That's too bad because some auditors would have fun using those old paper tags to play a joke on a fellow auditor. Those paper strips would be used to tag someone's car. The tags would be stuck all over the vehicle after an inventory, the idea being to annoy someone when they had finished an inventory for the night. They'd be all tired and just wanting to get out of the store, drive home and collapse into sleep. However, when they would finally be allowed to escape the inventory they would go out into the parking lot and be confronted with the unlovely sight of dozens of tags covering their car. They would then have to spend time picking them all off their car, whimpering with fatigue the whole time.
Writing about tagging is one thing but actually seeing it is quite another. I recently came across a couple of old photos of a vehicle having been tagged with RGIS tags and so without further ado here they are:
Note all the spots that the tags were placed in. Under the windshield wipers of course, but also in the doors, under the hood, in the tire rims, on the door handles, in between the roof and the windshield, in the bumper...no good spot left untagged. Ah the memories.
Update: Several people have remarked in the comments section that their districts still use the paper tags. I'm glad to hear that as that means the possibility of tagging cars will live to see another day.
120 comments:
We still use those paper tags, now they are only yellow, but you still see the blue and red ones every once in a while. You can always tell when the AM is sent new tags, because they bring them in the box that they were shipped in, and that probably the only time they look neat and not folded or ripped. I remember back when the different colors, were used to show department changes in financial inventories. The red ones are still occasionally used, at least in my district, to tag the top stock areas.
I recently heard some of the others talking about gray shirts, how they are supposed to be running stores, and that a lot of those who are gray shirts shouldn't be because they don't run any stores, or haven't even been trained to run a store. The people talking would know what they're talking about, but it seems strange that if that's the case, why someone would be promoted if they aren't doing a part of the job that they are supposed to be. Any thoughts on this
Funny! Yes we still use the paper tags sometimes. BTW I just made top gun.
Hi - love this blog !
As a newbie - can someone pls tell me any tricks of the trade to counting faster and raising my APH. I see ppl moving like the speed of light and I a moving too - but not catching up. I know there are tricks but I have no one to clue me in how they get their stuff done...please anyone...
Really need this job and would never wanna get fired for not making the APH. Thanks.
ah... tags... before the 1.5 inch tags that were introduced circa 2000, there were the 2 inch wide tags... colors of yellow (the main ones), red (which were used in some financial accounts to mark GM items), green, and blue (with RGIS running the length of the the tag for Wal*Marts purportedly to keep auditors from using them for notes)... some older tags that I ran across had lines for price and quantity precounts... were there any other tags used out there?
Someone had posted about counting at the end of the 2012 blog. With financial stores/multi-quantity, you're really just estimating. That's why you see some people just walk by a display and get their numbers. We just finished a week of counting at a large grocery chain and the noobs are trying to count 250 bags of rice. Of course, I was that way when I started. Now if you try estimating or batching at a clothing store, yes, you'll get busted but for grocery stores when you're doing financial counts, the best you can really do is estimate unless you want to count 10 rows deep of soup cans on the bottom shelf.
@diamondcutter: I forgot about those tags with "RGIS" in big letters, running the length of the tag. My district only had a few of those, though (they probably came in through auditors from another dist. or something like that). I also remember some of the yellow tags with lines printed on them, going across each tag horizontally.
When I was at RGIS, we still used the paper tags for the most part. That was about 3-4 years ago now.
I believe now it's more up to the store if they want tags used. I have heard Kohl's doesn't want them brought in the store at all.
Walgreens used the yellow stickies. Every shelf was still tagged, but with the stickies instead of tags. Made the store look a little neater during the inventory, especially if it was open.
The only change from the old yellow paper tags to the new ones is the new ones no longer have "Accuracy is our number one priority" on them. I wonder why?
@anonymous Friday 4:24...funny you mention counting soup cans. Whenever I'm bored out of my skull at my current job, I tell myself it beats counting soup cans at 3:00 am on a Sunday morning (we did that every six weeks at a particular grocery store).
I do remember one of my first grocery stores, trying to count something that didn't have a price and yelling "price check" until the team leader took pity on me and said "don't do that at a grocery store, just use your best judgement".
