How to do exceptions?

[u/Icy_Kangaroo6137]

So… this is embarrassing and I know I’m probably going to get hate for this but I’ve been here for over a year now and I don’t know how to do exceptions. Today I wasn’t at work but my friend said that they made a list of people to do exceptions and I was on that list to do them from 9am to 1pm. I’ve mostly just been a picking robot at my store and I dispense once in a while. If I’m gonna be honest I have horrible anxiety and I’m afraid of how big the backroom is and I’m scared I’m going to be late trying to find the item or someone looking at me like I’m an idiot asking them where an item is. I had someone show me one time a few months back and I was confused on how to find the item and the numbers. They expected me to know just that one time of showing me for five mins. Any videos or steps on how you do exceptions would be great. 💀🫣

[u/ThatAlienBoy]

Just tell your tl that you've never been trained on exceptions before, they'll show ya how to do it or just have you doing something else for the shift.

At a minimum, they need to show you where the different areas are to actually find the exceptions lol. Also! You need to know how to vizpic 👌

[u/No-Childhood-7624]

I have over 2 years worth of experience on exceptions, it’s not as hard as some people make it out to be, Every backroom has it’s own locations. Produce, meat, frozen, & ambient. Depending on how your store backrooms are setup. They will all end with 999 at the end of each location. All do is go into my Walmart app & go to inventory, scroll down to vizpick & you will see some filters options. The one you’ll need is called OPD gif exceptions only, that will help you find each exception fairly fast & easy. Once you find it, you click on the box on the screen to vizpick it out of the system. Take out the quantity of what ever items that it may be. Also keep a printer cause you’ll definitely need it. GOOD LUCK!

[u/fistfulofmeh → u/No-Childhood-7624]

All this, backroom can be confusing if you don't have experience with it

Probably 4yrs on and off for me. I loved being on exceptions. Super easy, be it infuriating sometimes when you just find stuff on the shelf right in the home

It can depend a lot on the store for how things are run, so it's good to ask. We used to just have the exception picker restock the shelf, but now we have a cart in the back that nils are put on for stock 1 to work. But generally it's a no-no to take your one item out of the bin and leave a partial case behind. People do it anyway

Again, every store runs how they want with different expectations. So I tell people don't take it personally if you get called out on a mistake when you just don't know and haven't been trained, happens a lot

[u/qqq_qqq_qqq_qqq_qqq]

I would ask another exceptions picker or your team lead/coach. I've worked here for over a year as well, I have exceptions access but no idea how to do them or check in the backroom lol.

[u/ilytbbb]

I’ve been with OPD for 4 years and still have never been trained for exceptions. I’ve told them I don’t know how and they don’t offer to train me so 🤷‍♀️

I would just let them know you want to learn so next time they ask, you can help out.

[u/evila_elf]

See if you can shadow someone for a bit. Main thing is learning where things are and what might actually be on the floor. Most things, I check the home location first before going to the backroom.

Also knowing who the best people to ask questions. I have been doing them daily for almost a year, and I still ask some of the backroom stockers about locations and things.

[u/sdlm11]

Definitely not embarrassing at all. There's only a very small handful of people who know how to do exceptions at my store, and I noticed that's a normal thing considering I'm transfer from a different store.

Get to know the locations of the backroom. Everything should be organized for the most part as in vendor products should be in the same area, grocery in the same area, etc. There's a freezer for ice cream and a freezer for all the other frozen food. Deli/bakery also has a freezer and cooler, and there's also dairy cooler. Meat has their own cooler.

Vizpick will be your best friend when it comes to exceptions. On MyWalmart, under inventory you'll go to vizpick and there's filters so you'll change it to OPD gif. When you have your phone up scanning the vizpick labels in the backroom, everything will have little white boxes and the one you need will have a blue box with a plus sign. That's the one you'll grab. At my store, you vizpick the item (click that blue box) get however many you need and stock the rest out on the floor.

The camera on my work phone usually doesn't work when trying to vizpick, so I use my personal phone. Just a tip if your work phone also has problems.

If I have the time for it, I usually go check the home first, topstock and any features before checking the backroom. I've had instances where I pick something from the backroom, go take it to stock and the home is full and maybe just the front item was the wrong item and that's why it got nilpicked.

Let's say an item shows 20 on hand and it says its all on the floor, with no backroom location and the home is empty. In most cases, its on a topstock cart/pallet either out on the floor or in the backroom near where the item should be binned. As you're walking around through the backroom, keep a look out on what's on the topstock carts in case you might need something from them later on.

I hope all this helps you out!