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

[Sushi2Go]

Has anyone set makeup revolution transition on feature table yet? I don't know what the endcap is suppose to look like. It asks for shelves but no cubby or any other fixture. Shipper on all shelves?

Also none of our NYX ism box came with the ISM strips which sucks when putting dividers.

Why does ISM in cosmetics have to suck every year! 😩

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Some good news: I reset Men's Deodorant today and the label strips actually line up with how the product fits, for the most part. One shelf is a little off, but not too bad. And I didn't have time to take any of the new Papatui anti-pers/deo from the end cap and put it in the new home location, but that looks to be a little off too. Still, it's a big improvement over last time.
Hoping this continues through the rest of Personal Care transitions.

 

[allnew2]

Hey guys,

So my etl wants me to move the signing area that’s on the bulk steel into the fixture room. My fixture room is a long narrow hallway, not as long as some stores. For the stores that already have signing area in the fixture room, can you guys share tips or pictures of what you did?

 

[Alexbegt]

Some good news: I reset Men's Deodorant today and the label strips actually line up with how the product fits, for the most part. One shelf is a little off, but not too bad. And I didn't have time to take any of the new Papatui anti-pers/deo from the end cap and put it in the new home location, but that looks to be a little off too. Still, it's a big improvement over last time.
Hoping this continues through the rest of Personal Care transitions.

Lucky! My store wants us to set and fill mini before we can even start personal care. I’m hoping we get lucky with that and that the strips work for store with pushes since that aisle is always a nightmare

 

[BKop16]

Double check your pets adjacency. Some stores (maybe 10 or 15%) are getting space moves - some stores have large changes.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Lucky! My store wants us to set and fill mini before we can even start personal care. I’m hoping we get lucky with that and that the strips work for store with pushes since that aisle is always a nightmare

Because the DBO model worked so well for my store, more of us do sets than probably at most stores. When DBO was still active, not everyone was particularly good at setting and not everyone liked it. But those of us who are good at it and like doing it are still utilized for it. I probably won't be able to do all the POGs in Personal Care, but I'm trying to do the tricky ones and the ones that are difficult to tweak.
That said, even though Women's Body Wash doesn't fit in either of those categories, it'd be great to get that one done - already have a lot of it in and tomorrow's truck is about half again what I usually get, so it'd be nice to have just be able to fill the shelves directly from the truck.

 

[Alexbegt]

Because the DBO model worked so well for my store, more of us do sets than probably at most stores. When DBO was still active, not everyone was particularly good at setting and not everyone liked it. But those of us who are good at it and like doing it are still utilized for it. I probably won't be able to do all the POGs in Personal Care, but I'm trying to do the tricky ones and the ones that are difficult to tweak.
That said, even though Women's Body Wash doesn't fit in either of those categories, it'd be great to get that one done - already have a lot of it in and tomorrow's truck is about half again what I usually get, so it'd be nice to have just be able to fill the shelves directly from the truck.

We fully set mini in a night (Friday night -> Saturday morning) and last night we pushed whatever came off the truck.

We plan on starting Personal Care Tuesday night and hoping that the ISM will be delivered by the time we start since going back to put up backer paper for aisles with pegs is a lot of double work

 

[MrT]

Hey guys,

So my etl wants me to move the signing area that’s on the bulk steel into the fixture room. My fixture room is a long narrow hallway, not as long as some stores. For the stores that already have signing area in the fixture room, can you guys share tips or pictures of what you did?

