The Woolworths Thread (9 Viewers)

[ayehann]

haha yess ! i switched from ppt to casual this year.. so much easier... now i only go like whenever i want to.. expect from now>< halfyearlies ATM

 

[greekgun]

whilst i understand this notion that getting called up to the front distracts from your "work". your main "work/job" is to serve customers, like it or not you work in retail. without the frontend your job wouldnt even exist.

i dont like calling express alerts either, but i'll do it in a second instead of being abused by the store manager for having lines that are too long. Front end always helps out groceries, so in the end it probably evens out.

so if you dont like it, complain to the store manager about short staff, not the supervisor, just remember that if you guys dont come up, and that impacts on customer service, then sales go down and so do wage bugets - then we're all out of a job

this

 

[grobsh]

whilst i understand this notion that getting called up to the front distracts from your "work". your main "work/job" is to serve customers, like it or not you work in retail. without the frontend your job wouldnt even exist.

i dont like calling express alerts either, but i'll do it in a second instead of being abused by the store manager for having lines that are too long. Front end always helps out groceries, so in the end it probably evens out.

so if you dont like it, complain to the store manager about short staff, not the supervisor, just remember that if you guys dont come up, and that impacts on customer service, then sales go down and so do wage bugets - then we're all out of a job

I think this is a very one sided view of this. While i realise a service manager can only plan from what he/she is given sales wise from other dept managers, its all too easy to get a quick bail-out by calling other departments staff to the rescue. I guess what im trying to say is it almost makes it convienient for a CSM to short plan certain busy periods of the day to save on hours and still achieve his/her bonus.

Cashiers helping out trading departments by doing loose etc really doesnt do much in the scheme of things, most of the time it causes bigger problems down the track, with idiot operators not having any clue what they're doing.

 

[lordtopcat]

I don't remember a single staff member ever helping me out in produce. I would constantly ask for assistance especially on Saturday when our load was bigger, but I never received any. So I don't see why I should help them.

without the frontend your job wouldnt even exist.

Sorry, that is complete crap. Without US putting our product on the SHELF to be purchased, front end wouldn't exist. If we are called up to express then they are dragging us away from putting products on the shelf which the customer buys. So if anything, by them calling US up to express they are loosing us sales.

 

[ayehann]

Without US putting our product on the SHELF to be purchased, front end wouldn't exist. If we are called up to express then they are dragging us away from putting products on the shelf which the customer buys. So if anything, by them calling US up to express they are loosing us sales.

yeah i agree wit hthat but dont you think if there was no frontend staff then your jobs wouldnt have existed either.. i think it should go both ways... if fron end is really busy sure call people from other depts.. BUt also when its not cashiers should be also helping other departments when theyre not

 

[greekgun]

cmon guys stop the bickering. u do wat ur told to do because the people which tell u to do stuff signs ur pay check. so just shut up keep ur head down and do the work.

 

[ytrbut]

Avoiding checkout training like the plague is always a good tactic, if it's not too late.

 

[whatashotbyseve]

Avoiding checkout training like the plague is always a good tactic, if it's not too late.

Precisely.

 

[wixxy2348]

Avoiding checkout training like the plague is always a good tactic, if it's not too late.

too late.
hate hate hate hate hate.
I'm betting that when they find out I finish in bakery at 10 pm they'll ask me to stay and do close. I really hope it's dead tonight.

 

[Suic1de]

Yes all departments do have a budget to stick to but I think they could plan it a bit better.

Every close I work there are atleast 3/4 checkout operators doing basically nothing except chatting with each other for the last 2 hours. Obviously if this is happening then the staff aren't being rostered correctly.

If 3 of those staff are sent home an hour earlier then thats a 3 hour shift, 15 hours a week. Certainly they could work with these figures and roster on another staff member during the busy times.

As said earlier it is a easy and cheap way to get out of trouble. I know that these check out people do jobs for our department and others on certain occasions but it is nowhere near the same standard of work as a longlife/peri/produce could do.

They may come face for 10 minutes (missing items along the way) and then the registers will call them as a bail out to do some easy job putting items back on shelf. Then whenever a customer asks them something simple like where is the juice, they look back confused as ever.

Not to mention the number of times they piss around in the stock room, filling up an obviously full bale press or just failing on simple stock room things. No matter how many times you explain to push the cage from green they don't understand.

If we learn checkouts then they should atleast learn the basic concepts of longlife.

My 2c.

 

[Charizard]

who the fuck cares.

produce doesnt do anything anyway except cry all the time.

god forbid they have to use a checkout for 15 minutes in between masturbating on the apples.

 

[wixxy2348]

It does suck for bakery though... not sure about other stores, but for me when I work in bakery I'm generally the only staffmember on (I'll come in at say 3 pm when everyone else is leaving and work until 9pm or 10 pm).

