MEGATHREAD Hang Me (The Softlines Thread)

Any of you still struggling with the softlines backroom remodel? I have been trying to backstock. Yesterday was a bust because a TM called out and I had to be on the floor to help. Today I was in the back but had to go out and deal with the phone issue and help get TMs organized to work. Got the area around our three aisles dug out so I can start working through the carts of backstock (mostly 3 tier) and then the LOD sends the bike builder back in the nice space I cleared out. -_- Srsly? I mean he was a nice guy and all that but geez.... makes it hard. The aisle with the folded backstock is clear but I need to get the two hanging aisles cleared out. Just wondered if anyone else was in this boat or if it's all shiny and tidy for everyone?
 
We would be done, but STL changed stuff a few times, which meant we had to start over with profiling and labeling some aisles. Three months later and we still aren't completely wrapped up. 🙄
 
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sweaters said:
Mini Rant!
When I'm working reshop, I take my z along with me and zone hanging as I'm putting things away. That way, I can put all the random stuff I find on the z and I don't have to keep running back to the FR. Saves time and keeps my zone looking passable. Somehow my TLs and ETLs are fine with me running around with a giant cumbersome z rack half the time just as long as I'm not using a cart. Whatever.

But I feel like it's just another instance of unexplained new rules forcing my SL crew to find loopholes, and bend the rules just to get by... Otherwise, how are we supposed to give great guest service (all that selling training man), field calls on the zebras, replenish, zone, do reshop ever 15 minutes, and back up? We're good but it feels like with everything we have to do, nothing gets done well. Advice?
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For half a second, they actually wanted us to drag along our vehicles so that we would purposefully get in the guest's way in order to engage with them.

Yeah, we never did that.
 
soyaxo said:
A volume store here. I’ve noticed a lot of the TMs, not just a few anymore, are taking advantage of others that will help them out at the end of the night so that they won’t cover Electronics/FR/Beauty breaks/lunches nor will they back-up cashier nor zone! Yesterday myself and one other TM finished our zones by close. Then, we had to help out the other closers (one of whom openly admitted they know they’ll get help so they slack!) It’s very frustrating and although I know the leaders are well aware of the issues and they are taking the appropriate actions, in the moment it is so frustrating.
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Also, a lot of TMs just don't want to help each other anymore and I hate that.
 
SpilledTea said:
Oh, ok. I hope your store leadership is trying to get someone else for the breakout because that's rough af.
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Hell, it's rough with 2 of us. When I first started as flow team, there were 7 of us sorting softlines truck. Now it's 2 of us doing contortions in our disaster area of a backroom, struggling to get 70 repacks sorted in 4 hours (which should be easy).
 
can't touch this said:
The other day I had a pull that sent me to the softlines wacos. Apparently they're stowing baby clothes in the softlines wacos now so this was the very first time that I've had to go to the softlines aisle to pull.

Holy thundering Zeus, what fresh hell is this. First I had to pull out 4 fully loaded carts and Z-racks of backstock to even get down the fucking aisle. Many pairs of pants hanging on the cart handle, dragging across the filthy backroom floor and getting caught in the wheels. Then when I finally find the waco I need, it takes 10 minutes per DPCI because there are literally 9,000 different sizes stuffed into each waco. Many MANY tags getting snagged in hangers. I made it to "30 out of 189 tasks completed" before realizing that I would probably qualify for retirement benefits before this was ever finished so I said "WELP I'M OUT" to nobody in particular and got the eff out of there. At long last I have found something even more horrifying than cashiering on Black Friday. YIKES.
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That's a normal day in softlines, fyi.
 
SoftlinesTM2018 said:
A question for all of you fellow softline TMS, which areas do you think get the most love at your store and which seem to be neglected and need some serious TLC? At my store Shoes and RTW gets all the attention and Men's is neglected even though Men's for the year so far has sold more than RTW.
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Shoes is our red-headed stepchild. RTW probably gets the most attention because it's second most shopped after shoes, but leadership seams to think it's shopped more.

But overall, everyone else hates softlines. No one answers our calls for assistance, we never get zebras, our sort gets all our two-tiers taken away, no one answers their phone calls when the operator parks them, and we're always expected to be the first to go to backup. The only leadership that consistently support us are the APTL, VM, and PMT. The SFTL most of the time.
 
SnowWhiteOfAnA said:
Hell, it's rough with 2 of us. When I first started as flow team, there were 7 of us sorting softlines truck. Now it's 2 of us doing contortions in our disaster area of a backroom, struggling to get 70 repacks sorted in 4 hours (which should be easy).
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Good golly, what size of a store are you? We've NEVER had more than two people breaking down truck but admittedly we are a ULV.
 
We're low volume, but I can't remember what size the store is. When I was shoes, I remember our VA listing the department as 300...something. The flow TL we had at the time over staffed the team significantly somehow, and we would have up to 7 people, depending on how big the truck was (I've never had a truck bigger than 2600, but we almost had a double truck tomorrow). After she left, we got cut down to 5, then 4, then 3, now just the 2. But they expect the same work out of 2 people with no room to move that they were getting from 7 people with shit tons of room.
 
