being nice to schedulers

September 10, 2009 11:32PM

Being nice to schedulers does pay off.
Yesterday, I was taking the day off, and the phone rang. It was one of the schedulers that I have worked for in the past doing merchandizing, wanting to now if I could do a job that afternoon. I told him sure, no problem. He told me the pay, but was willing to bonus it if I could get it done before 7p.m.. (no problem, it is only 2pm here.((Or so I thought).
Any way off I go to do this store. It is one on the sony restock things. That is where I ran into problems. This store had no been serviced since the end of May.( it is a weekly store)
I do as much as I can in two hours, came home and called them. (it is now 7:30pm)
The schedular calls me back about 30 minutes later. He tells me that instead of the bonus, they will pay the regular rate which is x per hour pulus x for each 1/4 of an hour. Can I possibly finish it up today?
Sure why not.
So I have a total of 8 hours in, including entering the report,
which is not to bad for a day that I planned on cleaning house.
needless to say, this person goes to the top of my list. I will work anything with him.

on a side note, he gave me the store plus one more on a pernment basis. Got to love those.

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More About Schedulers

September 10, 2009 11:50PM

This is merchandising? I thought that paid differently than MS to begin with?

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

September 11, 2009 01:05AM

Yeah, I don't see why this guy is such a prince.

September 11, 2009 02:30AM

Yes, I figured I must be missing something in there, that is why I asked if they pay different. To me, two trips and 8 hours unplanned would not be worthwhile.

September 11, 2009 02:30AM

tgb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, I don't see why this guy is such a prince.

Yeah, I'm really confused. So instead of getting the bonus, they just got the regular rate. If it is the company I am thinking of, that is how they would normally pay.

September 11, 2009 09:12AM

Well, lets put it this way,
I figure that $16.00 per hour is better than nothing!
I don't have a lot of choices. The only MSing that is going on here in my berg is FF, cheap gas stations. There are no banks, no ice cream places, the closest thing to an up scale dining is Applebeas. For those places paying $30.00 or more, I would have to drive 45 miles one way, and by the time I figure in my drive time, wear and tear on my car, entering the report, I would be working for a heck of a lot less.
Yes I still do MSing. And yes I take those silly low paying jobs, but only if it is on my way to another job. I am lucky I can get from one side of my town in less than 15 minutes. So I can do my entire route of 5 merchandizing jobs, take 7 low paying MSing in & out stores, and have it all done in about 5 hours, with a total pay of $112.00.
So yes I think the guy is a prince. He will be throwing more of this towards me.

September 11, 2009 09:22AM

Well, then good for you. I hope it works out well. Sometimes it helps when things are put in perspective. We don't know where you live, what is there, and what the employment opps. are there. But, ask for more $ when they impose on you last minute like that. You are doing them a favor, not them you. :-)

September 11, 2009 02:06PM

purrff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, lets put it this way,
> I figure that $16.00 per hour is better than
> nothing!
> I don't have a lot of choices. The only MSing that
> is going on here in my berg is FF, cheap gas
> stations. There are no banks, no ice cream places,
> the closest thing to an up scale dining is
> Applebeas. For those places paying $30.00 or more,
> I would have to drive 45 miles one way, and by the
> time I figure in my drive time, wear and tear on
> my car, entering the report, I would be working
> for a heck of a lot less.
> Yes I still do MSing. And yes I take those silly
> low paying jobs, but only if it is on my way to
> another job. I am lucky I can get from one side of
> my town in less than 15 minutes. So I can do my
> entire route of 5 merchandizing jobs, take 7 low
> paying MSing in & out stores, and have it all done
> in about 5 hours, with a total pay of $112.00.
> So yes I think the guy is a prince. He will be
> throwing more of this towards me.

Ahh, so for $16 an hour, you must have gotten a bonus then. I thought you did that for their usual $8 an hour.

September 12, 2009 09:45AM

Is that good pay for merchandising? I have no clue. I have never done it, and probably won't as it would put me in the same stores my students work at, and then...well...you have to explain why the prof. needs that job too.... :-(

But I am curious about the pay scale.

September 12, 2009 01:52PM

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is that good pay for merchandising? I have no
> clue. I have never done it, and probably won't as
> it would put me in the same stores my students
> work at, and then...well...you have to explain why
> the prof. needs that job too.... :-(
>
> But I am curious about the pay scale.

I've only done merchandising assignments for one company and I think it is the one she is talking about. They normally pay $8 an hour. Or for smaller jobs, it is a flat rate of $6, but those are usually completed in 15-20 minutes.

September 12, 2009 05:50PM

Thanks.

September 12, 2009 10:59PM

I never tried merchandising as it really does not interest me. However, I signed up for in store demos on NARMS and keep getting comapnies calling me to do merchandising. Most have very low pay.

September 12, 2009 11:17PM

There are a number of shoppers who do merchandising to fill out their time because few areas support enough shops to make it a consisten part time or full time job without systematically working well beyond a comfortable shopping radius. I understand that it has the advantage of having routine work weekly, bi-weekly, monthly etc. in addition to one time jobs such as resets or assembling displays. Shoppers who do merchandising tend to shift away from shops as it is easier not to have to constantly be prowling boards for work, reports are much less demanding and pay tends to be more frequent. Plus there are the added avantages that you generally are out of pocket little if anything, often reimbursed mileage build relationships with your District Managers who can help you out when needed. It is a different animal than mystery shopping but can be worked parallel with shopping.

September 13, 2009 02:53AM

I have done merchandising. I used to do more of it but it's not my favorite. The pay is on the low side, there is not as much freedom, and there is certainly no anonymity in it.

September 13, 2009 03:02AM

And shopper friends have complained that for locations they have to choose between merchandising and mystery shopping because it is awkward or not allowed to do both. Comment the other day that GFK is now telling their electronics auditors that they are likely to have to chose between the audits and anything else they do at any location of the electronics retailer.

September 13, 2009 06:19PM

I have never done any merchandising. I may consider it in the future, but from what I have read it does seem to offer less flexibility and pays less than mystery shopping. It certainly does look more appealing to me because it doens't require as much reporting. However, I like that I can load up a couple of days out of the month and do pretty well, as opposed to a few hours a day for quite a few days out of the month. Maybe someday I will branch out because this area is pretty competitive.

September 13, 2009 06:43PM

My understanding is that there is some flexibility with merchandising. Obviously JayTee is using his merchandising to schedule routes of shops, which of course can offer the double whammy of being reimbursed mileage to merchandise locations, I believe some merchandising companies pay something for travel time, and certainly he does not need to burn midnight oil based on the merchandising reports. So it does offer some advantages that for some may outweigh the reduction of flexibility and for others may provide a more viable structure to hang shops on.

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