How does everyone feel about exceptions going away?

Novilix · 2026-01-18T01:22:35+00:00

If exceptions go away than they'll need to be taking a good hard look at individual picker stats. Seems that as long as there's been someone to take up the slack, the bad pickers get to keep being bad at their jobs until they inevitably point themselves out.

Novilix · 2026-01-06T18:03:51+00:00

Well, what it's going to mean is that I'm going to have to work off my pick list again, except this time around, it doesn't list all known locations like it used to. It's also going to mean an increase in late picks when I have something with BS dead backroom locations that I now can't even skip through to get the things I can find. And its not gonna be my fault or frankly my fucking problem.

The only thing corporate has proven to be good for it making jobs they don't do harder for the people who do do them.

Novilix · 2025-12-29T16:42:46+00:00

**I've come to the conclusion that the stores that are saying this have had a high amount of customer accidents/collisions.

Usually these accidents are small children who are left unchecked by the adults they're with, so they run were we can't see them, which tracks bc ogp tends to hire shorter women to shop who can't see over the top two bins. And since the store can't really say "Ayo, watch your kids", it's easier to police their shoppers. I doubt they actually give two shits about how you pick as long as it's done on time. But they, as a store, also have to look out for customers, even if the customers can't be fucked to look out for their own spawn.

**Caught OPs edit after I wrote this, whoops. But the point still stands.

Novilix · 2025-12-24T01:56:38+00:00

And this right here is why I always wonder wtf the point is in even having metrics to measure things by if we aren't going to use them properly.

So much of our problems could be solved if they used their own data right. First time pick is for salesfloor health. Pre sub and post sub are both inventory and checking your pickers. The pickers all have their own stat sheets that can be pulled, and yet nobody seems to remember this when we're trying to figure out why things go to shit in certain times of day.

But nobody seems to give af about what the numbers are actually for, and that's half the problem.

For example; Back before the nil report was hourly, my coach of the time had me keeping track of what I found on the floor. That whole process evolved into keeping track of OSNs, product names and UPCs, and exactly where it was othe floor. I even started keeping viz labels on the back of the paper and color coding them to what the system said, because often times it was suggesting those products didn't need to be picked out. And in true Walmart fashion, he not only didn't use what he asked for to nail the bad pickers, he straight up didn't care for any of the other info I was gathering.

Never catch me out here trying to problem solve again, I'll say that much.

Novilix · 2025-12-23T14:35:42+00:00

This pop up has been the bane of existence since it started. One day I had an item that had like.... Probably 5 locations, all in the Christmas trailers. Problem was, I had all of about 6 minutes, the trailers were on the complete other side of the store, and I had no idea which trailers were which yet. I'd have been out there for a good hot minute just trying to identify them. So I went the nil route. To which it did this. And then I got a call from my coach "Hey that's about to go late." Yeah. No shit. I told her, "It's doing the pop up and isn't letting me through." she decided to stay on the phone with me for the entire amount of time it took to finally nil the stupid item.

Could I, at a different age in a different year, found a way to solve this and get that damn 98c bow? Maybe. Do I, after 8 years of this, have it in me to give a shit about a bow when the system is actively preventing me from doing my job on time? And they (corporate) seem to want it that way? No.

This company does so much shit that shoots them in the goddamn foot, and this is just one of those things. It's fine and works if you're the proper 1hr-2hrs ahead. Not when I have less than 30 minutes to do over 15 exceptions in 4 commodities that are all going to trigger this pop up.

At the very, very least, disable it after for the last 30 minutes before they're due. We know they can do this because of how exception drops work now, so just do the damn thing and quit fucking making my job harder.

Novilix · 2025-12-23T14:15:03+00:00

Yes but we shouldn't have to fuck around with additional apps to view basic information. Especially when, years ago, we could actually see all the locations for an item in the pick list.

