Here’s a question for all of you who are currently
in the profession of retail, or who have worked a position in the world of
retail at some point. Have you ever had
to go through a store-wide inventory?
Well, I can tell you that I have. As a matter of fact, today happens to be
inventory at my store. It’s basically a
day in which we have to count every single piece of merchandise within the
store, from animal crackers to stuffed zebras.
And, I’m sure that most of you will agree with me when I say that if you
have ever been a part of a store inventory before, it can be a rather stressful
experience.
I mean, just think about it for a second. Imagine having to count every single item in
the store, knowing that one mistake could have a huge impact on how the store
is run for the following year. That can
put a lot of pressure on you, as well as all of your co-workers. I’m not afraid to admit that the idea of a
store inventory still makes me feel a bit uncomfortable and nervous, and this
is my seventh one! You can only imagine
how nerve-wracking it can be for someone who is diving right into the craziness
and the fast pace that inventory can bring.
Although I work at a store that brings in an
outside team to do our store inventory for us, I can honestly say that the
preparations for inventory are probably harder than the actual inventory
itself. You have to count every box in
the back room, and label it, and then you have to fix up your department so
that every possible item is where it is supposed to be, and that each item is
under the appropriate price point. I
know I was practically a nervous wreck the first time I was a part of an
inventory team.
I have since gotten better at handling it, and now
I can face the challenges that a store inventory can bring forth. Mind you, it can still be a chore to go
through, but not if you have the right attitude for it.
Because, here is my confession that is related to
inventory and inventory related preparations.
THURSDAY
CONFESSION #28:
When I do preparations for inventory, I do it by having a lot of fun in
the process!
Yes, I know what you’re saying. Yes, it seemingly contradicts what I just
said about inventory being a many stress-filled thing. But, I tend to look at it as being a great
opportunity to showcase my silliness, and to really have fun with it. I’m not denying that getting a store
inventory ready (particularly with a store as huge as the one that I work at
for my day job) can be a tough job, but if you have the right attitude towards
it, you might be surprised at how fast time can fly!
I didn’t always have that attitude though. I can remember the first time that I ever did
a store inventory. If I remember
correctly, it was in 2002, before I began working at my current job. There was a discount store downtown that used
to close the store early one Saturday night in the middle of the summer. Rather than have their staff count everything
in the store, they would post an ad for outside staff to come in and count
everything in the store for a little extra cash. It wasn’t a lot of money, but given that I
was unemployed at the time, I needed whatever money that I could get.
I was thinking that it was going to be a quick way
to get my hands on some dough. All I
needed to do was know how to count. With
there being so many large objects within the store, I figured that I could be
finished in no time.
What I didn’t count on was that I would be
assigned the most frustrating department in the whole store.
Greeting cards.
That is one section that I hope to NEVER work in
again. Just imagine having to count
10,000 cards for birthdays, anniversaries, bar mitzvahs, and condolences over the
death of a goldfish. It was made even
worse by trying to keep all the price points together. Some cards were as low as ninety-nine cents,
while others were over ten dollars.
(And, just going off on a tangent here, ten
dollars for a card?!? Do people actually
pay that much for a card these days?)
Naturally, all the cards were mixed up, so it took
hours to get everything straightened out.
By the time we managed to get all the cards counted, we had been there
for three hours! I was very cranky by
the end of the day, and although I did get paid for the day, I thought that I
should have gotten triple the amount for going through everything that I had
gone through.
Boy, did I have the wrong attitude about it
all. Of course, it was my first
experience with a store inventory. I
went into it with higher than normal expectations, and I was disappointed as a
result. It was an experience, and I
learned from it.
Perhaps if I had treated the experience
differently, it wouldn’t have been nearly the chore that it ended up
being. Sure, I would have done the same
amount of work, but time would have gone by so much faster if my aura were more
positive.
Over the years, I’ve come up with some ways to deal
with the stress that can come from inventory, and I’ll share some of my coping
mechanisms with all of you here. They
might not work for everyone, and I imagine that some of you will likely think
that I have lost my ever-loving mind.
But, I’m going to share them anyway.
The first thing I do when I am getting ready for
inventory is by singing silly songs as I work.
I usually do this anyway when I work.
After all, I do have a walk-in cooler that is mostly soundproof. But during inventory, I tend to have fun with
it by using appropriate songs. Songs
that have to do with counting...like this one.
...or this one.
My favourite has to be this one, a classic
from Sesame Street.
I guess it is my good fortune that the majority of
the cases in my department come in 12-packs, huh?
So, yeah...the day before inventory, you might
hear some crazy 30-something warbling the lyrics to the Sesame Street pinball
machine skit. Trust me, as strange as it
sounds, it helps preserve my sanity.
Another thing that I do to help cope with the
pressures of inventory is through teamwork.
I find that if one has a great resource of co-workers who all have the
same goal in mind, then it makes the job so much easier.
In fact, I think the main reason why this year’s
inventory preparation went as smoothly as it did was because of the fact that
everyone worked together to get the job done.
We all worked together, and we all did whatever was possible from
organizing the cooler, to printing off labels, to having to borrow a store
inventory pricing gun from another department because the one that we normally
use was sent away for repairs. There
could have been a number of things that could have gone wrong, but yet nothing
major happened. And the reason why this
was the case was because of the fact that everyone had the right frame of
mind. We all worked together to ensure
that the job was not only finished, but finished the correct way. I know that my job was made that much easier
because of the teamwork, and because of them, inventory preparations were less
of a chore than they had been in previous years.
I guess that’s a wonderful life lesson that we can
take out of this blog posting. And it
doesn’t just involve preparing a store for inventory...it can be applied to
almost any situation. All you need to do
is...
A) Maintain a positive attitude whenever possible
B) Don’t be afraid to let your silly side out to
combat stressful situations
C) Appreciate the value of teamwork, and be
gracious of any help that one provides
As long as I keep these three things in check
whenever I am asked to do something that may appear to be an exercise in
frustration, it somehow becomes less frustrating, and at the end of the day, I
can leave with a smile on my face, proud of a job well done.
With that, I’m off to work to witness another
inventory day pass by...ever so slowly...time goes by so slowly...
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