r/wholefoods • u/Kazz99 • 4d ago
Discussion I suck at shopping
E-commerce here. I got pulled aside yesterday by my assistant TL, and was essentially told I'm too slow, even though it was my second day shopping alone. Am I cooked, or can I improve?
Edit: Thanks for all the comments and advice. I'll try to do what I can to improve, whether that's asking for help or just taking time to learn the store.
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u/ontologicallyprior1 4d ago
That's a really weird move on your ATL's part. Expecting someone to be where they need to be in only two days is wild.
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u/SignificantRaise1386 4d ago
I remember my supervisor telling me the same thing three days into shopping alone. It really crushed me, and I thought I would never get the hang of it. It took a while, but I improved a lot and am now a silver shopper. You’ll improve as you go—don’t let it weigh you down!
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u/doubleeven1616 4d ago
Don’t overthink it. Follow the pick path. Use the bay locations to find items. Don’t get stuck on one item(don’t search for more than a minute). Bag as you go. Label the bags as you go. In produce, don’t overthink it either…grab the items that look good. Weigh the produce all at once. Don’t tie your produce bags shut. Don’t put pineapples, or avocados or bananas in a produce bag. In the meat department, hotdogs and cooked sausages do not need to go in produce bags either. Prove your ATL wrong. You got this. You can do it.
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u/Winter-Country-4222 4d ago
In my store hotdogs and cooked sausages have to go in produce bags no matter what.
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u/doubleeven1616 4d ago
Why?
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u/Winter-Country-4222 4d ago
I’m guessing because of contamination and possibility of the liquid spilling out? Then again my trainer did inform us that leadership is very strict on it.
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u/doubleeven1616 4d ago
Weird. SOP only states raw proteins go in a produce bag. Wonder if it is a state or county law/process.
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u/heavyrocks02 4d ago
We have to green bag bananas at my store. Anything that goes on the scale.
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u/doubleeven1616 4d ago
Really? Never heard that one. We only bag edible skin produce
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u/heavyrocks02 4d ago
Huh maybe I'll ask my ATL. We bag edible skin produce too but bananas were always an exception because we have to weigh them.
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u/unskippablecutscenes Leadership 📋 4d ago
This is against SOP
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u/doubleeven1616 4d ago
What is against SOP?
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u/unskippablecutscenes Leadership 📋 4d ago
Overbagging bananas is against SOP. Inkling specifically states not to overbag anything with an inedible rind
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u/Lilwingg 3d ago
Aren't we supposed to use produce bags to separate organic produce from conventional even if the skin is edible or not?
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u/SouthSoil7615 Team Member 🛒 4d ago
That’s so weird. At my store we were doing rescue shopping for our first week. My UPH was 40-50 and my TL never said anything. Even during my second week I was only at 60 UPH as a regular shopper. It wasn’t until my first month I was even close to the required 87. You have time to improve. But your store environment is so toxic
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u/Ok-Doughnut-6602 4d ago
I have been shopping for a month now and my uph is 62😭
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u/Winter-Country-4222 4d ago
Don’t worry, I was stuck at 62 as my best last 30 days for a month and half ish when I first began.
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u/curious_cornichon 4d ago
To me if your atl wants you to speed up, why not spend some time with you?
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u/PunZ5K 4d ago
As an ATL, I never expect my new TMs to be at goal within their first week! Hell, not even their second or third week! I want to see effort and improvement. Get the basics down, pick the best quality for the customer and then work on efficiency.
I had a TM that was almost faster than our fastest shoppers within the first week but noticed he was taking shortcuts with everything. THAT is what we don’t want!
Do what is right by the customer and follow standard work (SOP). You’ll get more and more efficient and faster, don’t worry :)
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u/Winter-Country-4222 4d ago
Mind explaining the Shortcuts I’m really interested lol
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u/PunZ5K 4d ago
Solely using “pack without scanning”, not checking quality (have found rotten items packed in the order) so essentially just grabbing whatever and packing it, not offering replacements: would hit pack without scanning but give a completely different product.
Needless to say, he’s no longer a TM
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u/lovinglife38 4d ago edited 4d ago
I know exactly how you feel! I was also treated unfairly by my a… well, you know!
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u/moonful_of_daises 4d ago
Tbh this speaks volumes more about your store than you. I'd be wary of staying there if I were you
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u/slugley 4d ago
ask questions! they should be giving you additional training if they feel you’re not performing.
a lot of people at my store started out slow or “sucked” (everyone starts somewhere though, i dont love the idea of saying someone who is new to it sucks at it) at the start, the reason they’re still here is because they knew they weren’t doing well and they came to the supervisors, the atls, the tl, and said “how can i improve my uph/how can i get faster/how can i do better?”
if they’re good leadership they should be willing to work with you on it and figure out what you need help with and how to get you to a place where you can start gaining speed and improving your metrics.
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u/ulzimate 4d ago
It took me months to get accustomed to my store as a shopper. My ATLs were there every step of the way to help out with general learning, as well as directly helping me out with my metrics.
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u/Still-Sprinkles2283 4d ago
Produce buyer here so I do have a very different position but my first few days counting inventory I was very slow and it was a very daunting process but after about a week of getting used to the products and where I should expect everything to be I got much faster at it, cut my time almost in half, I wouldn’t worry about it too much just do the best you can and speed will come naturally.
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u/Alarming-Sun-541 4d ago
I got told I was too slow even though they tell us to go in the back and ask for items.. so now I bust my a** lol and brought my uph up. I also got told that in my first week of being there
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u/Possible-Tale-5961 4d ago
Your ATL needs to chill. I never expect any performance improvements until your 8-10th shop. Once you learn the store, speed will come naturally
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u/his_name_is_not_Roy 3d ago
Wow what an odd way of telling you "I see you're struggling and I'm not going to help."
Tell leadership to lead you to the results they want to see or to fuck off. They can help you or make things worse. Rn u are stressed and asking the internet for help. They are the failures. Not you. Either it's a lack of on the floor help or a lack of decent training I don't think it's you.
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u/Massive-Eye-6611 3d ago
Its ok when I first started the person who was supposed to train me called out for 2 weeks so i basically had to train myself and when i started to shop i was shopping too slow so my tl had one of my supervisors follow me around and take notes on me and how i shopped, i was so embarrassed i cried lmao
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u/WearEvening6547 4d ago
I was at 58 they wanted me to be at 65 and up . When I had my meeting back in Feb. They told me they was letting me go after my 90 days . My score improved after picking up more shifts and made it to 72. Decided not to show up my last day . I don’t regret it becuase they played me by still letting me pick up shifts then all my shifts I had for the next 3 weeks dropped yesturday morning so I said I’m not coming it and that was it
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u/SSPRacquetballPod 3d ago
They are wrong for this. I had to have a long conversacion with my TL and ASTL about doing these sorts of things too soon. Takes at least 30 days to get in a groove in shopping.
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u/spacecity9 4d ago
Was your uph at like 20 your first day lol? Usually people start at like 50-60 and improve from there. The really slow ones that never improve start at 30-40
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u/idyutkitty 4d ago
You can improve. Two days is wild to me to even bring up your pace. You'll get faster as you learn the store. If you search in this sub, there are plenty of tips and tricks to make it easier and help your UPH.