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.
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