Archived Big Changes Coming to AP

[TeamRed]

Same here..... I am not sure if we are a higher risk store what exactly makes a higher risk store? Our store is near a high school and teenagers like to come in and hang out and every now in then steal things but it has never been mentioned as a high risk store.

 

[AssetsProtection]

Same here..... I am not sure if we are a higher risk store what exactly makes a higher risk store? Our store is near a high school and teenagers like to come in and hang out and every now in then steal things but it has never been mentioned as a high risk store.

Well not sure what tools you have access too but you could tell from how big you AP team is for example..

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

your org chart will tell you. go under store facts on workbench.

 

[target tps]

My etl-ap is on leave right now. I'll probably be hearing something about these changes when she comes back in January.

 

[Natatha]

I'm somewhat confused now... Can someone elaborate a couple things?

What do you mean by "AP Shirt"? Like, the Polo the DC wears?

How many stores in the company are doing this, is it a company wide thing, or is it just a testing thing for now?

My ETL-AP and I are pretty close. She's been with the company (outside of AP) for about 20 years, and really isn't all that tech savvy, so she looks to me for help with many things. Investigations, Internals, Camera moves/troubleshooting, big LE assists, etc... She's said that there has been a huge push for consolidation, and changes into AP. Such as the Investigations Specialists going away, they are no longer doing Sr. APS deployments unless your GAPTL (now AP Market Leader) approves it, and even the APBP now having multiple (some up to four-five districts)... But none of this has been mentioned, and it actually scares me a bit that they're going to continue this, "Make the TPS another Team Member that doesn't come out of the store payroll" crap they've been trying to push on me for the last year.

I've found that they've actually been pushing more and more for TPS, and APL to worry about Guest Service more than they do about preventing theft. I get a bigger pat on the back from my APBP when I'm standing out on the floor, than I do when I make some large arrest via an assist to LE.

Someone PLEASE tell me that this is not company wide.

 

[SeniorAP]

How do I upload an image? I have an awesome meme for this.. I clicked the IMAGE icon above and uploaded it, but it only comes up as a text (yes its a JPG).. is there something wrong with the site?

 

[commiecorvus]

Not sure why it's been so squirrelly about uploads lately.
I've just been hosting my stuff offsite and linking them just to be on the safe side.

 

[100LA]

So would this mean anything for the APL positions? I'm on the bench and am having a conversation with our APBP soon about moving into an APL role; would that position be affected as much or not really?

Pretty much no changes to APL. APTLs will be APLs now by default as all APTL stores will get 0 TPS hours going forward.

They're retiring the APTL, Sr. TPS, Sr. APS, and Internal APS positions.

This is not true. It is true that the APL and APTL positions are being consolidated into one position, however this is simply to eliminate the confusion between the positions. There will still be APTL stores with TPS hours. Current APTL stores will not automatically lose their TPS hours.

 

[Barcode]

I'm somewhat confused now... Can someone elaborate a couple things?

What do you mean by "AP Shirt"? Like, the Polo the DC wears?

How many stores in the company are doing this, is it a company wide thing, or is it just a testing thing for now?

My ETL-AP and I are pretty close. She's been with the company (outside of AP) for about 20 years, and really isn't all that tech savvy, so she looks to me for help with many things. Investigations, Internals, Camera moves/troubleshooting, big LE assists, etc... She's said that there has been a huge push for consolidation, and changes into AP. Such as the Investigations Specialists going away, they are no longer doing Sr. APS deployments unless your GAPTL (now AP Market Leader) approves it, and even the APBP now having multiple (some up to four-five districts)... But none of this has been mentioned, and it actually scares me a bit that they're going to continue this, "Make the TPS another Team Member that doesn't come out of the store payroll" crap they've been trying to push on me for the last year.

I've found that they've actually been pushing more and more for TPS, and APL to worry about Guest Service more than they do about preventing theft. I get a bigger pat on the back from my APBP when I'm standing out on the floor, than I do when I make some large arrest via an assist to LE.

