Today Is Order Day

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Corporate sends out lists that tell how long it takes JUST TO ORDER each department.   The time they give for my department is over six hours.

That's not counting the time I get there until the time I'm done because the first thing I do when I get there is put up ad signs.   And, as soon as the store opens, the first priority is customer service.  So if a customer shows the least sign of being unsure of being able to find something, then my FIRST priority is to TAKE THE CUSTOMER TO THE PRODUCT.  That happens quite frequently because the cashiers tend to give the customers the idea that everything they ask for is "in the corner".   The "corner" they mean-- I guess-- is a broad designation of the back right hand side of the store (instead of the back left hand or the front left or the front right).  But customers take that quite literally and go straight to the corner.   When they get there and the product is not there, they are already frustrated by the time they make their way back to me.   So, that means I do a lot of walking to products...

If you shop our stores, you already know that someone has deemed it acceptable--perhaps even preferable-- that nothing is identified above where it is located.  There are no signs to show anyone where anything is.  If they can't find it by wandering around--or because they have shopped us before-- then they HAVE TO ASK.  And the very nature of our day is that people are in a hurry.  Many of our customers have not come into our store to leisurely walk around and see what all is available.  They have certain things in mind and they want to find them as quickly as possible and get on with the rest of their lives.

So, I take them to what they want much of the time.   That takes away from order time.

Being called to the front to cashier, or for ANY reason as far as that goes, takes away from order time.

I go in at 8:30 today.   The new co wants the order books turned in by 12.   She thinks that shouldn't be a problem because I worked on Saturday and had time to work on my order then.

That's a fallacy.   On Saturdays our store is overrun with families of shoppers.  Dads, moms, and ALL the kids and groups of teens all of who(m) have projects they need to do for school.   Often dads are not patient people when it comes to looking around our store.  They want to get what the kid needs and get out.

Also on Saturdays we have lone males who have some kind of personal project they are working on and this is their only day to round up the components they need to make their project work.   They aren't always looking for specific stuff because they may not know exactly what it is they need that will make their project work.   I spend a lot of time with men trying to help them figure out what we might have that will fill the need they are trying to fill.  It's brain work really.   In my mind, I run up and down every aisle "looking" at every item and trying to decide:  would this work, could it be adapted to this need, could it be coupled with something else and make this idea work?   It's a challenge and it takes time.   We'll often go from one department to another trying to find just what might be useful.

So Saturdays are a write off when it comes to ordering.

I worked on Friday and I could have done some of my order then but I had a whole lot of other stuff to catch up on and-- not imagining that I'd be scheduled to come in at 1 on Monday-- I did that.   I happened to see the schedule lying on the manager's desk-- not yet posted by the time we left on Friday-- and noticed that.   I expressed my disbelief.    Someone else, who had her order done, was scheduled to come in at 8:30 but wanted to come in at 1, so she swapped with me.

We're getting busier and busier as the holidays approach.  That busyness translates into taking more time to help customers, but it also translates into trashed departments.   Customers are like a small hurricane coming through.  They leave destruction in their wake.  It's amazing how many times I have to go back and clean up one aisle in a day.  I can walk through my department from one in to the other.  As soon as I get done, I could go back and start all over again and have the same work to do.  (I always say that working there is like picking up after a hundred kids every day, but when it gets closer to the holidays, it's more like .... well, more than a hundred.)

SUDDENLY IT DAWNS ON ME that I can't leave at  8:20 and get to work by  8:30!!!   What am I doing here?  I'm so used to either having to be there at 8 and leaving at  7:20 or at 9 and leaving by 8:20, that I just went into "automatic" on my leaving time assumption.