NOT referred to in post at top (there are 2 full combo stores in FL posted right now) are for two stores: Altamonte Springs and for Winter Park North (which is the next store to open in the region.) These current FL full-on combo team postings are: meat/seafood TL, perishable team TL (bakery/prepared food) and non-perishable TL (grocery, whole body and specialty all in one.) Produce and Front End TL positions are posted like before. The current posting referred to by the post at the top is for the old Winter Park store and is only for a non-perishable TL so they must me combo-ing the rest of the store later like what is happening at Pompano. I have touched on six stores so that leaves 21 more to combo in FL. That is, if they are really going to do this all the way up to and including the busiest stores as has been mentioned that the full plan is to do globally. It will be a real challenge to pull off in busier stores. Also, a lot of good, dedicated and long-term leadership TMs are going to lose their current jobs and maybe not find a comparable new job as everybody affected by team combining has to apply for the new jobs posted and there will be more qualified applicants than jobs.

Trust me.they will fill these positions with prison wardens who fled their previous job at walmart or target.they will hire "yes men".those who can talk the lil "moving forward,take ownership,blah blah,but who wont know anything about what we sell and why people buy those items..

Other brilliant store location ideas include the giant trailer park/military base known as Augusta, Georgia, the horrible location in Columbia, South Carolina which actually is a good city but we're idiots so we chose a location that's on the way out east near the military base and its endless sprawl of McDonald's, Taco Bells, rent-to-own shops, cheap fireworks and cheap furniture dealers. At least there's great fast food fried chicken right there in our store's parking lot (Bojangles). Then there's the ramshackle home of 10,000 fundamentalist churches known as Mobile, Alabama, with its decayed urban core and disconnected suburbs consisting for the most part of very low-end housing and one little relevant section consisting of the medical college, golf course and fancier churches. It's also a 750 mile round trip from and back to the warehouse in NE Georgia. Great planning. And who could forget Jackson, Mississippi, amongst the pawn shops, pool halls, gas stations and Dollar Generals, Family Dollars and Dollar Trees. There we are, because we were going to change the world and convert Jackson's hicks from a diet of cheap beer and pork rinds to lovers of escargot, $30 wine, organic daikon radishes with balsamic glazes and premium fresh grilled seafood specialties served on beds of organic mixed greens. Last I heard, the crickets are as loud as a heavy metal concert in there. Thanks, Omar! Next time how about getting someone who actually UNDERSTANDS the south to choose locations in the south? I know, it's a foreign concept to our douchebag "leaders" in Austin.

I like how they say we are looking for a foodie. You don't need a foodie. What you need is a prison warden. At least be realistic and admit the situation. You don't need some hipster DB with a degree in Art.

The Winter Park store do sizeable amount of sales, not the best but not the worst compared to stores like Coral Springs and the great loser Tallahassee. Kind of just testing the waters by a confused group of folks with upside down priorities.

I have been to the Winter Park FL store and it is rather small, but this...this is absolutely ridiculous. It's the beginning of the end, next they will make Team Leaders salary so you have no choice in working 60 plus hours. I am so thankful I was able to walk away from HELL FOODS of my own accord and I will never look back. I ran into an old guest of mine today and he told me he doesn't shop there anymore, says the quality has just gotten to bad, there is zero customer service and he got tired of half of what he went for being out of stock. Way to throw a company down the sh--ter GLOBAL leadership.

Lovely!

WoW