Had an unannounced DM visit today with the market and HR leader.
The ML and HR showed up 30-45 minutes before opening. Not really too much of a problem until they both wanted to hold an impromptu meeting with opening associates and the rally meeting 10 minutes before the store opened, with little regard in having the staff out on the floor to serve customers. The associates coming in for the morning, especially the newer ones, kept asking me if this was "The Meeting" where they announce layoffs or that the store is closing.
Later on during the visit, the market leader only pointed out "flaws" and did so while walking through with the store manager and I. This was during operating hours when there were a steady flow of customers.
One of the problems we had were the lack of promotional sidekicks: we had most of them up, but due to the lack of staff, time and the need to take care of tasks with much higher priority, it was still a work in progress, something that I have already delegated to sales associates when they have down time. I happened to have my hardlines MCA working a POG reset and PCN markdowns--tasks that have higher priority. The ML wanted the MCA to stop with these tasks right then and there to put up the sidekicks, ignoring the fact that this one and only MCA is only given no more than 15 hours a week tops to work all of hardlines--signing, POG, price actions, receipts. So, even though I had delegated the project already (and it would have been completed by the next morning at the latest), the market leader took valuable time away from my HLMCA and the tasks that had a bigger priority.
Meanwhile, HR circled around the store with the ML and interrogated my HA, HI and CE sales staff about training compliance, credit, PAs, KYM, BOT and SYW, as if the constant coaching that the store manager and I do with our associates isn't enough. What really ground my gears was when the ML went into the whole spiel about getting credit with two of my HA associates with customers within earshot (and the discussion was about not taking no for an answer and that kind of thing). At the same time, the district HR leader itched to "take just a quick minute" with HA and talk with them about how important it is to get their training done, oblivious to the customers browsing in the department and having to work on a draw commission salesfloor.
Same thing in softlines. The HR leader tied up the two cashiers on duty over there with the training talk in between customers (and stood at the CAC and looked foolish when customers came up to cash out). The ML joins later to talk about metrics only after discovering multiple flaws as a result of a lack of staff and sufficient scheduling allowances (some old typicals/POGs). Our only softlines lead had the day off; the ML wanted us to call her in anyways. The ML discovered some purses and soaps that had been backstocked due to no sufficient space for them on the floor--the purses alone could fill a refrigerator box.
The el-cheapo liquid hand soaps were stored away with the purses on a small stockroom--about 30 boxes at 25 pounds each. We had more than enough at the CAC and in an in-aisle display and at all of the checkouts in hardlines...they had been there since Christmas and haven't been replenished much ever since because nobody's going to Sears for soap. However, the ML has a mini-breakdown over the discovery of the back-stocked $1.00 hand soap and wanted it all out on displays. I just wished that I could show the ML how many big-ticket, margin-healthy sales that walked in hardlines due to the lack of availability because of the large purchases of filler, low-margin, poor-selling merchandise Sears insists on stocking in their stores. The other day we lost a $15k Samsung kitchen (complete with five-year PAs, a water filter subscription...all put on a Sears card) because the warehouse's lack of availability. I bet they have no shortage of $1 hand soaps to offer!
I just needed to vent because there is so much disconnect of reality between the store and upper management in this company. What I saw yesterday was a complete disregard to how things really work in a store, between pulling my sales associates away to "talk" and having them take on lower-priority tasks. Not to mention the whole "not seeing the forest for the trees" mentality they have. I really wanted to just hand over the keys to the store and have them run it for a week in a manner they saw fit.
When Q1 results are released next Friday it will telegraph the issues as a result of the lack of proper management from the district level on up. Unfortunately, we've had bad performance as a company for some time coming so I don't think they get it.