Mad... I don't think that you should take this personally.  If you've done the best job that you can... what more can anyone ask ?

 

I took over my dept. a year ago... last years shrink was 58,000... this year it was close to 80,000... will it get better.. probably not.  I think that it will get worse.. my shrink is just horrible.  I am finding so many open packages of stuff.. and some of it is over 25.00.

 

I look at it this way... my dept. is mostly a luxury (cosmetics) dept.  You can do without.. so if you have a choice of buying a gal. of milk or putting gas in your car... but you need the makeup .. what would you do ?  Buy what is needed and steal the other.  I am not taking this personally at all.  I know that I am doing the best I can, making sure my price changes are done correctly, fixing on hands..thats all one can do.

 

Cheer up.. it isn't all that bad.

I ask myself that all the time.

 

Also consider stuff that we are supposedly sent but don't get. And if it isn't caught we can't file a claim so therefore we are getting charged for merchandise but not receiving it.

 

Last year after inventory on the variance reports it showed that they didn't count 45 coats. We never got them. So unless you have a list of what is supposedly on the truck every night printed off for you then you will never know.

 

A mod never fell for those coats, they never had a price change so how were we to know we didn't get them. I believe the total for them was a little over $2000.00 on what we shrunk out. Get a few missing shipments at those dollar amounts and it isn't long before your shrinking out alot in an area.

 

I believe Wal*Mart needs to go back to when it comes in off the truck it should be scanned by us so that it is putting it in our system. That way reports could then be compared as to wether or not we acutally got it. Time consuming yes but would help cut down on it. Such a shame the world we live in is so fast paced anymore that it's all about who can get it to the store and on the shelves faster. Ends up hurting you in the long run.

For years, the dept mgrs have been told that shrink in our depts is our responsibility.  Everything we do or don't do, is repeatedly used as evidence that we didn't do the best things, for combatting shrink.

Our MM told us not to worry about our shrink being bad, because almost every store is doing badly these days.  After 16 years of being told that my actions influence my shrink, it's hard to let go of that.

My co-mgr is considering giving me the option to do claims-type markdowns on the stuff I know I don't have.  I have been turning in numbers to Claims, for about a month, and when they did the markdowns, that fixed my onhands too.  Of course, the other 11 months, all I did was change my onhands.

I feel strongly that there is a huge gap between what the DC says they ship, and what we get.  I don't know if it's our assoc's, or the Mob, or who, but I know we are getting billed for lots of stuff we never get at the store.

The only thing that seems to make sense, is for everything on the trucks to be scanned in--just like the GM directs, and the grocery vendors who deliver to us; sometimes more than once a day.

You can print out a list of what is supposed to be on the truck, everyday.  Too bad sometimes not everything on the list is on the truck.  Oh, it will show up tomorrow.  Who has time to do their job, and keep up with whether or not we really get eveything?

 

Mad

...apparently we do!  Pre-notification report printed every morning/afternoon so that we have a head-up on what is supposed to be coming in.  That report is used to match the freight as we unload it from the pallets...not too bad when you have only one or two pallets of freight...but when you have four, five, six or more pallets...that is another story! Let's just say that in that scenario no one gets out on the floor until very late and by then the shelves look like crap, there are holes everywhere and stuff gets put anywhere just to get rid of it so you can finish checking the freight!  It's a catch-22...and, by the way...we haven't had any missing freight in our department...yet!!! LS

Yeah that is another thing that sucks. If the truck was too full then what you were supposed to get could be thrown on another and it come the next day.

In  my dept (Pets), it's normal for us to have 10 pallets or more each night.  Eighteen is not unusual.  By the time I come in, there's rarely more than a float of freight that hasn't been worked.  Since 3rd shift is only allowed so much time to work the freight, there's no way they could take the time to check what came on the truck.  And, since the unloaders are under so much pressure to get the trucks unloaded, I don't see them carefully checking off every item. 

In the past, I used to check my pre-notification report against what was on the floor/in the backroom.  On items that were valued at more than $200 (or whatever amount is the minimum amount that the DC will refund us for), I would turn in a claim to UPC.  The times that I did it, either the DC denied it, or the UPC assoc didn't get it processed in time.

 

Mad

I totally agree, mreighties.  You're not being negative, you're being realistic.  The possible saving grace, is that each case on the truck would only have to be scanned once, without opening the box.  (Although that assumes that the warehouse label is right, which we know it sometimes isn't)  However, we both know that the HO would rather skewer the stores for having too much shrink, than point the finger somewhere else.

 

Mad

No where did I say it would only be the 2 GM directs folks responsible for scanning it all in. But I do think you are being realistic. And like you said Mad they would rather put skewer the stores.

Yeah, I know you weren't saying that Directs would be scanning it in.  My point was that they won't assign anyone else to scan it in either; which proves that they don't want to know what doesn't make it to our stores.

I think there's a gap between the DC's and the stores.  I'm not saying the DC's are crooked, but somehow we're not getting everything we get billed for, and the DC's make it tough to get credit for it.  Then the stores are stuck holding the bag.

 

Mad

bump

 

Mad

CNBC did a "documentary" back in 2004 on W-M.  Although my opinion is that much information in that program was dated, one of the quotes from Lee Scott has stuck with me.  He said that in a company this large, even if 99.9% of the associates were doing their jobs correctly, the other .1% would still add up to quite a large number.  All I try to do is the best I know how, each and every day.  While I may make mistakes, my hope is that I am doing my part and earning my paycheck.  It sounds like many - if not all - in this group are trying to do the same.

Kinda sounds like Lee thinks that those of us who try to do a good job, don't count for much.  I will work to forget this attitude, so that it doesn't hurt MY work ethic. 

 

Mad