I recently transferred to a much higher volume store with a sea of go-back carts floating around the front end every day. Some days we get it down to 3 or 4 carts, but other days Ive counted as many as 12. Some of the lifers have told me that this has been the case for decades across many sets of managers, with the best explanation being courtesy clerks here dont wanna work and they all quit. This seems is true since we often have no baggers at night ($1M+ store)Anybody else have a store like this? Did anything help to start getting them done consistently?
I recently transferred to a much higher volume store with a sea of go-back carts floating around the front end every day. Some days we get it down to 3 or 4 carts, but other days Ive counted as many as 12. Some of the lifers have told me that this has been the case for decades across many sets of managers, with the best explanation being courtesy clerks here dont wanna work and they all quit. This seems is true since we often have no baggers at night ($1M+ store)Anybody else have a store like this? Did anything help to start getting them done consistently?
Go backs at the store I used to work has always had a bunch of go backs. Even when we were located down the road at the old store I used to do go backs and just find plain out stupid things. The manager or assistant manager would just pull things off the shelf.
We use to have tons of go-backs. As in there were go-backs literally spilling out of the numerous carts onto the floor. Management cracked down and assigned our ccs Go-Backs for 2 hour increments per cc at a time. during that time NO ONE was permitted to call a cc for ANY reason other than getting newly made go-backs from the checkstand or a service out. Checkers are mad. Deal with it.
The only exception is if we scheduled 1 courtesy clerk for 2-4 hours by themselves until the next cc came in. Now, the most we'll have on carts is 2, maybe 3 carts max. And they're not that full. And thatsvout if 10+ carts of overflowing, stuff spilling out, carts.
And management can and will pull stuff off the shelf faster than you can blink if its placed in the wrong spot. That's their job. Nightcrew gets really heated if people place stuff in the wrong area after it's been pulled 3-4 times. They say "theres a reason we pulled it off. Leave it off the aisle!
It's like that at every store. The c.c.'s at my store weren't doing their jobs well so they cracked down on it after they lost a ton of perishable to them deciding not to do them. The cashiers put them under the check stand and the fes bit-ches about the check stands being "messy" and then moans that we should do it our selves. Like hell that's happening with the 10 foot rule for cashiers. If we start a go back cart because they're accumulating faster than the c.c.'s can get to them we get scolded at about how it's getting messy. Well if they'd leave the area underneath our check stand open where we're supposed to put go backs we might actually be able to leave them at our check stand rather than find a new area for it. Instead it's filled with all this other cr-ap that shouldn't be there. God forbid you move things to key retailing standards and the senior people who are set in their ways bit-ch up a storm about things not being in their place.
At our store, go-backs almost NEVER get COMPLETELY done, especially after the busy Saturdays and Sundays. The only time they get totally done is on an OCCASIONAL slow day in the middle of the week, and ALWAYS right before a MAJOR walk-through is imminent, such as when the Division President is coming!
I have seen many times when 14 bascarts were filled to the brim (I counted them). Most of the reason they pile up is because we don't have enough help.......hours have been cut, so there is literally no one who has time to do it.
I think it is SO SO SAD that many, many customers were never taught to budget their money, or to have a decent idea ahead of time what they are going to buy, how much they can afford to buy, and about how much their total grocery bill is going to be.
And so many people seem to have been taught by their parents that it is perfectly fine to change your mind and decide you don't want to buy half the stuff in your cart. Such a crying shame.
-- Edited by Kroger-Employee on Thursday 31st of October 2019 03:31:58 PM
One time it was so bad we had 20+ carts and growing. No joke. We had to take the carts and hide them in the back room, our compressor room, our computer room, and even had some baskets outside in a storage unit near the store. Well corporate who had come by to visit decided to look at everything. They found our baskets, pitched a fit and had EVERYONE on shift sign a verbal warning. EVEN MANAGEMENT. Those who refused to sign, were threatened with a write-up instead of a warning. I wasnt sure they could do that being as I was a "new guy, and a cc" but I know now, they CANNOT threaten you a write up if you refuse to sign a "warning paper" on a situation you had no control over.
I recently transferred to a much higher volume store with a sea of go-back carts floating around the front end every day. Some days we get it down to 3 or 4 carts, but other days Ive counted as many as 12. Some of the lifers have told me that this has been the case for decades across many sets of managers, with the best explanation being courtesy clerks here dont wanna work and they all quit. This seems is true since we often have no baggers at night ($1M+ store)Anybody else have a store like this? Did anything help to start getting them done consistently?
At "my" store it was just volume. We never had a chance to actually GET to go-backs until later in the night. Nine, ten p.m....that sort of thing. No way could you really touch them during the day. Too many customers coming through the door, not enough courtesy clerks. I saw days where there were literally 15 or more carts full.
