Our chain is cutting the number of work hours folks are scheduled for. As I follow the online community of co-employees it seems to have slowly been spreading but picked up steam as of late.
While a couple weeks ago the company did increase our pay by $2 an hour, for most folks the cut in hours has meant their pay check isn't getting bigger and for some its even shrinking. From what I've read other locations have already been hit hard by this. One person even shared that a hand full of employees were in tears at their store because after being regularly scheduled for 40 hours the next week they were scheduled for 4...
I've seen it some at our store. One guy in my department who has been with the company 17 years went from 5 days a week to 3. Another coworker from guest services went from 4 or 5 days a week to 2. I personally have been semi-immune to cuts (so far) being both able to work in pick up orders and one of the few people in the grocery department willing to endure the harsh work of our walk in freezer.
It seems our store was for a time shielded from the biggest cuts in hours. I forget the exact wording of the designation but we are classified as "Super-ultra high volume" or something like that. In addition to all our in store business we also ship out a lot of orders since the size of our store means we carry a larger number of items than other stores.
But that seems to be coming to an end. I overheard management talking to each other yesterday, one of them said that next week no one will be getting 40 hours. Another supervisor was flummoxed when he had been promised 1,100 hours for his department next pay period but only received 750.
The number crunching doesn't add up to me. We keep falling behind in the grocery department (one of the reasons we are allowed to be open) and still have literally thousands of pounds of food piled up in the back room that could be going out for purchase at the same time they're cutting the number of hours we have to work. Customers get frustrated when the shelves are empty and it doesn't really make sense why they have to be.
My supervisor gave me a review the other day, a check in on how I'm doing and a discussion of skills I am going to be trained on. Her analysis of my competency boiled down to this: everything is good, work faster. I talked to a coworker who had a review the same day and got the same exact comment.
They can tell us to work faster all they want but the reality is even if I was able to there is too much to get done in the amount of time they give us to do it.
The corporation needs to be less tightfisted with how much they are letting people work, not only for the well being of their employees but for the functionality of their store.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Thursday, April 30, 2020
customer trash
People leaving their trash around the store isn't new but its grossness bumped up a level in the era of the coronApocalypse.
While I've lamented the shuttering of the in store coffee shop I really don't miss cleaning up discarded drinks people used to leave all over the place. Not to worry though, while there's an absence of half empty coffees to deal with there's an abundance of used disinfecting wipes our store provides to customers for wiping down the handle of their shopping carts. (As it stands one of the few things our store is regularly cleaning are cart handles but hey there's no such thing as too clean right now)
Unfortunately and pretty disgustingly these wipes then show up all over the store. This is particularly gross for us over in the food and beverage department where we fairly regularly find used wipes thrown onto shelves with food. I'm willing to bet most people don't throw their trash into their cupboard at home but apparently when you're out shopping its no biggy, the essential workers will clean that up for you.
I even found one in the freezer the other day. Someone literally carried that wipe from the front of the store, past many trash receptacles, opened the freezer door, and threw it in there.
I griped to my friend in produce about this affront and he told me that it happens all the time in the open coolers in the middle of his section. (You know the kind that go waste high, have sides but not top, and you can walk all the way around)
I would have assumed that folks who are germ sensitive enough to go out of their way to wipe down their cart would also be aware that ditching your trash where other people are shopping for food is pretty dirty...
While I've lamented the shuttering of the in store coffee shop I really don't miss cleaning up discarded drinks people used to leave all over the place. Not to worry though, while there's an absence of half empty coffees to deal with there's an abundance of used disinfecting wipes our store provides to customers for wiping down the handle of their shopping carts. (As it stands one of the few things our store is regularly cleaning are cart handles but hey there's no such thing as too clean right now)
Unfortunately and pretty disgustingly these wipes then show up all over the store. This is particularly gross for us over in the food and beverage department where we fairly regularly find used wipes thrown onto shelves with food. I'm willing to bet most people don't throw their trash into their cupboard at home but apparently when you're out shopping its no biggy, the essential workers will clean that up for you.
