Archived Fake Sales Floor Ties

[nicthay]

At my store we fake tie all of the stuff that cant be tied for the week to location Z1(0). Then on Sunday we untie them so it doesn't mess with the backroom by continually pulling for them when they aren't really set.

 

[ISM Master]

At my store we fake tie all of the stuff that cant be tied for the week to location Z1(0). Then on Sunday we untie them so it doesn't mess with the backroom by continually pulling for them when they aren't really set.

We do the same thing at our store. Tie it in on firday or saturday and break it on sunday.

 

[rugrat]

I'm not questioning anyones morality here. But I can think of at least 10 task related process functions that will require a team member to waste their time against 1 single benefit, to pad your transition set on time scoring metric. How exactly do you explain the difference to a new team member and expect them to take processes seriously. The benefit just does not overcome the potential problems fake tying causes, I don't think its unreasonable to say that.

 

[nicthay]

I personally feel that it is on the ETL's for this one. As a presentation team lead i would rather the truth be shown so they can fix the issues. My STL always takes hours from the plano team. every week from 20 - one time he took 80. Theres no way to get the workload done. the solution I am given is tie it in a finish the workload next week. Well that's great because next week you took 20 hours AND i am already starting out behind. Not to mention the hour+ of smart huddle we do every day. I have taken to printing out my workload hours and the amount of hours I am given. I also keep track of what we do each day. if smart huddle is 60 minutes and I have 6 team members including me working on it. I put that down. I don't want it to come back and kick me in the you know what.

 

[StaticSun]

Document, document, document!

 

[signing guy]

Best practice as in using logic. I do not condone this cheating DTK system as any kind of example to set for how you should run your store. You basically want credit for work your not doing. Would you condone this philosophy to all your workcenters? We sell things for a living guys, a green DTK does not generate sales, drive payroll and result in hours for you to do work with. Keep doing this and we are all going to be up against productivity metrics that cannot be achieved, because they weren't achieved in the first place.

Credit for work you aren't doing? What about credit for work that would be done, had the product been available?

We are in the business of selling products, and you can't set an endcap and just leave it empty all week or until the product flows in. It's credit for something you were capable of doing/tried to do. No reason to be penalized for circumstances out of your control.

 

[stupid rules]

Please list the 10 processes. I will then explain to you how you are exaggerating the impact of fake tying an ad rotation endcap for 24 hours.

 

[gstl2gs]

Well, yes it happens and it shoudn't have to be that way. ETLs love to stay GREEN on reports... working to resolve several phantom SP issues currently - flow and TMs doing push (truck and pulls) are over pushing in home Locs because the SP is tied but not set and the blocks look terrible... ad rotations are a pain - but I have them set up for ease of "setting" and breaking ASAP. Usually TIE 2 SPs to an E/C that may have an unfillable ad rot to keep it "full" and Green on a report...

 

[Backtohardlines]

My store has been "getting back to best practice" so we are using the adjacency to tie endcaps. But what we have done in the past if we had to do a fake tie, is tie it Saturday afternoon or evening, then break it first thing sunday to avoid the pulling product issue.

 

[rugrat]

Exaggerations? How about a list of those:
1.Backing out of pulls and using LOCU instead of m-deletes
2.Burning batches instead of resetting your accumulators
3.Sending in guest surveys for your store
4.Schedule edits to avoid time clock compliance issues
5.Testing call boxes all week to negate an over 60 second response
6.Suspending register transactions to stop your clock
7.Not found entering your entire sign takedown report on Saturday night
8.Acknowledging your truck hours after its been unloaded
9.Keying reviews,trainings and learning plans whether they are complete or not
10. Charging out excessive payroll to disaster recover when your freezers go down
All exagerations which do not happen to pad DTK Metrics. Now continue how this mentality does not effect how stores operate.

 

[redeye58]

We do the same thing at our store. Tie it in on firday or saturday and break it on sunday.