I mean without see how it looks it can't help too much biggest thing is making sure signing doesn't get backed up and is done on time. This should of been done years ago. Just need to set up an area to put the smaller signing away neatly I did it on top of shelves on wall with tilted shelves and fencing and we had an area that worked well for having larger pieces standing up, and a spot up in the steel (inside the fixture room) for larger transitions

 

[SigningLady]

I mean without see how it looks it can't help too much biggest thing is making sure signing doesn't get backed up and is done on time. This should of been done years ago. Just need to set up an area to put the smaller signing away neatly I did it on top of shelves on wall with tilted shelves and fencing and we had an area that worked well for having larger pieces standing up, and a spot up in the steel (inside the fixture room) for larger transitions

You have steel IN your fixture room. Lucky! I only have light duty shelves in mine. I argued to everyone about the ISM going into the fixture room years ago but no one would listen to me that it wasn't a good idea. So now, I have to make do with the bottom half of one section of light duty for larger boxes and downswept shelves on the shelf wall for smaller ones. It's a PITA.

 

[BKop16]

These set weeks are crippling our store. Too many massive sets.

 

[Puckpsyd]

These set weeks are crippling our store. Too many massive sets.

no joke

 

[MrT]

You have steel IN your fixture room. Lucky! I only have light duty shelves in mine. I argued to everyone about the ISM going into the fixture room years ago but no one would listen to me that it wasn't a good idea. So now, I have to make do with the bottom half of one section of light duty for larger boxes and downswept shelves on the shelf wall for smaller ones. It's a PITA.

Yeah it's a pain to get the stacker in there to make use of the pallets but it is nice we have the light duty shelving underneath it. I don't work in that store anymore unfortunately and this new store is a disaster when it comes to signing

 

[Dead and Khaki]

no joke

These set weeks are crippling our store. Too many massive sets.

No joke indeed. And it's not just the workloads, but the severity of micromanagement, harranguement, harrassment, and bullying presentation team in very particular has gotten from the higher-ups in the past few months, much more than I can ever remember, particularly concerning holiday-related sets.

"Because you have to" is not even a grammatically correct answer to "How?" and yet it is the only response I'm told we get.

Did someone's love affair with a presentation TL or TM go bad or something?

I'm just a regular TM, and I am not exaggerating when I say I'm close to mental health crisis and work is getting me there in a big, big hurry. My "coping methods" have gotten me hospitalized before, so when I say it's bad, you'd best believe it, best beloved.

(Edit: I know how to spell "affair.")

 

[SigningLady]

What makes big set weeks even tougher -at least in style right now- is when they send a ton of new stuff for NIT/Kids/Mens for the current sets but then also all the new merch for the IHS transition which is still 2 weeks out. We can't process that much all at once, especially while sitting on so much clearance.

I feel GM transition flow is a bit more controlled without merch arriving too early.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

I've been under the impression the updated PPA system, "virtual validation visits", and other forms of presentation accountability were meant to drive home to leadership that presentation is a legitimate, serious, full-time workcenter, that leaders are to get out of the way of us doing our jobs properly and thoroughly, that we are not to be pressured to half-ass resets so we can be sent to bail out other workcenters or do someone's pet projects du jour around the salesfloor. Instead, at least in my store, I feel like these measures are being flaunted like threats and punishments to our team. Is this happening in other stores? Do the people in corporate who set up these measures not know which direction shit rolls?

 

[BKop16]

I feel GM transition flow is a bit more controlled without merch arriving too early.

I agree that GM flow has gotten better the last year or two. What got us low volume stores is that we couldn't get ahead of skin care/sporting goods in Jan Wk 5 due to end of year payroll restrictions. Now it's cascading.

 

[SigningLady]

I agree that GM flow has gotten better the last year or two. What got us low volume stores is that we couldn't get ahead of skin care/sporting goods in Jan Wk 5 due to end of year payroll restrictions. Now it's cascading.

We've managed to stay ahead on sets. But we've burned being green on price change the last couple weeks. It's killing us in Style.

 

[happygoth]

We've managed to stay ahead on sets. But we've burned being green on price change the last couple weeks. It's killing us in Style.

There's so much Style clearance. And it's not being organized and signed properly. I've been in retail a long-ass time, and I can tell you that the key to selling through softlines clearance is to consolidate it and sign it. Leaving clearance mixed in with regular items is not helpful. Customers gravitate towards those clearance signs.

