So this week, I got to go to the dept. head meeting since my manager was off that day and I was the one there with the most seniority.
We watched KTV and I found out that the Cincy division has come up with another "lovely" idea...HomeShop.
Basically, people can shop from home and pick out what groceries they want. Then they schedule a pickup time, and pay a 4.95 fee to get their groceries all ready for them.
Right now this is going to be tried out in a few stores in the Cincinnati area but not Dayton area yet.
They never once explained how this is going to work though. Like, will it be the CC's responsibilty to go shopping for the customer? Will each department be responsible for it? Will they allot more hours on ELMS to cover it (doubt it)?
ELMs will not accommodate hours for this program nor will this program be successful. Look at Que Vision for example. That was the biggest waste of 70+ million dollars the company has ever done. The scenario at the General Office in Ohio must have went like this:
Dumb-ass 1: "Let's install sensors and TVs in all the stores so the cashiers can watch the screens to see if they need to open a register!" Dumb-ass 2: "That's an amazing idea! Let me throw millions of dollars to rolling this idea out! We need to broadcast to the cashiers on TV when they need to open a register because they don't know when to do so!!" Dumb-ass 1: "And we can send daily reports to the stores when they fail at opening registers on time that way they know that they can't do anything right!" Dumb-ass 3: "We will also cut hours to make up for the millions we will spend on this!" Dumb-ass 1: "Yes, cut hours! They should be fine with 1 or 2 cashiers throughout the day with 1 bagger!" Dumb-ass 2: "This is brilliant!"
Yes, because we all know that the employees are ****ing incompetent that they can not fathom the thought of opening up a register without looking at a TV to do so...? The TVs don't even work in my store and have not worked since they installed them years ago. It was a waste of money. With all the money this multi-billion dollar company makes, you would think they would stop spending millions of dollars pushing out new programs and start using the money to purchase new hires through giving stores a little bit more hours. Not only that but hire people above min wage. That's why I don't see this new program working at all with shopping for groceries online. Who's going to do it? Front End already has to shoot Prime-time, now they will have to shop for lazy people? Have they met half of our employees? It's like walking into a Special Olympic event. You think a "Special Needs" employee is going to shop for a customer? That's what's going to happen. The list will be handed off to a "Special Needs" employee.
Really?! why such negativity? If "HomeShop" drives loyalty and more business, that is good for all. I know plenty of folks that would love to have their Plus Cards drive more convenience for them when it comes to shopping their groceries, getting personalized coupons, etc. Think about it, something you do weekly, usually buy the same stuff, give or take a few items, week over week. I'd love a system that helped me not forget items and all I have to do is select a time to drive through and pick up a week's worth of groceries on my way home from work, for $5 ... sign me up!
Albertsons in California switched to this Home Shop thing when they stopped home delivery about five years ago. Not sure what their process is, I was only interested in delivery.
I'm trying to figure out how this will work in my store if it rolls out company wide. Deli and floral already take orders at my store. I guess it'll be one more thing the service desk will be in charge of. Haha the first thing I'd tell the hapless courtesy clerk handed the task pull matching product from the go backs. I suppose this could be handled by grocery expanded clerks too but I'm not sure. They might add ELMS hours for this but I can't imagine it being significant. It'll be one more thing to do with the same bodies and less time.