We used to call it the "make up to break up" maneuver. lol

 

[stupid rules]

Exaggerations? How about a list of those:
1.Backing out of pulls and using LOCU instead of m-deletes
2.Burning batches instead of resetting your accumulators
3.Sending in guest surveys for your store
4.Schedule edits to avoid time clock compliance issues
5.Testing call boxes all week to negate an over 60 second response
6.Suspending register transactions to stop your clock
7.Not found entering your entire sign takedown report on Saturday night
8.Acknowledging your truck hours after its been unloaded
9.Keying reviews,trainings and learning plans whether they are complete or not
10. Charging out excessive payroll to disaster recover when your freezers go down
All exagerations which do not happen to pad DTK Metrics. Now continue how this mentality does not effect how stores operate.

But I can think of at least 10 task related process functions that will require a team member to waste their time against 1 single benefit, to pad your transition set on time scoring metric.

So which of those are impacted by a fake tie for an ad rotation? Exactly. Now either back up your claim or stfu. You're trying to bring in several different things that have nothing to do with your original statement.

 

[rugrat]

All I'm trying to point out is that the easiest what for corporate to see there is an issue is to let it show up in the metrics. We shouln't have to come up with elaborate best practices of our own to mitigate being punished for a process flaw we as team members did not create. If enough store leave ad rotation endcaps untied for lack of product someone might realize that we need better support with product or remove the POG from the scoring metric. We are not allowing that to happen by doing fake ties or any of the other practices listed above.

 

[iluvtarget]

This is typical of ETLS. Most are totally ignorant. The flow team and backroom at this store must stay pissed. When the product does come in off the truck it will be sent out to the floor to fill the "empty" endcap and then it will be challenged when they attempt to backstock it. Fire all ETLS.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Look around! End caps & aisles! There a few flow folks who figured out! I love them!

 

[Barcode]

Exaggerations? How about a list of those:
1.Backing out of pulls and using LOCU instead of m-deletes
2.Burning batches instead of resetting your accumulators
3.Sending in guest surveys for your store
4.Schedule edits to avoid time clock compliance issues
5.Testing call boxes all week to negate an over 60 second response
6.Suspending register transactions to stop your clock
7.Not found entering your entire sign takedown report on Saturday night
8.Acknowledging your truck hours after its been unloaded
9.Keying reviews,trainings and learning plans whether they are complete or not
10. Charging out excessive payroll to disaster recover when your freezers go down
All exagerations which do not happen to pad DTK Metrics. Now continue how this mentality does not effect how stores operate.

I wont lie, i do like to not found for ad takedown and just have a cart attendant take all the signs down 😉 lol

 

[ncc1701]

Yes, I undestand. So what difference does it make where they are tied? Surely if someone was to come in and check it, they would understand that too.

It makes a difference because: let say you have a cart of returns you are putting back on the shelf. You dont normally work in this area, so when putting up an item you scan it with the PDT to see what aisle its in. But when you go to that aisle its not there, because someone tied in sales planner to a "fake" location, so you just wasted your time going to the wrong aisle. If you feel you must tie in a POG that is not actually set, at least tie it to the home aisle where the item actually is, so team members will go to the right aisle when using the PDT to find the item.

 

[ncc1701]

If you are supposed to set a planner endcap but you dont have any merchandise to set it why doesn't the company create a "fake aisle" like Z2 or something and you could tie it to that location. . That way the company would know at least you TRIED to set the endcap, and since Z2 is a fake location the computer that does the pulls would not try to fill it.

