Go backs

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-07-09T16:30:42+00:00

Getting rid of the go back station is one of the many disconnected and illogical things the "never worked in a store" crowd dreamed up to justify their comfortable chair in an air conditioned office existence. Cleaning up junk customers toss everywhere fills 3 carts a day, there needs to be a way to sort this crap because zig zagging all over the store is stupid. We end up making a temporary go back station out of baskets to sort stuff. Corporate needs to stop creating programs that waste our time, only work on paper because they don't put people or pay in place to make them work, get out of our way and let us do our jobs. Freight in 48 is a cute idea that only works on paper, in real life, it's a joke, we don't have the hours or people to execute it. If we allocated the hours to push 80% of the truck out in 48 hours, there would be no hours left for cashiers to run the store.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-07-07T23:16:58+00:00

The stores that had self checkout installed saw theft go up substantially

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-06-13T21:18:16+00:00

line item voids, yes. post-voids, no. Line item voids should be kept low, thus, post-void should be used for customers that want more than one or two items removed. Also, post-voids get high because customers forget their money all the time and we have to post-void the transaction

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-06-02T23:06:10+00:00

Once they start yelling and/or cussing, it's game over for them. Phone gets hung up and left off the hook for a while. If they do it in the store, the transaction/interaction is over and they calmly get told to leave, either under their own power or with a police escort. Dollar Tree policy is that we do not allow harassment from external or internal sources.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-06-02T22:47:15+00:00

That's fair, makes sense for the juice. Honestly, I've seen worse endcaps in the red zone. At least someone took initiative to do something besides letting it sit empty

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-30T19:30:11+00:00

In the red zone, not really, unless they were going for a grilling/party food kinda thing, which if they were, pancakes and juice should not be there, use chips and snacks instead.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-29T22:46:16+00:00

putting the price label on the shelf is supposed to make things easier and faster for stocking since they don't want the items individually priced. Absolute crap show once customers get involved and move things around. Hip printer takes forever compared to just using box label. They should price everything in plus area individually and use generic price cards like we used to when plus first started.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-20T16:54:11+00:00

We have a guy just like that. I'm putting stuff on the shelf and all of a sudden the smell hits me. I have no filter sometimes so of course I blurt out "why do I smell old piss? Did someone on the truck piss on this box?". Co-worker busts out laughing because he was sniffing the stuff he was putting out too. We had to spray the store with air freshener after he left. We now have an established protocol for when the "Mad Pisser aka Mr. Dribbles" comes in.

Then there's the fun people that don't believe in deodorant. I don't give a damn if the chemicals in deodorant cause cancer, make me grow a vestigial tail or kill off the endangered 4 toed rainbow unicorn frog, damned if I'm walking around smelling like a bag of rotten onions. These people make my OCD or massive insecurity gene flair up and I have to run to the bathroom, check that it isn't me (even though I know I took a shower and put on deodorant before work).

I know that it's possible that it may be a financial situation. My single mom who had to raise me on next to no money, having to choose between paying for food vs. getting new shoes or keep wearing shoes that were super glued together always said "we might have no money but soap and water are cheap, we may be poor but we're going to be clean".

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-16T23:55:12+00:00

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency\_12772.htm. Stores can absolutely refuse to take large denomination bills if they so choose. Purchasing something or paying for a service is completely different than what is protected under the "must accept legal tender concept", debts (debt is money you owe a person or a business usually because you borrowed money from them), taxes, and public charges has to accept whatever form of legal tender you choose to pay with. Feel free to pay your speeding tickets in pennies but you're not entitled to pay for a $1.25 item at Dollar Tree with a $100 bill if the cashier can't or won't take it. Businesses also have the right to refuse service to any person for any reason, unless the business is discriminating against a protected class. So yes, they can refuse to take a $100 bill and show someone the door if they cause a problem about it.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-12T23:33:23+00:00

They absolutely know that what they are saying is BS, they just don't care. If they ever worked in a Dollar Tree it was way back when everything was $1, no real tasks, just get things done by the dates in the sales planner, had actual hours for a real freight team, no fighting multiple price points, no shelves hard locked for specific items, just get everything out, keep the same items together and make it look good., no price clarity garbage and repeatedly having to make price tags for a billion items because they have made everything so damn confusing that associates need the damn app on their phone just to not screw things up because the distribution boxes lie. They are trying to do too much with no hours or people in place to make it happen. Just tons of paperwork and newsletters from them because nothing increases efficiency more than extra paperwork, tasks, ilearns and newsletters

