Let’s face it, the pandemic has driven the s sales numbers through the roof, and the stock numbers are at an all time high. It’s all “window dressing “. Internally the stores are extremely understaffed in all areas, and the associates are beaten down. As a specialist, we get hammered for more sales, more leads , work your IMS...but the reality is: we are used to downstock, pull freight, answer Code 50’s, pull Internet orders, “go cover this department, go cover that department”. We are told our job is to sell. You are full of it. We are the only ones on the sales floor. We are tasked to death, and the customer is second. The focus by senior management is on appearance, because they are intimidated about (yet another) visit by regional or market teams. The stores are understaffed, freight teams are decimated, Internet sales are way up- yet you haven’t any staffing? The so-called “Customer Centric” scheduling is a complete FAIL! We are in a test market for Specialist Bonus, judged by “sales per hour”, but yet we are scheduled to close, and help with freight and downstock? Your stores are a mess, freight everywhere, resets, dirty bathrooms, understaffed front end and salesfloor . The scheduling of the available staffing is pathetic. Fix this!
25 replies (most recent on top)
It appears that this thread has drawn the corporate shills out of their protective bubble, so that we may be blessed to have their opinions bestowed upon us. We’re not worthy, oh great ones!
@7qit+16D3kWAw- You don't manage people you lead them. This entire board has the same theme on certain posts. Other posts are helpful and allow venting, as it should be. Retail is a number, an objective number that must be made. If you were a leader you would under stand this and understand ( as the other post states) it's all the same ballpark in retail. Name calling simply shows your inability to be an adult, and shows the limits of your thought process in a business.
@4juf ,the last poster. Thanks for the lecture on retail economics.. putz. Your condescending remarks, especially about “doubting that most posters here have ever seen a profit and loss statement”, sound remarkably like the arrogant attitudes a lot of Store Managers in this company display. You know who you are: arrogant, externally recruited mo–ns that know very little about how to manage a store, and even less about how to manage PEOPLE. Spare us.
@3gbz+16D3kWAw has it right, like it or not.
Retail in general has been struggling for years, in particular brick and mortar. The common theme for any post on this site is the same, hourly as all the answers, management (salary) has no idea, no staffing, systems (scheduling/timekeeping/hours/staffing levels) never work, districts and markets have no idea what it's like in 'stores'.
It's basic retail at it's core. You could leave and go to another retailer and experience the exact same issues. Of course some retailer may or may not treat you better, for example the culture at Lowe's is not the culture at Home Depot, or perhaps Target. But trust me that Walmart (exempt and non-exempt) will run you into the ground, and work life balance is simply doesn't exist.
Of course the 'stock' price matters to shareholders and payroll is the largest expense any business has. In retail you will not be paid $50-60K for putting items on shelves, selling items and helping customers , it's that plain and simple. No retailer as multiple associates on a sales floor, even at the busiest times. It's not cost effective, all store environments have a FT/PT ratio they need to maintain to start with. Look at it from a customers view, you have all been there. One day in line and you say to yourself, why is there only 4 check out open? On another day you see 3 associates just talking away or on their phones. Its a balancing act stores have to do, not to mention all other controllable expenses, even turn rate is an issue and cost.
All business's must drive profitability, this is why they sell items. You will staff up on busy days, but not go crazy, this will cut into the sales you want to record. Record sales drove record profits for the main players in retail this year; Lowe's, HD, Target, Walmart and of course Amazon.
On the other side of the coin there is a large percentage (in particular) on this site that never have seen a P/L statement, or expense/margin reports. This year has been a crazy one for certain retailers, but on a average year strong sales do not always lead to strong profits. Stores need to control the controllable expenses. Or the store will not be profitable, even with a sales goal that was met or even exceeded.
Look at Sak's or Macy*s, or even the malls they are in. Walk through the stores, research and read articles as to where they are now vs. a few years back. Do you think they are staffed or operating the way they want to be? Do you believe the moral is better or worse? Point being it's retail, Walmart postponed their GWP reorganization due to the pandemic. It's now in full swing, this means layoff's and reorganization and reductions for the largest employer in the US. Remember they were all ready profitable and are changing the way they do business.
