Archived VA And Pog workload Help!

[Yesmaamthatwillfit2013]

Hello!
I was recently transferred to softlines from the front end as a Team Leader and was wondering if anyone has any tips from a lower volume store to handle the VA sets and table sets but still be able to maintain the brand with zone and reshop. I am realizing it is a hard balance but in a lower volume store it still seems the same amount of work, but definitely a lot less team members. I just want to do the best I can, so any tips on how to meet the deadlines and still maintain everything would be great. I have a good table captain but she is still overwhelmed too. I would love to hear what other stores are doing. My store is not ULV but does like 35mill. Thanks! I saw the other VA thread but that was geared more towards busier stores which is tough to. My etl is not the best so I have taken this on myself to try to fix it.

 

[sigma7]

If you're doing 35 mil you should be a b volume which is starting to feel staffed a lot like a ULV store these days. I'm not softlines, but here's some things i've seen my softlines peeps do. Setting aside at least 3ish days to set something big like RTW or men's is a must. They set the racks and walls from one end of the floorpad to the other. Tables are set last. Sleep active and boys usually don't take long at all. Then girls, men's, and RTW taking the longest. They go through signing. The brand tm helps out a lot. She sets most of the adjacencies herself honestly. You almost have to just say eff returns for a while. Partnering with flow to put stuff in the right brand blocks to begin with and not backstocking (unless its street dated, but that's usually left on a z rack) any hanging helps out with time.

 

[RightArm]

Um... not our process. First we move all fixtures into correct position before the store opens. Then we do POGs (all the tables) first. Thing to remember is that a lot of times those dated POGs end up being on ad the week after they're dated. So, if you don't have them set first it becomes a major problem when the ad goes out. Once POGs are done we go rack by rack for the change outs starting with the S points FIRST. Your DTL or whomever visits your store KNOWS the S points. If those are not up to date they will catch it; but rarely do they realize that other product is not in the right place because VA's are a "guide" and sometimes due to product load and VA errors a store can be set correctly and be slightly different from the book.

Helpful hint: try to start POGs ASAP when you get the VA book... we try to get POGs done the week before the VA date. So if RTW is set to transition on May 12... then the week before we're doing our best to get all the POGs done. Another helpful hint, when VA's are running keep a record of what you do day by day so that you can answer for when you're behind. We had an ETL that loved to re-direct TMs and TLs when he was on the clock away from their assigned tasks and then ask later WHY they weren't done. Was massively aggravating. >< Don't know if you have such a situation but even if you don't it also helps you get a good idea of how long it takes you do things and the challenges involved so that you can report to your ETL and possibly through feedback come up with workable solutions.

Welcome to our side btw haha