SnowWhiteOfAnA said:
We're low volume, but I can't remember what size the store is. When I was shoes, I remember our VA listing the department as 300...something. The flow TL we had at the time over staffed the team significantly somehow, and we would have up to 7 people, depending on how big the truck was (I've never had a truck bigger than 2600, but we almost had a double truck tomorrow). After she left, we got cut down to 5, then 4, then 3, now just the 2. But they expect the same work out of 2 people with no room to move that they were getting from 7 people with shit tons of room.
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Welcome to Modernization, where anyone can do anything with nothing in no time. Not!🙄😂
 
SpilledTea said:
I'm curious: is SL responsible for purging the checklanes at any of your stores?
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What do you mean purging the checklanes? All we do is go up and get our reshop when they call and go up for guest service calls when they need help at cashiering.
 
So, how is everyone set up for Black Friday. Was trying to walk the ad today and the shoe situation is ridiculous. The ad prep tool gives you ONE dpci then shows you three shoes that are on ad. Drives me crazy. And what you wanna bet the shoes on ad are still up in the stupid pallets. -_-

Trying to talk our salesfloor ETL into letting us put pallets of boots out just for Black Friday.
 
Okay, there's something y'all have to explain to me because I'm totally mystified.

I'm told that brand standard is 2 of the same size of the same item, 3 if it will fit. Yet every time when I'm pushing Z's there will be clothing where I have been given 5 or more Mediums or size 8s, and sometimes a bunch more of other sizes. Then when I track down that item, there's already 4+ of that size on the floor already. I realize there's more than 3 because the last person shoved it to make it fit rather than taking it to the back, but why are the large number of identical items ending up on the Z's repeatedly in the first place? Same with the shirts, why are there 8 of one size being sent to the tables?

When it's basics I will end up with far more of one item that can possibly fit on that peg, and when I look for that peg so I can fill it, it's already full and people flexed what didn't fit so there's more than capacity already on the floor. When I research it to tell the computer we don't need anymore, the capacity is either appropriate or less than what I can fit and the amount on the floor is equal to or larger than capacity. So why is more coming out if the computer has already been told there's more than needed on the floor?

When putting away reshop if I have diapers or medicine/lotion/shampoo, there's zero space for the reshop. Why?

It's just super annoying, it comes from the back room only to go back on in, and then comes out again the next day. Standard is two or three on a bar or table, yet clear as day the rack or the stack has more than that, so someone back there apparently can't count past 1. And pull, backstock, pull, backstock when the computer knows there's enough or too much on the floor already and research is not going to change quantities doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
 
Tessa120 said:
why are the large number of identical items ending up on the Z's repeatedly in the first place? Same with the shirts, why are there 8 of one size being sent to the tables?
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Same thing at my store. The A+A breakout team just puts everything on the z's or metros, even if it's eleventy thousand and five of the same jacket or whatever. I'm not sure if the direction is to do that or to only send out two of each size per item. I do know that the flow/inbound TL is supposed to audit every vehicle before it's released to the floor, but getting that to happen has been like pulling teeth at my store. I'm at the point that I'm just sending them back and then going over the standards with the breakout team *and* the TL daily.

So, I feel your pain.
 
Break out team breaks out everything. That's their job. I suppose ASANTS but in my store yes, it is all put on the metro. The push team, pushes then they are supposed to backstock what won't fit. There's not supposed to be any boxes in the backroom for A&A. My real question is why do these stupid buyers buy one million of something and then send so much of it to these tiny stores that there's no way to put it out and hardly any room to backstock it either? I feel like they are buying WAY WAY WAY too much or it's not being distributed to stores properly. -_-
 
My team wanted separate racks for brands but stl says no you can do only use x number of zs when its full you get a new one. So you have the same item on multiple racks. Kinda dumb if you ask me.
 
I'm on breakout. At my store, it is the push team's job to fill as needed and then back stock what doesn't fit, but we know the push team (mostly newer hires) has a tendency to overstock, especially tables, so instead of putting everything on the metros we will box up what we know will be back stocked. That's just something we used to do anyway when there was 7 of us breaking out and then we would all push our own departments. I miss those days.
 
What about the basics? Why do so much come out in the first place, why does more come out when it's beyond capacity on the floor, and why when researched to stop the incoming tide it turns out the computer already knows the floor is over capacity?
 
It seems like some items are sent to stores for safekeeping. Like the DC has run out of room so they'd best send them to stores. And if that store has a teeny-tiny backroom then double or triple that order!

Recent gaffes:
30 small girls swimsuits - all the same DPCI, in late August.
2 gross (that's 144 each!) of baby hats.
A new shipment of 20 of each size for a belt that went salvage just a few months ago.
 
I just wish that we could get some time to just be in the backroom for a shift and price change all the clearance that is hanging or located in the backroom for our departments. We used to do that every single week, and now it never gets done. We have no more room in the aisles in RTW and I wanted to do price change, but still had to finish truck and help with Black Friday prep so there was no way that would have happened anyway. We also have consolidated the Young Contemporary clearance and RTW clearance into the RTW clearance, so there's absolutely no room. Even if we salvaged out all the 70% off as outdated, we wouldn't have enough room to bring all the clearance in the backroom onto the floor....
 
I know no one here can answer, but I have to wonder if the guy who determined how much freight a store should receive even bothered to talk to the architect that designed the floor space and back room space of the buildings. It's really frustrating, especially with it seeming to be all over, that there's more freight than there is storage space or amount sold. After all, if we were selling enough to justify the amount of freight, it would be moving so fast that the back room would be a revolving door and not a storage area.
 

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