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Totes blocked service dates???

November 26, 2025 02:21PM
Has anybody found it odd that we are blocked from doing service at the stores until the 29th and the 30th. I've been doing merchandising for over 40 years and have never experienced this so-called blackout dates the 24th to the 26th. I can see the 26th and the 28th but not Monday and Tuesday. Since the product is owned by the stores they want the product on the floor so it'll sells and cut back inventory, and the product provider wants to get product in and out of the store faster. Now the other dilemma is there is boxes of product possibly sitting in the back room store managers are going to start screaming at the company's why the product isn't getting out or screaming at me the merchandiser. My solution ....personally talk to each manager and explain the situation about the blackout date an advising the lack of service was the decision of the third party company. I've been working for this third party company for over 5 years and never experienced anything like this. Any other suggestions....
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November 26, 2025 06:56PM
If these are at grocery stores, I suspected they may have wanted to block it off for the pre-Thanksgiving grocery runs.
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November 26, 2025 08:07PM
Are you positive it's the MSC deciding and not the store choosing not to have vendor visits during their busiest time? I understand that it's going to be a bigger mess to clean up but I doubt very much they are going to yell at you for being gone for a few days. If they are desperate, they'll have an employee put some product out. I've walked into neglected stores with fat bonuses and found they'd done the entire setup already. Incorrectly, of course, but the display was full
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November 26, 2025 11:08PM
I received an email from the Senior Project Manager on 11-13 that informed of blackout dates from 11-24 through 11-28. Week 4 (weekly) visits if not able to do on 11-22/23 would not be penalized. I completed all of my visits by the 22nd, including two weeklys.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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November 27, 2025 01:17AM
They probably don't want anybody but employees in the store during the big black friday sales.. Doesn't seem unreasonable. The stores are going to be dangerous at best.
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November 27, 2025 02:04AM
I am in merchandising more than mystery shopping. I completely understand why the companies have Thanksgiving and Black Friday blackout dates. I don't care to be in the stores on those days without working, more less trying to work. Those days, the stores are very stressful for the stores.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.
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November 27, 2025 03:40AM
It's either that or their offices will be closed and there won't be any support available.
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