SkullcapComix
February 25th, 2008, 12:00 PM
(Please bump this if I have posted it in an inappropriate section.)
Ok, here's what I don't get. First off, I don't HATE Blockbuster. I work there. I DO however hate a LOT of their policies and business practices, because a lot of them, well, just don't make sense. What I will be talking about today is their policies on SHRINK and how to handle it.
I am an ASM and I recently transferred stores, from the smallest store in our district, to one of the largest. This sadly means that there are many more inventory control issues. I also moved from a huge Christian town... to, well, without better words for it, a ghetto. I was used to knowing everyone's name, to having almost exclusively nothing but people with manners, people who would discus issues and concerns peacefully... and also, not a lot of theft. Being a small store (my old one) you could see where everyone was from any point in the store. We had 4 cameras, and they covered 90% of the store. We also had mirrors in the back corners to see anyone crouching or hiding. We had very little shrink, cept for the occasional wandering drug-addict shoplifters, who will hit every store in a 10-mile radius in ONE day (don't you love those ones?).
I get to this new store (which is actually a quite old store, one of the first ones to be built in the area, it's been there nearly 20 years or more. There are 3 cameras. ALL point to the front desk. And the store itself is HUGE. There are no mirrors. And there is an exit door with no magnetic alarm system in front of it at all. We did an inventory my first month there, and it was a $3000+ loss. Which was almost more then what we lost for a whole YEAR at the other store. I asked if it was always like that. The LAST inventory, from 2 months prior, was a $7000+ loss. I started hearing the stories then. When "Crank" came to DVD, someone made out with over 30 copies of it in the first day. Opened the yellow locks, took the disc out, re-locked them, and put them back on the shelf and everything. Every single day, we find empty movies like this, and always all back near the same place, int he BACK corner of the store. We know HOW they are doing it, and where.... sometimes even WHEN.
Here's the thing.
Blockbuster won't do a damn thing about it. They won't give us more labor hours to have an extra employee on the FLOOR at all times to watch for these things. they will not put up extra cameras, a ONE TIME cost, that will prevent THOUSANDS of dollars leaving the store's revenue EVERY inventory. They won't put up mirrors (which is funny... because at my old store, we never USED to have mirrors, till we were told we HAD to have them for safety and security reasons, and so they put them up, and they have never done anything but help. NOW, My new SM and Corporate tell me all they do is HELP shoplifters, so we CAN'T have them. Which is funny, because ANY other store I go into, no matter where or what KIND of store, and pretty much any business thats NOT a BB, has them). The best they have done for us is put up a new magnetic security system right on the door. But the thing with that is that it works less then the old one did. The way it works, there can't be one on both sides of the door, or it will not function at all... so its on the right side of the door.... thing is, if I hold something in my left hand thats tagged... it won't read it through my body, and it won't go off.
The limitations BB has on calling the police are also ridiculous. I KNOW for a fact sometimes that there are people in my store stealing. But I also know I can't do shit unless I SEE them steal with my own eyes. THEN I have to call the police and wait for them, all without breaking visual contact with the perp, because if I DO, thats reasonable doubt, and I no longer have evidence. And with no CAMERAS... I likely never will have the opportunity to CATCH anyone.
And here's one I KNOW that BB employees will love. How many times have you had a customer bring up a PRP Game. only to have you open it at the counter, and it's empty, and they have to pick something else or walk out empty handed? The locks we use for the games are NOT hard to open. They get ripped off ALL the time. For YEARS we have been telling corporate to let us go "dead" on games.... to just put out the boxes and have us keep the games behind the counter. Know what they said? "No, its not SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) compliant, so you can't." We just THIS MONTH got permission to finally put the games behind the counter and just display the boxes. WHY couldn't we before?
My question is... why does Corporate put so much into Shrink... why do we get yelled at so much for something that THEY will not LET us do anything about? Why do they sit back and let tons of money just WALK out of their stores when all it would take is some attention to detail on their part, and it could all be significantly lowered universally? Why not more security devices? Why not more UP TO DATE security devices? Why not more people in the stores to keep these things from happening? These thieves KNOW we have few people in the stores and they KNOW our busy times. Times when we are stuck behind a desk, distracted. Why not get more labor, especially in bigger, more populated, more lucrative stores? Why not get sensors that WORK? Most importantly, why tell us as managers to TAKE OWNERSHIP of our stores, when you won't even let us take responsibility for our own product?
Corporate is LETTING these thieves win. They LET these people walk away with all this free stuff EVERY YEAR.... I don't get why WE are the ones being yelled at for it when they won't take simple steps that every other retail business takes, and has taken, for years and years. It makes no sense.
The amount of money lost to shrink last year as a company was staggering. I KNOW it can never be perfect and I KNOW it will never be zero... but i DO know that Blockbuster COULD spend a FRACTION of what it lost... a VERY SMALL fraction of what it lost, just last year alone, and prevent the loss of MILLIONS per YEAR, EVERY year, to come.
