Any word on whether this change in inventory contractor is company wide or just in your district?

Hope yours turns out better than ours did.  Don't remember the magic number but do know that our SM has to go to "Shrink School"!!!  Also know that many pallets were missed (boggles the mind, doesn't it?)  In softlines they scanned first item in line and then counted items...now we all know that everything on a hook, shelf or in a box is not necessaruly the same UPC......so, that accounts for some of our "shrink"...THEY did not count right!  ...then there is the example our Shoe Lady gives...case of kids soccer slides (from last year)...IP label with correct barcode showed a count of 18.  Shoes had at least 10 cases of that same item..do the math...10 x 18 = 180..BUT...when the associate scanned a single item (remember they all were the same)..the onhands, per telxon, showed 1!!!  and they blame us and wonder why we did so poorly!  LS

My store used WIS last year. I assume we will be this year too. Inventory next week.

Of course, no mention was made as to whether this would be our new inventory service.  I didn't know that W*M contracted with the services by region, or any other way.  I'll ask a manager about it today.

 

Mad

we used the same company.... but I think they missed a lot in our store.  This year we inventoried prepped our own store without outside help.. so you KNOW that it was done correctly... even after inventory the counts were still wrong.  I have counts on items that I know that I  don't have...  I think the only way you can get an good inventory is one of two ways...

       1.  Let each dept. be responsible to count they own dept.

       2.  Close the store for the day and let the inventory company count.

 

Its very difficult to watch what the inventory group is doing when you are doing customer service. I know for a fact that they missed a lot in my dept.

I agree the store should close for inventory.

My store hasn't used outside help in about 7 years. Does make it nicer cause usually you get folks who don't care since it isn't their store. And you also get some who don't care and it is their store.

I would much rather inventory prep my own stuff so I know the counts I give are right.

The 2 different WalMarts I have worked for have used WIS.  Some regions use WIS, some use RGIS.  I am not sure how they determine what stores use what service.  My father has worked for both RGIS and WIS, he prefers RGIS.  I think both services have problems, it just depends on the people who work for the service. 

Welcome to the site, cavangriff1!

After doing my variance report, the only thing I wasn't happy with, was that a qty of 96 was put in for one piece of dog apparel--I only have 1.  I assumed that the person had counted a bunch of stuff under the one UPC.  However, today when I was putting dog apparel section back together, the onhands for everything seemed reasonable. 

So, whatev'.

 

Mad

 

Thanks Mad.  Our inventory won't be coming up until September or October I think.  They have not mentioned it yet.  Last year it was in October.  Our store opened in Jan 07.

My old store had it's first inventory, 5 days short of our one year anniversary.  We were told that if we did well, we could get a "shrink bonus"; which they don't do anymore.  (That was 1992.)

We knew it was unlikely that we'd meet the goal; which was .9 or less.  Still, It was exciting to think we might get one, and of course, we tried hard to do well.

About a week before inventory, we found out that only assoc's with a year or more service, would qualify for the bonus.  Only the mgmt team, and one assoc in the store would qualify.

We did 1.96.

 

 

Mad