I even found one in the freezer the other day. Someone literally carried that wipe from the front of the store, past many trash receptacles, opened the freezer door, and threw it in there.
I griped to my friend in produce about this affront and he told me that it happens all the time in the open coolers in the middle of his section. (You know the kind that go waste high, have sides but not top, and you can walk all the way around)
I would have assumed that folks who are germ sensitive enough to go out of their way to wipe down their cart would also be aware that ditching your trash where other people are shopping for food is pretty dirty...
Sunday, April 19, 2020
where's Bryan?
I've been worried about my coworker "Bryan" for a little while now. He stopped coming to work one day and now we haven't seen him in a couple of weeks.
He might have a preexisting condition which makes him vulnerable to the coronavirus in which case he would qualify for limited paid time off from the company or he might live with someone who has such a condition in which case he could get unpaid time off.
I obviously don't need to know more about his personal life situation than he cares to share with us but at the same time it has caused my coworkers in the grocery department and I to ask, "What if he got the virus?"
He's not the only one to stop coming in either. All over the store familiar faces have been conspicuously absent and its left some of us wondering, "If folks did catch the virus would our store even tell us? Is this the reason the lead manager has been excitedly scolding us for working near each other, because she knows that someone has already got it?"
I've received far more information about our company's response to the virus from an internet community of store employees than I have from anyone working in management at my actual store. Some folks at other locations have said that their stores informed them when coworkers tested positive but one person suggested their store had known for 2 weeks before informing non-supervisor employees.
Why might management not let us know? I think they're afraid it would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I believe they are afraid of the power of the workers.
Recent strikes at Amazon were set off when the company refused to close and sanitize one of their warehouses after multiple people tested positive.
Would our store willingly close and sanitize? Despite their rhetoric, I have seen nothing to suggest that they would be inclined to undertake an operation of that scale willingly. They are hardly cleaning the store as it is and won't provide hand sanitizer or protective gear to to us employees or limit the number of people in the store. Its hard to imagine them shutting down for a couple of days.
It wouldn't necessarily even take a coordinated strike effort to hurt their bottom line. Our store is already has large numbers of employees calling off and probably would struggle to continue in the face of a larger wave of employees staying home in the face of a virus outbreak.
I hope Bryan and the others are all well and are able to enjoy a break from the day to day rather than miserably sick in bed or worse.
He might have a preexisting condition which makes him vulnerable to the coronavirus in which case he would qualify for limited paid time off from the company or he might live with someone who has such a condition in which case he could get unpaid time off.
I obviously don't need to know more about his personal life situation than he cares to share with us but at the same time it has caused my coworkers in the grocery department and I to ask, "What if he got the virus?"
He's not the only one to stop coming in either. All over the store familiar faces have been conspicuously absent and its left some of us wondering, "If folks did catch the virus would our store even tell us? Is this the reason the lead manager has been excitedly scolding us for working near each other, because she knows that someone has already got it?"
I've received far more information about our company's response to the virus from an internet community of store employees than I have from anyone working in management at my actual store. Some folks at other locations have said that their stores informed them when coworkers tested positive but one person suggested their store had known for 2 weeks before informing non-supervisor employees.
Why might management not let us know? I think they're afraid it would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I believe they are afraid of the power of the workers.
Recent strikes at Amazon were set off when the company refused to close and sanitize one of their warehouses after multiple people tested positive.
Would our store willingly close and sanitize? Despite their rhetoric, I have seen nothing to suggest that they would be inclined to undertake an operation of that scale willingly. They are hardly cleaning the store as it is and won't provide hand sanitizer or protective gear to to us employees or limit the number of people in the store. Its hard to imagine them shutting down for a couple of days.
It wouldn't necessarily even take a coordinated strike effort to hurt their bottom line. Our store is already has large numbers of employees calling off and probably would struggle to continue in the face of a larger wave of employees staying home in the face of a virus outbreak.
