I have never seen this personally, but, a manager in a store that I used to service, was telling me about the new person that now services his store. He was complaining that she brought along someone, ( he thought it was her adult daughter), that they spent a great deal of time in the store, and that when they were done, the POG was incorrect, the labeling was incorrect, and while in the store, they were very loud and disruptive, and, that they kept interrupting him at the check out asking him how to do things. He said when they left that he had to have someone redo everything that they did. ( it was 3 very simple wings,18 pieces, for crying out loud!) He is very unhappy, and says he is going to refuse to let her do any more work in the store as he would rather get it done right the first time.
I know this MSC does NOT allow you to "bring a friend" to the store. You are also supposed to have at least a year of merchandising experience. Anyone seen this in your stores?
The manager asked for the number of the DM for the company as he wants to complain. I said I had to look it up at home. I am of 2 minds if I should give it to him. I don't want anyone to lose a job, but, I hate that someone is acting like this in a store. This particular store is the most laid back store you could ever want to do work in, so for her to P.O. him, she had to be way out there.

I worked for a company that hired a husband and wife. They each had their own stores, but they traveled together and knocked them out really fast helping each other as a team. It was okay because they were both employees, I guess, but only the person who was assigned to the store got paid.

The manager has the right to boot the merchandiser out. If that's what he wanted - he should have done so rather than complaining to you.

Without knowing both sides, the merchandiser may have done the set up correctly. Often my paperwork differs from the store's set up. Per your comments the merchandiser came to him several times for questions.He should have seen the issue before they were finished and explained what he wanted.

That said, before I do a setup I speak with the manger, show them my POG and if they have a different set up ask when that set up took effect and the expected take down is. Most chains have a "book" that show the layouts and that is the bible I go by, even if my paperwork says differently.

Usually there is a comments area in my report where I can explain differences in POG. Often differences are due to floor space, different fixtures or missing/different sku's. Occasionally it is because the manager doesn't have space for the stuff that needs to be moved so I can do my set up.

I don't bring anyone with me when I work. It slows me down since I have to give direction and I'm too lazy to copy the POG so we'd have to share. As for the new person in the store - probably a new Acosta hire

If the merchandising company has a log-in sheet with the company contact information, that is probably the direction I would point the manager to. If I had a good relationship with the manager (or if I had already told him I would look it up and get it to him), I would probably give it to him. The manager calling doesn't necessarily mean anyone is going to lose their job. It could just result in some counseling/correcting or retraining. Unprofessional merchandisers can make things bad for all merchandisers, and stores should not have to deal with them.

I see so many sides to this.

I assume you know who the company is for sure and that both of the merchandisers were NOT direct employees? Because, if one of them is an IC it's their merchandising company and they can have an employee if they see fit. When CAST was CastForce, I didn't work alone.

I agree with Rainy in that it's the store manager's responsibility to get that company's contact info on his own. We've got a horrible, horrible foul mouthed merchandiser in my area, who (I swear) never does anything right. I've had the misfortune of working with her a few times and it's always a total disaster. But unless the stores complain to the companies directly (on their own, with no outside involvement) nothing will be done. Complaining to another vendor/merchandiser is just really unprofessional in my opinion. I've told managers before, "You need to tell the company. I'm not her boss and I have nothing to do with it." They get the message real fast and stop talking about other people to me.

One of the problems with giving a company's contact info to someone else is invariably they're going to say, "Marmaduke Runsmouth (haha) told me to call you and tell you about this". I mean, guaranteed. And you're left looking like a jerk.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2016 10:28PM by adlib.

It is the person who filled my position after I quit the MSC. I have had two separate people that were there tell me their version of events, and in my mind, it is inexcusable for a merchandiser to perform in the way she did. Calling the DM to ask how to do the job, asking the other staff in the store to show her how read the stores POG as she did not bring her own. Multiple calls to people to find someone to help her, finally her daughter who does not work in this field, came in to try and help. Threw away the 2nd facing labels as they didn't have a barcode, stuck the labels on the shelf the way they came off the sheet, not bothering to read what the labels actually said. Hard tagged the labels on the plastic instead of sliding them between the plastic on the shelf. Didn't look to see sizes and counts on the POG for correct placement.
I think she may not have known that you are always working solo for this company, and, maybe thought it was a learn as you go job. There isn't any team reset work, nor any training. When you are hired, as soon as you get your password for the website to print the work and POGs, you are supposed to be good to go. You can't fake it.
Unfortunately the log in sheet does not list anything beyond the name. I wish it did. ( she also never signed in)
The company only hires experienced people, and they are hired as W2's. 1 year minimum experience required. I am curious if she will ever be back. The work had to be photographed for compliance when it was done, so I wonder if anyone at the company really looks at the photos. If so, it will show non compliance and will not be paid. She can't go back and fix it as the store already did it.
I am hoping that by the time I see the manager again, that he will have cooled off. He really is the most mellow manager you could want to work with. Like a 6 ft. Golden Retriever.

