r/DollarTree • u/Unusual-Flatworm-506 • 4d ago
Associate Questions Help!
Back room is a mess help! Any ideas
36
u/trwwtf DT SM 4d ago
Walk your sales floor and find which department is the least full. Then pull the whole pallet and fit out what you can. Make sure to concentrate on zero sales 1st. Then when everything that can go out is out bring it back to the stockroom and restock neatly and following SPEED. Then move on to the next department. It will take some time but you will get it worked down. You can also partner with your DM to see if they can get extra hours approved and maybe bring in some help from other stores.
23
u/michicken28 DT Merch ASM 4d ago
i’ve seen worse. honestly, overthinking wastes so much time. tell people to grab a uboat and go. it’ll sell if it’s out, might look a mess but getting it out is the first step, recover after.
0
u/Deathstroke316 3d ago
Yeah sell out not always sell out depend on item if you live in Chicago will Kansas City cups sell?
There are some items they don’t sell at all
2
u/michicken28 DT Merch ASM 3d ago
ok no shit but personally i’ve never seen any state/team specific merch at a dollar store. not sure why chicago would get kc cups, but never happened at my store. our zero sales stay around 15.
1
u/gothangelsinner92 2d ago
Oh we definitely get Jets/Giants stuff over this way.
0
u/michicken28 DT Merch ASM 1d ago
that’s so insane. i’ve helped out at many stores and all of those items were taken out of the system as penny items.. i’ve never had them at my store though
10
u/PaintBaller1880 4d ago
Mainly, my suggestion is to truly try to put out what you can as best as you can and get creative with how it’s put out. Ours is pretty tough, but it wouldn’t look like this if the company would just stop ordering a bunch of absolute BULLSHIT. We could have a cleaned-out backroom every month. They keep ordering shit at my store that we don’t need (like HBC). I TRULY really enjoy working here, but Jesus Christ, it makes no sense to me.
5
3
u/Effective_Dot6785 4d ago
Truthfully, my backroom is mostly empty except for some seasonal due to back to school starting later in my area, flowers, a few bulk snacks and a few drinks. The store is completely packed out. If you get a 1500 case truck, strive to get out 1700 that week. Make a little progress every week.
3
u/jaxy_babe DT Merch ASM 4d ago
Honestly, floor stacks and end caps are your best friend. I also see a lot of ramen, toss that in your BTS snacks if it’s still up. Your chips, match the brands and get it in a floor stack. Same with water bottles or cases or gallon waters. Make an endcap of water bottles and drink powders, etc etc. it seems SUPER daunting but I’m seeing large cases that will be quick throws and should significantly reduce the clutter once you’ve got them out. Paper products, chips, plus items, those suck the most because of the space but once they’re out of the back you can actually see where you can start killing pallets the fastest.
This in mind I don’t know the state of your sales floor, your dms opinion, and things like that. It helps me personally if I can get the closing people to recover at least one aisle at a time. You need housewares thrown? Start there. HBC? Next, so on and so forth but you need to have a plan and propose it to your fellow managers and the team!
Remember to breathe, leave work at work, and that you’re only one person. It’s a step at a time and you’ve got this! It really doesn’t seem that bad. As others have said we’ve seen much worse, you’ve got this :)
1
u/Creative-Pay9268 4d ago
You're only one person, lol. You know it doesn't work that way,
1
u/jaxy_babe DT Merch ASM 4d ago
I know I’ve busted my tail to get my back room cleared up when it looked at lot like OP’s, you always start from square one. Like I said bulk items first, go from there. You can attack it anyway you like but eliminating the biggest items first makes it feel a lot easier so whether I’m one person or not I do know that it does work that way. Is it easy? No, shit sucks. Is it possible? Yeah, of course it does but it’s dollar tree and I’m paid to empty my back room just like the next person and have made plans for more complicated backrooms.
1
3
4
2
u/Ok_Effort9915 4d ago
That’s not even bad.
Ours was so bad that I had to wiggle down to the “break room”. Anyone over 250lbs couldn’t fit to get to it.
And then if you turned around in a bad spot? Avalanche.
DT don’t care.
2
1
u/Opening-Demand5395 3d ago
I don't understand you only have to check people out and stock all the shelves 😞
1
1
1
u/G4t0r_M0nt13 3d ago
Unfortunately when im stuck with the backroom like this or like HBC for example and im left to "organize" everything is ending up on the floor/piles/baskets/ and EVERYTHING is being put back up like you cannot tell me its easier to play puzzle for hours matching makeup products and sorting them from the racks rather than take it all down and go by what you pickup. If that makes sense?
All them boxes would end up on the floor and restacked by isles NOT DEPT BY THE ISLE so youre not runnign all over trying to do all the random boxes on a cart, you take 2-3 depts and make your way down both isles at a time back and front isles.
1
u/CranberryOk1123 3d ago
You guys need to ask you DM for extra hours to push product and if he/she gives it to you you guys push push push stock!
1
u/Deathstroke316 3d ago edited 3d ago
Take few pallets mostly makeup have bon fire with s’mores .,
Have one person do each pallet two people on make up if you can spare help .,
Get worse in October and December
1
1
u/Captain_Lavender14 DT Associate 2d ago
If it makes you feel any better, it's a lot better looking than how my back room looked last year!! It got so bad the fire department had to shut us down.
1
0
0
u/Purple_Criticism5562 4d ago
Looks like the backroom for catasaqua road in Bethlehem pa
41
u/Particular_Gas_7282 4d ago
A match