Our Sears store was just recently told we had to adopt this program. Everything out of the warehouse by the end of this month. Is this all the stores? How's it going? Anyone feel like it's successful?
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I wanted to give some intel I got. Today when I came to work I was overhearing the ASM talking to the Backroom lead about how they got a huge cut of hours. And she said it probably is because of the one touch. They got so cut that they were freaking out how they were going to get their tasks done in the back. Seems maybe they are pushing this whole one touch.
"One-touch or something similar has been in retail for at least a decade. Wal-mart, Target, Kohls etc all use a form of the one touch system."
I don't know about Kohl's, but Walmart and Target (especially Walmart) still have their back rooms full of merchandise.
"Hardlines made this work by making bulk stacks all over the hardlines departments and cramming shelves full of merchandise with no rhyme or reason (e.g., shop vacuums under a display of saws or mechanic's tool sets put in an empty, available area next to garage door openers)."
Well, that's not the worst misshelved-stock examples I've heard, lol... shopvac could be useful to clean up after sawing. ;-)
@2omz - Our store supposedly is/was on one touch and we started receiving merchandise on pallets. We are now reverting back to the old way where our trucks will no longer come palleted. Now that you mention that, I am left wondering now...
Our store is on life support. It's dead all of the time, located in a dead mall, and sales are down year over year, so maybe our store is closing. This one touch was supposed to be yet another holy grail and a saving grace (LOL) but maybe they feel our store isn't worth anything.
@omz If you are not getting one touch it could be a good sign you are closing soon. If you are closing there will be signs if you just pay attention to them
we are not on the one touch program yet at our store, the product is still coming on the trucks the old way so they have to unload every piece by hand, just wondering could this mean we are closing soon.
How many other stores are not on the program yet... what makes me think we are slotted for closing is that there are 2 stores within a 30 min drive from my store.
It's a disaster at my store too!! Not enough hours not enough employees and it's building up in the back room!
Since they merged MCAs with the cashiers, and more is expected of former MCAs, what I don't understand is why responsibilities are not shared by the original cashiers such as rotating them to do as set, pogs, freight and everything else that the original MCAs were required to do!
If it is all "one" team now why is this not being done?
If your a kmart store just move the pallets of merchandise out to the garden center. Put some wrapping paper up on the doors to hide the pallets and lock them. No one seems to go out there anyways after the garden season is over. Out of sight and out of mind. Great place to hide excess merchandise.
Just move out the pallets of merchandise to the floor. Take a picture of the empty backroom and then move them back. One touch.
Just do what we do and a bunch of other stores are doing. Just touch in once. Bring it off the truck and touch it once as you put it in a corner of the backroom where you can forget about it for another year. We have things left over from last fall that have never been out of the box.
It's not helpful that all this merchandise that we're only supposed to be touching once is being piled on us from all the stores that have since closed but for which it had been ordered prior to the knowledge that they would be closing. So not only do we have to deal with our own merchandise, but what seems like the stock that would have gone to at least two or three other stores.
What I've noticed is that a folded pile of clothes that used to have 8 items now has 25. This requires MUCH more recovery to keep things looking straight. And we don't have the hours for that.
One-touch or something similar has been in retail for at least a decade. Wal-mart, Target, Kohls etc all use a form of the one touch system. One touch would work in Sears/Kmart if they would hire enough people or give more hours to those who are already working. But with limited hours, limited workers it has been a disaster. Also, in our store they just started it with no training. Just an email and some papers to look over to see how it worked. Even the store manager didn't understand how it worked.
Right now there are no POG's getting done. We just put things wherever there is an empty space. As long as it is not in the back room no one seems to care. I wonder how the vendors feel about paying for space and their merch. being put whereever it fits. Or maybe we dont have anymore vendors.
Our Kmart has stuff piled everywhere..Layouts no longer get done..Warehouse sending so much crap we never carried. Pantry has sugar in the soda isle, coffee in the cookie isle, taco shells, beans and fruit all over the place. Auto a disaster zone. Domestics and hba just has merchandise everywhere. Store looks like a version of ollies. Its sad how it once was and what it looks like now.....
don't worry throw your POG out the window, fill the sales floor with everything you have once you run out of room you get the rolling racks put hooks on them , then fill them. this is what we have done its tough but working in our store ... except the softer side of sears , lol , its a mess the back room is packed , Z racks everywhere with product hanging on them from last weeks truck and another coming in today, should be fun to watch
It's not working at all for my store. It's a disaster. Since nothing can be added to the stockroom unless it is a large appliance, lawn/garden or and Div 9/71 item in a plain brown box, everything has to go out to the floor, including existing stock and any receivables coming in on days our store gets a truck.
The softlines stockroom is still jam-packe because 1) there are no available fixtures, let alone floor space and 2) no hours to put the merchandise away. There is more bedding, pillows, intimates, socks/hoisery, shoes, Laura Scott/Simply Styled/Simply Emma/Levi's/etc. than the floorplan allows for.
Another person on another thread mentioned that the softlines' employees time is spent mostly checking out customers with no time to put anything away, let alone straigten up the store. My own store is experiencing this and softlines is a tornado wreck. Racks and racks of receipts from prior weeks is jammed up in the stockroom. They are lucky to get two racks completed a day with no more than four on duty at any given moment, and that's just for the "busier" days, like Saturday, where they are bound to be tied up at the checkouts.
Hardlines made this work by making bulk stacks all over the hardlines departments and cramming shelves full of merchandise with no rhyme or reason (e.g., shop vacuums under a display of saws or mechanic's tool sets put in an empty, available area next to garage door openers).
Supposedly the backroom will no longer process hardlines receipts beyond pulling the pallets off of the trailer. Also, there is a rumor that the backroom lead position will disappear this Friday (September 15) for stores that already converted. I don't know if this is true or not, just heard similar verbiage from several sources. Backroom will basically hang up softlines and answer MPU pickups. Everyone else, which will be commissioned sales people, MCA's, managers and softlines will be responsible for processing the receipts. For that to work, we will supposedly process pallets on the floor.
I think the One Touch initiative is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the negative press regarding the poor condition of random Sears/Kmart stores, specifically the empty shelves and floor space. I don't see how this One Touch is going to work without enough help or thinking the whole thing through. You can't have 100% of the receipts out on the floor and not have serious problems. Now the news outlets are going to do comparison pictures of disheveled Sears/Kmart stores packed to the gills versus neat and organized thrift shops.