I hope Bryan and the others are all well and are able to enjoy a break from the day to day rather than miserably sick in bed or worse.
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
stay at home orders
The state government has finally issued a statewide stay at home order, one of the last to do so, but our day to day hasn't really changed at all.
I was hopeful when I first heard about the order. Specifically I looked forward to the state limiting the number of people in "essential businesses" like our. In theory larger stores are allowed only 10% of the the maximum allowed by fire code and smaller stores 25%.
I really hoped this would be a good step to protect us workers but it turns out to have barely affected our location at all. I was talking to a coworker the other day who informed me that the maximum occupancy for our building under the order doesn't account for the fact that a fairly substantial portion of our total square footage is our warehouse area where most people don't go. This in practice allows the store a 70-something person swing when calculating the total number allowed at a time.
Further, a plurality of people can be found in only a couple of sections of our vast store, section A (paper goods, cleaning supplies, pharmacy) and section G (food and beverage), clogging up these areas and making the 6 ft distancing pretty much impossible.
The store who continually assures us via PA that our health and well being is their number one priority could self limit beyond state requirements based on actual retail space but of course are not going to. In fact, I was told by a coworker that the supervisor types for the clothing and home-goods sections of our store got emails from corporate about the importance of seizing this opportunity to get customers hooked on our products while competitors are forced to stay closed!
The dictionary defines the verb profiteer as "make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit." While other stores selling this stuff have been shuttered the Trojan horse of our market department has kept us open, attracting numerous folks who find shopping an antidote to the stay at home doldrums. They actively want these people to come spend excess time in our store during a pandemic.
I was in no way amazed that their mind set is solely directed towards increased and future profits but was a little surprised to hear they would put it in writing so explicitly. It does explain why so much person power continued to be put into the expansion of our throw pillow area when we couldn't keep food on the shelf. "Live, laugh, love" wall hangings are not essential items.
I was hopeful when I first heard about the order. Specifically I looked forward to the state limiting the number of people in "essential businesses" like our. In theory larger stores are allowed only 10% of the the maximum allowed by fire code and smaller stores 25%.
I really hoped this would be a good step to protect us workers but it turns out to have barely affected our location at all. I was talking to a coworker the other day who informed me that the maximum occupancy for our building under the order doesn't account for the fact that a fairly substantial portion of our total square footage is our warehouse area where most people don't go. This in practice allows the store a 70-something person swing when calculating the total number allowed at a time.
Further, a plurality of people can be found in only a couple of sections of our vast store, section A (paper goods, cleaning supplies, pharmacy) and section G (food and beverage), clogging up these areas and making the 6 ft distancing pretty much impossible.
The store who continually assures us via PA that our health and well being is their number one priority could self limit beyond state requirements based on actual retail space but of course are not going to. In fact, I was told by a coworker that the supervisor types for the clothing and home-goods sections of our store got emails from corporate about the importance of seizing this opportunity to get customers hooked on our products while competitors are forced to stay closed!
The dictionary defines the verb profiteer as "make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit." While other stores selling this stuff have been shuttered the Trojan horse of our market department has kept us open, attracting numerous folks who find shopping an antidote to the stay at home doldrums. They actively want these people to come spend excess time in our store during a pandemic.
I was in no way amazed that their mind set is solely directed towards increased and future profits but was a little surprised to hear they would put it in writing so explicitly. It does explain why so much person power continued to be put into the expansion of our throw pillow area when we couldn't keep food on the shelf. "Live, laugh, love" wall hangings are not essential items.
Sunday, April 12, 2020
face masks
Last week the CDC recommended that everyone wear face masks when leaving their homes and since then some places such as Los Angeles have even made laws requiring the practice.
