Thanksgiving at work

[RGINN]

I sent my crew to lunch in 3 shifts, as we were gettin ready for Black Friday. This is part of them. We had turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, and more. Pretty hard to argue religion and talk politics when your mouth is full of food. Disclaimer: This came out of my own pocket. The largest retailer in the world provided some sandwiches for the other shifts. My crew ate good!! I take care of my associates. Spend money, eat better!

 

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[mark.]

Bless your hearts......you guys deserve a medal ( and not a found one either..) for working on Black Friday....

 

[sniffer]

I'll give you an attaboy, way to go RGINN

 

[ohioaxeman]

 

[LaKASkill]

That was very nice of you, hope ya'll ate so much they had to roll you back to work. I was lucky enough that my days off just so happened to fall on Thanks Giving. The kids, my wife and I went to my parents house and had a huge feast. My Kids dug a few plugs in my parents yard while we were there. Nothing but a Clad dime and a hunk of metal, it was a great day.

 

[K*E*L*L*Y]

youre by far the nicest wal mart manager there is!

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Nice gesture.
You never cook for me like that!

 

[Mental Granny]

If I had a manager like you I could still be working as a Walmart associate!

 

[RGINN]

And I'm only an Assistant Manager, not Manager y'all. One who doesn't know everything or even pretend to, and believes it's still alright to laugh and have fun at work, as long as the job gets done. Goin to work is somethin we should look forward to, instead of dreading. Gettin harder to make it that way, but I will for a little while longer. An employee will tend to treat customers the same way he is treated by his boss. So if you get poor service, maybe don't blame the help, cause they're only channeling the supervisor. Spend money, I'll live better!

 

[Mental Granny]

They just remolded our store and YES they still scream give me a ...... The people from Bentonville need to stay there!

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

You are right, Rginn, I was a department manager, then an assistant manager (I always liked that Wal~Mart promoted from within - and I only had to leave my local store for 6 months).

We did not get a lunch hour on Black Friday, but the store manager put on a feast that was unbelieveable - from turkey to ham and everything in between. People got to go eat when they wanted, and us assistants watched their areas during their "feast time", and, for most of the 24 hours, people ate several times, whenever they wanted to, or wanted to go back for dessert or whatever. Our store manager also used to have steak cookouts once a month - his money, not store money. He also gave out bonuses for jobs well done on a regular basis. For 7 years, its was a great, great place to work. (and the best insurance I ever had, both when I was an associate, and when I was a manager).

Though, I gotta say, it was better being an associate/department manager in Lawn & Garden - I missed the outdoor and plant work the last year I was a manager.

B

 

[RGINN]

I been away from my local store for 5 years now, oroblanco, and won't never go back I guess. I like the diversity here. When they put me on days for a year, garden center was one of my areas and I stayed out there as much as I could, and just let the department manager boss me around like one of the hourlys. I liked bein out on the lot helpin load mulch and what have you for customers. Home office is doin their best to kill our Garden Center. We can't sell a lot of fruit trees here and nobody buys okra seeds. But the best times we have are put on by us, and has nothin to do with the company.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

They have been trying to do a way with the garden center (at least a major part of it) in many places, because of the "live" factor. I was department manager in sporting goods and then hardware, before I went into Lawn & Garden, and, keeping monetary track of live plants is one of the worst jobs in the world. Of course, they are ordered by the thousands, people will put one plant into a flat of another and I hated it when inventory time came around.

Every single day was filled with re-doing plants, and counts, and throw-aways and mark downs, etc., and, during the planting months, there were never enough employees to take care of the greenhouse, and the yard, and the equipment, and all the other things. Wal~Mart loses a lot of money on live plants every year.

But - its a trade-off, because most people who buy some plants usually buy other things. (planters, pesticides, and other garden things), which they do make a pretty good profit on.

