Not much going on. Opening day s---d, bridge was closed. Not feeling good about this second store or what's happening in the Pacific northwest
13 replies (most recent on top)
@8moe Performing to target
How's this second store doing?
In response to -1tia's comments:
I just had a chance to check out the Silver Lake 365 two days ago. I haven't been to any wfm's since I was laid off last year, but I have checking this site since and was intrigued and in the area. I should have made a post just for this visit.
It was a sad, small and clinically lit box with groceries in it. There was NOTHING inside that reminded me of my old and beloved store. Speaking of NOTHING, it was a lively monday afternoon with tons of people out on the street, and there were four other customers in there shopping besides me with the little handbasket things. I'm sorry but this is NOT spelling healthy sales volume if it's at all representative of customer count. The TMs inside looked confused and shell-shocked, I couldn't put my finger on why except for that maybe they had a really nasty customer before I came in. I noticed the customers spending quite a bit of time checking out a few items. Didn't seem to be efficient, and when they looked around for help they were met with that goofy artwork on the wall, not a TM there to help them.
If this is the future of the company, then you're right: IT'S A CONCEPT I DON'T GET. I'd bet money too that a whole lot of other people won't get it either. I also don't get why you're hopping on this forum to offer smug comments when that's exactly what my old regional 'leadership' would do... hhmmm you smell funny to me.
Anyway yeah, let me know how everyone else is wrong in how they DON'T GET A CONCEPT when you seem to have such a good grasp on it. Especially a concept that I saw with my own eyes is failing.
I visited the store I last worked at yesterday - what a mess, team members looked miserable and lost. The morale is definitely below 1 and team members are just in it for a pay day, no passion whatsoever!
It appears someone has been drinking a bit too much 365 koolaid!
Hahaha.... Gotta love the corporate trolls! I can't wait until they receive their layoff notice...
I do not usually write on here but I have to jump in on this because that is the stupidest
post I have seen on these boards. Did you really say the gravy train to keep rolling in?We are paying our TMs less each day and asking more of them, there is no gravy train. You are humouring me and your comments are atrociously feigning from reality. Comfort of our arm chair? The people on here are the ones who are in the stores doing the work and dealing with the customers or they are people who left the mess and are on here doing counseling. If you are defending the mess that WFM is right now then you are obviously in a position high enough that you cannot see reality in stores. You need to wake up. Hiding by being anonymous? Where is your name on your post? The "365 team" as you put it is ruining WFM. We used to be one team before we sold out and went into the self canibalization business. It is just like someone said earlier we are copying Trader Joes and it is pathetic and it is painful to watch.
I don't think the issue is whether or not people like 365, but if it is going to make the company successful. In the Oregon stores, we've lost a lot of customers to New Seasons, the existing stores don't stand a chance especially with 365 on top of them.
I love listening to a bunch of people talking about a store they haven't been in and a concept they don't get. Is it really a gimmick to create a model that gets people the groceries they love at a lower price? The biggest complaint our customers have had year after year is price, so the 365 team came up with a way to change that. What becomes of it? A bunch of anonymous people on the internet grumbling about it and disparaging it because they are comfortable in their roles. They are comfortable with their job and they expect the gravy train to keep rolling into the station. You want Whole Foods to be a successful company, then get ready for change because our competition is.
It's fine if you don't like it and it's uncomfortable. Sitting around acting high and mighty thinking you know if something is successful or not from the comfort of your arm chair as opposed to seeing the purpose and the mission of these models, well that's on you. If you just want to sit back and watch Whole Foods burn, that's on you and probably a damn good reason that we've had some of the trouble that we've had. Enjoy the comfort of your armchair anonymity, and your too cool complacency and smothering smugness. In the meantime hard working people are going to go and make the changes we need as a company.
Well if it's slow during the first month then it's really going to slow down once all the extra help and freebies and loss leaders go bye-bye.
I was in a TJs recently and loved it. I love their products, their everyday low prices and the friendly staff. The quality is excellent and they have a lot of unique things that 365 with its generic focus can't come close to. I was in and out in a flash. The whole thing was a gimmick free experience. BTW, the average age in there was not millennial. I'd say it skewed slightly older as a matter of fact so I don't get the obsession with millennials held the Bobbsey Twins.
Those Lake Oswego residents want the dog-and-pony show with the froo-froo fixtures and 'ambience'. There is a good reason that property was available in the first place. The people in that zip code can mostly afford to pay the 'full' price at a full-sized WFM. It was a silly locale in the first place.
What do you expect? It is an unoriginal knockoff of TJs. People are not dumb. Do not act as if you have this new concept when the entire world giggles at the fact that you have sank so low that you have to reinvent yourself as a carbon copy of a former competitor who has now blown by you. Why do they blow by us? Because they stick to their values and treat their team members right and pay them accordingly. WFM needs to get rid of these "consultants" and go back to the old formula where everyone is secure in their position and paid well. When you lost TM happiness, you lost. They should have never made those cuts last year. Now to see all of this combining is the sign that the end is near, the passion is gone and the brand and values are dead.
So the opening day was 7/21?