Fulfillment Captain here. Our picks have been ridiculously low, even at Christmas we didn't have days like LY. Anyone else experiencing the same. I look at our forecasted picks and they're down 50-80%
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I’m a fulfillment captain and until this week we had six FT (including me) and one PT. We were told at the start of the new fiscal year that we would be losing one FT and one PT position. They did not let anyone go but said if anyone left the position would be gone. We lost one FT this week. Picks for us have been pretty low and the forecasts have been very ballpark—mostly way under but occasionally significantly over. Planning for the workload using these forecasts has been ridiculous. On top of that we have been very short on hours. Since February 1 we have had one week when the FT people have had 40 hours. 32 for the most part. Not great for so many reasons. It may improve with the loss of one of our teammates but not counting on it.
The hours we get do not always match well with the workload. During inventory time we actually had hours carved out to give to inventory and we had to pick up an inventory shift to get our time back.
Last Act is picked from the stores. Happy hunting!
They are sending more inventory to the warehouses to save time for the stores since it’s more costly to ship from a store and results in more split shipments.
@2bpd. Uh oh. Look out. They may be planning on getting rid of the FT position and going with PT since volume is down and the work isn't there. That's what they did in my store. Keep an eye out.
They’re closing a bunch of dedicated fulfillment centers. They made this strategy during covid to help out the low performing stores with too much space and turns out it’s costing too much money and not a valuable practice. They’re shifting back to warehouse fulfillment. Long story short, it’s better to have the assortment out for customers to buy in stores then to hold it back for fulfillment reasons.
Fulfillment will be for curbside and pick up so it’s definitely going to be less
IDK why they added a part timer to my team if the work isn't going to be there. There's me, the captain, a FT, and 2 PT...soon to be 3 PT. I guess we'll all just be helping with MD's, truck, and merchandising. Planning better come up with a better forecast for picks.
Corporate laid off a bunch folks on mtech supply chain last round, it’s everywhere. Soon we will all be replaced by offshore cheaper labor and AI
It was announced on a call today possible cuts within the fulfillment area to happen. Will be announced within the next few weeks.
Online sales are not tanking, and far from it. As it was said similarly below, warehouses are now handling most of this. As I stated in another thread in the last week or so the company is getting away from paying to ship to a store only to have to pay for free shipping from a store to the consumer. With that said you will see a downturn in fulfillment at the store level along with a reduction of inventory. Unfortunately for stores the trend of the last decade is not going to keep them thriving. Less stores, more online direct sales from the warehouse or vendors to consumers builds profit. Some consumers may still prefer purchasing some items to purchase at a store but in many cases online direct sales are winning out not only here but everywhere.
I'm also a captain in fulfillment and yes our picks have been somethings below 100 picks and I'm worried because rn in my team is me, 3 FTs and 2 PTs
We reduced a FT and 2PT from our team, if they quit we don't get to hire the jobs back That's out of a team of 1 Captain, 2Ft and 3Pt currently. The manager said warehouses are taking over most of the online sales now and that's not going well anyway.
Hi Captain! Thank you for reply.
So is this "abnormal" for you guys?
Sorry , trying to gauge the low shortage / how bad of shape we're in & if its tied to online selling only
Tks in advance
I'm a captain in the store. We get a plan for daily picks and the actual compared to the plan is very low
Hi Captain!
Thank you for your pist.
Can u help me understand a bit better.
Assuming you are captain the warehouse,i work on the online portion.
Just got out of a meeting and they are still full speed ahead with private brand launches, but my gut tells me something will shake down
I could be wrong, but so curious and eager for insught