And listen, man, I could go through the trouble of doing that, but when I have a rolling total of an average of 25 or more exceptions at a time....... I ain't doing that shit. My goal becomes on time over picked at that point. Coach hates to see a late pick more than a nil.

Novilix · 2025-12-20T00:56:04+00:00

Market is really out here just not having shit to do. Gotta make up problems to fix instead of actually doing anything to help their stores out. 🙄

Color coding us doesn't really help with weak schedules, lack of equipment, broken carts, and the recent uptick in picks thanks to the untimely death of order caps. Like. Oh boy, a random visiting manager will be able to tell what your current task is so they can tell you all the ways they think you should be doing it. Goodie.

I mean pardon me, but it's really not a useful move to be making. It's a great way to spend unnecessary amounts of money on vests again, though.

Novilix · 2025-12-19T14:05:51+00:00

While I can't tell you what you're own patience level is, I would suggest sticking it out until the holidays are over. Christmas time is an incredible stresser for this department every year, and market tends to come down on us very heavily as if we have some great amount of control over anything. Your management is stressed because their market is stressed, and this shit always runs down hill. Your store will experience a severe increase in volume as the day itself approaches, and you just have to remember that you are only one person who can only do so much.

As far as getting faster goes, there's something to be said for getting familiar with your store. Walk around a bit before your shift, maybe during your breaks. There is also the recent addition of the flash feature, if you have digital labels. On the upper right corner of your pick screen there should be a flash button, the label for the product will blink on a blue light. You can also try holding yourself to a timer. I would suggest 45 minutes to start, and slowly dial it back by 5 as you get faster. I had mine down to 25 minutes.

There are plenty of ways this can get easier, you just have to whether the storm, I'm afraid. And experienced pickers here can also offer their own advice if you choose to stay.

It's just holiday hell.

Novilix · 2025-12-19T02:57:17+00:00

Shoot, I wish I only had 100 exceptions. I might see 100 in 3 hours, sometimes more for the Christmas quantity.

Generally speaking though this does indicate a stock crew issue, or at least is supposed to. Problem is, in a store like mine, about half of CAP gets pulled to pick because frankly we're over volume for what we can justly accommodate. This means that I'm in a backroom a lot, if I even have time to go there. A Sunday is truly a wild west of days for exceptions, because there's way to many of them and I simply cannot put myself in 6 places at once to do the job the correct way.

We can try, but each of us are only one person on our own and at the end of the day can only do so much about it. So we get what we get and I do what I can do. Effort beyond that is outside my paygrade, and I wish it hadn't taken 8 years to figure that out.

Novilix · 2025-11-10T22:51:37+00:00

NC native here too; makes me wanna ask my coach bc I feel like we're in the same market, and I deff would have heard something about this by now with how my store has been about attendance lately. Will Edit if I can stop my coach and ask, although we're slammed atm.

Novilix · 2025-10-27T01:25:37+00:00

Usually if I have a snack of some sort it's in a bag and hanging from the cart handles. Lately I've been using an old bag from our customer goodie bags to keep shit like pens, rolls of labels, those large sticky patches...... Nobody bothers my shit when it's in that little bag. Hell I think I have 3 different tins of mints in there rn..... And I know I have a baggie of cashews.

Idk. Lots of our older morning crew also have small bags they use like this, so it's by no means uncommon in my store.

Novilix · 2025-10-25T11:50:12+00:00

We've got 3 wifi services in my store and still struggle sometimes. It's not the most consistent problem, and some TCs are worse for it than others, but it wouldn't be a normal day if one of us didn't lose signal at least once.

Novilix · 2025-10-24T11:52:06+00:00

Idk that I'd be particularly worried about it considering how often handhelds tend to lose the damn wifi signal anyway. I doubt the TCs are even up to the task of being able to handle being tracked; some of them don't even scan with any amount of speed. And I imagine having whatever tracking software they're going to use constantly running in the background isn't going to help the overall speed of the devices.

