If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

GenesisOne · Guru

How many dips does your store get a day?

GenesisOne · Guru

nocturnia wrote:
You may well be able to jockey yourself into his position. I know that sounds crass, as you obviously care about his well being, but if he fails it will be on his own merits.

And if advancement in that area interests you, and if you're asking "should I grab it?" My answer would be a resounding Y E S.

I honestly don't want the job of CSM. For one thing, I would have to leave the store I'm at if I ever decided to pursue the position because you can't become CSM at the store you're currently employed at. It's not just having to leave the people I like working with, but the job doesn't interest me at the present time.

I won't even accept the job of floor supervisor because the pay doesn't justify the added responsibility/aggravation. He offered me the position of floor supervisor after I started working with him to improve front end efficiency and I turned him down, just as I have turned down the offer in the past. Maybe I'm wrong to do so, but the position doesn't appeal to me.

Riley25 wrote:
What are dips?

We're not supposed to have more than two customers in line at a time and I was once told that the idea was to get each customer through in under thirty seconds. In actuality though, I believe the computer only registers a dip if a customer is kept waiting for more than two minutes, but I'm not one-hundred percent sure of that, though. Essentially, if customers spend too much time in line, the computer penalizes us because we're supposed to have the fastest check-out in town (according to the posters/signs in our store and in others in my area, too).

Edit: Thanks for the clarification, techelite.

Anonymous wrote:
@ Riley Quevision. 1+1, 1+2. When the first bubble is a smaller number than the middle. Worst invention using advanced tech. When money is thrown stupidly in useless creations like que vision, It makes theft a minor problem.

Part of the problem with Que-Vision is I see a majority of the supervisors ignore the numbers, despite the fact we have three flat screen monitors attached to the ceiling for all to see which tell us how many lanes we need open and how many we will need open in thirty minutes. It's not the most accurate projection system, but it gives us a general idea of what to expect... except I don't see anyone around me paying attention to the numbers, for the most part, with the exception of one supervisor, sometimes. I personally don't think we should keep people waiting in long lines at check out, but we don't have enough checkers and a lot of the checkers we do have have ring tenders below 85%, so we have problems on top of problems. I have given my CSM recommendations to improve checker/courtesy clerk/self-scan/supervisor performance, but again, I don't know if he takes this as seriously as I perceive the situation to be.

-- Edited by GenesisOne on Friday 25th of January 2013 12:01:29 AM

Riley25 · Veteran Member

What are dips?

nocturnia · Guru

You may well be able to jockey yourself into his position. I know that sounds crass, as you obviously care about his well being, but if he fails it will be on his own merits.

And if advancement in that area interests you, and if you're asking "should I grab it?" My answer would be a resounding Y E S.

Date: Jan 25, 2013

@ Riley Quevision. 1+1, 1+2. When the first bubble is a smaller number than the middle. Worst invention using advanced tech. When money is thrown stupidly in useless creations like que vision, It makes theft a minor problem.

techelite · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
@ Riley Quevision. 1+1, 1+2. When the first bubble is a smaller number than the middle.

Close, but wrong, and also a very prevalent misconception. The middle number can be higher than the "action now" number all day and it would not directly affect your queueing scores. What actually makes your hourly % drop is having a line go to 1+2 or more for more than 15 sec. Your 30-min percentages come from the number of customers who were waiting in out-of-queue lines versus your total customers who checked out in that half hour. If that % gets below 80%, you have a dip.

Also, you can check your total % for the day and at each half hour, and thus your dips so far in that day, as you go. So, when the floor supervisor comes in, they know immediately whether they already have dips to make up for. Pretty helpful.

krogerman77 · Guru

At my store the CSM and office people will sign on to unused registers to get around this. Seems to me that this would show whoever looks at this stuff that we have more help than we actually have. And our managers encourage this. Plus the whole 2+1 thing sucks. Our office people will call for help when 3 people are together in the same group. They just don't seem to believe that q-vision don't work and is a total failure!

store815 · Guru

We only get 1 dip past the 80 present mark unless its the first we get around 5 or 6

GenesisOne · Guru

krogerman77 wrote:
At my store the CSM and office people will sign on to unused registers to get around this. Seems to me that this would show whoever looks at this stuff that we have more help than we actually have. And our managers encourage this. Plus the whole 2+1 thing sucks. Our office people will call for help when 3 people are together in the same group. They just don't seem to believe that q-vision don't work and is a total failure!

