Archived Fake Sales Floor Ties

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Last week, a new ETL-Hardlines asks me which endcaps are odd and which are even. She is standing at a back endcap in A, near the toothpaste. I tell her the even numbers are the back endcaps.

I am looking at the endcap wondering what she is tying to this endcap. It is clearly a clearance endcap because it is full of clearance items. So, I take the plunge and ask her. She says, "I am tying in the ad rotations because we don't have the product and we need it off the Transition Workload Tool." Okay, I can understand that.

Then, she asks me whether I think it is okay to tie just whatever there. For instance, since we are not actually setting anything, did I think it was okay to tie dog food here even though pet food is at the other end of the store. "Well," I said, "if you aren't actually setting them, I don't see why not."

She gets nervous and wants a second opinion and calls a senior TL. This person says not to do that cause it looks like we are just tying stuff in to get it off the TWT.

I look straight at her and say, "But that is what she's doing." She says if someone came in and looked at the ties, they would realize it and it doesn't look good. I said, "Then maybe we shouldn't be doing it at all." Well, it was Friday at 2:15 and I was off at 2:30, so I said whatever and left it at that.

Any opinions about what is best practice for this versus what actually happens? Thanks.
 
Yes, I undestand. So what difference does it make where they are tied? Surely if someone was to come in and check it, they would understand that too.
 
Sometimes there also just no products since they never arrived or blew out before the endcap had a chance to form. Tie them to their appropriate department and leave a note to break them down after Saturday or Sunday. Boom, done.
 
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We have a fake SF location where we tie things that we can't set for whatever reason.
 
Also, if something is tied there, the accumulator will try to fill it. It will be less annoying for the backroom and CAF pushes if the NOP location that comes up in the PDA is somewhere near the product. To be honest though, if we got a visit and the visitor challenged our ad rotation ties, I would be shocked. They usually try to think more "big picture".
 
Or the split endcap that grocery does sometimes where they tie two and jam both products on it because Spot keeps requiring us to set more endcaps than we actually have.
 
My store uses entire aisles for sales floor ties on occasion. The problem is, they forget to untie the previous POGs, so we keep having to send the items that are supposed to go into those aisles to backstock because my TLs don't like flexing unless the aisle is MPG.
 
You should have specific endcaps designated for your ad rotation endcaps. The company provides everything you need to make this simple and painless, if they are providing you with too many sales planners than endcaps then you should mysupport it and get them to delete the extras. I will use 139/439 as an example. Every 6 weeks you get 3 139s and every week you get 2 439s. Look at your adjacency to determine to correct spot for these endcaps. We will use A1-A5 as an example. Look at the designations/priorities/common sense to plan these (it varies by district, forget BP). EXAMPLE - Say A1 gets your 1st 139, A3 gets your 2nd 139, A2 gets your 3rd 139, A5 gets your 1st 439 and A4 gets your 2nd 439. Now every 6 weeks you already have your 3 139s planned, keep your designations/priorities the same and you will minimize having to change out shelves/pegs (the paper plates and napkins is a good example of this) and it makes it easier on the ad prep/set up. Every week you have your 2 439s planned. If you need to fake tie the ad rotation due to lack of product then you will be using the same location each week, which is the 'home' endcap for the ad rotations. Now if you are going to fake tie them to get credit then you only need to leave them tied for 24 hours and then you can break them. Do this when there will not be a truck the next day (make it easier on the flow team).

My STL says if we do not have the product to fake tie it because "it's not our fault the DC didn't send us the product". If I don't have the product by the end of the week I will fake tie it. If I have 2 clearance endcaps and that's keeping me from setting one of my sales planners then I will fake tie it. At HQ not all of the departments work together to plan transitions and sales planners with regards to endcap space for clearance, some of the smaller departments handle both transitions and sales planners, other departments have different teams planning it and of course they don't communicate with each other.
 
Too much product is pulled if the tie is there but the endcap isn't set, it adds to the capacity. Also, Instocks will be directed to that endcap to research for nothing. It's a bad idea, but it's done everyday.
 
Time spent looking to push product to an endcap that doesn't exist could be better spent somewhere else. I hate pushing a tub of crap around the store only to have to bring it back to have it backstocked. Again.
 
