The clipboards are there to keep TL in office so that tms stay on the sales floor and over work themselves into a early grave.
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Way behind the times...but now we need to hang 30 clipboards per department like it's 1973
The point of implementing SOP is to get the ridiculous back of house mess cleaned up, teach buyers the correct way to purchase, have proper communication and planning, simplify our lives and eventually be able to function with perpetual inventory like every other grocer. We are way behind the times but better late than never.
They will hire the atls at less pay..book it
Actually they'll wait for the TLs to quit, then hire the ATLs.
Yep. One raise from TL to MTL is less than the gain from demoting 2 TLs to ATLs and hiring a third ATL.
Dumbing down positions and making them rote...this is part of the combo team/attrition process to get labor cost down.they hope enough tl,atls,buyers will get fired or fed up with this crap and quit.then the next batch of the same positions can be brought in at a different pay scale similar to other markets.making wfm more attractive to a corporate buy out
your buyer must s---.
S.O.P.=Screw Over Patrons. Monday, April 10th Passover started. Not only were we out of items, but we were running out of others. Our patrons/customers were not happy. Buy we made sales and comps. "Leader$hip" was very happy.
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to running out of every single holiday-related item weeks before the related holiday. What? The warehouse is out of stock. It says so on this clipboard. And this one. Oh, and that one.
Well, IDK, seems this new SOP is just SOP for WFM, right?
The execution of this program in the South region is embarrassing. They are trying to expedite a program that takes months to implement properly - making us all look like fools in the process.
Bad allocations anybody?? Bad regional planogram merchandising and cookie cutter solutions in regions with various shoppers of deffering taste (north florida vs south florida?)..
This is normal for WFM. Do you realize how long it takes to change tags. The company puts the whole department on sale because the prices are so high. IT is a nightmare trying to keep everything accurate. Slow down on all the BS Promos and reduce prices. Never Once in my 20 yrs with WFM did I ever her someone say we screwed that up. Just keep hating on the store level TM's and eventually everyone will be gone and then the consultants will be happy.
Our buyer is really good, but with all the work he has to do, he has to blind scan. Sometimes the new guy will put the item in the wrong place, buyer will scan out, and we have two cases of gf dookie and none of the regular. I fix it when I do the closing front.
Problem remains that stores STILL have no accountability in buying!! Yes, SOP is a start! Buy you used to have these buyers buying ridiculous amount of product, product that doesn't sell, not buying product that sells (for months and longer) because someone pulled the tag or it was lost and they mindlessly scan tags that are there, even if it's in front of the wrong product) and basically buying like a woman in a shoe store with a sugardady's credit card. Now? These idiots keep no back stock and only reorder when they get around to it after the hole has been there for three days( missed sales). They don't know how to effectively buy, to pay attention to movement, to pay attention to individual store demographics, to pay attention to weather, holidays, buy-ins, trends, etc. so now because they are being asked to actually think, sales are suffering. Gone are the days when customers could " only get it at Whole Foods" then when you do force your loyal customer to shop somewhere else BC you never have the product they need, they find a treasure trove of other stuff somewhere else too... and oftentimes cheaper.... now you lost another customer or at least part of a customer and the death spiral continues.
This is a site for me to piss and moan. Please regional grocery team, don't take this away from me. 😄😄😄
Somebody who understands!
The reason this is all happening now is because lots of stores had no accountability with buying. It's ok to have back stock on something that will sell in a short period of time but it's not ok to have an abundance of items that just sit around. This is happening because people should not have been in roles if they couldn't do the job.
Every way thinks it's failing because sales are shrinking, stores are closing and labor is being cut. You can keep drinking the spirtual punch.
Now I see why you guys think WFM is failing, your eve close approach and lets cuddle you guys daily. The OPS program works, but not with your close minds and NO understanding of Business.
@MDNVK2s-2qrw Over think? Good job you mindless drone. Dynamic means more than black and white. "There's two types of inventory Bad buying inventory and Good inventory". You missed the point of the post.
Yes WFM is winning. Everybody gets a trophy in the STL office. How's the produce butcher doing. Ship in crap cut fruit and have some millennial snowflake chop up kale for 25 dollars a pound.
Cutting down alot of trees for those clipboards. So much for caring about the environment.
Corp trolls all over this thread..anybody using the term "going forward" definitely reeks of leadership
Your theory of empty shelves because they reduced inventory will cause less sales. In fact smart back room inventory increases sales. Now the TM's are spending there time filling product that will go up daily and create sales with 50% less OOS than previous of the OTS program. There's two types of inventory Bad buying inventory and Good inventory. With the Never Out being your good inventory, this will increase sales and reduce labor. The extra labor will be on the floor helping customers instead of going through bad buying inventory. Simple fact that it works. People always over think the process.
We need to think more dynamically on this topic.. There is a ratio here. I am not saying to have too much product but if shelves become empty then that results in less sales. You may save marginally on the lack of inventory but that is always a percentage of sales. A company trying to save money on inventory is not being aggressive. Do you want to be a business owner who maintains or one who grows? Calculated risk is a big part of company growth. SOP tends to handcuff growth and settle for complacency. I do not disagree with either side but no risk no reward. Growth equals happy investors, job opportunities, and equity. Keep the wheel going. Yes, Whole Foods needs to redefine this topic to be successful but the 180 they have done is a bit reactive. The proof is in the pudding. Look at the last 18 months since this was implemented.
