MEGATHREAD 2018-2019 Store Modernization Megathread

[OPINION] How do you feel about these changes?

  • I like them.

  • I dislike them.


Results are only viewable after voting.
Well today, Saturday's truck was 1750 250 repacks. 6 huge pallets for softlines. Next week our normal 4 truck week. The following week another added truck. Use to be only 4th quarter we would have tons of trucks. Lately one seems to be added every other week. We are a $37,000,000 store. The dc notifies store of additional truck. We have to take it.

Our Monday (last week) Double truck, was a combined, 4500 cases, and 600 repacks..... ~43-45M store.

LOL. In the month of May, this is unheard of, and is a bad double, during the bad times of 4th Quarter. My store was a shit show.
 
Everyone having MyDevice Zebra issues should get on your GSETL to MySupport them and send them in. I don't have time to wait for things to get fixed so I do it my self. The PDAs were more reliable with network issues but far less reliable at my store for actual application issues. We had so many PDAs that would double press 1s & 2s. If you had to restart or change a battery it would be 15 min to reboot and log in, the Zebra is down to 6 min. Except for RFApps anything you had to use the screen for you'd be tapping for up to 2 min to get it to "click." And the PDAs got less and less reliable as things got migrated to the MyDevice. We had to have 2 PDAs for when one froze.

I've found part of the issues for errors is how Move is handling errors. It's basically creating a "some" error when 2 locations are two different epick batches at the same time. You also can't toggle between Move & MyWork to "pull" a baffle you need to scan all items, even if you exit all the way out and it just creates a different error.
 
Our truck yesterday was 2100 273 repacks. Yesterday flow was asked to work today for an added truck. 1800 245 repacks. Tomorrows truck is 1700 238 repacks. WHAT THE FUCK! Saturday's truck should be void of repacks. One can hope, lol
Yes I can but it rarely happens. Besides, we are heading to more repacks of everything. Not less.

That's honestly nothing like the experience at my store. Like I said one logon at clock in. Even if I have to reboot or change the battery if I open Move or myWork again they log me in automatically, I don't have to re logon until about right after eight hours of my shift.
This is what I experience unless I squeeze the screen too hard and it logs me out.

The scanner shutting off seems to have been fixed now that we just got a new Pilot application for the scanner (Acorn Scanner) which takes the place of DataWedge from Motorola.

That explains that problem. I hope this one fixes the buffer issues the scanner has.

It's the code in the background that makes the scanner run and translate the UPC into format the applications can understand.

Are we talking about logging in straight away, or later cause your gatekeeper logon is valid for 15/20 minutes after you login, so in that time frame you should be able to open any app and it should log you on without reauthorization.

This is an commerical grade tool. Gatekeeper needs to keep the logon active for the duration of your shift or until you log out or drop it into the charging cradle. I personally hate the gatekeeper software and the rest of the vmware crap.
Everyone having MyDevice Zebra issues should get on your GSETL to MySupport them and send them in. I don't have time to wait for things to get fixed so I do it my self. The PDAs were more reliable with network issues but far less reliable at my store for actual application issues. We had so many PDAs that would double press 1s & 2s. If you had to restart or change a battery it would be 15 min to reboot and log in, the Zebra is down to 6 min. Except for RFApps anything you had to use the screen for you'd be tapping for up to 2 min to get it to "click." And the PDAs got less and less reliable as things got migrated to the MyDevice. We had to have 2 PDAs for when one froze.

I've found part of the issues for errors is how Move is handling errors. It's basically creating a "some" error when 2 locations are two different epick batches at the same time. You also can't toggle between Move & MyWork to "pull" a baffle you need to scan all items, even if you exit all the way out and it just creates a different error.
I've noted that too. Its a pain. Have you had issues with Audit not updating capacities in Mywork or blocking the update but if you do the cap change in mywork its already updated in Audit?
 
If you are in a pilot store and have had any visits, surprised or planned, how were the visits?
They have been atypically quiet about visits, but my immediate Leader has been impossible since our last one, which speaks volumes.

I have a question, too, for my fellow "piloteers": how are things at your stores (what you can share for fear of not being outed, of course)?
 
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They have been atypically quiet about visits, but my immediate Leader has been impossible since our last one, which speaks volumes.

I have a question, too, for my fellow "piloteers": how are things at your stores (what you can share for fear of not being outed, of course)?