You should have specific endcaps designated for your ad rotation endcaps. The company provides everything you need to make this simple and painless, if they are providing you with too many sales planners than endcaps then you should mysupport it and get them to delete the extras. I will use 139/439 as an example. Every 6 weeks you get 3 139s and every week you get 2 439s. Look at your adjacency to determine to correct spot for these endcaps. We will use A1-A5 as an example. Look at the designations/priorities/common sense to plan these (it varies by district, forget BP). EXAMPLE - Say A1 gets your 1st 139, A3 gets your 2nd 139, A2 gets your 3rd 139, A5 gets your 1st 439 and A4 gets your 2nd 439. Now every 6 weeks you already have your 3 139s planned, keep your designations/priorities the same and you will minimize having to change out shelves/pegs (the paper plates and napkins is a good example of this) and it makes it easier on the ad prep/set up. Every week you have your 2 439s planned. If you need to fake tie the ad rotation due to lack of product then you will be using the same location each week, which is the 'home' endcap for the ad rotations. Now if you are going to fake tie them to get credit then you only need to leave them tied for 24 hours and then you can break them. Do this when there will not be a truck the next day (make it easier on the flow team).

My STL says if we do not have the product to fake tie it because "it's not our fault the DC didn't send us the product". If I don't have the product by the end of the week I will fake tie it. If I have 2 clearance endcaps and that's keeping me from setting one of my sales planners then I will fake tie it. At HQ not all of the departments work together to plan transitions and sales planners with regards to endcap space for clearance, some of the smaller departments handle both transitions and sales planners, other departments have different teams planning it and of course they don't communicate with each other.

 

[ncc1701]

Why are you guys waiting to Friday or Saturday to set ad rotations anyway? They should be set Saturday night before the week they are do so they can be signed with ad setup. As far as not having product, do you mean zero product, or not enough for home location and endcap? Best Practice states that you should empty home location to fill ad rotation if necessary.

I think its stupid to empty the home to fill and endcap. The guest knows where the home is....if they want an item and the home is empty the will usually just assume we are out and they leave, they dont think "maybe its on and endcap 6 aisles down from here"

 

[mrknownothing]

I think its stupid to empty the home to fill and endcap. The guest knows where the home is....if they want an item and the home is empty the will usually just assume we are out and they leave, they dont think "maybe its on and endcap 6 aisles down from here"

Maybe the idea behind it is that an endcap on the racetrack will be more noticeable and influence greater sales of the item than what the store would normally get from having the product in its home location. Because of this, Spot would place a higher priority on the endcap. Unless the guest has the store memorized and shops strictly with tunnel vision, they would most likely see the endcap before they would reach the aisle where the item's home location is.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I think its stupid to empty the home to fill and endcap. The guest knows where the home is....if they want an item and the home is empty the will usually just assume we are out and they leave, they dont think "maybe its on and endcap 6 aisles down from here"

Maybe the idea behind it is that an endcap on the racetrack will be more noticeable and influence greater sales of the item than what the store would normally get from having the product in its home location. Because of this, Spot would place a higher priority on the endcap. Unless the guest has the store memorized and shops strictly with tunnel vision, they would most likely see the endcap before they would reach the aisle where the item's home location is.

it needs to happen. Because all teams may not see beyond the home location.

 

[StateofTarget]

If you are supposed to set a planner endcap but you dont have any merchandise to set it why doesn't the company create a "fake aisle" like Z2 or something and you could tie it to that location. . That way the company would know at least you TRIED to set the endcap, and since Z2 is a fake location the computer that does the pulls would not try to fill it.

We actually did tie things to a fake aisle at my store when I worked there. TMs were told to ignore it if they ever saw it come up anywhere.

As a TL, my main goal was to set endcaps with exclusive product first. (in other words, items that only existed on that endcap and no where else) so that the product would at least get a chance to sell and not go clearance in the backroom.

 

[Firewater]

Cheating is cheating. Everyone who wrote things about the accumulator and capacities are right on the money. The fact that this person was tying salesplanners on a Friday afternoon is telling. Why would you tie ad rotations at the end of a sale? I'm willing to bet the product was in the building as well.

The DTK allows you to not tie 5% of your total anyway, I think. You can still be green without cheating. There are stores that do it all the time. When your culture is based on cheating to look good on the DTK, at any cost, all of your systems are going to be screwed up.