Our supervisors practically spend their entire shifts on registers now instead of running the floor. Other people are called to check from other departments, but there are times they will get so fed up because they are being called so much that they won't come when called unless the CSM or a co-manager/the store manager calls them to the front. Everyone else, they will ignore because their work isn't getting done.

techelite · Guru

krogerman77 wrote:
At my store the CSM and office people will sign on to unused registers to get around this. Seems to me that this would show whoever looks at this stuff that we have more help than we actually have. And our managers encourage this.

Signing onto unused registers seems to be the common way to "stay in queue" but it is 100% wasted time and effort. 100%.

GenesisOne wrote:
Our supervisors practically spend their entire shifts on registers now instead of running the floor. Other people are called to check from other departments, but there are times they will get so fed up because they are being called so much that they won't come when called unless the CSM or a co-manager/the store manager calls them to the front. Everyone else, they will ignore because their work isn't getting done.

Make sure your front end has enough cross-trained baggers. Your sequence of cashiers called to check should be roughly:

cross-trained baggers

accounting clerk

floor supervisor

then, once the floor supervisor is on the register, they are supposed to call mgmt who will watch the front end and check or call other depts for cashier help.

GenesisOne · Guru

techelite wrote:
krogerman77 wrote:
At my store the CSM and office people will sign on to unused registers to get around this. Â Seems to me that this would show whoever looks at this stuff that we have more help than we actually have. Â And our managers encourage this.
Signing onto unused registers seems to be the common way to "stay in queue" but it is 100% wasted time and effort. 100%.
GenesisOne wrote:
Our supervisors practically spend their entire shifts on registers now instead of running the floor. Other people are called to check from other departments, but there are times they will get so fed up because they are being called so much that they won't come when called unless the CSM or a co-manager/the store manager calls them to the front. Everyone else, they will ignore because their work isn't getting done.
Make sure your front end has enough cross-trained baggers. Your sequence of cashiers called to check should be roughly:
cross-trained baggers
accounting clerk
floor supervisor
then, once the floor supervisor is on the register, they are supposed to call mgmt who will watch the front end and check or call other depts for cashier help.

We have very few baggers that can act as checkers. I'm one... and that's it. One other was promoted to checker, demoted back to courtesy clerk, and now is back to being a checker again (his second and final chance). There was a third one, but he hasn't checked in a very long time.

No one at my store has the job title of accounting clerk. Is there another title that person may go by?

The floor supervisor is always the one that jumps on first and then, he/she calls for surge checkers and finally a co-manager. That's how it typically plays out.

techelite · Guru

The person who does the morning bookkeeping is what I meant by accounting clerk. They balance tills, file paperwork, loan, pickup, etc.

GenesisOne · Guru

techelite wrote:
The person who does the morning bookkeeping is what I meant by accounting clerk. They balance tills, file paperwork, loan, pickup, etc.

The person that does that works Customer Care. We have two people that do the bookkeeping, and the person will generally come in at 6:00AM and come 8:00AM, open up and work Customer Care, then around 10:00AM, once the next person scheduled for Customer Care arrives, take their break before giving the self-scan attendant his/her break and finally returns to Customer Care for the remainder of the shift. They are trained to check, but can't, when scheduled for accounting/Customer Care.

techelite · Guru

Our accounting person is scheduled to come in at 6 also, but the Lean Accounting process takes anywhere from 3-5 hours or more. The CS person comes in at 7 and the accounting person only goes behind the desk to give the CS person breaks/lunches. You're apparently not in Div 024 if your process differs lol.

