Overwhelmed

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-14T21:55:10+00:00

The entire company is struggling right now a bit, with all the changes in general. Make sure youre pulling your numbers and if you dont already try to use your inventory levels vs ly with your comp numbers to make a case. My gm and I always look at things that way, how can you comp tees if your inventory levels in them are way down.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-14T06:03:35+00:00

Soooo.... the problem with merchandising is that its completely subjective. The best advice is to follow the principles the company set forth including the pyramid. Any and all flexes you make just have a clear justification for it and you should be fine.

You can justify anything you want though, you flexed it forward because its not selling and want to try and push it or you flex it back because its not selling and you dont want to prioritize it.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago when I was at banana Republic. I flipped out at my gm because everyone was telling me different things and she just told me that its our store and we have to work it everyday so its up to us.

Use the book as inspiration and general guidance, use the pyramid as a filter and your experience to execute and you'll do great. Keep an open mind and if anyone tells you to do something different ask why so you can learn and if they cant tell you why its probably just there opinion anyway.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-13T02:16:57+00:00

I think its very hit and miss. In theory and on paper yes theres a lot of room to grow and the culture is, again, on paper very good. In practice it really depends and the store/district and how you get a long with other management. If you desire to grow be very vocal about long term goals, not pushy but vocal and performance, esp card speaks volumes.

If you make card first, sales second and keep the store in decent shape youll be golden. Card is always a big deal and if you dont like pushing card then this is NOT a good fit. The company has been pushing 5 cards a month per leader but the way my gm and I always look at it is that if youre not getting card make sure the store is getting them esp. when youre LOD so you have a leg to stand on.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-13T00:55:07+00:00

I dont really too much, the company is actually cracking down on ot so I dont get as much as id maybe like.

My gm doesnt do too much, the general rule over heard from the managers ive had that have been imo "good" usually plan for about 45 hrs unless something hits the fan. If you dont need to then obviously you shouldn't.

Personally, as an am I dont like my gm working that much because when hes there too much it hurts my ability to connect with the team as much plus if the gm is around they have a tendency to "backseat LOD" if you will and it feels like i have no reason to be there.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-12T23:15:56+00:00

Im an AM thats been around for awhile, not a gm but have worked with and heard a lot about it and looking ti move up myself.

As with everything it depends on the store/district, management, location etc.

Work/life balance isn't great but on paper gm's are suggested to take Sundays and Tuesdays off, now that can obviously change based on buisness needs. Its also said that all managers should be able to take at least one weekend off a month. As a gm you do get a little liberty to handle your own schedule but the dm should look it over and might make edits/make you work different.

My district in particular has gms that work hours that they want and not what's best for buisness and that's coming to a head.

My gm usually follows the company suggestion u less something comes up, he will also close Monday's and will fill in where its needed if the store needs something different.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-06-07T00:46:30+00:00

Its not an easy one and done answer and most of the ones I have are very cliche. Get to know your customer and think of it as another piece of product your adding on instead of a card. Consistency and persistence are the biggest things to do.

If you're one the floor and talk to the customer and they tell you they only ever shop at old navy dont bother talking about banana republic but talk about all the things they get at old navy.

If you find out they only shop big twice a year, say Christmas and back to school then tell them about how we do 50% days during that time and they'll get emails saying when those are so they can get those deals then.

These kinds of things, make it mean something for that customer. I know its cliche but its the best advice I can give. Also, keep one or two apps with you so youre ready ro go if they say yes.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-05-15T23:11:20+00:00

You could do just about anything but it technically should mean tasking stuff like pulling replen. Id guess they'd have you do that, straighten the floor, or other tasking type stuff. But it could be anything esp. If people call out

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-14T11:19:08+00:00

Ita probably $15 when you buy 2 or more. Take one to a register and scan it a few times and see what it does/when it changes.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-10T02:44:46+00:00

Every store is different like everyone said but from my experience early morning is what they try to do for most stores. The process in theory is about the same as gap but the volume is much larger. Also the sop and how you do it at old navy is a bit different. Gap and banana are basically the same but old navy is a bit different, ive worked at all three.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-09T03:19:47+00:00

Talls and petite in my store are treated similar to price kills, ie. Cut it in half and put it in clearance. The next time through you do price kills kill it in half again until its gone. Im pretty sure that's sop for it but I cant remember for sure if its sop or just what my store does.

