They have implemented that all merchandisers and sales people are one of the same. We all put out all the new product , do markdowns, recovery and ring up customers. They rolled it out and it starts NOW! They think they can schedule everyone ANYWHERE to merchandise and to sell. So no more expertise in any area, and you could be a man and sell mens but now be in womens Bras. this is crazy!! Why not keep people who know what they are doing in areas they know already ? And most sales people are that because they like to sell, now we think we can " teach" people how to merchandise? This is not something everyone can do. It is an involved process, that also involves spacial sense . You dont get new product in and just have an empty space to put it!! I agree with everyone helping customers , and everyone already should be or they are in the wrong job, but making people used to back of the house ring customers and front of the house put the new stock out is not going to work. Even Kohls has a better system, and it shows with the sales they have had!!
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There's to much drama at Macy's.
There is no conspiracy theory here folks. It is a way to survive for a struggling organization (hiring, coverage) to insure that the entire workforce can fill in and complete any task. Call it a 'one stop shop' workforce. Other retailers have done it, others are combining functions this year. Macy*s should have done this years ago but are in a position now that they must do it.
Same concept with 'globalized department managers' , (exception of 3 areas) work in one area one day, and another the next. Its a shock type of change that associates and teams have an over the top reaction to. You get the typical ' this will totally fail ' and 'this is horrible' and on the other end the 'this is going to be great' person. This is a normal reaction to a large change and anyone should know this. Sure there are folks that will say ' I didn't sign up for this' but this is change and make your choice. Macy*s has removed, changed and combined several positions in the last 3 years alone. This for sure isn't the last change, think OVM. Bottom line it will role out everywhere and it will work in time. Why? Some will leave, others will adjust and a business will move forward. Before you say they will fail and close up shop, look at how long Sears and JCP have hung around.
Our customers will need to adjust as well. Those clients or at least repeat customers that shop expect a level of service in certain areas. This learning curve of them and associates will be a hard one. The person who working in young men's and now covers housewares will not have the product knowledge (perhaps never) to speak with that customer. Just like Kohl's. they take you to what you came in for, apply a coupon and that's about it.
Of course there are experts in merchandising and selling and hopefully they will continue to be able to do that a majority of the time, put your ace's there places type of plan.
Are they trying to get the support team to quit so that they don’t have to lay them off? They are teaching all selling employees to do everything the support team does already through the new integrated workforce ....so if the support team calls out to “prove a point”.... then they will hurt their reliability percentage and then end up being fired for poor attendance and then Macy’s wins by not having to lay them off. Hmmm......
Our store went neighborhood and centralized registers on both floors, the problem is that each floor has three different entrances which meant that we now have four entrances without a nearby register which is GREAT for shop lifters. Since we have so little staffing and only staff the registers on the 2nd floor, we lose so much stuff out of the other two doors we don't even try to discourage thieves by asking them if they need help. One manager was fired for approaching a shoplifter about the merchandise they were walking out of the building with and now everyone just ignores the shoplifters who know that we don't have any AP and can't stop them. We are seeing way more lifting as business is picking up this year but as a neighborhood store we are going to be closing by the end of next year anyway, so we are just sticking around waiting for severance. Almost no visits and what are they going to do, fire us and try to hire someone into a store that everyone knows is closing soon?
The Foley's years had alot of employees. Everyone did everything at there department. Now Macy's is a total mess. Most of the employees are quiting or getting layoff. Now nobody wants to work for this company.
The stores remain too big while they continue to lay off more people with good work ethic and experience.
EXACTLY!
It worked "back then" because there were three times as many employees! smh
Yes this worked "back then" in other stores because sales managers had maybe one or two small areas to manage and there were many more sales folks. I was a manager in one of them and I had intimate apparel and a small designer RTW area to take care of and that was it. In a store the size I'm in now we would have had at least 10 sales managers which we now have 4.
It's completely not working right now because there are so few sales folks so almost all support hours are going to sales. In our store, which is in the top 50, it's basically 4 -5 people placing all merchandise and doing all markdowns. The only support task that is getting done by the rest of the folks is fitting room recovery and they aren't even keeping up on that. Most good folks are on their way out so this store that was always a superstar in the company I imagine will fall apart. It's very sad.
I see the future as a Kohl's situation where there are cashiers at the entrances and then you cannot find one other person to help you in the entire store unless you push a button to call for help which may or may not ever come. And you'll be shopping thru racks that haven't been straighten or merchandised properly in weeks.
The way to compete against Amazon is to offer top notch customer service and an environment that is fun and appealing. Macy's is doing everything to work against those goals. Why come in to a brick and mortar to shop when you can't get any help anyway and you can't find anything because it's a huge mess?
