I just survived another “Black Friday”, except at my store, it was not a one day event.
Sales started the week prior and lasted until the end of this week. Things started earlier this year due to the pressure placed on us to hit higher sales numbers in the middle of the largest economic decline since 1934.
We didn’t get any extra help trying to hit those numbers, in fact inventory was lower this year and there were far fewer employees in the store. Making more with less sounds great in the boardroom, but it looks like hell on the sales floor.
To achieve more sales, with less stuff to sell and less people selling it, management dramatically increased the number of motivational e-mails sent to employees. Nothing overcomes a severe lack of resources like a well worded, even if not properly spelled, e-mail.
Drawing on sports analogies seems to be a favorite among the managers in my store. This weekend was called the “Supper Bowl of Sales” weekend. I think they meant Super Bowl, but let’s not quibble while we motivate. In keeping with the football theme, we were supposed to drive for the goal line and execute with a fever. We needed to pay attention to the basics of blocking and tackling while trying to hit home runs in terms of customer service.
Mixed metaphors must be some sort of subliminal motivational tool.
In addition to heaping piles of steaming motivation, we were fed some key statistics to help us visualize our success. This year’s goal was compared with last year’s results and more than a few exclamation points were used to urge us towards hitting our increased sales benchmark; in an economy where we are trending down 25%.
Do the folks at the top really think that if they click their heels together three times and dream of improved profits that the numbers they need to hit will magically appear? Where is the thought and the analysis that generates this type of unrealism?
And I am not alone, almost 30 million people worked behind the counters and in the aisles selling this weekend. Because of the pressure to hit sales numbers in a recession, those workers were asked to serve more customers, with less help and less inventory than ever before.
So how does a multi-billion dollar retailer plan to hit higher sales goals during the worst economic period in the last half century?
By doing exactly the same things they have done for the past 30 years and hoping for a different outcome.
Not only did they go into this crucial sales period with the same strategy, they actually tried to sell the same products, at the same prices, as they did last year. In fact we pulled down items that had been in the racks since last Black Friday to sell this Black Friday.
Only in big box retail could anyone get away with selling the same old products, at the same old prices, in the sale old way… but with less people and less inventory… and get senior executives, shareholders and board members to agree that maybe, just maybe, something good will happen. In a real business, this type of linear group think would get you laughed out the door. But the goal of managers in big box is not to do anything exceptional, but to do what others before them have done so you will have a plausible excuse for failure.
With so much money riding on this annual event, and the same 30 year old approach, you would think that we in the business would be better organized.
We’re not.
Inventory for the big event comes into the store starting in September. It is placed anywhere in the store where it will fit in the racks high above the selling floor. It will be taken down, and put back up no less than 7 times as various members of store management contradict each other regarding the proper placement of the product on the floor and the correct date that the product should be offered for sale to the public.
By the time the shoppers arrive, the displays have been moved so many times that they look like they have been dragged from
Each product display comes with specific instructions about where in the store it should be placed and exactly how it should be presented to the customer. The problem is that no two managers in the store can agree on what the specific instructions say or what they mean. So round and round the product goes. In the end, it winds up being a better business decision to chuck the whole pile into the dumpster and save the labor costs.
The night before Thanksgiving we spent hours getting product properly priced and moving it yet again. This all because a manager that had been out sick when the other managers put in their two cents worth needed to feel like she was helping. She was also upset that she didn’t get a chance to send us a motivational e-mail.
The store opened on Black Friday at 6:00 am and not a soul came shopping until noon.
This was my third Black Friday at the same big box home improvement store. Sales in my store and across the district were down for the day. Our store, which is the strongest in the district, saw the weekend matching results from last year while the rest of the district never came close. Friday was slower, but Saturday, Sunday and surprisingly Monday picked up, saving sales for the weekend.
But that’s just sales.
Margin was in the tank. I know shoppers cherry pick the deals, but this year they were relentless. Nothing that wasn’t a significant discount from the “normal” price moved. There were no tie-in sales, no increase in impulse sales and no biting on seasonal in and out items.
In my 25 years at retail, I have never seen the shopper reacting so intelligently to the “deals” we offered. They knew exactly what they wanted to buy and they bought those items and only those items. I had customers calling in a week before asking what our inventory was and checking prices, they did their homework and stayed disciplined.
Traffic up, sales flat and margin below break even; tough way to make your quarterly numbers for Wall Street.
Management’s reaction?
Continue to cut labor costs by not hiring seasonal help and scheduling less hours for full timers. Ironically, the only thing that may have helped the margin was the lack of inventory on many items. You don’t lose money on stuff you don’t sell.
So imagine the morale of the staff as they faced the busiest weekend of the year with less people, while being forced to deal with angry customers who are looking for items that we don’t have. Not only did the weekend hurt the bottom line, we built up a ton of bad blood with customers.
This event was followed, almost by rote, with more motivational e-mails thanking employees for going above and beyond. No reward beyond digital pats on the back, no increase in the hours you are allowed to work and certainly no increase in pay for doing more with less.
Next come the motivational e-mails reminding us that we have less than 30 days to go in the calendar year and that our unused vacation days expire by the end of said year. The “motivation” here is the fact that we can’t actually do anything about unused vacation days now, because the company requires 30 days notice of vacation requests. Keeping all that vacation pay in the company till is a great idea, unless you are the employee who looses his paid vacation.
So thanks for all your extra work during the big “Supper Bowl” of sales and don’t forget that we are taking away those pesky vacation days you didn’t use.
Talk about adding insult to injury!