Someone PLEASE tell me that this is not company wide.

Our TPS helps out with guest service in electronics a lot... Previously at my old store, AP mostly just stood back.

 

[AmICrazy]

At my store we have only had a APTL for a least a 3 years now.

 

[mrknownothing]

At my store we have only had a APTL for a least a 3 years now.

Only an APTL? Are you sure they're not an APL?

 

[eleuthreophile]

Our store didn't have any AP AT ALL for like three months after our old AP guy quit. Shortage is apparently through the roof. :/

 

[mrknownothing]

Our store didn't have any AP AT ALL for like three months after our old AP guy quit. Shortage is apparently through the roof. :/

Sounds like a job for................Rent-A-Cop!

 

[eleuthreophile]

Sounds like a job for................Rent-A-Cop!

We have a new AP guy now (we promoted a backroom TM) and he's only 21 and seems very enthusiastic about the job and is trying to make positive changes around the store, he's even trying to do a monthly AP newsletter to leave in the breakroom... he's only been on the job for a couple of weeks and I am so scared he's going to get burnt out. 🙁

 

[mrknownothing]

Sounds like a job for................Rent-A-Cop!

We have a new AP guy now (we promoted a backroom TM) and he's only 21 and seems very enthusiastic about the job and is trying to make positive changes around the store, he's even trying to do a monthly AP newsletter to leave in the breakroom... he's only been on the job for a couple of weeks and I am so scared he's going to get burnt out. 🙁

Hopefully Big Red won't hold him back. He sounds like someone who can turn around the AP culture.

 

[eleuthreophile]

Hopefully Big Red won't hold him back. He sounds like someone who can turn around the AP culture.

I really hope so! We haven't had a decent/effective AP presence in probably a year and a half since our original AP lady retired last April (the guy we had in the interim wasn't that dedicated to the job). I've seen four BRTLs and three flow TLs burn out at our store and quit in the last four years and another TL is actively looking for new jobs and today I heard yet another TL talk about how 13 years of retail is starting to get to her... I'm so afraid this store and our TMs' refusal to change (aka actually follow best practice) is going to eat him alive.

 

[GrumpyAP]

AP has to follow more than just 'best practice.' Someone's going to enforce directives on this guy, it might not be pretty.

 

[TGTAP2]

i want to let everyone know that I recently spoke with an individual in an investigations role who informed me that the director of AP decided not to implement most of the originally discussed proposals this year.
there will be no major changes to store AP structure this year.
the latest copy of 2014 AP resource allocation still keeps the TPS and APS roles for all stores (except APTL/APL stores).

i think it's still important to know that these types of changes are being discussed, but i apologize if i caused any unneeded panic.
things that are happening for sure:
-all APTL stores will lose their TPS hours and combine APTL/APL into a single role.
(it goes without saying that the 20 or so stores in the company with an ETL-AP and APTL are not a part of this)
-there will be a general reduction of AP hours across the company.
-a cross-training program for part-time TPS is being discussed as a way for PT TPS to get more hours.
(this program would come later in 2014 if implemented)

 

[eleuthreophile]

AP has to follow more than just 'best practice.' Someone's going to enforce directives on this guy, it might not be pretty.

I was referring to TMs not following best practice, like TMs not putting spider wraps on things, accepting foreign currency, overstocking the shelves to hell and back instead of backstocking things, promising things we can't deliver, etc.

 

[Nauzhror]

I was referring to TMs not following best practice, (...)like accepting foreign currency(...)

Hmm, I've actually never been told not to do this.

Is it considered poor practice to accept Canadian coins even if they make up a very small % of the purchase?

Never accepted anything other than Canadian, but I have never thought much of it if a guest hands me a canadian dime or two, the difference in exchange rates seems pretty much negligible, but I've never had a guest try and pay with Canadian bills, or pay for their entire purchase with Canadian coins.

 

[GrumpyAP]

Ah, in that case. Continue.
The whole spider-wrapping and foreign currency thing is nutso. I get it in my location too.