“Hey there..... Just sayin, this is what we used to do years ago when volume in stores was not high. We merchandised our floors, did markdowns, gave lunches, etc. Guess what...... IT WORKED! Managers merchandised their floors, gave lunches, supervised markdowns and gave lunches, wrote schedules 3 weeks in advance. You people do not know what worlk is. If you don't like it leave.”
I Remember these days!! It was so much better and easier to be honest. You owned your floors and your business and not all these middle level managers like ovm and mba muddying the waters. Simpler times hope we go back to this
The pilot program in our store is driving everyone crazy. Our store is a growth store. 🤨
Dillards has been doing this for years. The only thing is that their business is way less than Macy's
True! Years ago when it was Foley's. 🤔
Hey there..... Just sayin, this is what we used to do years ago when volume in stores was not high. We merchandised our floors, did markdowns, gave lunches, etc. Guess what...... IT WORKED! Managers merchandised their floors, gave lunches, supervised markdowns and gave lunches, wrote schedules 3 weeks in advance. You people do not know what worlk is. If you don't like it leave.
Our store in South Texas is part of the pilot program, it's a nightmare. 🙉
LOL been hearing this since day one when I was still new to the company. They mentioned this twice but it never got on the way and when I got laid off early last year some of my ex co workers were telling me that there were talks of this again but when I went to visit them some months later everyone is still doing the same tasks. It seems like the higher ups want to push this forward already but are worried that employees will start quitting so they just keep canceling it and then bring it up again later as a "possible change to the company" as usual.
Some sales associates do not “sell” because often there aren’t enough sales associates working and there are lines of customers that just want to check out. So at this time the sales associate job is mostly a cashier. It can take too long to get all the other categories that they are responsible for at the POS such as getting credit applications or bronze memberships,m explaining and doing preselling, explaining and getting clients, asking and explaining to do an email survey, helping to choose their best coupon/discount, asking them to roundup, etc. These are expectations for each customer.
Well this doesn't line up with what my store manager said to a couple of us. She said it is not the sales associate's job to put out merchandise, she is there to sell to reach sales goals. It is up to the merchandiser and back of house (support) to place merchandise. Of course that also contradicted what she said before. She is more worried about sales which I do kind of understand but that just adds more workload to back of house colleagues.
"why cant men sell bras?" True! Many men have bigger breasts than women🙃🙃
They are planning on implementing this system company-wide in August.
Good luck, to all!
Men can sell bras. Professional sales, any selling environment, can simply be trained on product knowledge. I agree, those inclined with true sales ability are as unique to those who have the same skill set to merchandise. Simply put, the bigger worry is the department stores do not have the payroll available to pay for either, nor the loyalty to their employees to be able to deal with fall out if those same left. Hence no more commission in areas of specialty like a ling--ie department. And same, even with the best sought after merchandiser when tasked a b-a fitting; well, hopefully the client is willing to guide the procedure. Most likely, ZERO training has been offered to sales associates now merchandising and merchandisers now selling. This model was put in practice one year ago when retailers brought employees back. Like the masks we’ve been wearing, cmon Macy’s! Just now enforcing model with a year to train? Again, it’s not only the employees but returning clients as well. Did Macy’s really think the clients wouldn’t return?
This pilot program is a disaster waiting to happen.
Welcome to the new world of retail. If anyone is uncomfortable with it they should find a new career. I know I did.
why cant men sell bras?
In order to have a flexible workspace you need to have intelligent, motivated, experienced professionals. I have done all of the above with success, so I know that it is possible. However, it will be very difficult to do this efficiently and to Macy's standards with PT employees. Macy's does provide direction with regard to general placement of merchandise, but having an "eye" for what looks good is something that takes time to develop. Also, it sometimes takes 6 months for new hires to learn how to properly fold clothing, organize racks, and balance their "floor time" and "register time". Men occasionally work ling––ie and occasionally size bras, but usually customers prefer to have a female employees handle these more delicate matters.
It will be good to have central checkout as long as the customers can find it. Some stores are still too big with too many floors and walls for department separation. This could be a major change in some stores.
I guess it is rolled out to 50 stores and the rest will happen later.. they will all have central check out, that makes sense, FOR THE SALES PEOPLE TO RING!! They think they are reacting to poor sales and copying successful stores like Kohls. Kohls PAYS their people MORE money!! Macys has poor customer service since no one can find a sales person in the store to ring them up, so central check out means no more customer service to worry about anymore. WHy not hire more SALES PEOPLE, and lower your PAY in your store managers and JEFFS!
hunger games as begun... i agree why would you put a guy in bras hes not going to know sizes or fit or anything.. `clearly this is being put into place to nix some managers by end of summer.. watch..!
they will has associates doing everything and back of house helping and ringing up people... what a nightmare. No commission in shoes yet they will move you to somewhere else to do someone elses job... unreal... ill say this.... this is going down fast!..