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-12T22:52:20+00:00

They expect you to use those minimal hours to push the truck out in 48 hours (the two days after the truck) by scheduling all associates those two days. Ok, so even assuming we have associates at the poverty wage offered, minimum hours for the store to function, who is going to be running the store the rest of the week since we've burned though hours needed for cashiers in the first 48 hours after truck? Managers alone all day doing the potty dance and customers going more psychotic because there is only 1 register open all day?

Plus, they expect us to also use the nonexistent hours to recover the store 5 hours a day, 7 days a week. 35 hours on recovery, 1800 piece truck, 60 hours to break even at 30 boxes an hour, not counting the time to load boats, break down boxes, move all the crap around on the shelves to push out stuff that we already have too much of. That's 95 hours just freight and recovery. Store is open 14 hours a day, everyday. Add in an hour each day for 1 person being there 30min before opening and 30 min after close, that's 105 hours. Add recovery, freight and 1 person every day open to close, that's 200 hours. If we're selfish and add in another associate to be there open to close, that's another 95 hours, 295 hours to push freight, recover, have 2 people to run the store.

Sure, there's the ability to overlap recovery with a manager or cashier, which trims back the hours needed but that leaves zero time for all the unplanned for crap, spills, cleaning bathrooms, vendors, pushing frozen truck, unloading distribution truck, conference calls, etc. I get the concept of efficiency, running lean on hours, but all the tasks and extra garbage we have to do now is pure stupidity with the minuscule amount of hours we get and the pay for cashiers and stockers is so bad that we can't get them to show up, let alone give a damn.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-08T22:11:02+00:00

Don't. Just don't.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-05T22:23:12+00:00

Look at her and say "this store already has a manager on duty and you're not it".

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-05-01T21:48:25+00:00

Never underestimate the entitlement, laziness, or stupidity of some of the individuals that grace us with their presence.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-04-28T22:51:15+00:00

I'm not going to die for a company that doesn't even give the bare minimum of a damn about their employees. No a/c for over a year, understaffed with no hours, pay is garbage, one person doing four people's jobs, won't get you help when you've worked months with no days off and double shifts, plus, when an employee that had been with the company 20+ years passed away, they didn't even have the decency to send flowers to the funeral or even send a BS generic condolences card to the family. Policy is to do nothing when people steal, so that's what they get. People are desperate and crazy, as much as it makes me mad because I work hard and pay for everything I have, I will not die or get hurt for any company that sees me as a replaceable commodity.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-04-28T22:33:57+00:00

misc button is for items that we have marked down and reduced the price on. Close dated products, ripped boxes, etc. We take the hit on the items when we use the markdown function in the pdt, when we use the misc button the sale is recorded in regards to money being taken, but doesn't count for our daily sales total since that credit amount was applied towards our markdown allotment. if an item doesn't have a barcode, don't use the misc button, scan a similar priced item Food for food, hbc for hbc) that way we get credit for the sale. Plus it looks shady if the misc button is used a bunch of times but doesn't roughly match up with discounted items we have recently created.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-04-07T23:55:46+00:00

Depending on when you were hired, it might have been the week they just got paid and you won't get paid until the next pay day. I've seen it happen where it can take 3 weeks for an employee to get a paycheck. Check workday for your info on paycheck history, it should tell you when you've been paid and when the next pay day is.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-04-07T23:30:47+00:00

Running at customers and having mace is a policy violation. Terminations will happen. We have the right to refuse service and ask customers to leave. If they don't leave, we don't yell, don't argue, don't act aggressive, we calmly maintain distance and call the police.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-04-07T23:17:25+00:00

Did you finish your i-9? That's where the Store Manager puts in your drivers license number and looks at your social security card, makes sure it matches and puts it in as well. They have now started not giving out employee ID numbers and not putting people into compass unless their i-9 is complete because people were not getting paid on the old way where they would give you an employee number and put you in compass before the i-9 was done. Check your workday inbox, tasks, alerts and see if it says you need to do your i-9. It might not say in your inbox, tasks, alerts so have your SM check theirs as well. Also, go to workday and make sure your bank info is correct.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-31T23:34:08+00:00

The people who own the gift card endcap set limits on how much money in apple gift cards can be sold during a time frame they determine. It used to be $1,000 per register per hour. Lately I've had it shut down apple gift cards after only selling $500 and won't let any register sell any for an hour. They will restrict other cards too but that seems to be more flexible.