I think one of the biggest problems for the 5 stores in our area, is that, during the summer, especially, nobody wanted to be slinging those yard items - so, as our inventory went up, our employees went down (usually summer college kids). Plus, our inventory time was May - when we were trying to go full bore. Dept. 7 always came out good, but, not so the plant department. Though, I did manage a 50% reduction in loss.
(Got a $100.00 bonus for that, and one of their plaques)

Also, our first store manager was a dud when it came to bonuses - the yearly one - just when we were doing great, he would spend it on some major change in the store, and we got zip. The second one was really on top of things, and we never had less than $800.00. He did so good, that they kept him for 9 years at the same store, and he led them into becoming a SuperCenter.

B

 

[Mental Granny]

Garden center here has cut back on plants I quit buying them there and Lowes they put them out unprotected before it finished freezing, not their fault thats just when they got them!

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Yea - that's what alot of Wal~Marts are doing (as per my previous explanation).

However, I will say that, as a department manager at Wal~Mart - I ordered and got plants when I wanted - when I ordered. Any that the company ordered could be cancelled or delivered at a different time. Their problem (Wal~Marts) is that everything - and I mean every single thing, is ordered from Bentonville, Arkansas. Even the temperature in the store is controlled by Bentonville.

Which doesn't work well, when they don't know our hunting seasons, planting seasons, current weather, etc. When I was in Sporting Goods, I had a major arguement with the Bentonville crew. I could not get camo hunting clothes to save my life. After several calls, a major manager came on and said "hunting season is almost over, so we don't want to send them to you". Which was true for Arkansas, but our turkey and archery season had not even begun yet - and they did not know that. They finally agreed to send the items for me, and (thankfully, I might say), we sold every single item.

I always thought it was ridiculous to make decisions for Pennsylvania from Arkansas. I can see certain things - like Christmas trees for Christmas, and halloween stuff for halloween, but, every state has a separate planting schedule, years differ in their weather, and every state has their own hunting seasons.

We did have a greenhouse, and I had propane heaters for cold nights, so I would just put them in the greenhouse and come back at night and turn on the heaters.

The trees I never had any control over.

Everyone I knew who used to buy from me in Pa Wal~Mart, has told me that they are cutting back quite a bit already there, too.

B

 

[Mental Granny]

I wish you and Robert could come here get rid of the DOHs and do this store right! When i worked there myself and another stupid employee made some suggestions but, they would not work we were told ( they would make sense) and that is not allowed!
She got fired I just got treated bad! Like I had said we have just finished remodle and Jeff and I were betting how long it would be before it looked bad again and no stock on shelves.... well it is almost back to where it was ..... but, I do like the new shelving and signs they are great, and I have found a few (very few) but, some who are very helpful now YEA! Still have never seen the new mgr. hes been here for a few moths last time I looked at the sign to see what he looks like they still had the pic of the old one who was sent away. But a few of the asst.'s you can see out walking around and they will help you!

 

[RGINN]

Home office is out of touch. My store, at 9200ft., where it never gets above 80 degrees, is not traited for electric blankets, so we can't carry them. However, we called up a store in Texas down by the Gulf which does carry them and can't sell them and got them to send us theirs. In exchange, we sent them all our flip-flops we recently got, which don't work too good in snow. So you can sometimes find ways around things. Or you can set there and go with what the home office dictates, which many times doesn't serve the customers needs real well!

 

[Mental Granny]

Alot of it is this town and the people who workare employed at this store! I found a set of dishes I liked saved up went to get them .... gone but, the side extras are there on clearance. So I find the girl in the area ( I use to work with her) so I wrongly expected a little common courtesy and respect! Asked if there were any somewhere else she went to back comes back and says no! So I asked if she could ck the store in the next town and she just stood there and then tells me oh there aren't any it would have shown up on comp! I was so Pi$$ed I walked off my husband asked what was wrong and I said just wait, so I go to Micky D's there sat down called information and then called the Blackwell store (30 min away) and the mgr said there was YES he had just bought himself one and had 3 on the shelf and then he asked ME if I would like him to put one back for me! If he had the extra stuff at his store I would have bought them there!
Most people who come from other stores to this one (like when a spouses job transfers to this town, or they come here to take care of family) are totally amazed what this store is like compared to everywhere else.