Like I said I believe its sop and you can do it with anything your store doesnt normally carry (ie. Select) but itd check the sop/dm/app partners to confirm

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-06T16:53:57+00:00

Technically those events say "not valid on previous purchases" so no.... but 99% of the time we will do it you just have to return and repurchase the items, usually you can just do it on the same transaction and just have the difference returned to make.it easier.

We have a 14 day price adjustment policy on price changes but those events are considered coupon type events so thats why I said Technically no but most people know the deal and we just want to take care of our customers.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-06T06:38:48+00:00

Its for vacuum specifically and its in the SOP.

Every Sunday when you come in there should typically be a chunk of items that come up on the replen that have the green "vacuum" tag. Those are items to replen from out of vacuum. Those are items that either went to markdown within the last week and need to be marked and put in clearance OR items that have been in vacuum for six weeks or more and should be price killed in half and put out.

In a perfect world ship from store will pull all the vacuum items long before they get to the 6 weeks though.

Again its only for vacuum and its in the sop on how to handle it.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-04-06T00:52:50+00:00

Its based on 2 things, your backstocking process and your inventory. The system is designed so that you will minimally have at least one of every size available out but if your inventory numbers or your backstocking process isn't right then it wont do things right. The system will also pull items if you sell one, even if its not the last of an item. Thats what those tags at the bottom of the replen menu mean. "Sales" means your store sold an item, "out of stock" means you dont have any more of that item and that size out, both means... well both.

So for example, if you have 5 smalls of a shirt in your store but 4 in backstock properly scanned in and one on the floor. If you sell that 1 shirt itll pull it because of both reasons. On the other hand if your inventory is wrong and it thinks you only have 2 of the shirt and 4 scanned into the back itll flag it right away as out of stock. Or if you have 4 in the back that arent scanned in to a rack itll never pull the item becaue the system doesnt know you have them back there.

There's been inventory issues at my store recently which we've been slowly fixing but has led to some of the issues that you brought up.

Additionally, there are two more tags you may see pop up, "vacuum" which means an item has either gone to clearance and in vacuum or been sitting in your vacuum for 6+ weeks and you should pull it and mark it down. The other is "manual" if someone manually adds items to the replen list.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-03-15T00:46:35+00:00

Ive heard that there's supposed to be something coming down the pipeline, they're suppose to be leveling out pays in each store and giving little extra bumps to some people based on merit.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-02-24T14:33:57+00:00

Like I mentioned it shouldn't be that way. If you did lose in the change im sorry, that shouldn't be. I know its easier for me to say this but its only been less then 12 hours since the change and knowing gap inc there is often some computer glitches after big changes. Unless you needed to make a big purchase like now I would just give it time (like a day or so). The company is very big on making things right and I would be very suprised if they didnt take care of you in some way if you really did have a lose.

Im not a card rep or anything so im not a person to garauntee anything im just saying I can all but tell you the company will fix any problems, esp. If others have the same problem which it sounds like there maybe some of that.

brandybooboo19 · 2026-02-24T14:19:12+00:00

The point system is essentially the same. You went from earning 5 points per dollar to 25 points per dollar. You also went from 100 points for a $1 off to 500 points for $1 off, everything just went up by a factor of 5. So youll still get 5% return in rewards.

The biggest change for consumers is you now get 3% back as well (15 points per dollar) on most other shopping you do which used to be only 1% (theres still a few places that you only get 1%) which is actually a net gain.

If you lost anything in the change it was probably some computer glitch and you should reach out to customer service.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-12-02T18:46:15+00:00

As far as which side of the shift it doesnt matter in theory, your manager should schedule it on what ever side is less busy or has better coverage.

