The way I see it... the bigger the company, the more problems you can expect. It's a concept that applies to most lines of work, but in retail it gives new meaning to "lack of communication". Sometimes I wonder if the right hand even knows that the left hand exists.
Let's start at the bottom of the food chain. You have your basic, run-of-the-mill salespeople (and actually, they are the backbone of the company).Then typically you have the Assistants and the Manager. Consider yourself lucky if the Manager spends any time at all on the salesfloor. I worked for one recently who claimed she "knew everything that was going on in the store" yet she was rarely ever visible in it. In her eyes, her "favorite" Assistant could do no wrong and she had equally strong opinions about several salespeople. Funny thing is, her "favorite" Assistant was a Loss Prevention nightmare, constantly falsifying documents and frequently spending the bulk of her shift balancing her checkbook or shopping online. Her "favorite" salespeople had the worst attendance records and spent their days looking busy while doing next to nothing. So much for being omnipotent.
Next up the chain you have your "middle-management"... Area Managers, District Managers, Regional Managers, etc. They are basically the buffers between the slaves in the store and the primadonnas who sit in cushy offices and have no clue.
But the real problem is usually at the top. The number of "Departments" (Marketing, Product Development, Sales, Visual, Distribution, Payroll, Inventory Control, Human Resources and so on...) is staggering. Then you have a plethora of sub-categories amongst them. AND NONE OF THEM COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER!
So, "Merchandising" wants you to feature Item A. But that competes with Item B which "Marketing" is trying to promote. And "Distribution" can't get you what you need anyway because "Production" is behind schedule. But that's too bad because the sale fliers have already been sent out. And oh yea, there was a misprint and the price is listed incorrectly and the expiration date is wrong. And don't forget you get no extra "Payroll" hours to staff for the expected onslaught of customers generated by "Advertising". (And you might as well just plan on doing the 6 hour floor move that "Visual" requires after the store closes.)
And if that weren't enough, don't forget reviews are due to "Human Resources" by Friday. And you will be having a visit from the lucky "V.P. of Whatever" who won the corporate raffle and gets to use the company jet this week.
Bless our middle-management-mouthpieces. The message they deliver at this point is "Just make the customer happy". Ok, no problem. How 'bout this: One Day Only... Everything is Free!!! While Supplies Last.
Seriously people, perhaps the problem is that we have too many "layers" of people who apparently can't coordinate diddly. Right Hand... meet the Left Hand.
XML Feeds