 

[eleuthreophile]

Hmm, I've actually never been told not to do this.

Is it considered poor practice to accept Canadian coins even if they make up a very small % of the purchase?

Never accepted anything other than Canadian, but I have never thought much of it if a guest hands me a canadian dime or two, the difference in exchange rates seems pretty much negligible, but I've never had a guest try and pay with Canadian bills, or pay for their entire purchase with Canadian coins.

It's in the training book that border stores that do accept Canadian currency have a button to account for the exchange rate, and that change is provided in American currency only. I live in a border state and honestly hardly anyone even notices Canadian change (I even tell Canadian guests that I can accept their change, that's how little people around here actually care). What happened at my store is that someone somehow accepted a toonie. :/ Americans don't even HAVE a two dollar coin!!

 

[Nauzhror]

Hmm, I've actually never been told not to do this.

Is it considered poor practice to accept Canadian coins even if they make up a very small % of the purchase?

Never accepted anything other than Canadian, but I have never thought much of it if a guest hands me a canadian dime or two, the difference in exchange rates seems pretty much negligible, but I've never had a guest try and pay with Canadian bills, or pay for their entire purchase with Canadian coins.

It's in the training book that border stores that do accept Canadian currency have a button to account for the exchange rate, and that change is provided in American currency only. I live in a border state and honestly hardly anyone even notices Canadian change (I even tell Canadian guests that I can accept their change, that's how little people around here actually care). What happened at my store is that someone somehow accepted a toonie. :/ Americans don't even HAVE a two dollar coin!!

Yeah, I live in Michigan, we get a lot of Canadian coins, I have just always accepted them as if they were American. The toonie however, yes, I wouldn't accept that or a loonie, but dimes, nickels, quarters, meh. Every Canadian quarter accepted shorts my drawer by about two cents, I can't imagine anyone caring if a drawer is two cents shy of what is expected to be in it.

 

[Retail Girl]

Hmm, I've actually never been told not to do this.

Is it considered poor practice to accept Canadian coins even if they make up a very small % of the purchase?

Never accepted anything other than Canadian, but I have never thought much of it if a guest hands me a canadian dime or two, the difference in exchange rates seems pretty much negligible, but I've never had a guest try and pay with Canadian bills, or pay for their entire purchase with Canadian coins.

It's in the training book that border stores that do accept Canadian currency have a button to account for the exchange rate, and that change is provided in American currency only. I live in a border state and honestly hardly anyone even notices Canadian change (I even tell Canadian guests that I can accept their change, that's how little people around here actually care). What happened at my store is that someone somehow accepted a toonie. :/ Americans don't even HAVE a two dollar coin!!

Yeah, I live in Michigan, we get a lot of Canadian coins, I have just always accepted them as if they were American. The toonie however, yes, I wouldn't accept that or a loonie, but dimes, nickels, quarters, meh. Every Canadian quarter accepted shorts my drawer by about two cents, I can't imagine anyone caring if a drawer is two cents shy of what is expected to be in it.

Considering they don't even count the change in the drawers, they would never know the difference.

 

[Retail Girl]

i want to let everyone know that I recently spoke with an individual in an investigations role who informed me that the director of AP decided not to implement most of the originally discussed proposals this year.
there will be no major changes to store AP structure this year.
the latest copy of 2014 AP resource allocation still keeps the TPS and APS roles for all stores (except APTL/APL stores).

i think it's still important to know that these types of changes are being discussed, but i apologize if i caused any unneeded panic.
things that are happening for sure:
-all APTL stores will lose their TPS hours and combine APTL/APL into a single role.
(it goes without saying that the 20 or so stores in the company with an ETL-AP and APTL are not a part of this)
-there will be a general reduction of AP hours across the company.
-a cross-training program for part-time TPS is being discussed as a way for PT TPS to get more hours.
(this program would come later in 2014 if implemented)

This absolutely kills me that we will be losing our tps. Blah.