In other words, an estimate in a grocery store financial inventory is just fine, LOL
The noobs are crying already--"I have to go to another job and its 4Am!I am sooooooooo tired". Poor noobs.How many will be there at the end of January? Only the toughest. Survival of the fittest. I have sympathy for them and try to help if it won't hurt my APH because we all were noobs once.
Here's a tip for faster counting: learn how to key without looking. The numbers are set up like the number pad on your keyboard and the with 7 8 9 on top and a raised dot on the 5 (also like the keyboard). If you learned how to type in school like I did (home row, feeling the dots on the F and J keys) then it'll be simple to learn the number pad.
Just remember to always feel for the dot on the five with your middle finger before typing, every time you put your hand back on the machine. We use the RM1 so if that's what you use then I know it's really simple to learn every key by feel. (The smaller buttons underneath like backspace I still get mixed up though!) Keep practicing, if you type fast on the computer then you should be able to type fast on the machine in no time.
I can't believe there is a blog about working at RGIS. For that, I applaud you. I have only been working with them since september, and this is one of the best things I have found online that describes working for them to a tee. Thank you for making my day. You have a new follower.
To the person who wants tip and tricks. Learn to key without looking. Always feel for the bump on the 5 key. Try keying in larger quantities rather than 2 piece'ing everything (however top gun can be reached by 2 piece'ing everything). Count ahead, learn shelf capacities. Do you wear a belt or the shoulder strap? I personally prefer the shoulder strap because I can control the machine better vs. the length of my arm. I am not all jammed up with the belt and the belt clips just break all the time anyhow. Keep tags close and accessible. For me, I wear Dickies pants and keep my worksheets in my left back pocket and my tags in my right (I am left handed and key left handed.) On the subject of tagging and fun. We have tagged the AM's car after a long night at Penney's and he gets a kick out of it. Will actually sport it too. Sometimes, if we are all in a grumpy mood because the store managers want to see a yellow tag on every shelf, we will go overboard and put a few on each shelf, at every break, every peg hook (pisses the off a dollar tree), every clip strip on both sides, and so on. It looks like a yellow tag nightmare. Did a Kmart one time and my AM couldn't stand the store manager so he told us to tag every rack, every shelf, every peg we could, then after the inventory, he packed up, then left with all the tags hanging. We make origami with them and my children love them. Btw, do you ever hear a Top Gun yell "SKU Check"?
Kevin,
Good to hear from another left hander. Loose fitting pants with lots of pockets such as dickies/cargo pant are good. I keep protein bars in a pocket. Use another pocket to hold tylonal/advil. Another pocket for 5 hour energy. Good idea on the shoulder strap for the machine as they do tend to slide around too much on a belt.
I have an interview Tuesday. They advertise $8.00 an hour. With all the posts it seems like a difficult company to work for. I dont work well with a lot of presure - should I loose a day of work to interview only to be treated badly? Do they really yell at you?
Back before Blackstone we had larger tags then the 2" ones. They had lines on them with RGIS logo and 800 phone number. You had to tag each shelf one in first item one in from the last item.
I had managers demand recount of a shelf if there was not two tags on it.
Then blackstone spent gazzillions dollars figuring out how to better count (ASSeT levels etc). And tags went to one on end of each shelf. One on each arm of a four way etc.
Now people hardly tag, it just slows you down.
Who are you going to get to pull them at the end of the inventory?
No one will because you are not counting your APH is going down.
I leave the tags that are up and tell the manager he has to pull them and throw them out.
Grocery stores that is where RGIS started, financial counting. Yellow was for Grocery, Greed for Non-Food and Red for HBA. (Health Beauty Aids).
Each department manager would walk the store to ensure their area or even dump displays had the proper tag on it.
Now with Scan inventories it is pointless.
Regarding the person with the interview, I wouldn't say there's a lot of pressure. I've been here a year as a part-timer and the hardest part (as with any job) is just learning the tricks of the trade. After a year, I'm very comfortable but I wouldn't say there's a lot of pressure. Sometimes our District Manager if she's running a store, will try to persuade a newer person to speed up but all the other supervisors who run stores, don't really care. So I wouldn't say there's pressure to count fast. I'm sorta a slow learner and it took me a while to catch on. I'm still not a real fast counter but I'm reliable, dependable and get along well with everyone which is important too.