GenesisOne · Guru

Another bad day Friday... sixteen dips. A store is not supposed to go over three a day. Management posts these reports for all to see, including customers. Writing words like "need to react faster" and "need better reaction from floor supervisor and self-checkout attendant" never make a difference, so I don't know why they bother to write the stuff time and time again. It's like there isn't any consequences for poor performance. I guess as long as the store is making a certain amount of money, dips and Que-Vision scores are all irrelevant - because that's how it seems where I'm at. Maybe the CSM at my store has nothing to worry about at all after all.

I think I ultimately just wasted a lot of time writing up my observations and suggestions and handing them to my CSM. I don't see any changes despite him and the store manager really liking my ideas.

GenesisOne · Guru

techelite wrote:
My CSM was wondering why another store in our district was always getting higher scores than us, and occasionally pulling a 100%. So she went and pulled their hours and in a single period they had used over 400 hours past what elms had allotted for FE. Thats almost a full shift and a half each day. But since they were making their 1+1 beautifully, nobody said a thing. Might be a last-ditch plan for your store.

Also, mgmt should NEVER be posting those sorts of criticisms in public. That is leadership training 101. You praise in public, criticize in private. I'm assuming they write it in dry erase marker, so being the passive-aggressive I am, I'd erase all those things every day. Not saying it's the best idea, but at least it's not as cruel for the employees.

With our last CSM, she would make the schedule and keep the hours relatively close to what the store manager would allot and then afterwards, "write in" people on the schedule. I'm not sure exactly how, but one of the current supervisors at my store that's been there for awhile told me that's how she kept the front end running extremely smoothly. Our current CSM won't do that.

Management posts charts with numbers and statistics right by our time clock, which is to the right of Customer Care. All customers have to do is look to the right and they can see all sorts of numbers and data, as well as what management writes in marker/pen concerning dips for the previous day.

-- Edited by GenesisOne on Sunday 27th of January 2013 11:55:23 AM

techelite · Guru

My CSM was wondering why another store in our district was always getting higher scores than us, and occasionally pulling a 100%. So she went and pulled their hours and in a single period they had used over 400 hours past what elms had allotted for FE. Thats almost a full shift and a half each day. But since they were making their 1+1 beautifully, nobody said a thing. Might be a last-ditch plan for your store.

Also, mgmt should NEVER be posting those sorts of criticisms in public. That is leadership training 101. You praise in public, criticize in private. I'm assuming they write it in dry erase marker, so being the passive-aggressive I am, I'd erase all those things every day. Not saying it's the best idea, but at least it's not as cruel for the employees.

Date: Jan 27, 2013

don't give up making suggestions.

we get 3 dips. once last week the FE manager panicked and told the uscan person to get on a register. he'll even make the bookkeeper get on one. he should just schedule the people he needs and DO IT RIGHT instead of cheating.

he threatened me not to use up a dip as first cashier the days they count and refill uscan. that's normally enough, i'm fast and the uscan person can handle small orders on express. but he got stupid this week and had no one scheduled for uscan until late so for all the early and mid morning traffic we had one cashier. there was also just one courtesy clerk scheduled and he was cleaning and on the lot.

i started paging the FE manager to the front when the line got more than 3 or 4 long. every time i had to page him to come out of accounting meant opening uscan was delayed that much longer. it was self defeating but i wasn't gonna get blamed for using one of his precious dips.

this is why it takes five hours some weeks to get uscan open again and some weeks he just punts and does it the next day because he's taken so long. it's ridiculous.

Date: Jan 27, 2013

With our last CSM, she would make the schedule and keep the hours relatively close to what the store manager would allot and then afterwards, "write in" people on the schedule. I'm not sure exactly how, but one of the current supervisors at my store that's been there for awhile told me that's how she kept the front end running extremely smoothly. Our current CSM won't do that.

this is why your current CSM and store is screwed. it's the ONLY way to make it work.

techelite · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
this is why it takes five hours some weeks to get uscan open again and some weeks he just punts and does it the next day because he's taken so long. it's ridiculous.