Things are not good. Almost all flow team has quit. No new hires. Going 4am end of June. Upper mgmt is worried. No one knows how we are to pull off 4am plus all these changes.
 
I don’t know if it’s regional or company wide, but no one’s priority is stocking anymore. Even the sales floor team stocking the truck have to recognize that the guests are top priority. There is no such thing as a flow team anymore here.
 
I don’t know if it’s regional or company wide, but no one’s priority is stocking anymore. Even the sales floor team stocking the truck have to recognize that the guests are top priority. There is no such thing as a flow team anymore here.

Same at our store. We were also told that TLs are no longer to task. If we are tasking we should only be doing so if we are working with a TM. That is considered training. 4 hour shifts from 6a to 10a are just not long enough to really be a dedicated stocker.
 
I don’t know if it’s regional or company wide, but no one’s priority is stocking anymore. Even the sales floor team stocking the truck have to recognize that the guests are top priority. There is no such thing as a flow team anymore here.
We get this, but there has to be a balance; you can't sell if you do not have product on the floor and the store looks like crap.
 
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The reasoning is so there are more team members on the floor when guests are shopping, but anyone coming up with these decisions has probably never tried to shop in between stocking and pallets everywhere
The local Walmart is trying something like this and it’s a frustrating fail. Stockers stand at the head of an aisle and wait for the guests to clear. The store is heavily shopped and aisle after aisle has huge holes. The meat bunkers can be empty almost any time of day. How can you be out of chicken? Sliced cheeses don’t even get to the peg hooks they’re just piled on shelves. Produce huge holes- bananas, lettuce. Lord help everyone if Spot is following the Walmart model.
 
Same at our store. We were also told that TLs are no longer to task. If we are tasking we should only be doing so if we are working with a TM. That is considered training. 4 hour shifts from 6a to 10a are just not long enough to really be a dedicated stocker.
Wait so we can only observe?
 
Guests aren't there for recognition. They're there for product, which needs to be stocked for guests to be able to buy it. It's only a very vocal minority that actually cares about TMs answering their beck and call.

Unfortunate, I guess.
Yeah, it boggles my mind. I can't see how sales have increased because of more TMs on the floor when most guests don't ever interact with TMs and freight is constantly getting in their way now.

On the flip side, I have helped a guest purchase heavy items (patio furniture, furniture, above ground pools) by simply being available and on the floor.

But ultimately, I believe Instock Items are the best way to improve sales. I have worked freight during store hours, and have to bounce back and forth between different aisles simply because I can’t get down an aisle full of guests and their shopping carts.
 
If you are in a pilot store and have had any visits, surprised or planned, how were the visits?
Our new DTL came to visit recently, and it didn't go well AT ALL. He said EVERYTHING was in the red and nothing looked good. Even scheduling was bad and that our STL and LOD's have 2 weeks to start fixing it.
We also had a visit for corporate which went about the same and they nixed our new reshop process because it looked awful, it was all behind guest services in bins categorized by area. We still don't have a new reshop system and still have about 3 or 4 bins behind guest service. I've had 2 LOD's just tell me to run reshop to their area therefore making my zone suffer.
Our store is also about to have all of softlines remodled and they're going to be absorbing baby hardlines.
 
Without time studies of each task along with a defined process prior to change, epic failure is just upon the horizon. You can't just co mingle task in an attempt to improve your bottom line.

What we're suffering through is someone's attempt to forcefully merge a material handling job, inventory management job, and a customer service job into a multi task orientated part time job. Ain't happening.

The store modernization is just a form of JIT inventory management. For that to work, the person at the end of the supply chain would have to have control of the incoming merchandise. This means current information on expected demand, projected future demand, control of on hand quantity to meet demand, control of incoming shipments and the ability to pull ahead/cancel within expected demand forecast quantities. This has to be done daily as we're operating daily. Not to mention request will have to be done within a specified time period.

Without it, you'll either be out of stock, over stocked, or occasionally on queue.

You can't push incoming merchandise while performing store modernization inventory control while waiting on guest. Something is going to get left out. Especially in a 4.5 hour shift. Not to mention handing off to a less than enthusiastic team member who spends the majority of their time sneaking around so they can spend time on their phone.

Then we have the associated cost increases that come from all theses additional in store service functions. I have a feeling we're all paying for these in the reduction of payroll. This keeps them off of the bottom line and over inflates their benefit to Spot.
 
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