Because I'm trained on registers they call me at literally every express alert, and (in spite of my protests that I'm the only staffmember, that I have to do all the RTC, freezer run, proprietry aisle and 5 billion other things in a relatively short space of time) the duty manager or supervisors insist that I work on registers until the queues subside.

Now sure, I end up just doing a shit job of the freezer run or the prop aisle, but that doesn't stop them handing me the blame the next day.

 

[greekgun]

Yes all departments do have a budget to stick to but I think they could plan it a bit better.

Every close I work there are atleast 3/4 checkout operators doing basically nothing except chatting with each other for the last 2 hours. Obviously if this is happening then the staff aren't being rostered correctly.

If 3 of those staff are sent home an hour earlier then thats a 3 hour shift, 15 hours a week. Certainly they could work with these figures and roster on another staff member during the busy times.

As said earlier it is a easy and cheap way to get out of trouble. I know that these check out people do jobs for our department and others on certain occasions but it is nowhere near the same standard of work as a longlife/peri/produce could do.

They may come face for 10 minutes (missing items along the way) and then the registers will call them as a bail out to do some easy job putting items back on shelf. Then whenever a customer asks them something simple like where is the juice, they look back confused as ever.

Not to mention the number of times they piss around in the stock room, filling up an obviously full bale press or just failing on simple stock room things. No matter how many times you explain to push the cage from green they don't understand.

If we learn checkouts then they should atleast learn the basic concepts of longlife.

My 2c.

Do u have any idea how hard it is for supervisors and managers alike to predecit how busy it will be let alone observe a trend on busy hours? The reason y they dont send them home and let them stand around is because it could get busy any second...which is sometimes y they have to call priority 1 or wateva woolies call it because the supermarket is experiencing an unexpected rush of customers. U cant have it both ways mate, too many staff on and u complain we stand around and do nothing, not enough and u complain when we need u guys to help.

 

[whatashotbyseve]

He is talking about towards the end of close, which is completely correct. My store is open until midnight on weekdays and from 10pm it is dead, save for a few regulars. From 10pm-midnight, we may have 10 customers total in the store at any one time. There is always a minimum of three people on checkouts until midnight, of which they divide their time reading magazines, occasionally returning loose stock and filling up the fridges, or just general chit chat. We have a security guard out the front so safety in numbers isn't an issue. Now, those 10-15 hours could be redirected into Sunday nights when we close at 8, when there are lines out into the aisles from around 4-8. You could hire 3 juniors to do a four hour shift in checkouts for the savings from one weekday, let alone five.

This whole 'managers cannot determine demand' is a myth as Woolworths knows damn well from years of data what are the busiest times for their stores and thus should be able to roster staff accordingly.

 

[Will Shakespear]

attention: Woolworths supermarket employees

TT just did another woolworths story
this time about a couple of cases of ppl buying stuff that turned out to be under-weight

so expect your regular "they're out to get me" type customers to be extra bitchy in the next few days

 

[Suic1de]

Just thought i'd add in that there is nothing wrong with the option to call up floor staff. The option just gets abused too much and usually by the time we serve 1/2 customers the lines have died down.

Most nights i've worked it's busy but nothing overwhelming and we still get called up. There are however freak nights where you sell say 40K in 1-2 hours. The freak nights should be the only time for a call up, and they don't happen very often.

Another story on underweight food? Didn't they do one last year? Of course us evil supermarkets are out to cheat you at of 1g of your favourite cookies.

 

[grobsh]

Do u have any idea how hard it is for supervisors and managers alike to predecit how busy it will be let alone observe a trend on busy hours? The reason y they dont send them home and let them stand around is because it could get busy any second...which is sometimes y they have to call priority 1 or wateva woolies call it because the supermarket is experiencing an unexpected rush of customers. U cant have it both ways mate, too many staff on and u complain we stand around and do nothing, not enough and u complain when we need u guys to help.

mate you obviously have no idea how your CSM works out his/her rosters, or the resources they have to help them.

one day when you're bored at work get your boss to log into office for you, and look up the sales breakdown by hour for any particular day. it'll show you exactly when the busy periods of the day are, and when it is quiet.

 

[townie]

a lot of the rostering for front end is pre-determined by a computer program that uses software to work out when to roster people on, and does so automatically, based on previous sales data, this may account for the 3 people towards close - the system is way outdated (unless your fortunate enough to be on workbrain). I also suspect it's a matter of safety in numbers when leaving the store late at night.

whilst i agree it's not impossible to work out when it will be busy or not, there can always be unexpected rushes and lulls - less of a problem in groceries when you know within a certain window when loads will arrive, and roughly how big they will be.

as for abusing the express alert system, i agree that may be a problem, fortunately but if thats the case you should be more specific in your criticism.

 

[mitch179]

who the fuck cares.

produce doesnt do anything anyway except cry all the time.

god forbid they have to use a checkout for 15 minutes in between masturbating on the apples.

So that's how they get the apples so shiny!

 

[Suic1de]

Take it to TT Charizard, they'll investigate it and show the findings.