Archived GSAs, Share your Open/Closing Routines!

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EagleEye

EagleEye

Executive Team Leader
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Aug 19, 2013
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I feel like I struggle keeping a routine and it might be working against me, so share yours!
 
@AARCaptain I have found planning a routine on my way to work is a waste of time.. The minute I hit the floor, whatever I was planning to do gets changed. I would say, learn the basics, get done what you can and anything extra you start can't be a long project. You have to set your projects to about 20 min. To a half hour, because as guests come in, whatever project you start will fall apart.

I have gotten myself a little notebook. I write down what project I have going and try to get them done throughout my shift because on busy days, a 20 min project can last 2 hours. It has helped to keep me on track without lod or tl having me start something else. When they say they need something done, I take out my notebook and add it to the list. I also let them know what I have started and that those items need to get done first.
As far as closing, I have alarms set on my phone for countdowns..alarm to get my numbers ready, alarm to remind me when to start closing, alarm to remind me that if I didn't pay attention to that last alarm, I better hustle my butt or I will never get out on time.
 
Alright...now for my serious reply.

For opening we start at 7:30am. I fight my way for a computer and print out a break out. Then I figure out breaks and lunches. Then I go get the money from the cash office and bank the change fund and guest service drawers. If it's not yet 8am, I collect baskets and strays and hangers (probably take that to the back) because invariably the person closing the night before didn't bother with this. Then I spend the first hour or two at guest services until my guest service person gets in.

For closing: two hours before we close, I start shutting down the lanes and figure out how many start funds I need, which I call out to the LOD. One hour before close, I hope the LOD actually managed to get me my funds. Then I start shutting down the lanes. For each of the main lanes, I try to make sure each drawer has two rolls of each coin. For the peripheral regisers, I try to make sure they each have one roll...no matter how much is open in the well area. I am the only one who does this, so there are nights when I run out of coin and can't complete my goal. But it saves a LOT of running around for change the next day. After I get done with this, any extra time I have left goes to putting away baskets, collecting strays and dumping hangers.

Everything else that happens after opening or before closing is completely up in the air depending on how busy we are, how many call outs there are, and the current latest trend we are following (for example, right now we are to not move from the front end at all and are to monitor all of the cashiers to be sure they are pushing the REDcard down each and every guest's throat). Next week, it will be a different trend as they realize how much we did before they told us to stop doing it.
 
Retail Girl said:
Alright...now for my serious reply.
For each of the main lanes, I try to make sure each drawer has two rolls of each coin. For the peripheral regisers, I try to make sure they each have one roll...no matter how much is open in the well area. I am the only one who does this, so there are nights when I run out of coin and can't complete my goal. But it saves a LOT of running around for change the next day.
Click to expand...


Do you use the change fund for this, or evening advance?
 
Jill of All Trades said:
Do you use the change fund for this, or evening advance?
Click to expand...
It might be different for RG, but I use the change fund. What I normally do is grab coin rolls from the change fund drawers and put them in the locked drawer of big red. After closing the drawer, it'll say "do you need to any change?" or something...k1-yes, k3-no. I hit k1 and the drawer reopens and I'll add it in. That way the system knows to subtract those funds from the amount that should be leftover in the fund drawers in the CO the next morning.
 
I think you will get different answers depending on the volume of store one is in. We have 28 checklanes (25 of which are usually used each day), 5 guest service, photo, clinic, 3 RX, sbux, deli, 3 electronics, and 2 softlines. Most nights there are 35-37 registers to close. Make sure you give yourself enough time, and check in with AP. At least in my district, an AP TM must be with you at all times that you are handling money when walking around the store - even at the lanes. If I get called over to service desk or a cashier for help, AP stands with the cart and watches it. It's also a double safe because nobody can accuse you of stealing when AP was there the entire time.
 
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@Retail Girl I want to work with you - you seem like you actually WORK that is something I miss so much since my GSTL's all left last year for new and better job opportunities. The ones we have know are more concerned with pretending they are working only when STL is in the store and then flirting with the TL's when they come up to the front with the "I'm a big boss, just standing here" Stance. Don't get me wrong, I like the TL's but there isn't really any need for them to be standing in the front when 2 GSTL's are already supposedly taking care of things. When we get told to not leave the front end, the gstl's think it means stand at the edge of the racetrack and look pretty. I can't do that, I find that time very unproductive. Instead I weave in and out of the lines talking to guests, cleaning up reshop and I listen to how the cashiers are talking to the guests. If I don't hear them offering redcards, I will speak up and ask the guests. We have gotten a couple that way. I always tell the cashiers to do it on their own next time.