Retail has always been in and is a in 'constant state of change' and it has to be to stay profitable. If you don't move forward you will end up like so many others. Lowe's inventory systems are completely outdated compared to the arch rival HD. You want to improve on the that? That takes capitol expense and a clear path of very detailed planning. That in turn takes money, and a lot of it.
You can complain, believe that your store 'leadership' as no clue (and yes, some do not have any IDEA) or your board of governors is a bunch of losers. Its all retail, everyone person answers to someone else and gets held over a fire.
Macy's board just received (a few weeks back) 9 million in bonuses. Now this is clearly a retailer on the ropes anyway, and stock prices haven't been above $7.00 in months. Now that isn't 9 million in cash and it has Gs & Os before it can be paid out, and fully vested. But everyone thinks this Brinks truck just pulled up and dumped out money at Macy*s headquarters. Should they have declined some deferred stock options? Perhaps that would have been the right thing to do.
Has Marvin gone into a cost cutting mode to increase profitability and try to make a dent in the Pro Services against HD? Yes he sure has, and that's what he is paid for. Perhaps he learned from his mistakes at JCP....perhaps not.
What y’all are describing are problems common in the retail work environment—not just Lowe’s. It sounds to me like many if not most of you that post on here really do need to find other employment in another profession. Lowe’s the company is not going to change to accommodate store level employees—in fact, what you’re describing is only going to intensify. Once the restructure was announced in late 2016/early 2017 i knew as a long term employee that the jig was up for me and i sat down with my wife and planned out an exit strategy. Leaving to accept a job with less pay but better schedule and no stress was the best decision that i have ever made. Add to that the massive culture change still going on at Lowes now and i have absolutely no regrets. i am part of the ‘Old Lowe’s” and as such knew that it was time for me to go. Many of you may fall into that same category but you can’t or don’t want to admit it. Then again some of you may not have a lot of tenure but just simply can’t handle the multitasking and stress management that working in a fast-paced, hair-on-fire, retail work environment. Very few people actually can. Instead of just constantly complaining, take some action. Rest assured, the company is not going to squeeze into your mold of what you think it should be, but the other way around—or they will eventually get rid of you anyway.
I get that we are publicly own business but the pursuit of a higher stock price at the expense of all else is having a strong negative effect on both the store employees and our customers. As a retailer going up against a true Goliath (Home Depot) do we need to evolve? Obviously the answer is Yes, however all the quick, poorly implemented and/or thought through changes are rapidly eroding the quality of both the customer and employee experience at the stores. I know of very few long time employees that want to be here anymore.
Sadly everything the original poster stated is happening at my store but everything stated thus far is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg in my market. Add to that, we are constantly being inundated with customer complaints on our "new" appliance delivery system which in my market consists of both a centralized XDT/cross-dock delivery terminal combined with third party delivery (at both store and XDT terminal) and a totally b–tardized software system cobbled together in a feeble attempt to TRY to support this new process. Train wreck doesn’t even begin to remotely describe what we have been going through since this was dropped on our market. Absolutely no meaningful training ever occurred and most of us had to figure everything out on the fly. This "new" process has been going on for about a year in my market and only marginal software and/or processing improvements have occurred during this entire time. Combine all that with apocalyptically low inventory levels at our servicing ADC (which we have been experiencing since early Q4 2019) and our sales are now about half what they were this time last year yet our workload with this “new” system has EASILY increased fourfold.
Adding to that, on many days the management in my store is NOWHERE to be found! I haven’t even seen my DS in over two weeks (either not on my schedule or working off-shifts/resets). The ASM who is over my dept is also MIA on most days. Store managers’ icon on the ZEBRA PTT screen is almost always RED and can typically be found hiding in the back and sheltered from customers. About the only time I even see my SM is to be berated about not doing my App-For-Me. Not at all uncommon for half of my shift to be spent dealing with the never ending barrage of customer care issues as there usually isn’t a manager to be found to assist the customer with their problem(s). More than a decade and a half with the company and I can tell you that while we were always pushed to excel, I can say what we are now experiencing in my market is a total freefall in customer service due primarily to short-sighted and/or poorly implemented company changes and an extreme shortage of qualified staff. Good luck to any Lowe's store employee that still actually cares about the customer experience as clearly corporate does not.