My understanding is that this isn't a protective measure for the wearer as such, you would need a fancier version than the basic scarf or other cloth covering the CDC is suggesting for that. The hope is that folks with face coverings will prevent the wearer from spreading the virus if they've already contracted it by catching anything leaving a person's mouth or nose area when they say cough or clear their throat.
Some of my coworkers have been wearing masks for a while now but most still are not. Included in the mask-less crowd is the head boss of our store who has taken to scolding employees for not working six feet from each other. Customers have maybe been 40-60 wearing to not wearing.
There are plenty of your standard medical looking paper or cloth masks coming through the store but I've also seen a number of hand sewn masks made with great prints that I assume could fetch a pretty penny on etsy. The more interesting selections have included a few construction type respirators and even one person in a gas mask. I saw someone with vampire fangs the other day and one of my coworkers has quite happily taken the opportunity to wear his skull face mask at work. The most bizarre face covering I've come across so far has been the long gray sleeve strapped and hanging from one guy's face. His matching gray sweat suit gave the impression of a cheaply made, last minute elephant Halloween costume.
I myself started wearing a mask only recently and reluctantly. Its probably silly but mostly I've kind of felt like its not "cool" to be a mask person. I also assumed, correctly as it unfortunately turns out, that it would make work hotter and stuffier especially when doing heavy work like moving pallets or loading and unloading vehicles.
In the end though I figured that since I've been openly critical of my store's lack of concern for the safety of folks working there I should do whatever small piece I can to help out. It was particularly jarring to read that two Walmart employees from the same store died recently from the virus. Its real that working people like us are in greater danger because we have to face the crowds day in and day out.
So I searched "diy face mask" on the web and when I found the Quick Cut T-shirt Face Covering (no sew method) on the CDC's website went with that since I'm not a great sewer and don't actually have a machine. The design coupled with the dark gray tee shirt I cut up has caused more than one of the folks I work with to tell me that I look like a ninja. I guess wearing a mask doesn't have to be uncool after all.
My understanding is that this isn't a protective measure for the wearer as such, you would need a fancier version than the basic scarf or other cloth covering the CDC is suggesting for that. The hope is that folks with face coverings will prevent the wearer from spreading the virus if they've already contracted it by catching anything leaving a person's mouth or nose area when they say cough or clear their throat.
Some of my coworkers have been wearing masks for a while now but most still are not. Included in the mask-less crowd is the head boss of our store who has taken to scolding employees for not working six feet from each other. Customers have maybe been 40-60 wearing to not wearing.
There are plenty of your standard medical looking paper or cloth masks coming through the store but I've also seen a number of hand sewn masks made with great prints that I assume could fetch a pretty penny on etsy. The more interesting selections have included a few construction type respirators and even one person in a gas mask. I saw someone with vampire fangs the other day and one of my coworkers has quite happily taken the opportunity to wear his skull face mask at work. The most bizarre face covering I've come across so far has been the long gray sleeve strapped and hanging from one guy's face. His matching gray sweat suit gave the impression of a cheaply made, last minute elephant Halloween costume.
I myself started wearing a mask only recently and reluctantly. Its probably silly but mostly I've kind of felt like its not "cool" to be a mask person. I also assumed, correctly as it unfortunately turns out, that it would make work hotter and stuffier especially when doing heavy work like moving pallets or loading and unloading vehicles.
In the end though I figured that since I've been openly critical of my store's lack of concern for the safety of folks working there I should do whatever small piece I can to help out. It was particularly jarring to read that two Walmart employees from the same store died recently from the virus. Its real that working people like us are in greater danger because we have to face the crowds day in and day out.
So I searched "diy face mask" on the web and when I found the Quick Cut T-shirt Face Covering (no sew method) on the CDC's website went with that since I'm not a great sewer and don't actually have a machine. The design coupled with the dark gray tee shirt I cut up has caused more than one of the folks I work with to tell me that I look like a ninja. I guess wearing a mask doesn't have to be uncool after all.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
everyday is black friday
Each morning a long line forms outside of our doors, folks stand six feet apart stretching all the way down the side of our building.
