The Woolworths Thread (20 Viewers)

[powlmao]

You switch to checkouts and don't do recovery anymore? That's weird. I've alternating between both all year but less recovery lately because many people went onto contract for recovery.

Not 100% sure but i am fairly sure I will only do checkouts now.

Reocvery is bad.

 

[powlmao]

Dick Smith falls under the Woolworths National Agreement 2009 right?

I believe show.

In the EBA it show state it.

 

[terminator69]

Reocvery is bad.

Yeah, it is. I've been wondering what's going to happen towards the end of this year because I believe my store hires new employees every year, and most will be going onto recovery. And when I started working there and doing recovery, all the recovery people were pretty much new people. Thus I'm not sure what happens to existing employees doing recovery when the hiring period comes around...

 

[bouncingCats]

It is actually retarded that our supermarkets don't have these...

You can say we sort of had a podium when self serve came out a few years back... It was a touch screen monitor at the service desk to watch all the SCO register transactions and the self serve attendant had a PDA with them to scan heavy objects and to help clear the "Assistance Required" screen. I remember standing with the PDA, using it to clear the 'assistance required' screen if I couldn't be bothered walking to the SCO register (only if the queues were quiet and if the customer genuinely made a mistake)

 

[Jolyon]

Most Coles up here now have Self Serve. Woohoo no more customers going "I will go to Coles because of these Self Serve" haha

 

[powlmao]

Yeah, it is. I've been wondering what's going to happen towards the end of this year because I believe my store hires new employees every year, and most will be going onto recovery. And when I started working there and doing recovery, all the recovery people were pretty much new people. Thus I'm not sure what happens to existing employees doing recovery when the hiring period comes around...

Nothing.

Old staff will definity be taken over old. New staff around Christmas tend to not get anymore shifts after January.

Trust me, new staff always 'annoy' managers.

 

[_be]

You can say we sort of had a podium when self serve came out a few years back... It was a touch screen monitor at the service desk to watch all the SCO register transactions and the self serve attendant had a PDA with them to scan heavy objects and to help clear the "Assistance Required" screen. I remember standing with the PDA, using it to clear the 'assistance required' screen if I couldn't be bothered walking to the SCO register (only if the queues were quiet and if the customer genuinely made a mistake)

OH WOW

Do you have any idea as to why these would have been removed?

 

[bensneddon]

OH WOW

Do you have any idea as to why these would have been removed?

As ekul444 said, the RPO terminals and PDAs were part of the NCRSCO setup. When we transitioned to WoWPOS SCO, we lost this functionality.

One of the main reasons Woolworths moved away from NCRSCO software was the dependency on the RPO terminal. If the RPO terminal went offline, the SCOs stopped working.

Also there was a limit to the number of SCOs that one RPO terminal could handle, whereas WoWPOS SCO has virtually no limit. This was especially important when stores started featuring 10+ SCOs.

 

[iMatthew]

I wish they built in PDA functionality, would make our lives so much easier, really.

On a funny note, the training document distributed internally that has the iPhone information on it, one of the questions is "Why did we develop an app" or something along those lines, I was a bit sneaky, drew a line and wrote "cause coles has one!". Hahha, had a bit of a giggle to myself.

 

[bensneddon]

All they do is just encourage laziness by the supervisor which results in less customer contact and more errors/missed items/shrinkage. It's far easier to walk over to the register and actually talk to the customer to work out what is wrong then trying to decide whether or not it is a simple weight error by looking at the PDA screen. What do you think?

+1 for ekul444's point of view. The PDA's didn't encourage interaction with customers. It is still very important for the customers to see the 'smiling face' for both loss prevention and customer satisfaction reasons.

 

[iMatthew]

During the day, without a doubt, but at night when we are not busy, I may be stuck serving smokes whilst an honest customer has to wait for me to finish serving and walk all the way around, and generally you can see what they have done wrong (e.g take the bag off too early).
It would be easy to misuse the PDA's, but I could definitely see them used to their potential..

 

[bensneddon]

During the day, without a doubt, but at night when we are not busy, I may be stuck serving smokes whilst an honest customer has to wait for me to finish serving and walk all the way around, and generally you can see what they have done wrong (e.g take the bag off too early).
It would be easy to misuse the PDA's, but I could definitely see them used to their potential..

There should always be an attendanct in the SCO area. They should not leave under any circumstances.

 

[BSammy]

Yes, that is correct. Never happens tho, the amount of times I'm required to watch self serve, smoke counter and supervise at once, that's the jobs of 3 people at once. rediculous. Only at night when it's quiet, but still.

 

[bensneddon]

Yes, that is correct. Never happens tho, the amount of times I'm required to watch self serve, smoke counter and supervise at once, that's the jobs of 3 people at once. rediculous. Only at night when it's quiet, but still.

This definitely shouldn't be happening. The Duty Manager and/or Store Manager would get reamed if Loss Prevention saw that.

 

[iMatthew]

This definitely shouldn't be happening. The Duty Manager and/or Store Manager would get reamed if Loss Prevention saw that.

Yes, they would, but it does happen and if you don't think it does, then you obviously haven't seen very much at the store level.

 

[bensneddon]

Yes, they would, but it does happen and if you don't think it does, then you obviously haven't seen very much at the store level.

I know it happens, but I was just trying to say that it shouldnt

 

[nanakid12]

What's everyone store's busy-ness levels?

Ours usually picks up in the afternoon (of a weekday to about 4 people on registers with only one or two people waiting behind in line. Then during the night, it goes really quiet- only two people need to be on registers after about 6pm, with one operator doing jobs, the supervisor doing their thing. Then we usually lose one at 8pm, 9pm (which is also when the store closes), and then both an operator and the supervisor finish at 9:30pm.

Also, I did ask before but it could have easily been missed, but I was wondering if all stores are getting the black signs with the Store Manager, Duty Manager and Customer Service Manager/Supervisor out the front, or is it just a few (this was mentioned earlier) as we've only had our Produce Specials sign for about 3 weeks? Thanks everyone.

 

[powlmao]

I know it happens, but I was just trying to say that it shouldnt

I would do it if I could.

 

[bensneddon]

Tjeerd Jegen has just been announced as Greg Foran's replacement in the role of Director of Australian Supermarkets and Petrol.

He is from outside the company and currently is CEO of Tesco Malaysia.

"He will take up his position following release from his current contractual arrangements by the end of this calendar year."

Tjeerd is a graduate of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Holland and has a BSc and an MSc in Business Administration. He has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley.

 

[bensneddon]

Also, I did ask before but it could have easily been missed, but I was wondering if all stores are getting the black signs with the Store Manager, Duty Manager and Customer Service Manager/Supervisor out the front, or is it just a few (this was mentioned earlier) as we've only had our Produce Specials sign for about 3 weeks? Thanks everyone.

Yes - all stores will get this signage.