dear John,
I hope you're reading all these posts~ someone said you're "trolling" and i hope you read this one.
First while i commend you for starting this company and being a big part of organic awareness I must also express my disappointment in you.
Do you remember the flood, everything lost but so much gained in vendor, team member and community support?
This is one of the many things you lost sight of in your growing the company, you also lost a lot of vendor relationships with UNFI ordering and decreased tm knowledge that happened using this system.
Do you know why other stores are able to compete with us in organics? One reason is because Vendors can't get into stores.oh they get approved nationally but can't get into regions~ I've met a large number of these vendors and they're all asking how do i get into stores? I've seen some great products, even numbers on their local regions (those lucky enough to get into a few stores) I've emailed information to regional~ no responses or lame ones. We should be giving focus to these items as they're not in our competitors stores~ they set us apart. What does one at regional do? I see them come in, take credit for a walk (doing nothing) and leave.
Customers ,ah yes, customers the reason we're in business. Some are "interesting" and have specific needs/ wants. One of which being quality products, the other being a relationship with TMs. In a world where everyone is a number they want someone to say hello to them using their name,ask them how they are, tell them have a great day and to help them find things. They want a relationship~it's part of why they shop us.
TMs, a very important part of why your stores are open. I'm not referring to leadership (yet ) we are your connection, way more important than you give us credit for and some of the remarks/ posts you see here sound ugly. Do you know why? Because many are hurt, angry, scared, and feeling betrayed~ we make many sacrifices, work hard and many of us generally loved this company. It's now like an ugly divorce.
Leadership, interesting word, one that doesn't match what we have in this company. There's no support, they're not out there working beside us. They're protecting their friends,avoiding potential lawsuits and this has to stop. STLs need to be on registers when the lines go down the aisles, bagging groceries,filling in for call outs. Leading.
You should be on undercover boss. You'd be shocked at what goes on store level. We have TLs who bust their butts and then we have those "special" ones~ these come and go as they please and only do what they want. Maybe you should check their computer histories~ you'll find ebay, fantasy football, sports stats, hair styles,etc ~and the time spent on these will exceed breaks.
Sure i get letting people go but not your buyers, specialists and marketing~unless on final.
I hope you read this and maybe you could take a few business classes too. This is wrong,poorly done and please wake up and smell the coffee. You've got too many leaders,regional people hiring friends with no real qualifications that are wasting money instead of earning it.
Oh and you could probably save a lot of money by no longer giving us tshirts and mugs. We'd rather have our jobs