I see TY is kind of back

January 06, 2026 02:04AM

Got a list of CVS stores today, they also have Kroger but I don't feel like fighting for the money I need for Kroger.

I figured it would be nothing until before Easter if it came back at all. I assume some of you folks have heard from them as well.

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January 06, 2026 03:16AM

Yes I did, the email said only select CVS. One of which was my regular. On the job board all the Safeways in my area are listed. Two of which I completed every month, but never received an email for them.

January 06, 2026 03:31AM

I did not get all of the CVS stores I was doing maybe half (I would have to look).
I only did one Kroger in my route and regretted it. They just take too long before you get to start working. There are about 40 in my area. Thinking of making an offer for all of them. Also think I will regret having to deal with multiple Kroger folks 40 times. No problem with them, but they are hourly and I am not.
If these were only prepaid cards, where you say hi and know where the product is.

January 07, 2026 03:32PM

Hello and Happy New Year!

Yes, right after the big decision at the beginning of December, it appears they realized they need to provide in-store support for at least a sub-set of stores. As of now it's only select chains, but we're still getting small lists from additional chains to add to that, as recently as this morning.

It definitely won't be the whole universe of stores as they have made a fundamental shift in how they want to handle that, but the good news is as fast as they made one decision, they decided in-store service was important for a subset of stores so we're able to keep many of them.

I'd expect some more stores to keep getting added back, but the density of locations in specific areas certainly won't be the same. As always we'll try to fill those voids with other projects and customers as we get them.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to reach out to me or our project team directly.

Daniel Price
Chief Operating Officer
Customer Impact, LLC
dprice@customerimpactinfo.com

January 10, 2026 05:19PM

Could you address the solution to applying for shops on a Friday and they have a next day or 2 deadline. How do we get acceptance for these?

January 12, 2026 05:46AM

You don't. They don't work on the weekends, and they have no concept of self assign. The requested location(s) will be assigned on Monday, and they push the date back a couple of days.

@big_sky_thunder wrote:

Could you address the solution to applying for shops on a Friday and they have a next day or 2 deadline. How do we get acceptance for these?

January 12, 2026 12:37PM

The biggest issue I have is the locations that came back on the board in my area are mostly large grocery stores that require 45 minutes to an hour or more in the store and they are paying $10/$12. That's not even minimum wage in my state. It wasn't so bad when I had 5 or 6 shops in the area that took 15/20 minutes to get done to throw in a large store and lose money on the big store, but made money with the others. Yesterday when I went in my local circle K and the manager was so happy to see me, thinking I was there for Ty and I told her no, Ty chose to go another direction and she said she wasn't going to have her employees wasting their time on the display, it's a mess. So, hopefully Ty will recognize their error at some point and add additional locations back.

January 12, 2026 02:37PM

I'll start by saying it frustrates me when the project teams lets the due dates stay that close wrapped around a weekend. Yes we are closed on weekends and while some will check email/work from home, it's not a requirement of ours. Separately, we can't do self assign because we use GoSpotCheck to complete the visits and there's no API that will recognize and automatically assign the job in GSC once being assigned in sassie (we are and have been searching for a solution forever on this!).

So 1) my team needs to get better at recognizing it does no good to leave open locations on the board with a Sunday or Monday due date if it's Friday afternoon so they need to push the dates out or make it clear they won't be doing any new assigning for that weekend,

And 2) if you do see something but the due dates don't line up or make logical sense with our schedule, either email that scheduler on the side telling them what your availability would be if you could complete it, or when you apply on the job board, write that in the note on the answer required part.

I know that's not perfect, but hopefully it helps explain it a little better.

Daniel Price
Chief Operating Officer
Customer Impact, LLC
dprice@customerimpactinfo.com

January 13, 2026 06:17PM

Thank you Daniel for responding. At least we know someone there is paying attention.

January 17, 2026 11:55PM

I just started and picked up some TY Circle K assignments and one Kroger one. The Circle K ones were easy and I was out in less than 30 or so minutes. The Kroger one I had to build 4 displays. I'm glad I worked in retail for 13 years doing mainly display building and setting planograms or I would have ran out of the building when I saw what was in store for me.

January 18, 2026 04:51AM

I jumped in headfirst picking up a bunch of TY shops for the first time in November. My very first one was a Kroger. Huge mess of a stockroom, an unbuilt display, and zero inventory. I built the display anyway but it took forever to sort the mountains of other merch. I took them at first offered price of $13 knowing I might not win on that one but thought I could get my foot in the door for a regular route. No luck so far, seems they like to hold out for cheap labor instead of reliable regular service, which is what the retailers all seem to want. Several retailers reported that sales are down and the toys don’t sell much anymore.

January 18, 2026 02:19PM

I knew I was taking a gamble by picking it up and glad I only said I would do 1 instead of all 3 in the area. The pay was $14. The store had all the displays and product on a Uboat waiting for me, so at least I didn't have to look for anything. The displays were 80% filled once I was done, and there was no backstock. I told them they might see me again, and they might not. Since I built all the displays and know how the organize the product in the back, I might be more likely to pick it up again vs one I'm not familiar with.

@Maria72 wrote:

I jumped in headfirst picking up a bunch of TY shops for the first time in November. My very first one was a Kroger. Huge mess of a stockroom, an unbuilt display, and zero inventory. I built the display anyway but it took forever to sort the mountains of other merch. I took them at first offered price of $13 knowing I might not win on that one but thought I could get my foot in the door for a regular route. No luck so far, seems they like to hold out for cheap labor instead of reliable regular service, which is what the retailers all seem to want. Several retailers reported that sales are down and the toys don’t sell much anymore.

January 18, 2026 03:22PM

The large drug stores usually have multiple displays and tons of inventory. I can't see myself doing these for anything less than $25. I see them start at 10 and just wonder, why play this game again? I had a nice route, all those stores are gone. These would all be new to me. Would love to pick up the 10 directly in my area but they won't budge on the fee. Of course they hope someone else will do it for less. So we wait and we play the game.

January 18, 2026 03:45PM

Here's the thing ...in the past when it was drug store and c store combined I can justified a slightly lower cost by balancing my time back with the generally quicker visit time from the C-stores while spending extra times on the drug stores. But now when every shops are drug stores and they all gonna take a set amount of time. The low pay really start to not feeling as justifiable anymore

January 18, 2026 06:18PM

Datagirl: amen, right on and all those other words in support. The drug stores are the ones that I count the number of displays where ever I am and write down the ones that I would accept IF the fee ever gets acceptable.

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I see TY is kind of back

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