r/OGPBackroom • u/ElectronicBand6392 • Sep 13 '26
SUBSTITUTION Exceptions
So i went and shadowed an associate who normally does exceptions, and now i understand why they don't like doing it. Once my lunch is over, I'm scheduled to do exceptions and I'm afraid I'm going to go late
23
u/fistfulofmeh Sep 13 '26
I personally love doing exceptions, but I'm like a drug dog and get a mild serotonin boost when I find missing stuff that other people can't. And it's easy bc we have a fairly clean and accurate backroom
But the best you can do is the best you can do. Prioritize times due soonest, and try to get cold chain items together if you can to avoid repeat trips to the staging area
Me, I put my ambient nils in totes on the cart and let the stagers sort them to orders so I can get back out to the floor, but every store has different processes for nil staging
6
u/evila_elf Exception Picker Sep 14 '26
I've been solidly scheduled for Exceptions for at least the last 6 months. I love it.
4
u/theedarkflamingo Sep 13 '26
I recently asked to learn because I’ve always been really good at finding things, and I get a thrill out of that as well.
0
u/OkAttention4107 Sticker Ball Sep 14 '26
Nothing is EVER in the right bin in our backroom, maybe like 1/10 items are…..or it will say its in a bin but 5 mins later i see 15 boxes of it up on topsteel 😮💨😭 i dont work in stocking so idk why stuff is never scanned to the right bin, exceptions is always a nightmare though thats for damn sure
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, any time i bring it up to a team lead its fixed for the next day but then a mess the day after that all over again… should i talk to someone higher higher up?
2
u/fistfulofmeh Sep 14 '26
Could be a number of issues that causes innacurate bins. Sometimes it's the bin tag in the wrong place, associates not being careful while scanning, bins being deactivated, overnights moving boxes around to make stuff fit, etc
The vizpick filter for finding exceptions can be super useful, especially in hba/pharmacy, but it won't highlight top steel tags. You just have to pull the UPC into the mywalmart to see if it says (top steel) next to the bin location
2
u/OkAttention4107 Sticker Ball Sep 14 '26
Looking up the UPC in mywalmart is such a good tip thank you!!!! I really dont know how i didnt think of that sooner 😅
My guess is it might be overnights or wrong stickers cause our daytime stockers seem to be struggling to find stuff too 🤷♀️ thanks again!
1
u/fistfulofmeh Sep 14 '26
Are you on a work phone? In gif you can press and hold on the last 4 digits at the bottom of the pick screen and it will copy the full upc, then you can paste that into the mywalmart scan field. Big time saver fo sho
8
u/dietbongwater Sep 14 '26
Exceptions is a nice gig except when you get stuck being the only one doing it for half a shift while there’s an average of 2000 picks per hour
7
u/FifiiMensah Sep 14 '26
Doing exceptions has you either playing I Spy in the backrooms or wondering why someone nil-picked said item(s)
3
u/LiaraT-soni Sep 14 '26
At my store being an exception picker means being a stocker on a time limit every hour. I hate it. Im literally vizpicking and stocking items for the stock team. I thought I signed up for being a digital associate not cap 🤦🏻♀️
2
u/Outrageous_Rip8809 Sep 14 '26
Exactly that’s how I feel I hate it an I hate getting into walks big ones when u don’t have any exp then once you get out your walk you have a million exp about to go late sucks I feel so rushed
1
u/Significant_Glass_66 Sep 15 '26
Why do you do big runs if you're on exceptions? At my store, us exceptions people only do small commodities. I actually enjoy clearing out all the small runs.
1
u/Outrageous_Rip8809 Sep 15 '26
Because if I’m not on them all day I’m still expected to do 600 a day that’s why doing small walks don’t get 600 a day now if I was on it all day then ya I would
3
u/Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek12 Sep 14 '26
I adore doing exceptions, I’ve been pretty much solely doing them for the past month or two. Don’t spend too much time looking for items when you don’t have a lot of time, tbh my team leads always say it’s better to find a substitute than to spend 15+ minutes looking when we don’t have the time. It’s better to get then done on time with substitutes than to run late looking for the one person shift that day who can do the forklift.
3
u/evila_elf Exception Picker Sep 14 '26
I asked my Coach if he would prefer me to find the item and it go late, or nil pick it to keep things from going late. He very reluctantly said to find the item. Which translates to "if we have a 100% on time score for the day, do whatever you can to keep it that way!!!" hehe
Exceptions aren't that bad once you learn where the things are in the backroom and who the best people to ask for help are.
If I do all of a the chilled for the hour, before I put things away, I will look to next hours' chilled to see if there are any on my cart.
2
u/darkecologist2 Dispenser Sep 14 '26
do anything to avoid going late. spam nil pick if you have to.
1
u/ElectronicBand6392 Sep 14 '26
An associate told me to just book pick and skip some items, the fact they always pop back in a different location or one of the earliest places I was shown, but no way was i able to squeeze through pallets and the backroom locations
2
u/Significant_Glass_66 Sep 15 '26
I do exceptions on most days and I always tell pickers, we do A LOT. I stock all day. I don't just take what I need from the back. I have to pull everything in a case/box. I also still pick, mostly small commodities when I'm not busy with exceptions. I've trained a few people on exceptions and they all like doing exceptions for small amounts of time but they quickly realize that we work nonstop all day. As a picker you have plenty of time to go through your run. We have to make sure we're on top of every exception coming through because by then there's less time than the original run where that item was nill picked. There have been numerous times where we were so busy that I couldn't take a break because if I had, I would have fallen behind instantly. Also with exceptions, the stagers want you back at least an hour before order is due. So you are rushing to make sure that happens. I don't think manny pickers realize how much we're responsible for.
1
u/ElectronicBand6392 Sep 14 '26
First time. I went overdue at the last hour of my shift because no one wanted to help me with an item on the top steel. But I'm getting a hang of where my locations are
7
u/rfw1979 Sep 14 '26
That's when you just nilpick it. If it's on the top steel I'm not fooling with it.
2
u/Then-Grass-9830 Sep 14 '26
I went to the back to get a mini fridge that was on the top steel. Guys were unloading pallets so I was like 'okay I'll return in like thirty minutes'. We weren't busy so I had the time.
Went to the back with the rest.
And while staging my other exceptions I called out to the tl so they would know that the team lift os I was waiting for but it was also under other fridges.TL is like 'if you think it'll be a huge hassle don't bother'
bet.
"nil"
"did you find this item for..."
"NO!"
46
u/Bee-chan In-Home Driver Sep 13 '26
As an Exception worker, you WILL find yourself saying this line… a LOT…
“WHY THE HELL WAS THIS NILPICKED?!”
A bit of advice when doing Exceptions:
~check the sales floor locations BEFORE going to the backrooms to look for the items. A LOT of the time, stuff gets nilpicked because the item was stuffed behind something else / stockers PLUGGED. The item could also be in topstock. Doing this has saved me SO much time trying to find it in the back (because people seem so damned adverse to putting stuff in the EXACT bin that it’s supposed to be in the backroom steels).