MEGATHREAD Signing Tips, Tricks and Quips (along with howls of despair)

[oath2order]

Well it wasn't that bad

 

[signingminion]

I got one new fabric CSE for young contemporary.

For some fucking reason my store went overnight to do the Wild Fable. It's ETL-Softlines STYLE , a softlines TL, and the VM-Softlines. They fucking better do the signing.

I have nothing except a month long mysupport they can't answer...

 

[PackAndCry]

Anyone else have trouble with old signage sitting around in the backroom forever? They started using the steel above our SFS area to store signage, but nobody ever bothers to look for it there so it just sits around until long after the set it was for comes and goes. Yet, when it's pointed out, nobody wants to throw it away because nobody's ever confident that it isn't needed anymore. Very frustrating. And our signing TM refuses to touch any of it since it's not in the "correct" signing area.

 

[Walmart]

Anyone else have trouble with old signage sitting around in the backroom forever? They started using the steel above our SFS area to store signage, but nobody ever bothers to look for it there so it just sits around until long after the set it was for comes and goes. Yet, when it's pointed out, nobody wants to throw it away because nobody's ever confident that it isn't needed anymore. Very frustrating. And our signing TM refuses to touch any of it since it's not in the "correct" signing area.

your signing tm seems lazy. are we talking about pallet of signing that come off the truck?

 

[fx0007]

Sucks that our store can't use the lego archway signing because one of our lego aisles happens to have one of the toy focals. It would have to be angled between the two, and I doubt it would even reach across in that case.

 

[SigningLady]

Sucks that our store can't use the lego archway signing because one of our lego aisles happens to have one of the toy focals. It would have to be angled between the two, and I doubt it would even reach across in that case.

Hang it from the back of that aisle!

 

[SigningLady]

Anyone else have trouble with old signage sitting around in the backroom forever? They started using the steel above our SFS area to store signage, but nobody ever bothers to look for it there so it just sits around until long after the set it was for comes and goes. Yet, when it's pointed out, nobody wants to throw it away because nobody's ever confident that it isn't needed anymore. Very frustrating. And our signing TM refuses to touch any of it since it's not in the "correct" signing area.

I can't stand having my signing end up in places it doesn't belong. I'd be all over that. Definitely laziness. If I were you, I'd take a couple things off everyday, check the set date if it has one and if it's older than 2 weeks toss it out. Then play dumb if anyone asks where that signing went, lol.

 

[fx0007]

Hang it from the back of that aisle!

Can't because the focal makes the aisle start a few feet further back than the adjacent one so the sections dont match up. One aisle actually has a back endcap, and the other is just a solid endpeg.

 

[BackroomBear]

I can't stand having my signing end up in places it doesn't belong. I'd be all over that. Definitely laziness. If I were you, I'd take a couple things off everyday, check the set date if it has one and if it's older than 2 weeks toss it out. Then play dumb if anyone asks where that signing went, lol.

I try to maintain our bulk steel as best as possible and this includes prompting leaders to make decisions about junk in the steel. 6 pallets of wacos? Put in light duty. PMT junk? garabage. 8 pallets of remodel fixtures (3 months ago)?.....working on that one. We are so tight for space it's a constant battle to condense bulk. It's like our TMs have no idea how to keep bulk condensed and cleaned-up then bitch about the lack of space. Maybe if you striped pallets and put DPCIs together there would be space!!

Edit: I also prompted our former signing TM to throw away last seasons backer paper and we never looked back. We ran the compactor for an hour probably trying to get all the old signing trashed. I agree, if you haven't put it up in a few weeks it's likkely passed; and, if you haven't used it in the last year, you don't need it.

 

[unknown]

I'd kill for room in the steel again. Per the STL, i have to use the fixture room. It's always me versus the store. "Hey Unknown, I'm just going to leave my cart/tub/flat of unsorted fixtures here until I work again in three days." Me - "If you leave them there, I'm pitching them." It's a constant struggle. If one person leaves something in the middle of the fixture room, every subsequent person feels free to leave theirs too.

 

[Iknowstuff]

I'd kill for room in the steel again. Per the STL, i have to use the fixture room. It's always me versus the store. "Hey Unknown, I'm just going to leave my cart/tub/flat of unsorted fixtures here until I work again in three days." Me - "If you leave them there, I'm pitching them." It's a constant struggle. If one person leaves something in the middle of the fixture room, every subsequent person feels free to leave theirs too.

Are you me? This is my life.

 

[Walmart]

I'd kill for room in the steel again. Per the STL, i have to use the fixture room. It's always me versus the store. "Hey Unknown, I'm just going to leave my cart/tub/flat of unsorted fixtures here until I work again in three days." Me - "If you leave them there, I'm pitching them." It's a constant struggle. If one person leaves something in the middle of the fixture room, every subsequent person feels free to leave theirs too.

Same here. It's usually the softline team =|

 

[Walmart]

Can't because the focal makes the aisle start a few feet further back than the adjacent one so the sections dont match up. One aisle actually has a back endcap, and the other is just a solid endpeg.

Did you check recent toy adjacency to make sure Lego are set in right aisle? I know some aisles were switched around.

On another note, got New Day banner down. Those look awfully old and I'm glad its gone.

 

[unknown]

Same here. It's usually the softline team =|

Wow! That is so true. Then they have the nerve to complain their fixtures are a mess. "I can't find any 6 inch welded pegs." Well, your area is engulfed by unsorted fixtures your team left. Dig through them. "But it hurts my hands to dig through metal." Then I guess you're screwed.

