I really hope that Lana and Ron can stay around. Doubt Ron is going to given how he already has a job starting in February, but Lana is awesome enough to be another character that we’d like to see a lot of.
ESPECIALLY with a potential storyline between her and Courtney having potentially hilarious results.
They are rather easily overlooked, or assumed to be decorative, which is probably a good thing, or else customers would leave garbage and unwanted merchandise in them.
Love Ron’s enthusiasm over the “secret compartment”!
They won’t tell the seasonal temps where everything is. I’m a seasonal temp at my store and I have no idea where to find things…and I’ve been there since just before Black Friday, almost 2 months.
Please, please, please don’t take this as a knock specifically against you Donna, but with some seasonal people, that could be a deterant to “Employee Shrink” or an employee “stashing” something so it’s there if or when they have the funds or time to buy it.
Oh, boy, is that true. I’ve found things stashed in weird places, and it’s obvious because of the organized, neat way the merchandise was stashed. Since I don’t know who or how long, I put the merchandise back on the floor. Also with seasonal people, they don’t get the full scoop because they probably don’t need it. If a seasonal wants or needs something, they’ll ask. I was hired as a seasonal and then was asked to stay on. Over a year later I still get surprised by a new twist.
Oh, no! How old are those SKUs now?!? They should have been out with “Clearance” prices on them by now, if the pre-holiday hires don’t know about them.
It never amazes me to find tons of stuff under shelves, on top of tall steel racks, behind/inside displays, inside long-forgotten locked closets and cages, oh and hiding in ceiling tiles.
Yep. One of my co-workers counting the sporting goods counter spend hours with a department manager finding all of the items a lazy associate had tossed in random spots. Including the ceiling.
I just have to ask: how is climbing on top of the counters and into the dropped-ceiling EASIER THAN JUST PUTTING IT AWAY?!
Yea Ron is still here for now. To whoever told me he was gone a few comments ago. Proof right here that he is here still. Anyway I like how Lana and Ron are mystified at the fact that there are overstock drawers. Those would come in handy.
Back when I worked inventory, I had a co-worker who would carry around a stack of store labels with him that he’d written “DNI” on. If he found one of those drawers, he slapped one on, and kept moving.
I don’t work retail, but I wouldn’t tell new hires everything anyway – information overload. Teach them what they need to know to survive. And then when they got that down, then you can add to it.
I know a man that worked for a company that was hired to clean out a store that had gone out of business. All the products were gone and only a few empty shelves and racks remained. They were told to gut the store because the buyer was going to re-do the whole store. They were told that they could keep anything they found. They found clothes, CD, tools and a little bit of everything hidden all over the place. They ended up splitting 3 pick-up truck loads of goods they guessed was when new cost every bit $10,000. Some of it was new and some was 5 or 10 years old. He said some much was hidden in the ceiling that it is a wonder it did not fall in.
So *that’s* why we have open ceilings! I thought it was because of the heating/cooling system or something. But now I find out it’s like that so no one can hide stuff up there!
An open ceiling should theoretically be more expensive for store operations unless there is a bunch of insulation between the metal ceilings and the actual roof. Between large (and poorly sealed) front windows and open ceilings in our current location, it gets hotter/colder than it should be in the store during the appropriate seasons. Keeping associates from hiding stuff in the drop ceiling though would make sense.
I work in a shoe store and up until I took over as manager I had the LAZIEST manager in the world. She had the bad habit of putting boxes into topstock that didn’t have both shoes in them (like where one shoe in on display) because she couldn’t be bothered to move the other shoes around and put one in topstock that had both shoes.
The real kicker is that sometimes there would be another set of the same exact shoe and yet she would put the one in topstock that only had one shoe, effectively causing the rest of us WAY more work.
I work for a bookstore that sells stuffed animals in the kids department. There is also a roof over one of the displays. Before inventory we have to check the roof for plush that has been thrown up there.
We also had a customer who was stashing things in the ceiling above our handicapped stall in the men’s restroom.
Gotta love Ron’s enthusiasm on those drawers.
I really hope that Lana and Ron can stay around. Doubt Ron is going to given how he already has a job starting in February, but Lana is awesome enough to be another character that we’d like to see a lot of.
ESPECIALLY with a potential storyline between her and Courtney having potentially hilarious results.
Seconded. I really like Ron, and Lana’s got a lot of potential too.
I’m surprised they didn’t know about these drawers already, considering how long they’ve been around.
They are rather easily overlooked, or assumed to be decorative, which is probably a good thing, or else customers would leave garbage and unwanted merchandise in them.