At 7 AM the manager goes out to talk with the customers, urging them to stay at least 6 feet apart from each other and from any employees when they enter the store. She also informs them that they'll only be allowed to buy 1 or 2 of the most desired items. These hotly sought after items include milk, eggs, and bottled water in the grocery department but the real prize is toilet paper and any cleaning product with the word "disinfect" in its name. Oh and have you heard that Nintendo has been doing quite well through this corona season? Their Switch has been flying off the shelf. At this point we can't keep them in stock, selling the ones we get in each day about as fast as the toilet paper.
You can probably guess how well these requests for order play out in reality. The paper products and cleaners are located in the same corner of the store and as soon as folks are let in that's where they flock, giving the area the feel of some macabre Black Friday at the start of each day. With orders to stay six feet away from customers employees have to stop working in the area for the first half an hour or so.
This past week there were even folks standing in the pouring rain hoping to get their toilet paper prize. It is the unfortunate reality at this point that your only hope for scoring some tp is getting there within the first hour we are open.
To further encourage social distancing our store in theory is making announcements over the PA every thirty minutes reiterating to folks to keep six feet apart while shopping with us.
In reality the business of our normal day can lead to folks forgetting or having their hands too full with other responsibilities to make it happen. It doesn't help that you can't even hear the PA system in a third of our store.
Every thirty minutes we are assured that "the health of our customers, their family, and our employees" is the company's number one priority.
If you're someone who has followed this blog you know I'm skeptical that the company has any priority other than turning a profit. The health of its employees and customers might align with that aim in certain ways but it is not the ultimate aim, the store can't operate if its entire staff is too sick or upset about conditions to work and the negative press of an outbreak at one of their facilities wouldn't help sales.
If our store really wanted to prioritize the health of its employees and the public there are real steps to take. It could close off the parts of our store selling non-essential items or, like the Trader Joe's that shares a parking lot with us has done for more than a week now, limit the number of people in the store at a time. But its not good for business to discourage folks from buying things by either making them wait or limiting the trinkets they can take home.
Instead, every morning we face the depressing prospect of a toilet paper mob.
At 7 AM the manager goes out to talk with the customers, urging them to stay at least 6 feet apart from each other and from any employees when they enter the store. She also informs them that they'll only be allowed to buy 1 or 2 of the most desired items. These hotly sought after items include milk, eggs, and bottled water in the grocery department but the real prize is toilet paper and any cleaning product with the word "disinfect" in its name. Oh and have you heard that Nintendo has been doing quite well through this corona season? Their Switch has been flying off the shelf. At this point we can't keep them in stock, selling the ones we get in each day about as fast as the toilet paper.
You can probably guess how well these requests for order play out in reality. The paper products and cleaners are located in the same corner of the store and as soon as folks are let in that's where they flock, giving the area the feel of some macabre Black Friday at the start of each day. With orders to stay six feet away from customers employees have to stop working in the area for the first half an hour or so.
This past week there were even folks standing in the pouring rain hoping to get their toilet paper prize. It is the unfortunate reality at this point that your only hope for scoring some tp is getting there within the first hour we are open.
To further encourage social distancing our store in theory is making announcements over the PA every thirty minutes reiterating to folks to keep six feet apart while shopping with us.
In reality the business of our normal day can lead to folks forgetting or having their hands too full with other responsibilities to make it happen. It doesn't help that you can't even hear the PA system in a third of our store.
Every thirty minutes we are assured that "the health of our customers, their family, and our employees" is the company's number one priority.
If you're someone who has followed this blog you know I'm skeptical that the company has any priority other than turning a profit. The health of its employees and customers might align with that aim in certain ways but it is not the ultimate aim, the store can't operate if its entire staff is too sick or upset about conditions to work and the negative press of an outbreak at one of their facilities wouldn't help sales.