If customer centric scheduling is such a wonderful time saver, then why does the HR and store manager spend all week editing it to fix the gaps in coverage?
This is what happens when your only focus is reducing costs. Third party companies are horrible for cleaning the store or delivering the products. And all they want to hire is unskilled part timers to fill the stores so they can pay them peanuts and deny them benefits. And all during this they whine about their LTR scores and wonder why they are so low. The company is actually lucky that the pandemic has been driving sales and they act like it was some sort of plan. The only people who’ve benefited from all of this are wealthy shareholders. The rest of us get $300 a month to risk our necks and they think we should be on our knees thanking them for it. Remember, the Best Survey is 11 days away. Let them know what you think.
I think what is most disturbing, the CEOS of many companies are treating their employees so badly, but in the NEWS,they are making themselves HEROIC by spending millions on causes. Marvin in particular. Setting a trend that is being copied by Wells Fargo and BBand t.
I've been there for over 20 years myself. But I've been admin. My last job ,they took the rtm and receiving clerk, 2 - 40 hrs a week positions and made one.That was Marvin. When my manager came back and ask why I wasn't getting it done,after 3 months of hurting myself trying, I just couldn't anymore. And he gets richer every day. And makes himself look like such a generous man. Its sickening.
When it all falls apart which is inevitable they will all wonder what happened
No, they will blame the stores.
working at Lowe's is exhausting no support from upper management / short staffed / over worked never appreciated. It's sad for the workers that actually are there to help customers because they can not do it covering every other dept and fixing issues from someone that's not trained for the job. Lowe's life.....
I hate to break it to you but that’s just life at lowes. I recently retired after a 20+ year career with the company and throughout my ENTIRE time there we never had enough help in the stores. It was all about “leveraging payroll and expenses” and beating last year by at least 10%. Most of the time to do that you have to keep employee headcount at a bare minimum because payroll is the largest expense that a store mgr can control. Every retailer does this however it’s more difficult at Lowes because we sell a lot of large, bulky items that simply require more labor to stock, maintain, and deliver to customers. It’s just the nature of the business and it’s really nothing new— it’s just been magnified because of the large increase in sales volume due to the pandemic.
I’d like to tell you it will get better for store employees, but the truth is it’s not.
Lowes don't pay like they should u don't get anything for the star program
I am an 18 year associate at Lowe's and a flooring specialist. AMEN. You are 100% right
Haha bonus structure designed to fail????? Tell that to the 900$ I’m gonna get this month. Maybe you fail cuz you spend all your time complaining thinking a corporation like Lowe’s owes you something instead of just doing your job
I worked for Lowes for 12 years in multiple high volume stores as Store Manager in NY/NJ Metro area.
Yes, Lowes restructured a few years back, and has much to be desired in fixing a payroll/Staffing issue thats been badly broken for more then a decade..
Their claim is with new more efficient processes , and technology, they need less people to do the job, eliminating many positions during the past decade.
Its a very real issue, along with the most ineffective scheduling software and system, a #1 frustration for a very high % of associates, leadership in the stores, for a very long period of time throughout my career.
This is the true story of Lowe's only ii is much much worse. Under staffed bonus programs for specialists designed to fail. Systems and software programs put in place that do not work. New product roll outs with no back up information or samples.
Thank you. Here I thought I was the only one who felt that Lowes felt understaffed. I haven’t been getting very many days off! It’s exhausting
Well said. All true!!
Ditto
Description of my store, EXACTLY....
The stores are becoming dysfunctional and corporate in their chase to the $200. stock can not see it happening. I believe they will have one ,maybe two quarters good quarters. When the mismanagement will show up in the numbers. Lowes will never recover from Marvin from coring the store management and staff.
just imagine how profitable the company could be if it was more professional, ethically purer less myopic regarding its stock price??
It is so amazing how all these top executives of the company cannot see this major disconnect between corporate and the stores. When it all falls apart which is inevitable they will all wonder what happened