It makes sense to a degree but the math doesn't add up. The goal is to order truck to shelf and have a few left at the end of the night. The issue comes to be the data shows how much an item sells over a week and each day is different. If an item averages 70 units a week so then 10 a day that isn't realistic. One day you may sell 5 and the next 15. Grocery stores are volatile and weird. You roll with the punches.
I'd just love to see some people sitting in these offices spend a week working on the floor to get perspective. I know its not realistic to do often but not having that perspective leads to poor decisions that overreach goals at the expense of practicality.
Also the extreme focus on labor and stocking has put a severe hit on customer service. If everyone is working overnight or in the back filling out logs, no one is there to build the brand and upsell. We'll see. I'm still hopeful but there needs to be a better balance.
S.O.P = Standard Operating Procedures. Every adult company has them. Stock is in the crapper. More standardization will lead to less time thinking and more time doing.
"Compare Grocery QTR 1 2016 inventory to QTR 1 2017 inventory of OTS Stores and you will see over $100k+ drop in back room inventory." -how many stores are u referencing here? Based on the math below to illustrate savings, you are assuming one.
If you times that by 450 stores thats $45 million in saving just in Back room inventory for Grocery only.- again,for this 45 million dollar "savings", one store's inventory savings would have to equal 100k since you are multiplying by 450 store's. I believe the SOP pilot was in several stores, and if the 100,000 figure was correct, that figure would need to be divided by the number of stores in the pilot program to get the average BEFORE multiplying it by 450. Also, the company is not truly saving $45 million as inventory is considered an asset unless being thrown out.True savings in your flawed example would be the interest earned on the difference between the cost of inventory between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017.
Sounds like a win for WFM! Less labor daily! Fuller shelves as the Buyers have more confident when ordering.- How is this program not make sense? its Grocery 101- see comments above.
I prefer party in the front, business in the back. People would get behind that its fun. Not something called S.O.P. The Intro chapter to S.O.P is your fired, jeez I was so upset. I had to read Conscious Capitalism to feel better. I think I need a safe zone timeout.
Wow..... It's unreal to see how some people just don't get business. No company wants money tied up in inventory in their back room. Especially one that deals in perishables. If you clean up your back of the house practices it makes the business run smother, saves money tied up in inventory, saves time digging through the back room, and cuts down on shrink. Now you can take that money saved and invest it in other areas. It's really not that hard to comprehend. It's a smart move by WF. They are good merchandisers but seem to have been lacking in the operations department. Looks like they want to improve that going forward.
Just breathe deep and meditate eveything will be fine. I have an extra copy of Conscious capitalism for you.
SOP defined cut Grocery labor and give them 2 as much work. Lastly WFM does not reward anyone with business sense. Keep promoting self branded idiots who keep doing the song and dance, while the band plays and the chairs are rearranged
Once again..how does this increase revenue.?? Shell game capitalism with cutting costs in the back is ok and sort of helps the earnings reports but how does this increase our paltry comps and competitiveness?? Corp trolls efffff offf
Yes the inventory dropped...yeah team...but so have the sales...oh no!
Compare Grocery QTR 1 2016 inventory to QTR 1 2017 inventory of OTS Stores and you will see over $100k+ drop in back room inventory. If you times that by 450 stores thats $45 million in saving just in Back room inventory for Grocery only. Sounds like a win for WFM! Less labor daily! Fuller shelves as the Buyers have more confident when ordering.
How is this program not make sense? its Grocery 101
how does this program increase revenue??? something we seem to miss every earnings call....if you had a good team leader/buyer who were on top of inventory and ordering I'm not seeing how this waste of planning(data unification anybody??) will increase sales...seems like a half a-- attempt to control things by some new executive from an outside company..what they should invest in is integrated computer systems and registers that communicate sales,inventory and ordering..none of our systems "talk" in real time..and how much do we waste on those annoying inventory nights??
Depending on the store, it can be a giant upfront expense to get the back of the house compliant for OTS. We are only a few weeks in and have already spent over $30,000 on new shelving, paint, floor cleaning, etc. Meanwhile, we still have crappy equipment and coolers on the sales floor that desperately need to be replaced. The operational piece of this program is great, but we're wasting a lot of time, money and resources to make it happen.
As usual, we copy someone else but we take it over the top in a bad way. SOP is not a bad idea but way to harsh. Cutting labor, also not a bad idea, but cut too much. So now those that are lazy continue to be lazy and those that work hard are pushed to work even harder. If you speak up, you are a complainer. Produce, Grocery, Prepfoods and Frontend have the largest teams and do the majority of the work as well as guest service but Specialty, Bakery and Wholebody get more due to guest service. Does anyone in Leadership ever watch those teams? There is usually 2 or 3 workers and the rest stand around or float around the store. How about giving some of their labor to the teams that really need it.