Do what? 5 hours? On a bad full balance day, I can have our SCO open within 30 min.

Anonymous wrote:

this is why your current CSM and store is screwed. it's the ONLY way to make it work.

Exactly. Unless you start using more hours at your store, elms will just assume you are getting by with the hours you're given. You will only start being allotted more hours once you start using more hours.

GenesisOne · Guru

techelite wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
this is why it takes five hours some weeks to get uscan open again and some weeks he just punts and does it the next day because he's taken so long. it's ridiculous.
Do what? 5 hours? On a bad full balance day, I can have our SCO open within 30 min.
Anonymous wrote:
this is why your current CSM and store is screwed. it's the ONLY way to make it work.
Exactly. Unless you start using more hours at your store, elms will just assume you are getting by with the hours you're given. You will only start being allotted more hours once you start using more hours.

I honestly don't see that happening. I really don't. Our previous CSM, she was one that everyone feared. She was extremely professional and she saw *all*. To say she ran a tight ship would be a major understatement. She didn't back down to anybody and she made her position on a subject crystal clear. She treated the store manager as an equal rather than a boss. I think he respected her for her efficiency and effectiveness and thus allowed her to do what she thought was best because he knew that she knew exactly how to run a front end. People performed the best they could out of fear that she would have something to say to them. She was someone that you could kid around with, to an extent, but she still somehow knew how to keep every component of the front end operating at peak performance and she had a knack for not letting even the smallest problem/issue go unnoticed.

Our current CSM isn't going to employ the "tricks" that our previous CSM utilized and he's not going to fight for more hours because he just accepts that what the store manager permits per week is what he has to work with. Meanwhile, fifteen dips for today (Sunday) and eleven for yesterday (Saturday). The co-managers have a very low opinion of him because of the problems left and right. I can't believe corporate hasn't come down hard on the store manager yet, and if corporate has, the store manager hasn't done anything about it. Our current CSM doesn't act like his job is on the line, so apparently the store manager hasn't said anything too threatening. I would think there would have to be consequences at some point, but I could be wrong.

techelite · Guru

Back to what I mentioned earlier, seriously look into having as many baggers trained to run a register as possible. It helps. If you have a utility clerk who does the cleaning in the mornings, train them.

Does your store perform well compared to the weekly budgeted sales? Over often? Under often?

nocturnia · Guru

techelite wrote:
Back to what I mentioned earlier, seriously look into having as many baggers trained to run a register as possible. It helps. If you have a utility clerk who does the cleaning in the mornings, train them.

Does your store perform well compared to the weekly budgeted sales? Over often? Under often?

I'll probably catch heat for this, but I've thought for the longest time that grocery bagging is completely obsolete. By all means train them to cashier, as well as what ever else is needed in non peak times.

Sure, Kroger customers will bitch (what else is new, right?)...........But they'll soon get over it.

Date: Jan 28, 2013

nocturnia wrote:
techelite wrote:
Back to what I mentioned earlier, seriously look into having as many baggers trained to run a register as possible. It helps. If you have a utility clerk who does the cleaning in the mornings, train them.

Does your store perform well compared to the weekly budgeted sales? Over often? Under often?
I'll probably catch heat for this, but I've thought for the longest time that grocery bagging is completely obsolete. By all means train them to cashier, as well as what ever else is needed in non peak times.
Sure, Kroger customers will bitch (what else is new, right?)...........But they'll soon get over it.

And yet, look at the caliber of some (not all) of the people who are called "baggers"...and I was one! You can train some to do other things, but for others, bagging may be their only source of employment...It's a fact of life that if there were no baggers, there would be A LOT more unemployed people...Don't get me wrong...I've known awesome baggers in my time, and I never want to tell anyone that they can't do something, but I just don't see some of them working other jobs...I'm being realistic here...I'm sure you've known a few people who fit this description...