@Jill of All Trades when we load the registers with change, it comes from the change fund. I tend to load up Food Ave with lots of change because GSTL's/GSA's don't usually have a chance to get there often enough during the day. Food Ave always knows when I close and it's not only because I will leave them notes on their registers - "have a great day or Good Morning My Friends or Make the most of your hours and enjoy your time. It's because I make sure they have enough change for them to make it through the day.
 
PinkZinnia said:
@Retail Girl I want to work with you - you seem like you actually WORK that is something I miss so much since my GSTL's all left last year for new and better job opportunities. The ones we have know are more concerned with pretending they are working only when STL is in the store and then flirting with the TL's when they come up to the front with the "I'm a big boss, just standing here" Stance. Don't get me wrong, I like the TL's but there isn't really any need for them to be standing in the front when 2 GSTL's are already supposedly taking care of things. When we get told to not leave the front end, the gstl's think it means stand at the edge of the racetrack and look pretty. I can't do that, I find that time very unproductive. Instead I weave in and out of the lines talking to guests, cleaning up reshop and I listen to how the cashiers are talking to the guests. If I don't hear them offering redcards, I will speak up and ask the guests. We have gotten a couple that way. I always tell the cashiers to do it on their own next time.

@Jill of All Trades when we load the registers with change, it comes from the change fund. I tend to load up Food Ave with lots of change because GSTL's/GSA's don't usually have a chance to get there often enough during the day. Food Ave always knows when I close and it's not only because I will leave them notes on their registers - "have a great day or Good Morning My Friends or Make the most of your hours and enjoy your time. It's because I make sure they have enough change for them to make it through the day.
Click to expand...

@PinkZinnia - I wish we were allowed to weave in and out to grab strays and baskets. We have to be VISIBLE on the track at all times. If I get called over to help a cashier, I must get the walkie quickly and say "GSA assisting check lane X" or I will hear "GSA where are you?" within 10 seconds. Happens EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Bathroom break needed? Call a TL or ETL. Service desk needs backup or GSTL numbers? Call the LOD or another ETL. If any GSA or GSTL is caught behind the desk without someone else watching the front, it's an automatic coaching. -_-
 
PinkZinnia said:
@FrontEndFirecracker, I wish we had AP able to stand with big red.. Big red becomes our attachment for 2 hours of the night no matter where we go in the store.. I call it my old ball and chain
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Our store is huge. SBUX and deli are on the other side from service desk, and electronics is the very back. If I'm closing one of the far ones and get called to the front, I need to get there quickly for the guest. We've had a lot of theft at both Spot at Walmart in our area - people just come in and take off with the entire cart - so we need the eyes.
 
FrontEndFirecracker said:
@PinkZinnia - I wish we were allowed to weave in and out to grab strays and baskets. We have to be VISIBLE on the track at all times. If I get called over to help a cashier, I must get the walkie quickly and say "GSA assisting check lane X" or I will hear "GSA where are you?" within 10 seconds. Happens EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Bathroom break needed? Call a TL or ETL. Service desk needs backup or GSTL numbers? Call the LOD or another ETL. If any GSA or GSTL is caught behind the desk without someone else watching the front, it's an automatic coaching. -_-
Click to expand...


That is insane. I get chewed out if I'm seen on the racetrack standing still. I'm supposed to be speed weaving from inside the checklanes at all times. If I called an LOD every time I had to go assist GS I wouldn't have a job for long.
 
Do you get coins for evening advance? We only get bill bundles. Now I'm getting confused on terminology. What I was calling change fund earlier is actually daily advance money.
Retail girl, aren't your cashiers asking for change throughout the day? We only have empty or low change on registers where mostly back-ups have been, and at food ave because no one goes over there to fill them.
 
They do ask...somewhat. But I found if at the end of the night, when I am putting in the new start funds, that I also go through and "add change" to each register with the left over daily advance money, then that's less running around the next day for whoever is there. The other GSAs simply don't add any coin ever. The drawer could be completely out of quarters and they won't add any, thus causing the morning GSTL/GSA having to go get change for the registrr when it could have been done the night before.
 