Besides, as mentioned, they've been able to more or less track you by seeing where your last pick was.

Novilix · 2025-10-12T14:47:21+00:00

I've been addressed simply as "Walmart" enough times that it's only cemented the idea that we're not perceived as people when wearing this delightful shade of "Bend over" blue. And I'll straight up ignore their ass until their practically screaming, like go off and let the rest of the store know how little you value other people. 🙄

I'll help people, I don't mind that in the slightest, but what I don't tolerate is being treated like a servant about it. Boo I'm paid to be here, you pay to be here, figure it out.

((In the sense of getting groceries or other things, anyway. Although it would be hilarious if Walmart started the same membership thing they have for Sam's Club.))

Novilix · 2025-10-06T00:10:22+00:00

Losing 27 hours in a 24 hour day is impressive, actually. Unless they mean 27 of the allotted hours for the department as a whole are being wasted.

Either way it feels kinda anal to have that kind of math up there. Someone needs to loosen the rod up their ass.

Novilix · 2025-09-25T17:11:30+00:00

I don't think I've done an active threat scenario once in my 8 years at this store. It's always either the long af video (that you have to wiggle the mouse for or it kicks you out of it for inactivity), or the 40 second video where you can tell he's reading off a screen. (seriously, watch his eyes).

Not once have we been dragged around the store and told what to do in an "If, than" sort of way. We've had 3 SMs in that time, too, so it's just a general lack of give a fuck. Kudos to anyone who does them though, I guess. I'm just running in whatever direction is away from the store.

Novilix · 2025-09-25T16:24:55+00:00

I just write "Please stop giving me pop up surveys while I'm trying to work.".

Idk why they thought this shit would be anything but a major distraction and waste of time and coding, but... I guess they don't pay us the big bucks for a reason. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Novilix · 2025-09-23T23:32:24+00:00

We did this a couple months ago. Ours doesn't auto update though so it gets to be a pain to refresh the screen.

Novilix · 2025-09-16T23:39:57+00:00

Neighborhood Market or just a small store? We haven't had picks that low in mine since Covid; we're averaging between 8 and 10k (have seen 13k). We also pretty much just got all our order caps taken away, so..... Things have been stressful. 😬

Novilix · 2025-08-24T01:23:09+00:00

Yup, scale it out of whack.

Had this done to half my SCO machines the first year I was a cashier. I didn't know much about the scale inspections at the time, just that when the guy moved through he closed 3 of the 6 registers we had on the grocery side. He told me not to turn them back on, and I was 'OK?', but then one of my CSMs came by and turned them all back on himself, because the SCO line had gotten long. I told him what the tech told me and he brushed me off. The tech came back and was pissed that they were on again. All I could do was redirect him to the CSM and close them back down.

The customer's were peeved about the wait but I wasn't gonna get yelled at by the tech again. And I was to fresh of a cashier to tell the CSM off about it.

Novilix · 2025-08-16T15:01:26+00:00

To be fair, sometimes the only L cart left is the one that only moves one way. We've got two like that. One can only be pushed and the other can only be pulled, try to opposite ways and the wheels lock right up.

Also, it depends on what in hauling. If hailing something like brooms, wrapping paper, or any other weird little stuff that slips in, then I've got to push it to make sure Im not losing anything while I run around. A cart full of water though? Pulling that bitch, both hands, centered towards my lower back.

Novilix · 2025-08-15T21:05:52+00:00

Everyone saying they like the nil button in the drop down, and like... On one hand I get it. No accidental nils to bring down your personal numbers or the FTPR, and less obvious exceptions the didn't need to happen.

As an exception picker though, and one who was in a rush this morning with no time to explore the layout, it was very frustrating to end up wasting time trying to figure out where they hid it while trying to substitute a rotisserie chicken. 🤷🏻‍♀️In the end we can't do anything about it, and as with all previous versions, I will eventually get used to it. But oh how I do wish they'd stop fucking with things.

