Unutterably Silly So what are you doing RIGHT NOW?

[Rumpelteazer]

Digitizing the cd's I've gotten recently. After each I check the metadata and when I've digitized them all I can put them on my mp3 player.

I still need to put everything on my new phone, but that's a project for another time.

[Rumpelteazer]

Getting ready for a new week. The second week of my new work schedule. I must say I enjoyed three consecutive days off this weekend (before I worked on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, now I work on Thursday instead of Friday). But I was tired by Thursdays. Which was probably due to having a cold and not getting a good night's sleep for several days and still being understaffed at work.

Hopefully the cashier on sick leave will return this week and things will go back to normal.

Also, it's just two more weeks until my vacation, so I'm making lists. Of what to pack, what I still need to buy and what I still need to do. After the last six weeks I really need a vacation, it's been very stressful and tiring.

[nana77]

On the rarest times I - luckily - got an ichy throat, I'm putting some magical Oil 31 (Just), in the hopefulness it makes the sickness to demean; the magic bottle is decade expired, thought it seems to work fine anyway. Wednesday I'll have the destist delayed appointment from several months ago, and if he hears me toss once I know he will throw me outta his chair (lol).

[Rumpelteazer]

Another supermarket chain (and its drugstore and liquor store) has been having a "cyber security incident" since Sunday evening. The websites/app is down, distribution centers don't deliver some/a lot of products to the stores leading to empty shelves. It will take at least a couple of days before things get back to normal, if they solve the problem soon.

We've noticed it yesterday afternoon when it was a lot busier than normal, and a lot more chaotic. From updates we got from head office they're expecting it to be a lot busier than normal. We're getting extra shipment and other shipments have been brought forward.

Normally Tuesday it the quietest day of the week, a day we have a bunch of extra chores planned. I'm wondering if we'll get to those. Especially since one of our cashiers, who works on Tuesday morning, is off sick still. Until 10am there's just two of us, then we get one more and at noon a fourth co worker will join us.

It would be nice if it is going to be a little busier than normal (Tuesdays always feel they take forever), but I'm hoping it won't be like yesterday afternoon.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Another supermarket chain (and its drugstore and liquor store) has been having a "cyber security incident" since Sunday evening. The websites/app is down, distribution centers don't deliver some/a lot of products to the stores leading to empty shelves. It will take at least a couple of days before things get back to normal, if they solve the problem soon.

We've noticed it yesterday afternoon when it was a lot busier than normal, and a lot more chaotic. From updates we got from head office they're expecting it to be a lot busier than normal. We're getting extra shipment and other shipments have been brought forward.

Normally Tuesday it the quietest day of the week, a day we have a bunch of extra chores planned. I'm wondering if we'll get to those. Especially since one of our cashiers, who works on Tuesday morning, is off sick still. Until 10am there's just two of us, then we get one more and at noon a fourth co worker will join us.

It would be nice if it is going to be a little busier than normal (Tuesdays always feel they take forever), but I'm hoping it won't be like yesterday afternoon.

Wow, that sounds awful! Still, it is intriguing to see what happens behind the scenes. A different store with no cyber incident is nonetheless required to order more stock, work much more busily! Thank you for doing this work that is so often un-noticed by the general public.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Wow, that sounds awful! Still, it is intriguing to see what happens behind the scenes. A different store with no cyber incident is nonetheless required to order more stock, work much more busily! Thank you for doing this work that is so often un-noticed by the general public.

It's been an interesting week to say the least. Every day has been chaotic, Tuesday it was busy the first half of the afternoon and quieter than normal the second half. On Wednesday it was super busy and yesterday morning it was normal (quiet) and very busy in the afternoon.

The affected supermarket, Albert Heijn (AH), has started up deliveries to stores again, though it can take a while before they're stocked as normal. The biggest problems they had were with fruit, veg and refrigerated items. Their websites are still offline and they don't deliver orders to consumers.

My supermarket got extra deliveries, for all food items 20% more than normal, for which we didn't really have the warehouse space. So everyone was stressed.

Interestingly at the self check-out we caught a lot more people than normal trying to steal items. The AH does a lot less (manual) checks (where the cashier or the system selects customers to be checked) than we do. So their customers aren't used to getting checked as often and it's easier to steal.

I'm glad Friday is my day off, I'm tired after then last week. I'm hoping next week things will go back to normal.

