Been Busy

Hi all,

Sorry I've been gone for so long. In February my boyfriend and I decided to turn our soap making hobby into a home business. We spent quit some time doing research and in March started making sales. My days off are no longer days off and most of our free time is being spent filling orders for lotions, soaps and shampoos. I will try to get on at least once a week and hopefully have something interesting to write about.

'Tis the Season

I used to love the Christmas season, picking out gifts for my loved ones, the lights, scents and music. I bought into the hype that people are happy and fun to be with.

This is my 5th year working retail and every year I become more disillusioned. People are mean and rude. I know that no one has much money to spend this year, please don't take your frustrations out on the cashier, we don't have any more than you do. When you yell at us because you spent more than you anticipated, or because an item didn't get put into the system at the price it has been marked down to (not our fault, by the way), because you are on a tight budget, or any other number of reasons, that can ruin our whole day. We are there to do a job, just like you do at your place of work.

How would feel if someone that you don't even know came into your office and started screaming and cussing (yes, in some instances there has been cussing) at you for something that wasn't your fault? How would the rest of your day go? Would you be able to keep on smiling and being pleasant all day? Now, how about if it happened over and over again?

We are aware that we are short handed, and we are trying to get you through the line and out the door as quickly as possible. We do not do the hiring, nor do we make the work schedule.

I have had cashiers call me over because a customer was yelling at them because their credit card, debit card, or check was declined. I know that this is embarrassing for you, however, it is not or fault. Debit cards and checks are declined if there isn't enough money in the account to cover them, our checks are automatically deducted just like a debit card. Checks are also declined if you have a returned check somewhere that uses the same check system that we do. With credit cards, the most common reason is that the card issuer denies the charge. We really wish that we could help you, but there isn't anything that we can do in any of these cases, so please, don't take it out on us.

I am asking you to please, let those of us that work in retail enjoy the season too. Please remember that we have to deal with the same frustrations as you. We also have families that we need to shop for, we have to wait in the same lines. We may look like someone to take it all out on because we are just a face at the register but we are human, we have feelings.

Don't get me wrong, there are some real nice and pleasant people out there. They are a joy to wait on, and when a cashier is lucky enough to get one it really helps them get through the day. So I thank those of you are nice to the cashiers, your friendly smile and kind words helped someone more than you know.

For everyone, please take into your mind and hearts, 'Tis the Season to be Jolly.

Walmart: The good stuff

Walmart gets a lot of bad press, and the Gods know I do my own share of venting.

Here is some of the good about the company.

Walmart has what they call an Open Door policy. This means that any associate that has a problem can go to a supervisor or management and make a complaint or talk about their problem. I like that, I don't have to go a third party and talk to them and then have them do my talking for me. I know the open door works because I have used it.

You know those little paper balloons the cashiers ask if you want to purchase for CMN? Well the money from those balloons goes to the Children's Network Hospital nearest to your Walmart. All the money raised from the balloons at my Walmart goes to the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine.

Aside from the donations from customers for CMN, our store also has silent auctions, and bake sales for associates with the proceeds going to CMN.

Walmart has an associates in critical need fund. If your an an associate and you have a critical need you can talk to your personnel manager and get some help. Having never had the need to use it, I do not know exactly what is considered a critical need.

We support Relay for Life and our store has two teams.

Our store donates thousands of dollars every year to local causes.

The people, it doesn't matter what area you work in, there are no boundaries, people pull together to help each other, at work and outside of work.

If it weren't for our local Walmart many more people in our area would be unemployed.

Corporate Control

I work for a major retail corporation. Awhile back the corporation decided that their computer program was better able to judge how many associates needed to be scheduled in the stores, than the managers that work in the stores.

The managers were told that the computer would be making the schedules and that changes couldn't be made. I'm told that the computer bases the scheduling on last year's sales for that day. The computer isn't programmed to take into account events that are happening in our area, it doesn't seem to be programmed to 'know' when it is a weekend. It doesn't 'know' that we may have had bad weather on a given day last year that affected the sales.

As a result of this, on the weekends there aren't any floor associates scheduled and very few cashiers. Many nights, including Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we have only 4 cashiers after 8:00 pm, there have been nights where there were only 2 cashiers scheduled. We are expected to give fast, friendly service, and not have lines, with 4 or fewer cashiers. Most nights, and always on the weekends, there aren't any floor associates to call up to run register in the case of lines. There aren't any floor associates to help the customers that need help in the different departments.


I have to wonder if the computer really does schedule according to last year's sales because, all summer long, every night we have the camp councilor kids in, 4 to 6 vans of them from the different camps in our area, plus the tourists and our regular customers. The computer is not scheduling for this, even though it is a yearly occurance.

None of this makes any sense to me. It is my opinion that the assistant manager that works over each area knows how many associates they need at any given time throughout the day. They know when events are in the area and how many extra people they would need to compensate for the extra customers. They know when it is a weekend.

In my opinion, a person should be making the schedule not a computer. Maybe it works for larger stores in big cities but it doesn't work for smaller stores. I know that the customer shopping experience would be greatly improved if we had more people scheduled than we do, especially at night.

Work

Yesterday afternoon I got to work and found out that the closing CSM quit yesterday morning. What happened to 2 week notices? I don't close, I only work as late as 11:00 pm. I can rush and get everything, meaning the CSM duties, done by 11:00 and then management has to be available to come up front if the cashiers need anything. It's just very difficult on a Friday and Saturday night to be the only CSM, because we are busy and a single CSM is running constantly and usually in three directions at once.

I am also alone tonight and I get out at 10:00. I haven't figured out how I am going to do this. There is no way I can get the registers pulled by 10:00. I can get the front ones but not the outlying and the self checks, they can't even be pulled until 10:00. I'm hoping that management has called one of the other night CSMs to come in and help.

Wish me luck.