Unethical This, Unethical That
This is to clarify a statement I made on the egoinc blog...I have direct knowledge of at least two stores in New Jersey that are not scanning in cartons left on the truck from the previous stop. This procedure causes the receiving store to have a good inventory (read bonus for manager here) and the store missing the freight a bad inventory. This has been going on for years and one of those managers is a senior store manager (been with the company for years). This to me indicates that either corporate has no knowledge of this and no system to check this, or they condone unethical behavior and your all doomed (muahahahaha). This is only the tip of the iceberg as far as unethical behavior goes. The corporation published their latest Code Of Conduct for one reason only...it is required by the SEC. Nothing has changed as far as the mentality in Dallas is concerned, or for that matter, throughout the entire company. Let's go over this once more...Tuesday Morning is investor owned, and at least five of those investors are officers of the company, so any decisions made in the halls of Dallas are for the good of the investor...not the company, not the employees, and, obviously of late, not there for the customer either. First of all, when you start changing a tried and true formula such as 'early' Tuesday Morning with their legitimate two month closings, the system worked. The customers were happy, the employees got a rest from the drudgery, and it actually gave the employees time to fix the disaster areas. Now we have a panic to make a profit, and the reason it's not being successful is the people running the show. You can't blame the poor showing from the flyer on the stores...they were there with the merchandise that was provided, but you can blame the customers because they are not the 'idiots' that the higher-ups think they are. They are seeing through the charade, they now know that all media releases are propaganda for the investors. They are just not shopping your stores any longer, TM.
posted by Ed @ 3:15 PM
4 Comments:
There are several inaccuracies in your post. First, if the store receiving the freight does not scan the merchandise then this will "help" their inventory (depending upon the dollar amount of the unscanned product & other factors effecting shrink), because they will have additional product that wasn't counted into their total inventory number. As for the store that did not scan the product, it does not affect their inventory at all. Since it wasn’t scanned TM does not allocate that inventory to them. It doesn’t really affect the companies inventory either since that product would eventually be sold somewhere.
Your comments regarding the ownership of the company are also incorrect. TM, as all publicly traded companies, is investor owned. The major holders are listed at the following link: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=TUES You often speak of Madison Dearborn which owns approx 36% of the outstanding shares. Roughly 46% are owned by 10 separate mutual funds, totaling 82%, which leaves about 18% in smaller investors hands. Does that give Madison Dearborn some say, YES! It doesn't however give them enough power to rubber stamp anything they want.
Lastly, I don't believe that there is a "panic to make a profit." I believe it is more a sign of weakness in the home furnishing sector (just take a look at pier1, Linen-N'-Things & Costplus.)
Has TM made some bizarre decisions? Yes, but you could also give them credit for trying to continue to innovate. They aren’t going out of business soon & your ominous warnings of doom & gloom are rather silly.
I think that you’re trying to accomplish something good & noble in protecting the workers in the worker’s compensation arena. However, your off base rhetoric could work against you as people who could make a difference dismiss you as a whack job.
The inaccuracies are in your reply. The warehouse scans that product to the store it is sent. Due to Tuesday Mornings 'speedy' handling of situations, this product is supposedly at the 'receiving' store...the original destination for the merchandise. But it never made it there, it went to the next stop. So, the second stop has added merchandise to the physical store, but not to the actual inventory. This merchandise then becomes one's shrink and the others bonus. It does not magically right all wrongs all by itself (said merchandise). And your response is typical arrogance by Tuesday Morning. If it wasn't sent in an e-mail as info from corporate, the problem doesn't exist. Good job of sticking up for a manager who is doing something unethical while ignoring the plight of the shortchanged manager. Someone in New Jersey is doing something against company procedures and all you can come up with is that it's not a problem?
Yes, I said 'top officers' in my post...my error. But the Chairman of the Board for TM is a member of Madison-Dearborn. That leads me to believe that he can influence things at Tuesday Morning, no matter how subtle that influence might be. As far as stock play by the higher ups, that is part of their compensation package and is their right to do what they please with that. Kathleen Mason did not get a performance bonus this time around but she is certainly not lacking compensation from Tuesday Morning. These items of news are brought up because Tuesday Morning is still cutting labor dollars from the stores to pay for something else. Bet 6 million bucks could help in a big way. I've seen P&L statements from a few of your stores and in my estimation the expense that corporate generates to run each store is high, but there again, I'm sure you'll straighten me out about that also.
By the way....what innovation? Taking labor dollars to pay for an automated warehouse? Driving your customers away with half remodeled stores, or boxes everywhere on the sales floor, not enough help to even sweep the floor every night, having enough help to run the cash register only? Or is the innovation the endless stream of sarcastic regionals who are probably the biggest factor in the latest exodus from Tuesday Morning? And good job of getting rid of Larry C. at that critical moment in the northeast...right after the problem managers were gone...no lawsuit coming there because the "harasser" was let go, and yes, I know exactly what happened there...someone in corporate told me. God, that must have been fun...watching him do his 'bad' and hoping he got rid of the problems before you got rid of him.
Actually you are incorrect about the inventory stuff. After each truck an exception report has to be run. I say "has" because if you don't then corporate can't see that you received it & you get a call from your regional... or as I did my first time from my zone who at that time was the now infamous Larry C. The report shows which boxes corporate scanned for your store that you didn't receive & the ones that you scanned & weren't supposed to receive. Everyone's inventory is then adjusted... hence no shrink. If this first fellow is so troublesome, why doesn't the second manager just turn him in to his regional?
I wouldn't call myself a "simple" manager I am pretty good at what I do, but if your comment was meant to say that I am more than a store manager you are incorrect.
Do you happen to know of a site where TM managers discuss what they are doing that is working and can share positive ideas & comments?
Not from ED
Re:Do you happen to know of a site where TM managers discuss what they are doing that is working and can share positive ideas & comments?
Response:NONE
Im my area we used to keep in touch and call each other because the regional had no idea of how to run a TM store.I am talking about 6 stores ! To this day all of us are either no longer working for TM due to injuries, surgery,fired or self demoded. That's why we have to do this.
Post a Comment
<< Home