If our store really wanted to prioritize the health of its employees and the public there are real steps to take. It could close off the parts of our store selling non-essential items or, like the Trader Joe's that shares a parking lot with us has done for more than a week now, limit the number of people in the store at a time. But its not good for business to discourage folks from buying things by either making them wait or limiting the trinkets they can take home.
Instead, every morning we face the depressing prospect of a toilet paper mob.
Monday, April 6, 2020
order pick up madness
It seems like some number of folks are finally getting the message that its better not to go out if you don't have to leading to the store's pick up services to grow in popularity.
Our store always has a handful of folks working "fulfillment." They go around using the store's fancy handheld computer finding the items that people ordered online and preparing them for distribution by either bagging them for pickup or packaging them for delivery. (The chain I work for offers online shopping but they don't have warehouses like amazon. Instead they treat their stores like warehouses and ship from the one closest to the order-er that has the desired item in stock.)
These workers face unique stresses the rest of us don't. When they're looking for items in the store its based on what the computer thinks is theoretically there but reality is always messier than computer models.
Things in stores go missing. They get put in the wrong places. They get stolen. They take longer to get from the truck to the floor than the computer estimates. Coworkers or the computers make errors when recording where in the warehouse something should be. Customers pick things up and set them down randomly on the opposite side of the store.
The rule of thumb is that you should be able to find at least 91% of the items people order. If your percentage of not-found items gets higher than 9% it reflects badly on our store location meaning it reflects poorly on the boss meaning the boss gets mad at you. In the end the fulfillment includes a detective element of searching for those missing items that I find can be a bit frustrating.
On top of this accuracy measure is a timed element. Our chain promises pick up orders ready in four hours so every order in the computer has a count down timer. Employees have three hours to find the items and get them ready for pick up. But new orders are always coming in. If there are only a few orders its not a big deal but if everyone is ordering at once there isn't anyway to keep up with only the dedicated fulfillment staff no matter how fast they go.
When there are 100 orders backed up the bosses get on the radio to crack the whip, ordering workers to go faster. But the usual point of complete overload is around 150 orders. Once that threshold is crossed the fulfillment folks ask for help and any available managers or supervisors come and fill a few orders to help get caught up before going back to their normal work.
But yesterday orders not only went past 150, they went past 500 and then continued to climb to over 1000. The store was scrambling. This is way more than management could help with even if they weren't dealing with a super busy day of in person shoppers. They started calling in reinforcements.
They tried getting workers who weren't scheduled that day to come in at a moments notice. They pulled anyone cross-trained for the job out of their normal normal departments. They were so desperate they were even giving new people a ten minute crash course and sending them out to help. (This lead to a higher than normal number of errors that guest services was not pleased to have to deal with)
Even with all these extra people helping out the situation was pretty hopeless. Accuracy was sacrificed and the idea of getting orders done on time was completely thrown out the window.
I was one of those folks called over to help tackle the tsunami since around Christmas time I had been trained in fulfillment. The holidays is the only time where this huge number of orders are expected but at that time the store knows to prepare with a cadre of seasonal hires.
I was a bit rusty but I got into the swing of things after my couple of month hiatus. I don't know that I have a preference for or against helping work the pick up orders, work is work. It is a little bit different so it can be a a nice change of pace.
The most interesting aspect of helping with the pick up orders during this pandemic is thinking about the people in isolation doing the ordering, about how one person was choosing to spend their time compared to others.
One order I filled was all fitness gear, dumbbells, a yoga mat, and the like. Another person had me get all the ingredients for making chocolate chip cookies. One huge order suggested that someone was completely remodeling their living room. More than one person was planning on honing their art skills while quarantined. A haul of new PlayStation games was in the future for one customer and a fishing trip for another. I hope I didn't ruin someone's dreams of nachos when the only item for their order I couldn't find were the tortilla chips they'd ordered. (This is one of the weaknesses of our pick up system. If you were there in the store you could just choose one of the other tortilla chip brands we carry but me as your proxy am only allowed to pick the exact specific items you ordered; size brand, color, etc.)
