There are only 3 stockers and 4 main areas that need to be stocked. I usually start in Infants/Kids, then move on to Womens and from there to Mens if there's time. But lately I've had to go to Shoes after putting out kids stuff because the other 2 stockers work in their own areas exclusively. I don't have time to get all this stock out, cover jewelry, run a lane, help customers and answer the phones which ring non-stop. It's not humanly possible.
This past Friday and Saturday we had a huge sale in Shoes. Buy one pair, get another pair for $1.00. The sale excluded 'clearance' and 'everyday best price' shoes...which should be clearly marked with either signs or orange clearance stickers. Only problem is, no one has been working in Shoes for over a month to keep up with these things. You want to see heads explode? Come to the store on a crazy sale weekend and watch angry customers demand their shoes for $1.00!
NOT FUN!!!
The Manager had the day off on Friday but Saturday she was there bright and early. Her first priority was to get the Shoe stock out on the shelves. There were two skids (stacked full of boxes, full of shoes...taller than I am) plus 4 L-carts at least. I went to the back and grabbed an L-cart to bring out to the floor. I took one box off it, got the shoes from that box put away and then the Manager comes to me.
She pointed out an end cap that needed to be changed. There were mens running shoes on it. They had to be moved and replaced with some new womens shoes we'd gotten in days before. I grabbed my flat-top and took the mens shoes off the end cap then went to put them in their spot. I got two or three pair put away when the Manager comes to me again.
It seems the Store Director had done a 'walk-through' of the dept and pointed out some areas that needed work. So now I was to go through the entire Shoe Dept and make it look pretty. (On a crazy sale weekend...you've got to be kidding me!) And then, every half hour I was to do it again.
Now, it would take me an entire 8 hour shift, if not more, to make that disaster area look pretty...especially during a sale when slobs are opening every box, throwing the papers on the floor, leaving shoes everywhere.
Not gonna happen!
Let's recap: At this point I've got an L-cart of stock minus one box sitting on the floor. An empty end-cap and a flat-top of mens running shoes waiting to be put away. But am I allowed to finish either one of these projects? NO...I've got to straighten.
In the meantime, all that shoe stock is sitting in the back room WHERE IT DOESN'T SELL, on a big sale weekend and her top priority is for me to go behind these pigs and pick up after them.
OK!
I grab a trash bag and start picking up trash (there was plenty), start putting a million shoes back in their boxes, then putting the boxes on the shelf where they belong. I had one aisle straightened and took a break. I was gone 10 minutes and when I got back, that aisle was trashed again!!!
Futility, thy name is retail.
But that didn't matter because it seems another crisis had arisen while I was on break. Customers were losing their cool because the shoes they thought they would be getting for $1.00 weren't ringing up that way. The sale didn't include 'clearance' shoes or 'everyday best price' shoes. No one had time to mark the shoes down to clearance nor put up the 'best price' signs. There was no way for the customers to know which shoes would be included until they got up to the check lane. This made most of them very angry...and I don't blame them.
So, now I have to stop feverishly trying to make the dept look good to do clearance. We have to scan EVERY shoe style. If it comes up on clearance we then have to put a little orange sticker with the new price on the tag attached to the shoes (every pair), the tag attached to the display shoe and on the outside of every box of that particular shoe brand/style. Very time consuming.
Let's re-cap: I have already started three projects...none of which I have been allowed to finsh...and now I have to scan every freaking shoe in the dept to see if it's on clearance.
OK!
(Breathe Hope...just breathe!)
The Manager knew this was an impossible task so she got two other people to help and she herself started scanning, too. Four of us amongst all the slobs, feverishly trying to mark the shoes with the proper price so no more heads would explode at the check lanes.
I had been scanning for about a half hour when the phone rang. It was the service coordinator...she needs me on a lane.
(In....Out....In....Out) I'm hyperventilating just remembering this!
I told her I have to talk to my manager because we have a crisis in shoes. My manager called the store director and they decided they needed me to stay in shoes doing clearance. But about 5 minutes later the store director calls my manager and tells her to send me up there because there's no one else they can call.
It's so nice to be needed...NOT!!!
I go up there. Every lane but 2 are manned so I ask the store director which lane she wants me to go to. She says, "We have someone coming to lane 22 so I guess we don't need you afterall." (She didn't realize another lane was unmanned...and I wasn't going to point it out to her.)
Great, I thought and I start to walk away.
"Wait a minute," she says, "we do need you...go to lane 13."
(In through the nose...out through the mouth!)
To lane 13 I go. The first couple in my line were nice. We chatted a bit, laughed a bit about how crazy it was in there and I was actually a bit relieved to be away from the complete and utter chaos that was the Shoe Dept.
But it didn't last long. I was only up there for 30 minutes or so then I had to go back to that black hole. Everyone was feverishly scanning while all the shoe-crazed customers tore the place apart and my Manager had even pulled the other two stockers to come and help get things off the floor (my projects that I had started and wasn't allowed to finish.) Even the store director was over there helping!
Unbelievable!
I left at 2:30 and they still weren't done with the clearance.
A large portion of the stock in the rest of Fashions didn't get done and the only shoe stock that got put out was one, lowly box. There was trash every where, shoes every where and I was glad I didn't own a gun.
Does anyone have any questions why I call that place the hellhole?
I didn't think so.
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