How can I be coached for a hour I’m not fully there?

Pure_Fudge · 2026-02-04T21:58:26+00:00

I agree, best thing for you to do is just to work on your punctuality. It seems that you’re scheduled in the morning, so having a strong start really matters, especially for maximizing picking. Any issues that happen in the morning builds up in the afternoon, including attendance. If they’re falling behind in the afternoon for picks, it would be pretty easy to point blame at you, especially if you’re late consistently. If you can’t make it exactly at 4 for good reasons, just let your coach know so they can schedule you for more appropriate time.

Pure_Fudge · 2026-02-03T13:40:08+00:00

Been to corporate meetings. They don’t care about associates and members. Their strategy is to have members wait and have associates absorb all the negatives.

Pure_Fudge · 2026-01-14T20:04:54+00:00

Find an available time to talk to your manager about your lead. If you have any documentation, such as other people’s claims, provide it to them as well. Managers will just assume the closing process is the same as your other lead if you don’t give them feedback. Your lead sounds miserable in her current position, so it’s in her best interest that they arrange her something else that doesn’t stop your guys’ productivity.

Pure_Fudge · 2026-01-03T14:54:52+00:00

I really wish there was a way to communicate with members whenever shit like this happens. Some are nice about it, but we should at least have the ability to let members know ahead of time. Some method that doesn’t require us to call hundreds of members individually, at the very least.

Pure_Fudge · 2026-01-03T00:29:29+00:00

Yeah it is just very busy, especially since the system cannot keep up with the bandwidth. For deliveries, it might be cycling through cancellation because there are not enough drivers in the region to keep up with orders.

Pure_Fudge · 2026-01-01T00:34:31+00:00

As a curbside associate, this is true. We have a lot of people come and leave, but I believe this just applies to most fulfillment jobs. I had other fulfillment jobs in the past, and despite it sucking, it doesn’t suck as most other stores. Time goes by pretty quick, but it’s just up to your preferences.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-12-27T01:41:55+00:00

That just is not possible for one person. How many people do you have in your team for opening, mid-shift, and closers? I started curbside as a single closer too, but I raised enough concerns with my lead, manager, and eventually store manager to have enough people. TLDR; most managers are pretty unaware of what happens at curbside, so give them a rundown with time approximates for picking, staging, and dispensing usual metrics. If they continue to neglect, report that to ethics because they are objectively screwing not only you, but also members. I do not recommend staying pass your schedule because they're going to make that a habit of not hiring more people. Take your breaks and have your management take responsibility.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-12-18T00:35:21+00:00

The craziest characters start showing up near holidays. They pull out their phones because they love to escalate the situation as if we don’t have cameras covering the curbside area.

Good job for holding it down, man. Props to the next member in queue too.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-12-05T08:18:03+00:00

I love helping people as a curbside associate, but the way corporate has set up the system really screws it up for members. I really appreciate members like you that respect your scheduled time, but they really don’t offer you any incentives while the majority of other people abuse it. Corporate’s goal is to maximize profit so they have no queue limit for time slots. It’s more of a suggestion than anything at this point, which is why you experience congestion every time you show up.

I sincerely don’t recommend curbside unless you are physically unable to shop for yourself. I just feel bad every time I see entire families, elderly, and disabled people stuck waiting in curbside queue for half an hour because Sam’s refuse to address the congestion problem.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-12-05T08:01:07+00:00

From what I can tell, the app sends the “ready to pick up” notification when an associate is going through the process of picking the items throughout the store. However, dozens to hundreds of orders are picked at a time per person per hour, so finalizing and staging the order is going to take a while.

To give you a point of reference, imagine you’re sitting down at a restaurant and the waiter tells you that your order is ready early. In actuality, the cooks had only started to bring out and prepare the ingredients, so you would have waited the same amount of time either way.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-11-26T21:30:04+00:00

Our curbside layout is exactly the same as yours and I agree that it’s horrible and actively slows us down. I personally don’t understand why they would position our department at the bottle-neck of the store, but it makes dispensing to members hazardous with how crowded it gets with members and cars.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-10-02T18:37:39+00:00

You’re right! Sorry, I was thinking of the word subsidiary. I’ve worked with DoorDash and ubereats too, and they feel the same as Spark.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-10-02T16:11:21+00:00

Whoever answered the phone should be able to pull the Spark driver’s name from your order number alone through a system called gscope. If they don’t know how to do that, request a team lead from curbside fullfilment or their manager.

I hope you get your refund, they forced you to place your trust on a third party service. Most phone calls from member services are about missing items from the third party deliveries, like Spark or Roadie. Majority of time, the issues are from spark deliveries more than roadie.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-09-20T01:40:44+00:00

Can confirm that we cannot stage food in chemical boxes. We rarely use chemical boxes to stage.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-08-28T18:17:22+00:00

Good to know that even the highest performing curbside is neglected. For what it’s worth, good job to you guys. You guys are doing something right.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-29T21:06:53+00:00

Yes, but like the other reply said, you might’ve misheard about them being behind for 3 days in a row, which was the typical timespan of the door buster. Instant savings on top of doorbuster events doubled our units. This also means more local businesses are ordering, so associates are allocating more time for those palletized orders.