Does no one remember the plastic dividers/tags
Tough going from almost no work in Nov/Dec to constant work and some double shifts in Jan--but the check will be good! Has the flu hit in any of the districts? eems like a pretty bad flu season. Everyone got a flu shot?
I didn't get the flu, I ended up getting pneumonia, and lost a week of work because of it.
Annoys me when people show up for work coughing and sneezing, and spreading to others what they have. Showing up with a cold may be OK, but not the flu! But RGIS pays no sick leave, so I guess the sick people feel they must work even when sick. So, the flu spreads.
Equally annoying is people calling out "sick" when they are not, so we are short handed, or saying "my car broke down" when they really overslept. Those of us who always show up must carry the burden for the no shows.
I've heard that RGIS has lost the JC Penney account. Not sure who they decided to go with instead.
RGIS also lost Penney's about five years ago to WIS. WIS did three stores, got booted out of the third in mid inventory and RGIS got the account back.
WIS and PICS are probably the only two other inventory companies that could handle Penney's.
And I'm not even sure PICS could, so in all likelihood, they went back to WIS.
Hooray! Tomorrow is first day off since New Year's Day! I actually ENJOY RGIS due to the fact that I don't just have to count all the time(SmartSpace, GTS battery testing, WAG outs, etc). I made quite a grip of money a couple of years ago in the "DEAD ZONE"(December), when unfortunately my fellow drones were scraping by. Anyone else got into the non-counting projects for RGIS?
Started working with this company a month ago. I will be quitting this week. Its not the fact that Im a noob or someone who doesn't get it. I was well aware after the first week that your training doesnt mean anything once you get into a store. The whole APH system is a setup to me. I say this because if your new, don't expect your APH to be high unless your lucky. Certain areas you can increase your APH by double in less than 20 mins. Good luck getting those areas because you can be certain someone else has already done it. If you try to "wander" over to these spots that will increase your APH greatly you can be certain that someone will try and correct you and put you somewhere slow. This job is a very cutthroat I'll get mine before you get yours type of attitude. If your new: Have fun getting stuck on all the crappy, time consuming, difficult stuff so you won't show up someone that has been there for years.
I'm a current RGIS auditor in a district in Virginia which I will leave unidentified. When a potentially promising job offer fell through in January, I spent the next week frantically filling out applications. RGIS was the only company that responded (via e-mail...actually WIS responded as well but never called me back when I tried to follow up with the interview!) I went to the appointed time and place for the interview and was hired on the spot, even though I couldn't see at all how much more qualified I was for the position than the girl who applied with me (who was told she would be getting a phone call in a few days).
At this point I'm thinking "This is a bit strange...this seems an awful lot like favoritism"...and I was a bit irritated as well, seeing how clearly desperate the girl was for a job. I'm sure she could have been trained.
Since being on board two weeks ago, I have witnessed blatant favoritism, lack of respect among coworkers, a bovine manager cracking the screen of a Flow Leader's personal computer and laughing about it afterward, and the shocking revelation that money is actually WITHDRAWN from our pay if APH is not met in certain locations.
I expect most readers of this blog are familiar with APH so I will not elaborate any further on it here.
This morning, however, was the most enlightening day of all (if you can call it that). We were counting product in a medical supply office, and all items, including individual pills and tablets, had to be counted as one item. It's easy to see that if you count 200 pills in 15 seconds your APH will go through the roof.
At some point during the counting I realized that this is really the only way managers have to increase their favorite employees' overall APH average. Where else can you expect to walk away with 2500/aph after two hours of work? The real kicker was the total pay for the shift was $20 (minus the $7 I spent on gas to get up to the location...Jesus Christ).
It is truly appalling when management has to resort to such shallow and underhanded tactics to fulfill such a bullshit requirement (APH). I think it is quite obvious that APH levels are purposely set where they are to keep the majority of hourly works out of reach of a halfway decent wage -- thus easing the bottom line of Blackstone.