Love Ron’s enthusiasm over the “secret compartment”!
Heck, I’ve been at my store over a year and just yesterday found a whole drawer full of secret cleaning supplies I didn’t know we had!
They won’t tell the seasonal temps where everything is. I’m a seasonal temp at my store and I have no idea where to find things…and I’ve been there since just before Black Friday, almost 2 months.
Please, please, please don’t take this as a knock specifically against you Donna, but with some seasonal people, that could be a deterant to “Employee Shrink” or an employee “stashing” something so it’s there if or when they have the funds or time to buy it.
Oh, boy, is that true. I’ve found things stashed in weird places, and it’s obvious because of the organized, neat way the merchandise was stashed. Since I don’t know who or how long, I put the merchandise back on the floor. Also with seasonal people, they don’t get the full scoop because they probably don’t need it. If a seasonal wants or needs something, they’ll ask. I was hired as a seasonal and then was asked to stay on. Over a year later I still get surprised by a new twist.
Oh, no! How old are those SKUs now?!? They should have been out with “Clearance” prices on them by now, if the pre-holiday hires don’t know about them.
Pfft. Actual understock drawers are for noobs.
It never amazes me to find tons of stuff under shelves, on top of tall steel racks, behind/inside displays, inside long-forgotten locked closets and cages, oh and hiding in ceiling tiles.
Yep. One of my co-workers counting the sporting goods counter spend hours with a department manager finding all of the items a lazy associate had tossed in random spots. Including the ceiling.
I just have to ask: how is climbing on top of the counters and into the dropped-ceiling EASIER THAN JUST PUTTING IT AWAY?!
-former inventory zombie
Holy crap, really? o_o
Because to just throw it somewhere is easier then putting it exactly where it’s suppose to go.
Even when “exactly where it’s supposed to go” is one shelf away.
Yes, I’ve found items tossed back haphazardly one spot away from where they were picked up. Really, people? You’re THAT lazy?
That’s the customers’ job. Why put a rug back when they’ve lugged it half-way across the store already? The apparel rack is closer.
Yea Ron is still here for now. To whoever told me he was gone a few comments ago. Proof right here that he is here still. Anyway I like how Lana and Ron are mystified at the fact that there are overstock drawers. Those would come in handy.
Oh, now we’ve got to start counting all over again!!
That sounds familiar…………
Phoo, where I worked didn’t even teach permanent hires where things were kept. I guess they assumed we would learn these things on our own.
Perhaps it’s someone’s idea of a test for initiative?
Back when I worked inventory, I had a co-worker who would carry around a stack of store labels with him that he’d written “DNI” on. If he found one of those drawers, he slapped one on, and kept moving.
I don’t work retail, but I wouldn’t tell new hires everything anyway – information overload. Teach them what they need to know to survive. And then when they got that down, then you can add to it.
I know a man that worked for a company that was hired to clean out a store that had gone out of business. All the products were gone and only a few empty shelves and racks remained. They were told to gut the store because the buyer was going to re-do the whole store. They were told that they could keep anything they found. They found clothes, CD, tools and a little bit of everything hidden all over the place. They ended up splitting 3 pick-up truck loads of goods they guessed was when new cost every bit $10,000. Some of it was new and some was 5 or 10 years old. He said some much was hidden in the ceiling that it is a wonder it did not fall in.
So *that’s* why we have open ceilings! I thought it was because of the heating/cooling system or something. But now I find out it’s like that so no one can hide stuff up there!
You learn something new every day.
An open ceiling should theoretically be more expensive for store operations unless there is a bunch of insulation between the metal ceilings and the actual roof. Between large (and poorly sealed) front windows and open ceilings in our current location, it gets hotter/colder than it should be in the store during the appropriate seasons. Keeping associates from hiding stuff in the drop ceiling though would make sense.
I work in a shoe store and up until I took over as manager I had the LAZIEST manager in the world. She had the bad habit of putting boxes into topstock that didn’t have both shoes in them (like where one shoe in on display) because she couldn’t be bothered to move the other shoes around and put one in topstock that had both shoes.
The real kicker is that sometimes there would be another set of the same exact shoe and yet she would put the one in topstock that only had one shoe, effectively causing the rest of us WAY more work.
I work for a bookstore that sells stuffed animals in the kids department. There is also a roof over one of the displays. Before inventory we have to check the roof for plush that has been thrown up there.
We also had a customer who was stashing things in the ceiling above our handicapped stall in the men’s restroom.
Why? Was he planing on coming back later to get them or what?