 

[commiecorvus]

I'd kill for room in the steel again. Per the STL, i have to use the fixture room. It's always me versus the store. "Hey Unknown, I'm just going to leave my cart/tub/flat of unsorted fixtures here until I work again in three days." Me - "If you leave them there, I'm pitching them." It's a constant struggle. If one person leaves something in the middle of the fixture room, every subsequent person feels free to leave theirs too.

I would bring the tubs to huddles and ask who they belonged to.
Never too late to turn something into a teaching moment.
Of course I was accused of being mean but what can you do.

 

[unknown]

I would bring the tubs to huddles and ask who they belonged to.
Never too late to turn something into a teaching moment.
Of course I was accused of being mean but what can you do.

Oh, they leave notes too. "Murphy's tub. I will take care of next Tuesday pm." Could be the next morning or a week later. Meanwhile, 1)everyone else piles stuff on top and2) Murphy works that Tuesdayand still doesn't clean it up.

I'm sure people think I'm a huge bitch. But dammit, I clean it and I don't leave stuff out like that.

 

[oath2order]

Oh, they leave notes too. "Murphy's tub. I will take care of next Tuesday pm." Could be the next morning or a week later. Meanwhile, 1)everyone else piles stuff on top and2) Murphy works that Tuesdayand still doesn't clean it up.

I'm sure people think I'm a huge bitch. But dammit, I clean it and I don't leave stuff out like that.

I've slowly trained the softlines TLs and VMs to write notes that state the date that the day they're gonna work on the stuff. I have the STL on my side on minimizing clutter.

Constant vigilance.

 

[SigningLady]

Can't because the focal makes the aisle start a few feet further back than the adjacent one so the sections dont match up. One aisle actually has a back endcap, and the other is just a solid endpeg.

Ah, gotcha. Bummer.

 

[signingminion]

Anyone else have trouble with old signage sitting around in the backroom forever? They started using the steel above our SFS area to store signage, but nobody ever bothers to look for it there so it just sits around until long after the set it was for comes and goes. Yet, when it's pointed out, nobody wants to throw it away because nobody's ever confident that it isn't needed anymore. Very frustrating. And our signing TM refuses to touch any of it since it's not in the "correct" signing area.

After 3 months most is safe to pitch. Especially with the brand launches this year. Signing tm needs to get smacked, especially if they get 40hrs just signing... it's to audit behind, find crap, etc.

 

[unknown]

After 3 months most is safe to pitch. Especially with the brand launches this year. Signing tm needs to get smacked, especially if they get 40hrs just signing... it's to audit behind, find crap, etc.

40 hours to do signing? What does someone do with 40 hours in an average week just to do signing?

 

[IWishIKnew]

40 hours to do signing? What does someone do with 40 hours in an average week just to do signing?

That sounds about right for ad prep, takedown & setup at my store. Takedown is done by HL, so I don't think they charge the hours to signing, and prep should take less time as that has apparently been revamped (I'm scheduled to train on that in a couple weeks, I think) but ad setup takes 4 TMs most of the morning. And then there's updates & changes during the week, new brand sets, etc.

 

[oath2order]

40 hours to do signing? What does someone do with 40 hours in an average week just to do signing?

I mean I do salesplanners. I did half of the infant HL reset this week because I refuse to let anybody do the aisles that have a shitton of displays because I don't trust them to do it properly.

Also a *lot* of fixture room organization and general cleanliness around the store.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

I mean I do salesplanners. I did half of the infant HL reset this week because I refuse to let anybody do the aisles that have a shitton of displays because I don't trust them to do it properly.

Also a *lot* of fixture room organization and general cleanliness around the store.

Your Lucky, on Tuesday, I pulled 2/3rd's of Markets's batches, pushed them, then backstocked it. When the Market team actually came in they were appreciative. I then went on to Fifo, then push milk, after I knew what was needed (I also wrote notes at the sametime), on what produce was out, but we "might" have, BRA it not exactly friendly these days.

Oh ya, I also had to do all signing (+ building) of displays for not just toys, but Infants..

Oh ya, I also had to do the "non-pog signing" in market.

Oh, I forgot. I was Presentation for two out of my 5 days this week, which means set and forget displays or signing in my store.

...................

PS: Forgot to add I also lost a day of workload, to SFS, so more, 4 out of 5 days.

 

[SigningLady]

I mean I do salesplanners. I did half of the infant HL reset this week because I refuse to let anybody do the aisles that have a shitton of displays because I don't trust them to do it properly.

Also a *lot* of fixture room organization and general cleanliness around the store.

This sounds exactly like me, lol. I never let anybody do display-heavy pogs either. They always seem to mess up my simple system.

I tend to get a full 40 hours, but it is typically a mix between plano & signing. I don't follow that closely though, I just do what I need to do when I need to do it and if I finish that, I set planos and if those are done, I find something to clean/organize. This week I was hanging cse in hardlines that I've been ignoring for 4 years.

 

[commiecorvus]

40 hours to do signing? What does someone do with 40 hours in an average week just to do signing?

Back when I was doing signing I built all the displays, put them up, did the TV and vacuum cleaner walls maintained the fixture room (that is pretty much a 40 hour a week job right there), ran the ad signing team in the mornings on Sunday, and just about anything else people could think of.
I even got stuck helping to set up the odd features, like the ones in toys or food that we had to build because g-d forbid the TL figure the stupid thing out.