Ok, here's what I don't get. First off, I don't HATE Blockbuster. I work there. I DO however hate a LOT of their policies and business practices, because a lot of them, well, just don't make sense. What I will be talking about today is their policies on SHRINK and how to handle it.
I am an ASM and I recently transferred stores, from the smallest store in our district, to one of the largest. This sadly means that there are many more inventory control issues. I also moved from a huge Christian town... to, well, without better words for it, a ghetto. I was used to knowing everyone's name, to having almost exclusively nothing but people with manners, people who would discus issues and concerns peacefully... and also, not a lot of theft. Being a small store (my old one) you could see where everyone was from any point in the store. We had 4 cameras, and they covered 90% of the store. We also had mirrors in the back corners to see anyone crouching or hiding. We had very little shrink, cept for the occasional wandering drug-addict shoplifters, who will hit every store in a 10-mile radius in ONE day (don't you love those ones?).
I get to this new store (which is actually a quite old store, one of the first ones to be built in the area, it's been there nearly 20 years or more. There are 3 cameras. ALL point to the front desk. And the store itself is HUGE. There are no mirrors. And there is an exit door with no magnetic alarm system in front of it at all. We did an inventory my first month there, and it was a $3000+ loss. Which was almost more then what we lost for a whole YEAR at the other store. I asked if it was always like that. The LAST inventory, from 2 months prior, was a $7000+ loss. I started hearing the stories then. When "Crank" came to DVD, someone made out with over 30 copies of it in the first day. Opened the yellow locks, took the disc out, re-locked them, and put them back on the shelf and everything. Every single day, we find empty movies like this, and always all back near the same place, int he BACK corner of the store. We know HOW they are doing it, and where.... sometimes even WHEN.
Here's the thing.
Blockbuster won't do a damn thing about it. They won't give us more labor hours to have an extra employee on the FLOOR at all times to watch for these things. they will not put up extra cameras, a ONE TIME cost, that will prevent THOUSANDS of dollars leaving the store's revenue EVERY inventory. They won't put up mirrors (which is funny... because at my old store, we never USED to have mirrors, till we were told we HAD to have them for safety and security reasons, and so they put them up, and they have never done anything but help. NOW, My new SM and Corporate tell me all they do is HELP shoplifters, so we CAN'T have them. Which is funny, because ANY other store I go into, no matter where or what KIND of store, and pretty much any business thats NOT a BB, has them). The best they have done for us is put up a new magnetic security system right on the door. But the thing with that is that it works less then the old one did. The way it works, there can't be one on both sides of the door, or it will not function at all... so its on the right side of the door.... thing is, if I hold something in my left hand thats tagged... it won't read it through my body, and it won't go off.
The limitations BB has on calling the police are also ridiculous. I KNOW for a fact sometimes that there are people in my store stealing. But I also know I can't do shit unless I SEE them steal with my own eyes. THEN I have to call the police and wait for them, all without breaking visual contact with the perp, because if I DO, thats reasonable doubt, and I no longer have evidence. And with no CAMERAS... I likely never will have the opportunity to CATCH anyone.
And here's one I KNOW that BB employees will love. How many times have you had a customer bring up a PRP Game. only to have you open it at the counter, and it's empty, and they have to pick something else or walk out empty handed? The locks we use for the games are NOT hard to open. They get ripped off ALL the time. For YEARS we have been telling corporate to let us go "dead" on games.... to just put out the boxes and have us keep the games behind the counter. Know what they said? "No, its not SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) compliant, so you can't." We just THIS MONTH got permission to finally put the games behind the counter and just display the boxes. WHY couldn't we before?
My question is... why does Corporate put so much into Shrink... why do we get yelled at so much for something that THEY will not LET us do anything about? Why do they sit back and let tons of money just WALK out of their stores when all it would take is some attention to detail on their part, and it could all be significantly lowered universally? Why not more security devices? Why not more UP TO DATE security devices? Why not more people in the stores to keep these things from happening? These thieves KNOW we have few people in the stores and they KNOW our busy times. Times when we are stuck behind a desk, distracted. Why not get more labor, especially in bigger, more populated, more lucrative stores? Why not get sensors that WORK? Most importantly, why tell us as managers to TAKE OWNERSHIP of our stores, when you won't even let us take responsibility for our own product?
Corporate is LETTING these thieves win. They LET these people walk away with all this free stuff EVERY YEAR.... I don't get why WE are the ones being yelled at for it when they won't take simple steps that every other retail business takes, and has taken, for years and years. It makes no sense.
The amount of money lost to shrink last year as a company was staggering. I KNOW it can never be perfect and I KNOW it will never be zero... but i DO know that Blockbuster COULD spend a FRACTION of what it lost... a VERY SMALL fraction of what it lost, just last year alone, and prevent the loss of MILLIONS per YEAR, EVERY year, to come.