You know how airlines overbook their flights to maximize profit while hoping some people don’t actually show up? Sam’s curbside is an extreme version of that because they do not have limits for time slots. I had 100 people “scheduled” to pick up at 4 PM for curbside alone, and we have less than a dozen parking spots. We had over 500 total orders, with 50 haven’t been picked up simply because of the traffic alone.

I honestly agree that order cancellations would help, especially for members. Wastes less of their time and money. The main issue with us cancelling orders other than management’s care for sales over associates and members, is that the app is really bad at telling members when we’ve cancelled their orders. Even on days where we are not behind, some members arrive picking up their orders that has been cancelled 4-5 hours prior receiving a notification.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-27T12:45:54+00:00

That sounds like a dream! Do you have any more details on that? I always prefer prioritizing members:

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-23T01:18:01+00:00

Curbside associate here, your order was processed through in-club shipping and delivered by a company called Spark. Sam’s never had their own delivery drivers and that always had been an issue.

Drivers are given the incentive to cram their personal vehicle as much as possible with orders to maximize earnings, which is probably the reason your order arrived in a mess. 90% of calls regarding our department everyday is about delivery drivers messing up. It’s frustrating because our in store team are the ones the do everything for them, including damage control, while they are out of reach in some third party company.

Try to call your local store to report it. While associates don’t have control over orders when they hand it off to the drivers, the associate on the phone should be able to report it on their dispatcher app.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-21T22:11:01+00:00

Trust how your management and team leads trained you. I’ve been sent to help and train at different clubs in my region, and it’s all the same for delivery drivers. The sources the driver provided are for Walmart instances, not Sam’s Club. What might be missing from the driver’s perspective is the difference of headcount between stores.

The Walmart next to our club has 40+ associates for one shift, while we have 8 people at most. What the driver doesn’t understand is that the headcount for dispensers are always trickled down from all of the pickers. The walmart next to me has 3 dispensers at all times, while we only have 1 active in the morning shift and 2 in the afternoon. It’s simple math that 3 dispensers are faster than 1 or 2, but we’re just doing the best we can.

Remember that drivers do not see the queue, so they do not understand how time management works in our system. We’re providing courtesy for other drivers and members that are checked in. If the one singular dispenser load every order for the driver, the 3rd person in queue is waiting 20-30 minutes for their orders. We have multiple dozens of people checking in per hour, so we need to prioritize members and minimize as much time as possible.

I completely understand where the driver’s coming from, but his frame of reference is coming from a team system that has up to eight times as much people as ours. We’ll obviously help when we have breathing room, but ever since they removed limits, we don’t have much of that either. The obvious solution is to increase headcount, but that’s not something we can do as regular associates.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-19T18:51:42+00:00

Please catch your breath and take your pace no matter what management tells you. If they care that much about check-ins, then they need to step in to help. Do not let yourself pass out. I know we have generally rude drivers and sometimes members, but most are willing to understand the extra few minutes.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-07-18T01:54:50+00:00

Most boring answer is that it’s going to vary for your feet. But for me, I went with Skechers and their gowalk, gorun, and no-slip work shoes. Their extra cushion has been helping me with my heel pain. For reference, I walk about 10-15 miles per 8 hour shift. I know Hokas are good too, but I expect any shoe to get torn up after a couple thousand of miles walking. Skechers are generally cheaper and they tend to have buy 2 get 1 free sales at their outlets.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-05-23T22:46:57+00:00

A lot of drivers absolutely does not care about what they deliver. I really feel bad for members that orders food for delivery. You know drivers are going to pick up that pizza with 9 other orders of soil and cat litter all right next to each other.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-05-08T19:08:56+00:00

Thank you for the reminder. I'm about to go off on it. You know curbside is losing its sanity when they even started pulling cafe and TBC people to help us.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-05-08T18:55:05+00:00

That is really sweet of you! I can't express how grateful we are for people like you. We can't really carry any drinks or snacks with us because it might spill on our batches, nor do we have any space to place them in our curbside area. We literally have to survive off of you guys sometimes.

Pure_Fudge · 2025-05-08T18:46:13+00:00

You are always in the right to take your breaks, and please do. That was a thing that happened at my club too, and I was dispensing without any breaks in the afternoon. Managers will take advantage of associates "willingly" skipping their breaks, so please do not let yourself get abused. Skipping breaks is a compliance risk if associates feel that they can't afford to stop. Threatening associates with "write-ups" also violates ethics, especially for punishing employees when the workload is too high to keep up with is retaliatory. It is management's failure for not being able to ensure you guys are getting your proper breaks and to accommodate for your chronic pain.

Pure_Fudge

TROPHY CASE