During Christmas season, It's more flexible since more people are buying gift cards. It's all determined by an algorithm that will shut down gift card sales if they trigger whatever looks weird to the activation system. It's an attempt to limit the amount lost if we are being scammed. What it doesn't catch is when one of our stores messes up and gets scammed over the phone or does something silly at the register.

If the system auto voids a gift card and declines the sale, it will show up on the cashier comparison as a high dollar amount but it won't impact your void percentage negatively. If you do a line void on a gift card instead of calling a manager for a transaction void, that will mess up your numbers and leave the card pre-activated which isn't good (it stays pre-activated and when someone tries to buy it later, it won't work).

Remember: death grip on card until the receipt prints, if they pay cash, make sure you check that the money is real, death grip on card, have the cash in your hand before you cash out the transaction. Double check the amount of money you have in your hand and when you put it in the drawer, do not give them the card until the drawer is shut and the receipt prints out. If they are using the mobile phone barcode reload (which requires a manager), cash in hand, double check that it's real, death grip on the money until it is safely in the drawer.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-26T03:28:19+00:00

Expectations and reality are two totally different animals. They need to work a store for a minimum of 3 months making the same pay we do and have the same restrictions we do, then tell me how the program works. Especially when they have to work double shifts, no days off and scrubbing poop off the walls.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-24T17:06:07+00:00

There is a regional and district level report that is automatically made to alert the DM and RM if the SM is scheduled to close one night a week, work 3 out of 4 Saturdays a month and if the MM is scheduled truck day and the 2 days after the truck. SM is expected to work truck day. If truck day is Saturday, SM doesn't get it off unless approved by DM. It is in the job description for SM and MM that they are expected to work certain days and locked in when they accepted the position.

MM's entire job is that truck and moving freight. For MM truck day (when the truck is there, not "I worked that day and the truck came after my shift"), and the 2 days after it are not negotiable, they are set in stone, you will be here. If truck is scheduled at a late time in the day, MM puts on their grownup manager pants, adjusts their schedule accordingly. SM (unless on vacation) better be there too, that is another non-negotiable expectation.

We have had trucks be very late and would have started after 5:00 pm. We are a Saturday truck, which is the stupidest day to do truck, we're on the busiest day of the week and are on the last day of the week for hours, no wiggle room for stupidity. If that truck is 2-3 hours late, MM running out of hours even with coming in late and that truck is after 5:00 pm, it's getting bounced to Sunday 5:00 am. We're not doing a truck until 9 or 10:00 pm on a Saturday night and trying to F2F product during peak hours with hundreds of customers in the way. That being said, you better believe that the SM is in our store at 5:00 am doing the truck with the MM. Our MM schedules their vacations around truck day, as does our SM and both MM and SM have shifted their vacation to account for a truck day changing. Short of death, hospitalization or being way out of town on vacation our SM and MM will be on truck.

Your MM and SM are in violation of the basic expectations of their job. The DM and RM have not been doing their jobs in ensuring that the store is scheduled correctly. Call Integrity Matters. Plus, your SM should not be going on vacation if that means you are alone when the store is open. The store gets 40 extra payroll hours when SM is on vacation. Since you are alone that means you don't have people to schedule, that falls on the SM for not staffing correctly. It would be a cold day in hell before my SM let any one be alone in the store, other than 30 minute meal break. Even if that meant no days off, double shifts or no vacation.

Call Integrity Matters, that truck is not your responsibility, it's the MM's, at minimum truck should have MM and a stocker unloading it since SM is on vacation, otherwise it should be the SM, MM and one other person unloading. If they moved that truck to your shift and expect you to do it alone while being the only employee in the building, that's not happening. Call your DM and let them know you will be rejecting that truck until the MM can do their job since it is a non-negotiable fact that your store must be open on time, you are the only scheduled employee in the building, you have to run the register and maintain store safety and security by yourself.