It's just one week until my vacation starts, so it's time to start preparing for our trip. I have already gotten some things I need. This morning I'm going to Ikea to get some bags and then get some other things from drugstore and get some things for lunch today.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Interestingly at the self check-out we caught a lot more people than normal trying to steal items. The AH does a lot less (manual) checks (where the cashier or the system selects customers to be checked) than we do. So their customers aren't used to getting checked as often and it's easier to steal.

Sadly, the reason that several local stores have either limited or removed their self-checkouts. Too many customers thinking that they are entitled to a 10-finger discount at the self-checkout. One I saw recently had cut the barcodes off generic packages and then tried to use them to purchase the brand name equivalent. Loss prevention was waiting as they loaded their cart back up and started away from the checkout.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Sadly, the reason that several local stores have either limited or removed their self-checkouts. Too many customers thinking that they are entitled to a 10-finger discount at the self-checkout. One I saw recently had cut the barcodes off generic packages and then tried to use them to purchase the brand name equivalent. Loss prevention was waiting as they loaded their cart back up and started away from the checkout.

There have been supermarkets in the Netherlands that have done the same thing. Earlier this year we had a lot of problems with things being stolen, so now we have to do bag checks; everyone using the regular till has to be asked to show their (shopping) bags and everyone who gets selected for a check at the self check-out (SCO)has to be asked. We also have been instructed to check items at the bottom of bags, carts, baskets, etc when we have to check someone at SCO.

Mind you, on the other hand we're understaffed at the SCO's so when I'm on my own on a busy day (which has happened a lot these past two months) and I don't even have enough time to select customers myself and I'm running from one SCO to another then bag checks and digging deep aren't a priority. Unless I sense something is off.

Officially there should be one cashier per 4 registers, we have 10. If we're with three cashiers it's doable on a busy day. There will be two to help customers and one that can keep an overview and take the baskets and hand scanners back to the entrance.

But if there's just one cashier there will be theft. On Monday I checked a customer's items, then went off to the next one. Later we found out that the first one didn't pay and slipped out behind another customer. When it's busy and I'm on my own I simply don't have time to wait for a customer to pay. Does it suck when that happens, sure. Do I beat myself up about it, no. Then head office should approve more hours so we can get properly staffed.

[nana77]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

There have been supermarkets in the Netherlands that have done the same thing. Earlier this year we had a lot of problems with things being stolen, so now we have to do bag checks; everyone using the regular till has to be asked to show their (shopping) bags and everyone who gets selected for a check at the self check-out (SCO)has to be asked. We also have been instructed to check items at the bottom of bags, carts, baskets, etc when we have to check someone at SCO.

Mind you, on the other hand we're understaffed at the SCO's so when I'm on my own on a busy day (which has happened a lot these past two months) and I don't even have enough time to select customers myself and I'm running from one SCO to another then bag checks and digging deep aren't a priority. Unless I sense something is off.

Officially there should be one cashier per 4 registers, we have 10. If we're with three cashiers it's doable on a busy day. There will be two to help customers and one that can keep an overview and take the baskets and hand scanners back to the entrance.

But if there's just one cashier there will be theft. On Monday I checked a customer's items, then went off to the next one. Later we found out that the first one didn't pay and slipped out behind another customer. When it's busy and I'm on my own I simply don't have time to wait for a customer to pay. Does it suck when that happens, sure. Do I beat myself up about it, no. Then head office should approve more hours so we can get properly staffed.

Sorry but, I'm still convinced that 3 or 4 cashiers on their own registers would do way faster than more than 10 self checks. In here we usually have an external personel that does those security checks.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by nana77

Sorry but, I'm still convinced that 3 or 4 cashiers on their own registers would do way faster than more than 10 self checks. In here we usually have an external personel that does those security checks.

We don't have security. We are dependent on the shopping center's security (which doesn't start until 10am, whilst we open at 8am) and the nearby police station.

And I agree with you. Especially with the number of checks they want us to select manually and the bag checks normal tills would be a lot easier. Or go back to less SCO's and only let people people with a limited number of items use them.

[Rumpelteazer]

I'm having a productive morning. I'm doing things in preparation for my vacation; emailed the park we're going to to tell them we need two sets of bedding, I booked an appointment to get my hair cut, I ordered a charcuterie box and I'm now digitizing some cd's and putting them on my mp3 player. Still to do is put KoReader on my Kobo.

After I've finished all that it'll be time to order some lunch (my sister going to help a friend with her garden today, so I'm on my own) and then some cross stitching and reading.

It's my turn to cook today, but we've got something easy.