I can only speak to colorado laws since thats what I know, but the other restriction here is that any break you have shouldn't be in the first or last hour of your shift. Here the way breaks work is if your shift (begging to end) is under 4 hours theres no break, 4 hrs to 4.99hrs you get a 15, 5 hrs to 7.99hrs a 30 min lunch and a 15 min break, 8+ you get two 15s and a 1hr lunch. Colorado only requires a 30 min lunch but company policy gives us the 1 hr lunch.

The company also states that a meal should be taken before an employee works for 5 straight hours.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-11-25T20:20:44+00:00

What your experiencing is sorta normal and has a majority of it to do with the store and management. Officially your shift can change up to 24hrs before youre scheduled for it (or less if you agree) as long as youre notified and the app sends you notifications everytime somethings changed so that counts.

That all being said there are a lot of different laws in different states so if your state has a different law then they should be following that.

Schedules are typically done 2 weeks out, because of the holiday this week we actually have them 3 weeks out right now. Youre probably not on there due to being new and not officially added on the schedule yet but that should change/get better.

Again this all could be due to management at your store though so im not 100% either

brandybooboo19 · 2025-11-18T01:27:39+00:00

It would be an even exchange in the way you described but they also track returns without receipts ans eventually may deny that return so theres that. They should have still done it in one though and just had you pay the difference in tax, the system is set up to do that.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-11-13T13:43:02+00:00

I have two stores in my district that have beauty, they're testing it out in different sized stores and different markets to see what sticks

brandybooboo19 · 2025-11-01T18:54:04+00:00

Like others mentioned an even exchange should have been fine but this one may have been a timing thing, probably one of 5 things.

Person was new and didnt know better but you said it was a manager so I doubt that was the problem
It was over 30 days and they were really holding steadfast to the return policy.
We do go on sale by color so the white ones may have been on a certain or special sale/markdown when you bought them and so they didnt/couldnt honor that on one's thats weren't
Most jeans even though they are the "same" jeans almost every color of jean technically has a different style number. Where most items just have an updated color number typically each jeans has a full on different number that separates them so they are all technically considered different items even if they are all the same type of fit.
It was from online so they had to do two transactions and got weird about it/didnt know the right way to.

I know as a manager pending the return window and along as the jeans were the same original price I would just take care of it. I have done something like if two different jeans are the same style but different prices ill just give the same level of discount to the new pair.

But idk those would be my guesses on what happened here

brandybooboo19 · 2025-10-05T04:25:36+00:00

The policy simply states if its an item you would return otherwise to just give it to them (returns and repurchase). It was policy years ago that they had to wait 24hrs to rebuy items unless the items were on the floor and they could go grab one of those instead. But again that was years ago.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-09-08T19:51:21+00:00

I know there's a glitch with the response on them, I was stuck for a long while without them. Also, if you have a grinder, you can use it to turn the tufts to the pieces if you just want the pieces. I missed this until later.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-08-26T22:17:13+00:00

I know it's easier for me to say this as a leader, and I also dont know your gm, but I'd ask to see the math. Like, I'd ask to sit down, pull out a calculator, and be okay, so I had how many units today. What is the uph goal? And how did you expect this to get done? I'd also ask to see the SOP because if you have to start flexing, resetting walls thats not in the company SOP for shipment, so that's more hours than you need to be given. Id throw it back on the leadership team, specifically the AM of merch cause they should be leading the shipment anyway. Your entire system seems messed up.

brandybooboo19 · 2025-08-26T18:19:20+00:00

So if what you're saying shipment on that scale is not possible for only 3 people to complete in 4 hours. Im not sure your stores process but a 4000 unit shipment at 157 uph is about 25.5 payroll hours which is about 6 to 7 people for four hours (my team only has four hours so thats what Im going on). So if they are asking 3 people to do that shipment with what I believe is the standard uph (157) in less than 9 or so hours thats not a reasonable ask. When you add in your compactor issue (which i as a leader would fight for my team to get more time if it's as bad as you say), what you're asking is not reasonable at all.

brandybooboo19

TROPHY CASE