What it comes down to is this, when I see one of the guys sweeping the floors diligently, I think of the Martin Luther King quote...

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

Just change street sweeper to store sweeper...or maybe even courtesy clerk...Remember, there is dignity in every job...And although some don't believe it...YES, even working for Kroger...

nocturnia · Guru

I know you're right. And I actually feel the same way.

nocturnia · Guru

------As a side note, anyone who wants to see how/what/why all this corporate downsizing really happens, watch a movie from 2010 called 'The Company Men'. It's on Netflix, stars Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Afleck and Craig T. Nelson. VERY compelling fictional account of what Kroger, Wal-Mart and basically all American businesses are going through......and what happens to the BIG people at the Middle.

Date: Jan 29, 2013

We just got a new store manager and a new front end manager, and they are still figuring it out.

However, they are actually trying to figure it out, which bodes well for them.

We mostly dip at the beginning of the month.

Senior Wednesday is always a complete disaster. We dip the whole day. And, when food stamps come through, everybody goes on Unkie Sam's Silly Super Shopping Spree and blows all of it in one go. And we dip like crazy for a few days until they all run out of EBT.

And if food stamps come through by Senior Wednesday, it's just retarded.

Otherwise, we have a pretty good handle on it.

techelite · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
We just got a new store manager and a new front end manager, and they are still figuring it out.
However, they are actually trying to figure it out, which bodes well for them.
We mostly dip at the beginning of the month.
Senior Wednesday is always a complete disaster. We dip the whole day. And, when food stamps come through, everybody goes on Unkie Sam's Silly Super Shopping Spree and blows all of it in one go. And we dip like crazy for a few days until they all run out of EBT.
And if food stamps come through by Senior Wednesday, it's just retarded.
Otherwise, we have a pretty good handle on it.

Your CSM needs to start adjusting the hours during senior week. They need to move hours in their headcounts from other days of the week to wed.

Date: Jan 30, 2013

The atlanta division gets up to 6 a day... under 4 is considered good... I am the bookkeeper at my store, Once i finish my work at 9am (ish) I go straight to a register for the rest of my shift. My store is one of the tops stores in the district for Queing, however it comes at the price of myself, the FEM and backup FEM being on registers 40 hours a week (it seems like). I don't know what this fantasy land is of "running the floor from the back sales floor"... because our floor gets run from register 8.

GenesisOne · Guru

techelite wrote:
Back to what I mentioned earlier, seriously look into having as many baggers trained to run a register as possible. It helps. If you have a utility clerk who does the cleaning in the mornings, train them.

Does your store perform well compared to the weekly budgeted sales? Over often? Under often?

I wouldn't let a majority of our baggers near a register. They aren't mature enough to handle the added responsibility and lack customer service skills and/or the speed necessary to move an order through at a reasonable time. Our CSM has promoted baggers to checkers that I, the previous CSM and the other supervisors would have never promoted because they lack the customer service skills/mental maturity/capacity necessary to effectively run a register and directly interact with customers on a level that a bagger doesn't have to. One that was promoted was demoted and now another that was recently promoted is a disaster (in my view) in how he interacts with customers. If our previous CSM saw the kinds of people are current CSM is promoting, she'd beat him over the head until he came to his senses.

I can't answer the second part of your message because I don't have access to that kind of data.

Date: Jan 31, 2013

GenesisOne wrote:
krogerman77 wrote:
At my store the CSM and office people will sign on to unused registers to get around this. Seems to me that this would show whoever looks at this stuff that we have more help than we actually have. And our managers encourage this. Plus the whole 2+1 thing sucks. Our office people will call for help when 3 people are together in the same group. They just don't seem to believe that q-vision don't work and is a total failure!
Our supervisors practically spend their entire shifts on registers now instead of running the floor. Other people are called to check from other departments, but there are times they will get so fed up because they are being called so much that they won't come when called unless the CSM or a co-manager/the store manager calls them to the front. Everyone else, they will ignore because their work isn't getting done.

wexact same here. when we go on rbeak too, we have to sign off completely and a shift supervisor signs on so we still look like have help.

and our other departments ignore us because they call for help and by the time help arrives, all the customers have been gone. the csms just dont beleve in us cashiers and baggers...

techelite · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
exact same here. when we go on break too, we have to sign off completely and a shift supervisor signs on so we still look like have help.

