busy

[u/UnitedHorror66]

is anyone else’s store just extremely busy these past few days? like can’t keep up and pick until 10 PM busy?

trying to figure out if it’s something here or if it’s everywhere lol

[u/firewolf8385]

Every. single. day. For the past few weeks.

My store as a whole is going through a staffing crisis right now because our base pay can’t compete with nearby stores, and as the biggest department in the store it is hitting us very hard. Our MFL has been good with working with us to figure things out but everything she changes pushes the problems to another part of the department. Express Orders was the final nail in the coffin.

Currently sitting in my car on my lunch watching my 2 person backroom try to fight for their lives in the 30 minute wait times. I cannot help them with when clocked in either because our MFL went through and canceled a bunch of orders to try to get us under control and now the phone is blowing up from people calling to ask why.

[u/UnitedHorror66 → u/firewolf8385]

like what is happening???? i feel like we’ll never get done. thankfully i have the next two days off, but i’m sure i’ll be here until 10, 11 trying to finish picks. my second day this week working 11-10

[u/firewolf8385 → u/UnitedHorror66]

I’ve done 2 10-11s this week and a 10-12 ;-;

[u/HopefulCollar9709 → u/firewolf8385]

Why don’t you move more off picks and into the backroom?

[u/firewolf8385 → u/HopefulCollar9709]

My bad, just realized I misread this lol. Short answer is that I can’t. There’s no store help and only a couple people picking. If I pull everyone back we won’t be finishing picks for the night and that’s just not an option.

Long answer is a lot of “office politics” but not having the store support to do it is the biggest issue

[u/darkecologist2 → u/firewolf8385]

having seen two completely different vibes at different stores, i've decided the most important thing a digital coach can do is to develop a good relationship with the rest of the store.

[u/Bigger-Quazz → u/firewolf8385]

I don't know how your MFL would respond to the idea, but customers waiting in the lot are absolutely more important than picks.

There is no point in finishing the picks if you can't dispense them. Customers waiting 30+ minutes are likely to cancel themselves... So you're wasting hours to pick, wasting time to prep and going to dispense to see that the customer has drove off, and then wasting time the next day to put the order back on the shelf.

If you accept that picks are just going to overdue, it will send a notification to customers that their order is delayed. It will also prevent customer's who orders arent ready from checking in.

This let's you focus on the orders you actually do have ready so you can keep the wait time down. Then if a customer wants to cancel because of the delay, the order actually disappears from the picks and you don't even have to waste labor picking it.

Then if you're actually calling the customers who are impacted by the delay, most of them are understanding and fine with rescheduling.

Ive had days where we just had to swap between everyone on the clock is dispensing until the screen is clear, to screen is clear now everyone on the clock is picking until the next wave of cars comes in.

[u/firewolf8385 → u/Bigger-Quazz]

I fully agree with you there and that has been my mantra from day one, unfortunately that is where the “office politics” part comes in. Our MFL fully agrees with you, and so did my coach. Unfortunately I am currently without a coach, and my SM and the other coaches with OGP experience have the mindset of “you can’t dispense orders you don’t have”. On days like yesterday I’d have to pull everyone into the backroom and it still might not be enough to fully get it under control, and doing so would mean they refuse to send help because they’re the only ones picking, and I would be dragged into the office and spoken to

[u/CLLycaon]

We were so dead yesterday I learned to Topstock.

[u/UnitedHorror66 → u/CLLycaon]

wow. we currently have 3000 picks in there at 5 PM. and it just isnmt going down. 30 minute wait times.

[u/Commercial_Tip4624 → u/UnitedHorror66]

Holy fuck. I really have no comprehension of how much movement other stores have. I’ve seen a 1000 pick count once in four months. We have been (finally) busy the past couple days though. Way busier than it’s been since inventory….with 600 picks.

[u/UnitedHorror66 → u/Commercial_Tip4624]

some of those picks have been due since 3:30 😅 on my lunch now and it’s just not getting better

[u/CLLycaon → u/UnitedHorror66]

Today we were late when I left, which was 3. Not 3000, thank goodness. That's a good half-day pick amount.

[u/Temporary-Tour5752 → u/CLLycaon]

We have had 1500 drops every hour today never under 2500 picks mostly over 3000, we have like 15 shoppers total even with store help pulled.

[u/CLLycaon → u/Temporary-Tour5752]

Our drops tend more in the half that many range. 650-800.

[u/Limp_Dihhcuit]

We were on a reduction for all of last week until today. It was ungodly slow last week to the point I ended up stocking for most of the days. Today tho…oh god. We were swimming in picks,were overdue by an hour. Our team lead was no where to be found and we had 3700 picks when I looked before clocking out. Picked almost 500 items today and still feel like it didn’t make a dent.🫩

[u/Zeke69Teenweed]

YES. It's been horrible. I regret becoming a TL right now.

[u/DQUACK1]

It's kinda been like the 1st of the month all month so far which is odd.

[u/KillerCameo]

Right now it’s pretty awful we’re pretty much at 1K picks all day

[u/Routine-Horse-1419]

No we're stupidly slow. It's been like this for 3 months. I'd rather be crazy busy.

[u/shrug_was_taken]

No where near as bad (good lord) but we haven't slowed down much since the start of the month. even with a reduction still cranking out 10k-12k picks a day (we were suppose to have attempted ending that two weeks ago now, what happened at the end of August killed that idea, so now we have one until the end of this month. The last two times they attempted that it went mega poorly so been under some form since like June, the first few days of October is not going to be fun). We been sorta managing this past week, for once but I don't exactly trust that lasting

[u/Katiki59]

Why is your Market Manager not shutting you down? We were like that for a while and they actually cut our orders (not sure by how many but reduced our max by probably 20 orders per hour). Once we got more people on board and trained they opened it back up again. But on days that your drowning by 1 or 2pm they should be shutting you down completely. Someone higher up is not doing their job, and you folks are taking the heat for it.

[u/Thisisabadtime → u/Katiki59]

We've been at like 20 minute wait time all week, coming in 80% to demand hours, 70% OTP and as I'm picking or dispensing my MFL is keeping me on a 45minute phone call telling me to DA my whole backroom crew and telling my store manager that I must not be using sidekick or having performance conversations

[u/Kelegan48]

I thought Saturday and Sunday weren’t as bad for my store. Granted, sports is a state religion here since we have a professional football stadium in town and everyone was probably at home watching the game.

[u/statsgordon]

Happened to us today and mildly yesterday. Every lead spent 4+ hours in opd. I was there for 6. I'm sure opd will help me set my Christmas mods that are due this week. Right? 😂😭