<p>I live near a mall and i have to say the parking lot has been even busier the last few weeks then it was leading up to the holidays. I’ve noticed this at other stores too.</p>
<p>This being said, I’ve noticed crazy lines at every store I’ve been too almost like they were either unprepared for this level of busyness or they just don’t care.</p>
<p>There are always a lot of returns this time of the year but i don’t think I’ve ever seen lines like this before.</p>
<p>Are more people giving out gift cards? Am i crazy? Is it like this every year and I’m just now noticing it? I’ve actually walked into several stores this year and turned around and walked out because of how ridiculous it was. </p>
<p>My mom waited in line to check out for 30 minutes yesterday at a place near her. I told her i would have put my stuff back and went somewhere else where they know how to staff.</p>
<p>Given the popularity of gift cards, which extend the shopping season until well after the holidays, maybe some stores need to consider extending the employment of their seasonal holiday staff for a week or two longer.</p>
<p>One lesson of the last few years is you need to work to move your merchandise out the door. Better management of your supply chain counts. That means heavy discounts now. Yes, people are also redeeming gift cards. Stores believe they gain from that process: even though the card was paid for, they track what customers buy and they see they take out an assortment of discounted merchandise, meaning stuff that’s already been bought, that they want out, which has been written down in the corporate ledger. And many gift card buyers then add some more money to the purchase so they make some cash in this slowest cash flow time of year. </p>
<p>I’ve noticed something interesting recently, that outlets of the same chain will discount differently in the same market area. The Gap at Quincy Market was marked down less on the same stuff than in Brookline. That’s only a few miles apart.</p>
<p>I haven’t noticed that around here - but then I haven’t been to a store since I infamously went suit shopping with my son - but to your point, I have often thought in the past (usually right before Christmas) while standing in a long line at a department store, how can senior management possibly hope to increase sales volumes when there is such a clear bottleneck at checkout? You can’t sell what you can’t sell.</p>
<p>I do know my neighbor, who works part time at a school, is working seasonally at the mall by my house and her assignment ends at the end of this month. </p>
<p>Walmart has been horrible. There’s one i won’t shop at anymore due to long lines every time I’m there… But even the typically good staffed Walmart has been bad.</p>
<p>Njres, i agree. You’d think they’d set up more registers or have some sort of plan. Its not like that doesn’t happen every year. </p>
<p>I’ve noticed this too. I did some shopping early in the new year and the traffic and lines were crazy. Stores have also dropped their staffing in the new year making for longer lines at checkout. I don’t think that they expected continued, robust sales. Inventory levels are down quite a bit too.</p>
<p>My D works retail part time. They keep track of sales, on an hourly basis. Based on their sales compared to other stats, they call people in or send them home. The management is basically told how many people they can have working at any given time. I can imagine that if a store is handling lots of returns, their sales would be down while their business would be up.</p>
<p>I saw a return/exchange line at kohls that must have had 50 people in it. The check outs had like two open and at least five to ten people deep in each line waiting to pay. Maybe they moved more staff to the returns area. Both were to me not acceptable. This was on a week night too. Not a busy shopping weekend.</p>
<p>Walmart has been bad about that for years. You walk into a store and there’s 25+ registers. But at least at ours, you’re lucky if there are 5-7 of them open. I try to avoid the place as much as possible…</p>
<p>Costco had a line for returns but it moved VERY swiftly and had a lot of staff helping so most folks were in line no longer than 15 minutes. At checkout, they also have extra staff helping pre-check folks (especially with lots of merchandise), to keep things moving smoothly. I did NOT buy from CVS/Longs pharmacy because they had a line that was very long and not moving of folks that were call coughing and sneezing. I decided to get my Rx items from another store, Costco or elsewhere.</p>
<p>When I returned & purchased items at Macy’s and Express, there was barely any wait and I was promptly served. If I had a long wait, am not sure whether I would have waited. Same with Lego store in the mall–very short wait even though the store was crowded and had quite a few customers.</p>
<p>A guy from our town went to the local Walmart. It was before the holidays but not at a peak shopping time. He posted a pic on Facebook of the insane lines at the two open cash registers, his abandoned cart filled to the brim and his polite note to the store manager that he placed in the cart. Someone put it on the Walmart page and the last time I looked it had over 25,000 likes. I checked to see if I could find the picture but it appears to have been pulled.</p>
<p>Why doesn’t Walmart copy Target and call stockers to the registers when the lines get long? It seems like a simple solution.</p>
<p>Have been to several WalMarts and Targets since Christmas and New Years. Have NOT had problems getting through the cashier and have NOT noticed significant or slow lines. Maybe it depends where you shop.</p>
<p>This practice really bothers me. It’s so unfair to the workers, in order to squeeze out another what, 8.50 an hour that they would have to pay if they staffed for the day and let it go? When I worked retail in my 20s, this was unheard of.</p>
<p>My sister, when she worked retail, would sometimes drive 45 minutes to work, work a 2-3 hour shift and drive home. </p>
<p>And actually that’s not unlike many professions. If we have a slow patient load on a given day, we have a PT or PTA sent home sometimes. There’s no need to pay someone to sit there!</p>
<p>I’m not sure but i think they are different jobs there so maybe they’re not trained? It seems like it would help. The least they could do is bag stuff. </p>
<p>Though i must say those rotating bag stations that they have there are great. I wish grocery stores used them.</p>
<p>I’ve worked in retail. It sucked driving there and getting sent home. But when i was a manager and i had to make these decisions i understood them. That being said, I always called around to see if anyone else needed help before sending someone home for the day.</p>
<p>I was at a local Kohl’s today, and it wasn’t crowded. But right after Christmas was WORSE everywhere I went than before. Today I completed my returns, finally, and lines weren’t bad anyplace - Sephora, Kohl’s, Lord and Taylor, Barnes and Noble.</p>