I also had a gray shirt tell me today to "guess" on the amount of tablets in a bottle. For someone who takes pride in their work and their accuracy, counts at and Expert/Top Gun level after two weeks of employment, and can work the 10-key blindfolded, this was a sorry sight to see. This is inventory...the PURPOSE of taking inventory at ALL is to be ACCURATE...and we are told to "guess". It's complete doublethink.
This company has clearly strayed to the point of no return on virtually every front. It is truly disgusting to see it in action.
I have recently been hired by PICS, another inventory service, and am quitting RGIS next week. I still enjoy the inventory industry and hope that PICS has more integrity and respect for its employees than this pathetic excuse for a company.
My opinions are my own, and not those of RGIS. (Nothing like having to cover your own a** in this day and age.)
Virginia anonymous, my guess is PICs isn't much different. There's a certain gamemanship involved with doing inventories. A lot of it is estimating (guessing) quantities. Unless it's a 100% inventory where the store counts every section behind you, all we're really doing is providing an estimate. We're not screwing the customer but we do provide a reasonable estimate when quantity counting. Yes, there's favoratism but there is in any job. I've done some 2 hour stores but most stores are 3 to 5 hours and most are within 20 minutes of my house. Sure there are some stinkers occasionally. All in all, RGIS isn't bad. Just depends what you're looking for and what works for you.
Correct RGIS lost JcPenny in all but a few very very large City Stores.
They didn't do Children Place this January except for a few backrooms only.
They are about to loose Walgreens.
I was buying sheets at Macy's last weekend and lo and behold, white RGIS tags on the endcaps with what looked like precounts.
It's much nicer to be able to SHOP at Macy's than have to INVENTORY Macy's
Anon 2/05 5:06:
Who are they going to lose Walgreens to?
That area ticket at Macy's had to have been an old one. I don't think RGIS has done Macy's in years (at least in Michigan, they haven't).
We have all the Walgreens stores now - how could we be about to lose the account?
PICS is terrible I used to be a DM for them, they're worse than RGIS and have way less work for the counters. I work for WIS now and we treat our people way better and have more steady hours.
Did 12 years at RGIS, 3months at PICS and 6 months at Reliant and they all suck. I'm an Inventory manager at WIS now and so far so good.
RGIS this January did Macy's 34th Street NYC over multiple day/nights. Had to order special 6 digit ART's (Area Recount Tickets).
i am a retail merchandiser in the CVS/Pharmacies all across the country and i find a yellow tag or two under a gondola when we are moving or remodeling a store. I began as an auditor before moving to retail services. I can say that i truly abhorred the tags as some of my coworkers who had been with the company for a couple decades would paint a store with all the tags they use.
Anyone, in terms of wages, amount of work, etc. compare RGIS, PICs and WIS. Which is best to work for? I'm satisfied with RGIS so far--doubt the others are any better. We've had people who worked for WIS come over to RGIS and they have bad things to say about WIS. No company is perfect. I actually like my AMs and DMs. These are my opinions and not those of RGIS LLC.
Hey there, I know I can ask HR this question tomorrow but is there a site to view your hours and payroll for RGIS employees? I made the switch from WIS to RGIS recently and haven't been impressed. How can I not review my payroll or hours? The machines totally blow, the counting "method" is just laughable, and there are NO hours. As soon as I find another job I am blowing that rinky dink popsicle stand. RGIS is such a joke, man...just like those retarded ass tags. If people knew how to count a section correctly they wouldn't need a gigantic yellow tag to make sure they don't go over into the next area. Fucking waste of time.
that tag at macy's was very recent, like they were getting ready for inventory and it was a precount. They were all around the department (Detroit area)
As far as wages, I can only compare RGIS and PICS.
You can actually get raises at PICS. I made more per hour at PICS than I ever did at RGIS.
Depending what area of the country you are in, you can get some hours in PICS. Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio and North Carolina would probably be the hot spots, along with California (which is more Muscolino territory. PICS owns Muscolino).
>> is there a site to view your hours and payroll for RGIS
Nope, RGIS is scared of its own shadow. In this day and age the "pay stubs" are printed in the district office and then mailed to you.
We used to get them via email but someone in some state sued saying it was not secure so now its US Mail but you have to have direct deposit... Go Figure.