This is a waste of time and effort on your supervisors' parts. Does nothing to improve your queueing scores. Nothing. Read my first post to this topic. It's post #4.

Krogersucks · Member

The whole Q Vision thing is yet another example of new "technology" out of control and sold to the Kroger Corporation as something valuable. The entire concept of Q Vision is faulty !!!!!!!!!( Heat sensors in the ceiling detecting how many customers are in the store? Oh yeah ?) Kroger management thinks it's great !!!!! No questions asked !

Stranger · Senior Member

Regarding baggers getting cross-trained. At least in my location this violates the Union contract. My pay caps at $7.35, and in response to this low pay I have very narrowly, Union defined job duties. Never, ever operating a cash register is part of my job. Basically if it isn't sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, bagging or taking groceries out for customers, I am forbidden to do it. Cashiering is well beyond the scope of this. That said, my store was operating on cross trained baggers for a while to little effect. We are operating much better on our horde of low hour part-time cashiers.

techelite · Guru

Stranger wrote:
Regarding baggers getting cross-trained. At least in my location this violates the Union contract. My pay caps at $7.35, and in response to this low pay I have very narrowly, Union defined job duties. Never, ever operating a cash register is part of my job. Basically if it isn't sweeping, cleaning the bathrooms, bagging or taking groceries out for customers, I am forbidden to do it. Cashiering is well beyond the scope of this. That said, my store was operating on cross trained baggers for a while to little effect. We are operating much better on our horde of low hour part-time cashiers.

Depends on what you mean by "baggers." Courtesy clerks cannot check, agreed. But many of the "baggers" are actually store clerks, who can check and are TECHNICALLY all supposed to be cross-trained on the register.

GenesisOne · Guru

I and others couldn't believe what our CSM was doing today, on Super Bowl Sunday, when all the registers were opened and had four or more customers in each line. He spent a big part of his shift outside, getting carts off the lot. The person that's in charge of the front end wasn't even near the front end on arguably the busiest day of the year. Amazing.

It's no wonder why our front end is in the state its in.

Date: Feb 4, 2013

GenesisOne wrote:
I and others couldn't believe what our CSM was doing today, on Super Bowl Sunday, when all the registers were opened and had four or more customers in each line. He spent a big part of his shift outside, getting carts off the lot. The person that's in charge of the front end wasn't even near the front end on arguably the busiest day of the year. Amazing.
It's no wonder why our front end is in the state its in.

If you think you can do better then why don't you do it? Otherwise, mind your own business.

GenesisOne · Guru

Anonymous wrote:
GenesisOne wrote:
I and others couldn't believe what our CSM was doing today, on Super Bowl Sunday, when all the registers were opened and had four or more customers in each line. He spent a big part of his shift outside, getting carts off the lot. The person that's in charge of the front end wasn't even near the front end on arguably the busiest day of the year. Amazing.
It's no wonder why our front end is in the state its in.
If you think you can do better then why don't you do it? Otherwise, mind your own business.

That was rude. If you had actually taken the time to read through this thread instead of typing before thinking, you would have clearly read that I care about what is going on at where I work and I'm trying to improve the situation for everyone there, myself included. I and others can see the way things are being run is bad for the employees and bad for the customers. It's everyone's business because a store can't function this way without consequences surfacing. I would rather not see these consequences impact anyone. I don't want to see anyone lose his or her job because I care about a lot of the people I work with, including the CSM at our store. That is why I have taken the time to try and improve the situation at work - which is something I don't have to do. This is a minimum wage job with no benefits and I could just not care like other people, but I don't feel right doing that.