Best practice as in using logic. I do not condone this cheating DTK system as any kind of example to set for how you should run your store. You basically want credit for work your not doing. Would you condone this philosophy to all your workcenters? We sell things for a living guys, a green DTK does not generate sales, drive payroll and result in hours for you to do work with. Keep doing this and we are all going to be up against productivity metrics that cannot be achieved, because they weren't achieved in the first place.
 
Good response rugrat. I have often thought this myself. We were having a chat session once and I complained about manipulating backroom scores by backing out of pulls and locu'ing the location instead of just m-deleting the ghost. So, even though I see why we do these things to create green scores, it is just another manipulation of the scores. Are we there to provide a service to the guest and sell products - or - get green scores? Not that the two are always mutually exclusive, of course not. But I don't see how doing some of these things is just score manipulation.

Am I guilty of it? Yes. I have tied in revisions on Friday when they aren't done just to get them off the TWT. Then I do them the next week. Would I choose to do it that way? No. But if I don't, I have my TL and the STL telling me they are getting emails about why our score was low. I won't even get into the fact that they didn't schedule me enough hours to do the work in the first place.
 
Why are you guys waiting to Friday or Saturday to set ad rotations anyway? They should be set Saturday night before the week they are do so they can be signed with ad setup. As far as not having product, do you mean zero product, or not enough for home location and endcap? Best Practice states that you should empty home location to fill ad rotation if necessary.
 
Best practice as in using logic. I do not condone this cheating DTK system as any kind of example to set for how you should run your store. You basically want credit for work your not doing. Would you condone this philosophy to all your workcenters? We sell things for a living guys, a green DTK does not generate sales, drive payroll and result in hours for you to do work with. Keep doing this and we are all going to be up against productivity metrics that cannot be achieved, because they weren't achieved in the first place.

Thank You. I'm tired of people in this company thinking green=good and red=bad without even caring what those numbers mean. I will take a red with potential over a faked green any day.
 
We will sometimes pre-tie checklanes the night before we set them, but thats about it (Tie>Labels>Pog Fill).. We don't tie our endcaps to get a green transition score.
 
We can get into what's right and wrong if you like. We can discuss it on a personal or business level. We can discuss the pros and cons of cheating the system or the unrealistic expectations and goals given to us by the company. We can discuss strategies of pushing a 2500 piece truck with only 110 hours or how to complete a surprise workload of 3000 piece price change or 110 hours in revisions. Get off of your high horse, if an ad rotation endcap hasn't been set by Friday of the week it's on ad there is probably a reason (HINT - THERE IS NO PRODUCT). You can't set a damn endcap with 4 rolls of tissue or 2 microwaves. As far as credit for something were not doing? An ad rotation endcap takes 3 minutes to set and that's including standing there and looking good. You take your red with potential scores, I'll take my green scores.
 
Thank You. I'm tired of people in this company thinking green=good and red=bad without even caring what those numbers mean. I will take a red with potential over a faked green any day.

If you want to move through the ranks, Green means go. It's not my problem that the DC didn't send us product for the endcaps. Fake tie to T5(0), move on, and be green.
 
Best practice as in using logic. I do not condone this cheating DTK system as any kind of example to set for how you should run your store. You basically want credit for work your not doing. Would you condone this philosophy to all your workcenters? We sell things for a living guys, a green DTK does not generate sales, drive payroll and result in hours for you to do work with. Keep doing this and we are all going to be up against productivity metrics that cannot be achieved, because they weren't achieved in the first place.

Yeah...because we arent already up against expectations that cannot be achieved. And what store are you talking about where the motivation for green DTK scores is sales and payroll? The only personal gain any of us receive from doing this is a steady paycheck. I can guarantee you noone I work with is concerned with manipulating the system to avoid red squares on a report...but when you get dragged into a meeting with your STL weekly to answer for any scores that arent ghost green, you do what you have to do to keep your job. Not opposing your "moral stance" but this cheating comes from above not below so take your lecturing elsewhere.
 
I have to "fake tie" at least one SPL or Ad-Ro per week. 9 times out of 10 its because we dont have enough product for an Ad-ro endcap (usually pets). Really the only SPL's I ever have to fake tie are the ones that require vendor product from a vendor who is unreliable to keep it filled. And of course we all hit a wall when we have to have clearance endcaps.
 
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