Back before the new scheduling software launched in or around 2012/2013, we used to have one courtesy clerk each night scheduled specifically for Go Backs (it was on the schedule, just like you'd see "Floor Supervisor" or "Utility" under a person's name) for four hours. Helped a great deal. After the change was made in how schedules were written, scheduling someone for Go Backs specifically in the system was no longer possible - guessing the hours were removed or something from the budget.
So yeah. Now Go Backs only get done when it gets super out of control. Looks trashy as heck too, but what does Kroger care...
I checked our front end last night. All the go backs were returned to the shelves. We are a $1M+ store.
The managers do run around during the day and pick up strays in the wrong places.
Our store slows down after 9pm and one of the cashiers will do go backs while the other runs Uscan until midnight. Stopping only if a customer requests to use a register. But, we don't always have two cashiers closing.
Back before the new scheduling software launched in or around 2012/2013, we used to have one courtesy clerk each night scheduled specifically for Go Backs (it was on the schedule, just like you'd see "Floor Supervisor" or "Utility" under a person's name) for four hours. Helped a great deal. After the change was made in how schedules were written, scheduling someone for Go Backs specifically in the system was no longer possible - guessing the hours were removed or something from the budget.
So yeah. Now Go Backs only get done when it gets super out of control. Looks trashy as heck too, but what does Kroger care...
My store they scheduled someone under utility. So that means they were using utility clerk hours and the schedule always had different part for courtesy clerk and utility clerk.
FrontEndSlave wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I recently transferred to a much higher volume store with a sea of go-back carts floating around the front end every day. Some days we get it down to 3 or 4 carts, but other days Ive counted as many as 12. Some of the lifers have told me that this has been the case for decades across many sets of managers, with the best explanation being courtesy clerks here dont wanna work and they all quit. This seems is true since we often have no baggers at night ($1M+ store)Anybody else have a store like this? Did anything help to start getting them done consistently?
At "my" store it was just volume. We never had a chance to actually GET to go-backs until later in the night. Nine, ten p.m....that sort of thing. No way could you really touch them during the day. Too many customers coming through the door, not enough courtesy clerks. I saw days where there were literally 15 or more carts full.
I am sorry to say that flat out means someone not doing their job. My store was always a mess in the morning trash full and running over buggies left with boxes and perishable go backs leaking on the floor yes most days it was a mess. And on Wednesday morning someone would put left over sale papers in the trash and make it extra heavy instead of putting them in a damn cart.
-- Edited by i386 on Saturday 2nd of November 2019 06:23:01 AM
How about *stopping it at the source*-at the register-Kroger needs to GET TOUGH on go backs and not let customers walk all over us like they have been. What is in your cart is what the cashier rings up!! That is how it should be
Back before the new scheduling software launched in or around 2012/2013, we used to have one courtesy clerk each night scheduled specifically for Go Backs (it was on the schedule, just like you'd see "Floor Supervisor" or "Utility" under a person's name) for four hours. Helped a great deal. After the change was made in how schedules were written, scheduling someone for Go Backs specifically in the system was no longer possible - guessing the hours were removed or something from the budget.
So yeah. Now Go Backs only get done when it gets super out of control. Looks trashy as heck too, but what does Kroger care...
My store they scheduled someone under utility. So that means they were using utility clerk hours and the schedule always had different part for courtesy clerk and utility clerk.
FrontEndSlave wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
I recently transferred to a much higher volume store with a sea of go-back carts floating around the front end every day. Some days we get it down to 3 or 4 carts, but other days Ive counted as many as 12. Some of the lifers have told me that this has been the case for decades across many sets of managers, with the best explanation being courtesy clerks here dont wanna work and they all quit. This seems is true since we often have no baggers at night ($1M+ store)Anybody else have a store like this? Did anything help to start getting them done consistently?
At "my" store it was just volume. We never had a chance to actually GET to go-backs until later in the night. Nine, ten p.m....that sort of thing. No way could you really touch them during the day. Too many customers coming through the door, not enough courtesy clerks. I saw days where there were literally 15 or more carts full.
I am sorry to say that flat out means someone not doing their job. My store was always a mess in the morning trash full and running over buggies left with boxes and perishable go backs leaking on the floor yes most days it was a mess. And on Wednesday morning someone would put left over sale papers in the trash and make it extra heavy instead of putting them in a damn cart.
-- Edited by i386 on Saturday 2nd of November 2019 06:23:01 AM
Or it means that they didnt schedule enough help, which Kroger is good at.
Now we have this rule. ANY perishable go-back MUST be put away NOW! as in if you are not on a carryout, breaks, off the clock, you are to STOP what you are doing (unless you are on a sweep) and take care of the perishable. Checkers have been told to "take over bagging" whilst the perishable is being taken care of. Even if you just "toss it in a cold box nearby" that would be acceptable for the time being. (Exception hot or frozen. Those must be placed back into their correct boxes immediately.