Even with this influx of pick up orders it isn't like there was a noticeable decrease in the number of folks shopping in store. I'm not sure what the store plans to do with this is a new normal.
Our store always has a handful of folks working "fulfillment." They go around using the store's fancy handheld computer finding the items that people ordered online and preparing them for distribution by either bagging them for pickup or packaging them for delivery. (The chain I work for offers online shopping but they don't have warehouses like amazon. Instead they treat their stores like warehouses and ship from the one closest to the order-er that has the desired item in stock.)
These workers face unique stresses the rest of us don't. When they're looking for items in the store its based on what the computer thinks is theoretically there but reality is always messier than computer models.
Things in stores go missing. They get put in the wrong places. They get stolen. They take longer to get from the truck to the floor than the computer estimates. Coworkers or the computers make errors when recording where in the warehouse something should be. Customers pick things up and set them down randomly on the opposite side of the store.
The rule of thumb is that you should be able to find at least 91% of the items people order. If your percentage of not-found items gets higher than 9% it reflects badly on our store location meaning it reflects poorly on the boss meaning the boss gets mad at you. In the end the fulfillment includes a detective element of searching for those missing items that I find can be a bit frustrating.
On top of this accuracy measure is a timed element. Our chain promises pick up orders ready in four hours so every order in the computer has a count down timer. Employees have three hours to find the items and get them ready for pick up. But new orders are always coming in. If there are only a few orders its not a big deal but if everyone is ordering at once there isn't anyway to keep up with only the dedicated fulfillment staff no matter how fast they go.
When there are 100 orders backed up the bosses get on the radio to crack the whip, ordering workers to go faster. But the usual point of complete overload is around 150 orders. Once that threshold is crossed the fulfillment folks ask for help and any available managers or supervisors come and fill a few orders to help get caught up before going back to their normal work.
But yesterday orders not only went past 150, they went past 500 and then continued to climb to over 1000. The store was scrambling. This is way more than management could help with even if they weren't dealing with a super busy day of in person shoppers. They started calling in reinforcements.
They tried getting workers who weren't scheduled that day to come in at a moments notice. They pulled anyone cross-trained for the job out of their normal normal departments. They were so desperate they were even giving new people a ten minute crash course and sending them out to help. (This lead to a higher than normal number of errors that guest services was not pleased to have to deal with)
Even with all these extra people helping out the situation was pretty hopeless. Accuracy was sacrificed and the idea of getting orders done on time was completely thrown out the window.
I was one of those folks called over to help tackle the tsunami since around Christmas time I had been trained in fulfillment. The holidays is the only time where this huge number of orders are expected but at that time the store knows to prepare with a cadre of seasonal hires.
I was a bit rusty but I got into the swing of things after my couple of month hiatus. I don't know that I have a preference for or against helping work the pick up orders, work is work. It is a little bit different so it can be a a nice change of pace.
The most interesting aspect of helping with the pick up orders during this pandemic is thinking about the people in isolation doing the ordering, about how one person was choosing to spend their time compared to others.
One order I filled was all fitness gear, dumbbells, a yoga mat, and the like. Another person had me get all the ingredients for making chocolate chip cookies. One huge order suggested that someone was completely remodeling their living room. More than one person was planning on honing their art skills while quarantined. A haul of new PlayStation games was in the future for one customer and a fishing trip for another. I hope I didn't ruin someone's dreams of nachos when the only item for their order I couldn't find were the tortilla chips they'd ordered. (This is one of the weaknesses of our pick up system. If you were there in the store you could just choose one of the other tortilla chip brands we carry but me as your proxy am only allowed to pick the exact specific items you ordered; size brand, color, etc.)
Even with this influx of pick up orders it isn't like there was a noticeable decrease in the number of folks shopping in store. I'm not sure what the store plans to do with this is a new normal.
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