Idiot math class.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 41 Location: out west

What I want to know is do any of these number crunchers at the G/O realize how much money they throw away everyday? Today alone I had close to $5,000 worth the business walk out the door because we had no staff to help them. I had one man who wanted to buy 2 sos doors at $750 a pop, but by the time I could help him he walked by and said to forget it, he'd buy it where he could get some help. That's just one sale. That happens daily at my store and I'm sure it does at your stores too! Granted the $5,000 is a best guess, but I bet I'm not off much. So if we put the cruncher to it at a 20% margin that's a grand in profit that walked out the door. So for that grand that walked out the door we could have hired a salesperson for $10.00/hr for 2 1/2 weeks. Let's say that in that time we save $1,000 a day from walking(and that's conservative) we've gained $200 a day profit @ 12 1/2 days that's $2500-profit. I'm talking one dept.! At that rate do you know how much money and customer base Lowes is throwing away for the want of bonuses. I'm thinking that they probably aren't that smart. Just think what our stock would do if we had optimists running the numbers instead of idiots? If you can't tell I'm just blowing off some steam and it helped, that's more than you can say for the jokers running this company!!!!!

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

I see this everyday myself oldskool, i've even brought it up in meeting that we lose more in sales daily then we save by cutting payroll. Unless it's right in front of them on paper they can't see it. They can add up what they can save cutting hours, but can't see what they lose in sales. I guess we could say, they can't see the forrest for the trees.

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 14 Location: Upstate NY

oldskool: Its the same in most Lowes stores these days, buddy.
The focus is more and more on mgt. bonus, cutting expenses, not on the core business of SELLING to and SERVICING the CUSTOMER. Don't beat your head against that wall - you'll get nowhere.

Keep some Comment cards available, hand them out to customers who get impatient and upset and want to stomp off.
Lowes will respond to customer complaints (no matter if they are false or crazy) but not to employee constructive suggestions. Its just the way the corporation is wired.

Ask customers to let Lowes GO know that this store needs more staff.
**MAKE SURE you project a positive impression of yourself so any comments/complaints won't appear as a complaint about you, but about the situation in which you are trying to service them, they are trying to shop here. Also, try to service those customers before they get impatient.

If a customer wants a SO item, you should jump on that - commissions are sweet. Get the cust. name, tel #, call them back. It can be hard: you're trapped for 45 minutes doing a deck design (and redesign) for customers with no command of the English language, or stuck with an indescisive customer who needs your total attention to help them purchase that $69 storm door...while there are other customers getting impatient, and the PHONE CALLS, quotes you need to knock out - all are opportunities. You have to juggle and dance and entertain like a street performer. Ain't easy. Don't lose your sense of humor - crack jokes, keep it light - if for no other reason than to keep it from making you get twitchy.

YOU manage the relationship with the customer - would any of your managers come back to assist you? Doubtful. Millwork, Flooring, Kitchen Design sales frighten most of the managers - too difficult, they can't understand the lingo. Its....WORK!! And do you want them to muck about in your deals, anyway?

Unfortunately, that's the way it is. Sucks big time, and the best you can hope for is that you have a decent set of coworkers to call for assistance,(develop them as folks you can call on, help them sometime - or buy them beers). If you are lucky, there are a couple decent managers who understand the situation, and will try to be honest about it and maybe help you do your job. Just don't let it make you miserable or crazy.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 41 Location: out west

Thanks for the tips, prosales, I try all of them most of the time, but the comment card would be a nice touch. I've been at this for 9+ years with this company and in the last year and a half it has gone to hell in a hand basket! I still try to keep my demeanor upbeat, but once in a while I just get meaner! There was one time I chased a guest out into the parking lot as he was getting into his car and talked him back into the store for a $200 range. I liked the challenge! But with the way the company operates today, I've lost the drive! Some of my most difficult customers are now my best customers. No matter if they are good or bad they all ask me why I put myself through this kind of B/S. Just a glutton I guess. Anyhow, thanks for the response--it does help to know that somebody listens!

Joined: 12 Jul 2003 Posts: 9

I wake up every morning to the Bloomberg report,and like all of us take pride and enjoy seeing our numbers go up,and I could't help but think the same thing.
My thoughts are not so much about our life giving sales, but the overall state of confusion and mess our stores must be in.(If they are anything like mine).Maybe corporate can try this word out, can you say COUNTERPRODUCTIVE. What use to take only moments to do now takes 3 times or longer,I work in Receiving,where an accumulation of stock,resets and trash have taken over.With the understaffing and the safety codes noone has time to deal with this stuff,we have pallets of stock that have gotten buried for over 3 weeks,every vendor sending their resets there to sit and wait for a month to come and put up.Management has enacted a trash inspection,the shoot stays locked until an MOD can come unlock it and make sure the staff is not throwing away saleable product.Of course that blocks the cardboard bin so that if anyone cannot push their cart full of cardboard
right up to the machine,they leave it there.
Remember the days when you could not get a picker,they were always in use,now they sit idle,getting in the way.It is easier for the staff to just take their pallets back to Receiving to clear the floor than it is to put them up.The SOS bins stay blocked,frustrating salespeople who are trying to pull the product for the customer. I could go on, but I won't,I walk away with overtime every week that could be used to pay another employee.Time wasted,energy burned,how much better our numbers would be if we were running on a full tank of employees. Thanks for listening.[/u]