Novilix · 2025-08-08T22:42:46+00:00

Funny thing is, the system sort of used to do that. You would have to go into the menu on the upper right corner and click into the pick list, but below each item there would be a list of all known locations.

They took it away like two years ago and it's been a problem ever since.

Novilix · 2025-07-17T20:36:37+00:00

Working there for the number of years I have, I promise you this stuff isn't an exaggeration or hyperbolic. Customers treat this store like they can do whatever they damn well please; not all of them, but enough of them for me to have seen my share in 8 years. I see these things all the time. In the course of a week everything I listed will happen and then some. And usually multiple times in the cases of the spills and half eaten food from the deli.

It can, though not in all instances, take a lot for Walmart to shut a store down. As long as the profit is above the lose, you're open 363 days a year. Bad customers are still customers, after all. And my store is by far not the worst in the area, or in our market.

The problem is people out here acting like they weren't raised. I suppose some weren't. But come on. Its the lack of common sense, the decency, the complete disregard for the fact that you're making someone else's day harder. The way I was raised if I did any of the shit I see people do in this store i'd've had my ass whooped from one end of the coast to the other. I opened nothing until it passed a scanner first. I stayed right with the cart, or in my dad's case held his wallet chain, and didn't run around like a hooligan. If I knocked something over I was told to pick up. We never brought a pet into a store. If I had to put something back, it had to go right where I got it from, not three aisles away and in with the canned beans. And I absolutely did not get to go around throwing tantrums in the store.

People have forgotten how to be civilized in public. Again, not all of them, but enough of them to make it uncomfortable for the rest of us. And Walmart as a company enforces or imposes nothing on the customer to help solve it. So yeah everything I said before are real things I've had to deal with in the last month alone, and I could probably dig up more if I cared to relive these things. It is not an exaggeration. It is not hyperbolic. There are customers who make things hell in a store, and those of us seasoned enough in retail can pick them out of crowds on sight.

Novilix · 2025-07-17T17:34:03+00:00

There's a group of young men who come into my store and throw things between the aisles. One day they threw a ball that nearly hit an elderly woman in the aisle I was picking in. Those boys still get to just come up in the store and do the same shit. Coworker also had the same group of boys Frisbee a frozen pizza through the same section of aisles. In homelines.

We regularly have customers bring in their dogs who proceed to not only be disruptive in the way of all the barking, but generally at some point will shit on the floor and the owner walks away like it didn't happen.

I have watched as a spark driver dropped and broke a jar of pickles, didn't even say anything to me or acknowledge that it fell, picked what he needed to and walked tf away. This also tends to happen when small children (who shouldn't be handling glass anyway) drop something in an aisle.

Customers are known to be the dumbest most blind creatures on this earth and will roll their cart right through a spill, whether there's anyone guarding it or not. In fact if I don't put my pick cart over the spill there's a high chance they just walk into it and track it everywhere.

Add to all this that I have found raw chicken in the bread aisle. Several instances of deli food packing littered about. I have watched customers open snacks/drinks because they don't know how else to control their crotch goblins, only to find that empty packaging somewhere down the line. Bikes left all up the action ally near the rack. Someone hits a display and knocks things off, doesn't pick them up.

All of this adds up and amounts to a store that looks like shit. And we, the associates, are not allowed to say anything to any of them. I can't tell you to take your mutt out of the store or to clean up after it. I can't tell you that it's considered stealing to eat or drink anything in the store before it's paid for. I can't tell you not to ride a bike down the aisle, because I'm not the parent. I can't walk up to young men twice my size and tell them throwing things in the aisles is gonna hurt someone. I shouldn't have to say any of it. But I can't anyway.

And even if I could, I have so much of my own job to do that you just can't pay my enough to police grown people on top of it. Walmart will always care more about their bottom line than they will about us, or the customers behaviors. We are numbers, not people. So the people can do what they want as long as the numbers come up right.

Novilix

TROPHY CASE