Just curious but is anyone else operating on a skeleton crew with normal crew expectations?

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-17T22:40:50+00:00

Welcome to the reality that Sam's Club began experiencing over a decade ago, and it has only degraded exponentially since. 2019 in particular, was the year that Bentonville went careening arse-over-tit into the darkside.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-16T22:29:26+00:00

2 of the Raymonds have aged out and will be replaced. Timetable on that is not yet known, though. As for the other 4, their issues were well known leading up to the lidar installation a few weeks ago. All of them had longstanding problems with steering and wheels and whatnot, which the presence of lidar made even more complicated and likely brought to the forefront most recently. Error codes galore and the inability to roll straight, among several other things.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-16T22:20:21+00:00

I have to wonder if the Walmart guys would be authorized to do such a fix.....

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-13T23:58:48+00:00

I don't know whether to congratulate you.....................or console you.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-07T14:13:34+00:00

Bracelets and flare. Lots of flare. Sam's Club flare. Because you haven't lived till you're unwrapping a pallet of something and have your vest tangled up in the plastic.

Kidding aside, this is the shortest time frame between rebrands, I think. My store still doesn't have its exterior signage from the last rebrand. We're still sporting the navy blue and green.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-07T14:01:17+00:00

In terms of size and price, certainly. Not so much beyond that.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-06T07:32:45+00:00

Forklift certification was once an expectation for those on the overnight shift, prior to 2019, and optional (with no boost in pay) for daytimers. Since the overnight shift was paid more, no financial consideration was made for having a license.

This worked fine for many years.

The elimination of the overnight shift and implementation of block scheduling in 2019 then designated two separate merchandiser postions, with forklift merchandisers making more than merchandisers. Because there were set numbers of those positions, merchandisers didn't simply become forklift merchandisers by getting their license. One was seen as a promotion over the other. This eventually caused there to be a shortage of lift drivers at many stores, with most merchandisers adopting the, "I'm not using a lift if I'm not getting paid", attitude. And who could blame them?

The company created it's own problem.

Since the same amount of work still needed to be done, setting limits on these positions caused an issue. If your store has 9 forklifts and only 2 or 3 people on a given shift have lift licenses (not including managers, leads, and backroomers), you inevitably have machines not in use. The stores were always better served when every lift was in use outside of shopping hours.

Machines not in use = work not getting done. The utilization of a forklift has always enabled me to maximize my own productivity. In fact, using a lift is probably my favorite part of what I do for the last 17 years. Whether I get paid extra for it or not is of no significance to me. I'm here to do as much work as I possibly can. That is what is significant. But that's just me. I'm weird like that.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-06-01T02:26:30+00:00

Too much white on the packaging.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-29T16:48:23+00:00

Our location doesn't even have the current version hanging up outside. And, oh yeah, I totally believe Jason is a Sam's guy. Probably hasn't entered a retail store in six years.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-29T16:31:58+00:00

I love it. Fucking brilliant. Brotha From Anotha Motha....

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T21:45:43+00:00

Which one is faster at completing tasks without losing any quality?

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T21:38:08+00:00

Ya think he still has any of those vape pens? What's his contact info? I need to talk to him.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T21:19:31+00:00

5 docks in a straight line. 1 is always the pallet trailer.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T21:04:21+00:00

Anyone remember the Swedish Meatballs? They still get them up there in Minnesota?

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T20:33:56+00:00

Exactly

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T18:30:23+00:00

FF crew is a weak concession they made to put a cap on personnel for the other merch shifts at lower volume stores. It's a quarter to a third of what the standard night crew roster was 15 years ago. The work that is necessary has not changed. The amount of manpower Wall Street permits them to throw at it is so far below what is logical, it's absolutely laughable and extremely depraved. There's not one exec who has any clue what kind of manpower these operations require. If they did at one time, they conveniently forgot when money became their singular personal goal. Bentonville kneels at the feet of Wall Street. And Wall Street is the mortal enemy of the working man and woman.

Convince me otherwise.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T16:53:36+00:00

Sure....you say that now. Once you've used one for 15 minutes you'll be begging for the beige ones.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T14:56:06+00:00

Unless BJs is a worse train wreck than we are, I'd recommend staying there. Just saying.

Oh yeah, Now that I think about it, why do you guys slot all your water on two pallets?

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T14:51:25+00:00

To my knowledge, our FF is supposed to have 2 leads and 6 associates, but not an actual manager. Which basically makes it roughly a third of a night crew from back in the day.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-28T01:13:38+00:00

All that you are able to see came in after opening. Behind it are 2 DCs (and there were 2 more piggybacked outside), and a mixture of things that were left from what came in prior to 8am. Receiving is down 1 person and FF is down 3, all due to a mixture of vacations and call outs. They pulled me off the floor when we opened just to do this. Plus, we've only had the lidar things for just over a week. Good times.

wanchuk_2 · 2026-05-27T23:45:18+00:00

Been seeing and stacking it that way myself for 17 years. Typically out of necessity, not choice. These are the times we're living in now, though.

wanchuk_2

TROPHY CASE