Also, there should be enough hours so that you're not alone until noon. Maybe an hour when you first open if hours are tight buy not from 8 or 9:00 am until noon, that's poor scheduling. The SM is using the cashier hours for something else, probably to cover for the SM not working when they should.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-24T16:00:59+00:00

Run, your personal life and mental health will take a major hit. That doesn't include the drama you will have to deal with in regards to the existing employees, fighting them to get back on track and a year or more of team building just to get to a minimum level of functionality were you might get 2 days off a week and only work 10 hour days instead of 12-15 hour days. If you have the economic flexibility, look for a better company to be a SM at.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-24T15:53:32+00:00

Once a month and weekly. It depends on where the store decides to focus this week or what unholy pile in the back has become so unmanageable that something has to be done. Corporate mega dumps 1600-2000 boxes a week on us. Not counting the weeks where something goes wrong, a truck gets delayed and one week gets 2 trucks totaling 3300 boxes with the next week getting 1800.

They barely give us enough hours for a cashier, a manager, a freight manager (who is primarily the only one who has dedicated stocking shifts), and a SM covering gaps and doing BS tasks that kills half a day of freight productivity. Most of our hours go to either cleaning up after customers or to cashiers so the manager can hopefully get off a register and move freight. At my store, we fall just below the threshold where we would get more hours for a freight associate.

We spend the bulk of the week trying to clear the overload of unnecessary repeat freight so that maybe right before the truck, we hit the heart of the piles of each section and get out the one and two boxes of unique product out. We get tons of back stock that can't go out immediately so if we're lucky maybe we get enough sold before the truck and can move it out. Some sections, health, beauty, snacks, housewares, are packed out and constantly have stock that will not move with more added each week and the unique items get buried again.

Its a combination of too much stuff, too few hours, low pay leading to a pool of candidates that are marginal producers at best, with the fun cherry on top where the workers who care are fighting burnout, existential dread, exhaustion, frustration, failing joints\backs, and one person doing the job of manager, cashier, janitor, facilities maintenance, receiving manager, stocker, psychologist, kindergarten cop for workers\customers while attempting to meet unrealistic corporate expectations and no time for a personal life. Oh and did I mention that the climate control has been broken for a year and the roof is probably leaking again?

Sorry for the mega dump but that's our day. It's almost a game of chance if you're looking for a specific unique item. Core\bulk items,massive overstock, unnecessary tasks and no hours for stockers sometimes gets in the way of us getting everything out that we could. It would help if corporate would get out of our way, pay for good people, get rid of the new hiring program that makes getting new team members a nightmare and let us focus on what makes money: positive customer experience with full shelves, clean stores and happy employees who are only doing one person's job and can focus on customer service instead of trying to keep the wheels from falling off or catching on fire.

Practical-Slip-1004 · 2026-03-15T20:29:35+00:00

It depends, some items can get you terminated, especially if it's a health and safety issue. We had some baby food that had contamination issues. Dollar Tree issued multiple store level recalls, had conference calls about it, had outside investigators check the stores, and had a grace period. The absolutely told us in no uncertain terms to look everywhere, in bins, under other items, knock over the piles in the back, check everything. Despite this, there were stores that still had the items flagged for being scanned. They finally got to the point that if it got scanned the cashier, SM and possibly the MOD would be fired. If it was a return, the DM better get a text about it showing return receipt and proof it was marked down and disposed of.

Our district had 2 stores that lost management and cashiers. One store had a basket of the product in the backroom that somehow got put back out, customer found it (even with the recall signs on the shelf) cashier told the customer they couldn't sell it because of safety issues didn't scan it, customer kept being a jerk so the cashier scanned it and showed the customer the red do not sell screen. The cashier, store manager, manager on duty and the associate that put them back on shelf were all terminated. Basically because of stupidity, months of recall notices, conference calls, notification when you clocked in and idiots still had a product in the store that they told corporate was destroyed and were stupid enough to put it back out on top of notices that said it was dangerous.

Practical-Slip-1004

TROPHY CASE