My store has us on the racetrack speedweaving during busy periods (Saturdays & Sundays mostly), but otherwise I am generally walking about within the lanes. And we definitely hop behind the Service Desk for backup. No need to get on the walkie to inform the LOD, with the exception of us hopping on a lane ("LOD, this is the GSA hopping on a lane. We are extremely backed up.") Usually the LOD will just ignore me or say "Okay," without actually coming to the lanes to watch for me so I have to hope a cashier doesn't need my help. For this reason, I'll only hop on a lane if there's absolutely no other choice.

Opening is 7:45am (way back in the day it was 7:30 but they decided to save a little extra by shaving 15 mins). That means only 15 minutes to print out my break schedule and grid, then bank the lanes and desk. So I usually clock in 5 mins early. I don't open very often but it's pretty easygoing for at least the first hour or two, with just a few elderly guests for the most part in the store.

Closing is generally 4pm to 30 mins. after closing, which is stupid. Our scheduler, the ETL-HR, doesn't split the GSTL-GSA shifts evenly, so the opener usually gets a full extra hour than the closer. Whatever. Closing is mainly just, smoothing the transition from open to close and then closing the lanes. Everything else is busywork. I try to begin closing the lanes no later than one hour before store close, but it really depends on how near the LOD is before I actually get my funds.
 
PinkZinnia said:
Do you get coins for evening advance? We only get bill bundles. Now I'm getting confused on terminology. What I was calling change fund earlier is actually daily advance money.
Retail girl, aren't your cashiers asking for change throughout the day? We only have empty or low change on registers where mostly back-ups have been, and at food ave because no one goes over there to fill them.
Click to expand...

No, you're right. The change fund is the normal advance money. I was asking if she took an additional advance (marked down as "evening advances" on the SCW) in order the put change in the lanes. We've never put change in the lanes in the PM.
 
As a GSA the one thing I really wish I could do is write the schedule for the front-end. At the moment, our ETL does it because the GSTLs don't want to anymore, and she is bad at it.
 
We advance coins at night. We fill up our change fund, and then we can put whatever is needed in the lanes for the next day. It's written on the cash advance sheet as one of the daily advances.

Now to answer the original question. In the morning, if I'm not scheduled cash office, I get there at 7:45. I print out and plan the break schedule, and then I make the code one schedule. After that I watch the service desk until the opener comes in at 10. I try and make the plan of what I need to do since it's early and I don't have as many guests. Normally I know that I need to make sure receipt/coupon paper is stocked, and that we have plenty of bags in the lanes. Any spare time (If I get any at all) is spent filling the lanes with candy and whatever holes we have in merchandise. It doesn't matter what time I get these done as long as I do, so when it gets crazy and I'm covering breaks or helping at the SD, I'm not pressed for time and can help the guests and my team. If I have a project that I know needs to get done, like resetting the endcaps, I try and get started as early as possible so that I have all day to work it because I know I'll be pulled away constantly.

In the evening I pretty much hit the floor as soon as I get there and start helping guests and TMs. Once it starts slowing down I make sure the lanes get picked up and organized. Making sure we have supplies, and that the hanger bin is emptied etc. I work at a smaller store, so I start closing registers 30 minutes before store closes. The first few weeks I was GSA I had no idea what I was doing as far as routine. And the longer you work, the more you'll develop one naturally. :]
 
FrontEndFirecracker said:
@PinkZinnia - I wish we were allowed to weave in and out to grab strays and baskets. We have to be VISIBLE on the track at all times. If I get called over to help a cashier, I must get the walkie quickly and say "GSA assisting check lane X" or I will hear "GSA where are you?" within 10 seconds. Happens EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Bathroom break needed? Call a TL or ETL. Service desk needs backup or GSTL numbers? Call the LOD or another ETL. If any GSA or GSTL is caught behind the desk without someone else watching the front, it's an automatic coaching. -_-
Click to expand...

Remind me to never work at your store. I am expected to keep hanhars and stray bins empty throughout the day, help cashiers, help service desk, etc. but my store neither wants or expects a play-by-play, if they did I'd ask food ave and SB to start announcing whenever they sold a drink, popcorn, hotdog, pretzel, etc. just to show how silly and "useful" such a procedure would be.
 
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