I still will be in this store for the current MSC I work for.

I have worked with my husband in stores but only for companies that we both work for. I have even got him hired on in some cases so that we can work together to make the work go faster. Taking someone who is not an employee is not cool!
Most company guidelines even state that you can't take anyone in with you.

I wouldn't give them her personal number but definitely the company number if I have it. If I don't have it, I find it because I want all Sh!tty merchandisers the H3ll out of my area and out of my stores!

I'm having that problem but it's with people I work with that the company hired. As "team lead" (and that term I use lightly because they don't pay me more!) I have to take the photos and get the store manager to sign off. To do that, the set needs to be correct.

I have two months of cosmetic resets with new people. One never worked retail at all (pretty sure she's a drinker-young as she is tsktsk), one said she worked as a cust.svc.mgr at a large store, took 15 hours on a 4' (hardly changes) reset, one said she was a manager at a $store (NOT) can do resets but slow and tentative and shy and asks EVERYTIME the same questions, like, where do we put the discontinued product.

Why are these companies so desperate? Because they don't want to pay for experienced people!

So, they should have to hear what a crappy job that new person they hired is doing.
I have a phone number for just about every merchandising company just for this purpose!

This is exactly why I get family members and friends hired in to work on cosmetic resets with me. I got tired of putting up with the workers I was given and decided to search out and recruit my own help.
Since I have a good rep, they have hired the people I have brought them and then they know the work will be done and done correctly
Report back to your district manager if they send you reps that are not holding their own - part of the job of the team lead is not only to train new hires but give feedback on their performance.

All the new people for an entire year were brand new to resets.
Obviously none of them had done cosmetic resets.
Match Converge is doing the Albertson's now and they hired people who said they worked in retail but it's not possible because they're at 4 hours per foot! Only one could barely read a planogram and she still mucked it up; I spent 3 hours fixing her Almay (which she spent 15 hours setting) because she had moved all the trays closer together because SHE THOUGHT IT LOOKED BETTER THAT WAY.....LOL.

I not only reported back but also reported that the reps were yelling at me when they're frustrated.
My area manager believed their lies.
They show up late and many times don't show up at all. She lets them come back it seems no matter what.
They talk ALL DAY about all the crap happening in their lives and it's like they're not moving (working) when they're talking. It's a trip to watch.

Sure, when the area manager showed up to train them they didn't take not even one break. (Still late tho).
Sure, when the area manager showed up to train them they were dusting the sets.
Sure, when the area manager showed up to train them they DIDN'T SPEAK AT ALL except about the sets.
Sure, when the area manager showed up to train them they didn't talk on the phone for the usual 3 hours.

They lied and told her that I was yelling at them.

Well, I sent her an email telling her that I'm a Mystery Shopper and I own a PV500.
I have proof that they were yelling at me and generally throwing temper tantrums and threatening to walk off the job because I was telling them that they had to dust. I personally don't give a rats ass if they dust. I don't want to dust either, it's pretty gross actually. But you have to dust and clean or the Store Manager won't sign off on the form.

I wish I had family here to call on. I had to quit. She can pay them $40 a foot instead of $9 a foot to me.

I just ran into 2 more managers from stores I used to do. The dynamic duo have now succeed to not have to do any work in the stores. 3 stores now refuse to let them do anything in their stores as they have messed the sets up so badly. I was doing work for another company and got quite an earful at each store. I still had to do my resets though. So who's the dope now???? What a way to make a living. I wonder how long the gravy train will last. I have decided not to give the company number to the managers. Let them complain to their zone manager. He has raised cain in the past about loser merchandisers with this company.

It's really too bad Cindy that people who work hard and take pride in their work need to deal with this kind of thing. I have cards ready with my area managers full name, the company name and her phone number and her supervisor's phone number. I invite them to use my phone to call her! I get paid to do my work and I do it very well. When your manager doesn't handle human resource concerns immediately, or not at all in our case here in my city, they should be fielding these complaints or their managers, not me!

I called my mother and told her she should have spanked us when we were kids so I would know how to deal with the scoldings I got from the stores. What I had to do was to tell the Store Managers that I agree with them, that the staffing with this company awful. It seems like if the person is alive, you know, for the most part, then they can work for this company. Many companies are like that now. I'm pretty sure most of the merchandisers I've seen this past year are taking the bus to get to work, have tattered clothing and no badge and generally look lost, contemplative and, frankly, a little scared.

This is the fault of the merchandising companies taking an ever increasing percentage of the pie compared to the merchandisers percentage. I get scouting calls once or twice a week from the larger companies, Acosta, Advantage, Crossmark etc. Don't ask me why but I really enjoy the early morning grocery store resets. I mean, then I can do other work in the afternoon. But they want to pay $11.50 an hour. I can't get them to budge even to $12.00 an hour. I told them I do more than 100% more than the average merchandiser, sometimes up to 400%. They don't care. $11.50, $11.50. They can take their $11.50 and......

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2016 01:27AM by spicy1.