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

Giddyup:
If you're getting OT every week, you should join this class action suit to collect underpaid OT. Even if you are paid real OT, (1.5x hourly rate), you can join the suit and collect on a settlement. The suit is not just for those paid "chinese OT", but ALL employees who get ANY overtime.
EVERY Lowes employee should join this suit.

The webpage LOWESCLASSACTION will be up in a couple days. Spread the word to current and former Lowes employees. It is a suit to collect ALL underpaid OT.

Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 6

Hi all,just wanted to put my few cents in. Razz

Do any of you remember the posters in the breakroom a few years ago:LEVERAGE EXPENSES Mad

(yes,those were Tilman's exact written words)?Did anybody ever have their store manager shout "LEVERAGED PAYROLL WE'RE GONNA DO MORE WITH LESS"? Sad

Well,I looked up leverage in the dictionary:means borrow money expectin' that you earn more than the interest costs you Rolling Eyes

.All I can figure is that they were saying they'd save enough in payroll to make up for what they loose in sales Surprised

.Does anybody agree/disagree?

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 41 Location: out west

Sure sounds like the way they want to run with it.
"Customers, we don't need no stinkin' customers!"
Why do we as employees waste our time building a customer base just to have corporate flush all our work down the toilet?
There are some sick bastards working in G/O. Greed, it's the corporate version of SARS!

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

Lowe's seems to be trying to keep pace with Home Depot, and not be what a Home Improvement should or could be.
The Depot right near to my store is a hellhole - really terrible looking place, low morale, crappy service - its the worst. Is that what Lowe's is trying to become? Stay 1 step better than THAT?
I will tell you that the other main competition around here, a small (10 store) chain is not hurting from all the Depots and Lowe's competition. In fact, their stores are thriving - way into double digit comps over last year. They are picking up a LOT of sales from customers who are fed-up with the poor service, lack of salesfloor coverage, delivery screwups, sos screwups, bad installations that Depot - and now Lowe's are doing. We have slipped into Depot land, and it appears deliberate.
Its like we are a newly wed who now says "I don't have to look good anymore, I can just let all that made me attractive slip".
Its really hard to keep up the pride without the resources to do our job - we are barely getting by, here. Had to spend overnites helping Seasonal do resets that were past due. Now who's gonna help my department? 4 days away from Flooring, and it is rough. We are too shorthanded.

Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Posts: 15

...here I am at a store doing around 1M a week. I show up at 5:30 to open, and check the schedule....1 person in building materials until noon, 1 person in millwork until 1 p.m., 1 person in plumbing until 11 a.m., nobody in toolworld until 3pm, and me alone in hardware until 1pm...it's a Saturday for crying out loud! Just what does our corporate office expect, because it certainly isn't superior customer service.....I ended up cutting at the saw in BM, the plumbing specialist had to cover hardware, and millwork covered plumbing, and then I had to turn around and work millwork...I am so tired of this! Mad

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

wow whizbang. - Sat. was my day off, but my guys called me to tell me that same lack of staffing was at our store (Flooring had coverage - I did the schedule). They told me to not answer the phone if Lowes calls, SM wanted all dm's and specs to come in, even if not scheduled. Sure enough, caller ID saved my day off.
Who does the scheduling for your store? Is there anyone responsible for looking at it, say a week in advance? It doesn't happen here, very well.

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 214

Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 9

Same thing here. On Sat (I'm dm over cabinets,appliances,flooring) I had 1 spec in flooring, and no one after 6pm in appliances or cabinets. All 3 got slammed at the same time. There are no people to schedule, in the past 2 weeks I've lost 2 in flooring(transfered to other depts by asm's) 1 out of cabinets(retired) and 2 out of appliances (1 back to school and the other fired). Does anyone care, no, they just tell you to work harder. Screw that! I went from running 1 area to 3, no raise involved, so why should i have to work harder, because the asm's surely don't.

Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 50

So, do you talk about this nonesense - or a solution - in the weekly meetings? We do - all the dm's are in a state of near revolt over it, having all but 1 come up from being CSA and Specialist - and are now told we have to come in on our days off, or do overnites to make sure resets and freight get done.
2 dm's have stepped down, and there have been no responses for over a month to the postings for those positions. Who covers those departments? Not the ZM, other dm's were assigned to take care of Elec. and Hardware.

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