Ideally it should be sized and maintained as well. Now I know I'm asking for too much lol. But proper merchandising would make a huge difference in clearance sell-through.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

Has anyone set makeup revolution transition on feature table yet? I don't know what the endcap is suppose to look like. It asks for shelves but no cubby or any other fixture. Shipper on all shelves?

Also none of our NYX ism box came with the ISM strips which sucks when putting dividers.

Why does ISM in cosmetics have to suck every year! 😩

We didn't get any NYX inline signing, either. I vaguely remember seeing a note some weeks ago that may or may not have mentioned cosmo signing delays, but I can't find it ATM. If it were my call, I'd be all about neither tying nor attempting to set that POG in earnest until the signing arrives, but simply moving the cubbies as-is to the other side of the table so we can at least set MUR (those two POGs switch sides of the table for us). No point making stitches we'll have to unpick later just to cook the metrics for this week...

 

[SigningLady]

There's so much Style clearance. And it's not being organized and signed properly. I've been in retail a long-ass time, and I can tell you that the key to selling through softlines clearance is to consolidate it and sign it. Leaving clearance mixed in with regular items is not helpful. Customers gravitate towards those clearance signs.

Ideally it should be sized and maintained as well. Now I know I'm asking for too much lol. But proper merchandising would make a huge difference in clearance sell-through.

Agreed! We've been able to keep it grouped together & signed, some in the home depts, most in the clearance section. And mostly organized by type of clothing. Definitely NOT sized though, that's just too much to handle right now.

The salvage this week is helping quite a bit, though I would love if more RTW was going. I have to move half of our swim area because of Maternity exiting. But have to wait until clearance sells down/goes away.

 

[happygoth]

Agreed! We've been able to keep it grouped together & signed, some in the home depts, most in the clearance section. And mostly organized by type of clothing. Definitely NOT sized though, that's just too much to handle right now.

The salvage this week is helping quite a bit, though I would love if more RTW was going. I have to move half of our swim area because of Maternity exiting. But have to wait until clearance sells down/goes away.

Salvage definitely helped loosen things up!

 

[Sushi2Go]

We didn't get any NYX inline signing, either. I vaguely remember seeing a note some weeks ago that may or may not have mentioned cosmo signing delays, but I can't find it ATM. If it were my call, I'd be all about neither tying nor attempting to set that POG in earnest until the signing arrives, but simply moving the cubbies as-is to the other side of the table so we can at least set MUR (those two POGs switch sides of the table for us). No point making stitches we'll have to unpick later just to cook the metrics for this week...

We were able swap the set for both Makeup rev and NYX. It's not as terrible to set as it looks. The only problem with delaying the set is once cosmetics is over we won't be going those hours back or have the time to go back with all the upcoming transition happening.

I think we set it pretty close to POG without the signing.

 

[NXT]

We didn't get any NYX inline signing, either. I vaguely remember seeing a note some weeks ago that may or may not have mentioned cosmo signing delays, but I can't find it ATM. If it were my call, I'd be all about neither tying nor attempting to set that POG in earnest until the signing arrives, but simply moving the cubbies as-is to the other side of the table so we can at least set MUR (those two POGs switch sides of the table for us). No point making stitches we'll have to unpick later just to cook the metrics for this week...

A vendor will be bringing it in to put up, happened in my store

 

[Dead and Khaki]

While we're talking beauty fixtures: does anyone know what the shorter-in-depth-than-standard tray inserts are supposed to be used for? They come in boxes of about 9 each. We got a bunch of 10-acrosses of those about a year ago, nobody could figure out what POG they were for, so they've just been languishing on our cosmo fixture pallets all this time, and I think we may have gotten some more for this set?

 

[Dead and Khaki]

A vendor will be bringing it in to put up, happened in my store

Uh-oh. Hopefully the person knows what they're doing, because that POG is NOT idiot-friendly.