http://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-employees-reveal-why-stores-are-facing-a-crisis-of-food-shortages-2018-1
18 replies (most recent on top)
Lols. I know this post is 2 years old but people blaming buyers for over ordering is hilarious. Here is what actually happens. The shelf is low or empty so the buyer orders grape juice. Some lazy, inexperienced or just plain stupid tm works load but doesn't feel like stocking the juice or can't find where it goes and they put it directly into (usually the incorrect) backstock unworked. Next backstock doesn't get worked for a week because there isn't even enough labor to finish the loads & faces so it gets reordered. The buyer knows he just ordered it so he checks backstock but the grape isn't in the juice backstock it is actually buried under flour backstock 3 bays over. We can't be OOS for that Sunday scan! So now we have 2 cases of grape juice. 5 minutes after the order is sent the grape juice from 3 loads ago finally gets worked just in time for the next case to arrive and go directly into the incorrect backstock again. Repeat.
Buyers get all the hate when really there is so much they cannot control. Not to mention the times you order diapers but cat food comes instead. You order diapers again and more cat food shows up. Oh the dumb buyer is over ordering cat food and under ordering diapers. what an id–t.
We sometimes get auto-shipped ridiculous amounts of promo or disco liability. Buyers get blamed for that too.
The gun data is not reliable. It only gives average sales and those can be inflated due to promos. When the DVO guns can actually tell buyers how many case you bought & when AND give real units sold since you bought that case and we can somehow eliminate mass tm incompetence then yes blame the buyers if there is over ordering.
From the way it seems OTS may just be a way to frustrate people in hopes that they will quit.
Oh, you mean the restructure that was supposedly happening at the beginning of last week? Yawn.
Any details about the restructuring next month????
Weird that these articles think it is ONLY department managers being written up and getting in trouble. Where they get that from?
I'm in the meat dept. Since OTS our allocations are through the roof. Mostly stuff we don't use. And on the other hand, sale items are OPS after the first delivery. The problem is not at store level.
OTS helped with cleaning out depts and organization. No one has time for 4 to 6 hours of clipboard work every monday.
Allocations are BS hopefully restructuring happens in FEB and they force out some of the coordinators. It s---s when somebody loses there job but there is such a dissconnect between the stores and regional leadership.
Well What about all the numerous allocations that were sent to all the stores over the years that we had no say so about.
The over ordering they done at regional and global levels. What a crock!!! Let's point the finger at those who started this cluster ****
Auto replenishment coming??? Hah hah hah hah
You have no idea how messed up we are as a company for that! I do not believe the proper infrastructure exists. Not yet....I think we have a lot of work to do before we get there. The scan and review scores I believe are mapping out our average buying trends (think 4 week intervals). This observed data will likely assist in determining a trend so the register knows to expect a spike and thusly orders more.
We were suppose to roll out a frozen thing last fall...that did not happen. I do not know why.
Attrition is still in full effect.
RE: @RipyyQH-kor - The program does have some great assess, such as increased organization and clearer sales data, and yes, previous buyers did set us up for failure due to constant over-purchasing and not doing proper BRI (back room inventory), but the program comes from the same source as the buyers over-purchasing style: mismanagement from the top in an attempt to gain sales without foresight or a plan.
RE: @RipyyQH-uom - I am a buyer, and I have ordered never-outs that were OOS from the vendor. And there have been never-outs that I order according to the four-week movement, but then they are not sold, or have to be ordered because they were on promo (lower cost) and now lost margin because of the increased cost/forced ISS. While some stores are exaggerated due to weather, some stores posted come from states that were not affected by recent weather patterns.
All in all, the program is a very reactionary tactic towards fixing excess inventory, and over-purchasing across the whole company. It was rushed out in order to give the shareholders an answer as to they continued to decline in comps and quarterly earnings for the past two years now (possibly more).
Those pictures are probably post hurricane or snow storm. The fake news is using them to make the story look better. The program is designed to ensure you have enough of the top movers, not run out.
I couldn't agree more Buyers caused this mess over the years. The back room inventory were out of control. Nobody held them accountable, for the $100,000 plus in back room inventory on Grocery Teams. How much labor was spent working these over stuffed back rooms? How much labor dollars were spent counting this inventory every quarter? Now we all need to find the balance of low back room inventory and full shelves. Look for the solution instead of blaming the program.
Articles on the OTS failure all over the news.
Do you think NOW it will stop!?!?
The worst system I have ever seen implemented.
I just hope Amazon steps in and stops this madness over who ever is making these decisions. They sure are getting blamed for it by the customers.
How was ots supposed to increase revenue from sales???? It was never explained to me by "leadership" or the regional ots trainers (cheerleaders)...
I think it all just sets the trend to move towards automatic replenishing and auto ordering, they already have the system that manages the inventory of the store but not using it yet, the R12 register system.. its coming..
Wow this article puts OTS on blast big time. Article is trending nationally right now, expect a response from WFM leadership soon. Can’t wait to hear what they say.
...and let's not forget about cutting labor. When there is not enough people to perform checklist duties, things dont get done. Then the TM gets written up for not following OTS standards. Not to mention purchasing budgets get blown by excessive resets, pallet drops, and over-blown buy-ins (WINE is a big one here). WF is no longer a fun job to come to anymore.
I know that the regional/global folks read the comments on this webiste.... SO, you should really consider listening to TMs. One size fits all does not always fit. BUT, it will never happen as it seems that these people dont want to hear it OR there are those that are too afraid to speak out against what is going on. Fear is not a good business practice. Conscious capitalism is not practiced at WFM.
OTS would not have Been implemented If the buyers had been held accountable all those years, it would never gotten to this point. WF has always had rampant nepotism so allot of people had been allowed to screw up for a long time and now some genius came up with OTS to try to save there pointless position at the global level.