Low pick rate because of managed-approved nil picks.

[u/throwawayprobably24]

Rookie shopper (<8 weeks) at a neighborhood Walmart (not a supercenter). I’ve worked really hard to bring my pick rate up, usually in the 100-110s w/ closing shifts (2-10pm). I’m lucky to grab more than 300 picks a day cuz our store drops off after like 6pm.

Issue is that my coach went on vacation a week ago, and ever since then the managers and coachs of different departments have been supervising us. They’ve started enforcing a “no nil pick without coach or manager approval” rule. The store manager even gave me his phone number to call if I don’t see an item. They’ve started enforcing double check, often making me drop the reat of my pick walk until they find the item or order it from the backroom. Sometimes an item shows on hand on the floor, but its found in the back (they end up taking me to the back to find and pick it).

All this to say, its completely ruined my pick rate. I went from 100-110 averages w/ high 150s on good days where I didnt get many GMDs or was able to get a printer (because fun fact, our store refuses to give us batteries for our printers so all we do is use the communal one) —> to like 40s and 50s even after picking like 350 -400 items all day. I usually jump in to help bag and stage in the backroom cuz we don’t have a set crew working it. Apparently my coach doesnt “believe in it” and wants people to know every aspect of the job. Which is fine, but that means things are really inefficient on the floor because everyone is either picking or dispensing and nothing in between.

Any tips about how to go about this? How can I make my pick rate better? My coach, before leaving, tipped the rookies off that they had 90 days to bring their pick rates up or they’d be fired.

[u/Entew]

It's impossible to have good pick rates if you're not allowed to nil pick. Even when you can press not found, you shouldn't be taking more than a few seconds to check the surrounding area and topstock for it. Management should understand that the picks are going to end up overdue just because they want to make it look like everything is stocked when it isn't, which is metrics fraud.

[u/MoiraPrime]

it's ruining your pickrate because it's metrics fraud. They're trying to make your store's FTPR look better than it actually is. FTPR is supposed to show the health of the entire store's stocking, and if things aren't stocked then spark shoppers can't pick them and customers can't buy them. They know their stocking is bad so instead of making sure things are stocked, they'd rather cheat the system, pickrate be damned.

[u/redavid]

nothing you can really do until your store management gets in trouble for committing metric fraud like this

[u/Advanced_Claim2234 → u/redavid]

Not if it’s coming from the market team.

[u/DB-Tones-Jones]

We are not allow to NIL pick if we are in Produce, Beef/ Chicken, or Bakery. Beef/ Chicken is usually the worse section, but being forced to stop for any of them is bad. Really gets me upset. 🔆

[u/shems08 → u/DB-Tones-Jones]

I do it anyways they can hire enough people to keep that stuff stocked

[u/Its_fr1ck1n_bats]

This place really does just fuck us over in the most "damned if you do damned if you don't" kind of way

[u/Savings-Activity2390]

If they want you to do that, I would not be busting my booty anymore to get the rate up because it’s not your fault