GenesisOne · Guru

I think it's just about over for our current CSM. Today when I came in, I learned that he was being moved to another store and corporate was basically hand-picking our next CSM - someone that corporate that has 100% confidence in in keeping Que-Vision scores between 90% and 100% compliance on a daily basis. However, she, for whatever reason, refused to take the position and so our current CSM is staying. I'm thinking though if the performance charts don't show an improvement, he'll be gone for sure in a couple of weeks.

I personally think it's ridiculous. Others that I work with agree. Our store is near the top in the district in terms of the business we do. It was just announced we were number two in Valentine's Day sales in the district. We clearly don't have the hours to handle the volume of business that we do. Management loses bonus money when Que-Vision scores are below where they should be, yet management won't allow more people to be scheduled because that would mean more money spent on employees manning registers and bagging - yet if they would give us the hours we need, Que-Vision scores would go up, and so would their bonuses. The more money you invest (when invested wisely), the more money you can potentially make, so our store manager should allow the front end an additional sixty hours per week (which I figure is what we likely need, with slightly smarter scheduling, too).

I believe I've read here that if a surge checker stays on a register for a minimum of fifteen minutes, the computer ends up allotting additional minutes and hours for next week's schedule. Can anyone confirm this/better explain this? If that's true, maybe that's one way we can start working toward getting the hours we need to be better prepared to serve the customers on a daily basis. I don't want to see our current CSM go, so I need to figure out if there's anything more that I can do to try and better the situation. I wish he would have tried implementing more of the ideas I gave him, but he only used a few (despite saying how he really liked them all, and the store manager said the same thing) and I still feel the ideas he hasn't used as of yet have the potential to improve front end performance. Maybe they wouldn't all end up working, but I feel we're now at the point where we have nothing left to lose by trying.

The next time I'll see him is Monday so if any of you here have any suggestions/ideas that could help me put together a good action plan that I could present, it would be greatly appreciated. We're both working late, so I know I'll have time to talk to him for an extended period of time - I just wonder if he'll be a changed man at all next time I see him, since he came very close to being moved to a lower volume store (where I don't know if he'd even be CSM at).

-- Edited by GenesisOne on Saturday 16th of February 2013 08:09:23 PM

techelite · Guru

You are correct about the 15 min rule. The queuevision system and elms talk to each other.

Every person who is a regular cashier or bagger who can check should be issued an operator number in the 0-299 range (tho most end up between 100 and 199). Your csm and acsm should be in the 350-399 range, and FESs can be in this range as well. Some FESs and all CS associates end up in the 400-499 range. Everyone who is assigned to the front end and can check, should be assigned an operator number in one of these ranges, with no exceptions.

Everyone else in the store who can check should be assigned numbers in other ranges specific to their dept. When elms sees an operator outside of the ranges allotted to FE sign on and start checking for at least 15 min, elms records when and how long they were on the register and will start adding that amount of hours to the available pool for that day and time of day for the future. But to take advantage of this system, your relief checkers must check a min of 15 min. This also means you aren't helping yourself by having your relief help just bag or clean or push carts.

You may or may not have "baggers" who are technically store clerks, not courtesy clerks, but if you have any who can be crosstrained to check, train every one of them.

Be ahead of the curve. Train your front end peeps to be active, not just reactive. If you see 4 full carts coming toward the checklanes, open a lane or 2 before they even arrive.

Same with wic; if you see someone in line with what you know is multiple wic orders, open another lane. The moment a cashier begins a wic order, queuevision marks that lane as out of queue, even if it is in queue otherwise (ie only 1 more customer waiting/unloading). Don't ask me why.

Beyond that, making good use of down time can be critical. I don't know how your store does with time management, but if it isn't a priority, making it one can make a major difference. Getting daily tasks done during down time frees checkers and baggers up when there isn't down time. Rule of thumb: if someone is leaning or has their hands in their pockets, give them a task. They don't have to like it, as long as it's in their job description.

I could probably go on, but this should be enough to get you/your csm thinking.