Hey they used to FedEx the checks to the office and then mail them so at least you getting cash on Friday in your bank instead of a check on Monday.
I remember, that the up shot of when they used to Fed EX the checks to the office, was quite a bit of the time, the checks would be handed out after a store, on Thursday and sometimes Wednesday. As for me I liked the idea of getting the pay stub by e-mail, as a lot of the time you'd get the pay stub, before you got the check deposited, and knew in advance how much you were getting.
Now about per diems for over night trips. I don't know how they are handled elsewhere, but I remember when they used to hand out the cash, either before the store, or before checking into the hotel (if checking in before going to the store.) Now because someone was caught stealing money from the van, they are added to the check. Which can be inconvenient for last minute overnight trips.
I love this blog and I haven't been getting many hours at RGIS lately. A lot of times we work more than 5 hours and RGIS don't give us breaks. Also, many times even on travel meets they will have us work around 5 hours then make us take a 30 or 45 min lunch then they will have us work less then an hour after lunch then send us home and they don't give us our paid break. A lot of our travel meets are a 1 hour drive each way or less so thats 2 hours of unpaid travel time we are stuck with.
I've been with RGIS for a while and I like the work. Please don't confuse the fine line between 'work' and 'job'.
The pay could be better... DOH! The dress code is a joke!
Cherry picking by the "elite" (experts and top guns) used to annoy me, but hey... I learn quickly. "Big table with a messy pile of sweaters and such? Aw hell nah!" And it's off to another part of the store!
Batching! The 'taboo' of the trade. ;-) Nobody ever batches... unless they can get away with it or are "told to do so".
So, as I said, I enjoy the "work" and approach the "job" with a sense of humor and a decent helping of cynicism. We get along.
I saw a employment ad for RGIS district 7. Some funny things I saw posted in this ad about some attributes in employees they are looking for. I am sure that all RGIS gray shirts and managers always to adhere to these priciples stated below.
Places community before self, engages and works effectively with and assists other Team Members.
• Ability to relate information clearly and accurately, verbally and in written form, in a positive manner that yields cooperation.
• Creates partnerships and instills trust and confidence in one's abilities, based upon demonstrated
Demonstrates a positive presence and energy. Is optimistic, maintains a positive view of life. Is respectful and honest with others.
Has anyone at RGIS rode with sleepy drivers, shitty drivers and people who reely on GPS's too much? Some shitty and sleepy drivers keep on gettin to drive and some rude and stupid bosses keep on getting to run things.
Some funny ass shit I saw earlier bout a "RGIS' job posting. It says that for pre-employment testing it:
As a committed equal opportunity employer who maintains a DRUG free workplace RGIS conducts pre-employment criminal DRUG and social security screening.
That's the generic ad--It's used in all the RGIS districts.The person at HDQ who wrote it probably was never an auditor,nor manager,for that matter.
If we get put on the homedepot and walmarts crew do that mean we gets to batch?
Times are still hard, with few jobs. RGIS at least provides work for many. Too many gripers here. No one forces you to work someplace. Not a perfect job, but what job is?
They are required by Federal law to do the Social Security Screening its an app that ties into homeland security. You fill out any employer the I-9 form.
And they have started a criminal background check even for current employees. I signed a form allowing it and I am long time employee. the drug screening is voluntary well at least for current employees, don't know about new.
There some accounts now, Pharmacy counts and Hospital marketing that require the drug test clearance.
Its always funny hearing people at RGIS wine bout their aph. When peoples aphs go down they get all crabby. So many at RGIS smell like smoke and show up to work looking like they drunk and on drugs.
Managers play favorites, paid training don't actually prepare you for anything in the workplace, the work is much too backbreaking and tedious to be less than $10 per hour. People compete to be high in the count per hour aph ranks, and will give new employees bad advice just to stay ahead. I was really excited to get this job until i had to deal with shitty supervisors, unfair aph system and all the cherrypicking. Its frustrating to keep getting paid for less hours then I worked and not getting paid for all of the travel time.
I love them smokey rgis vans when its cold out and them smokers open them van windows in freezin weather and smoke cause they cant wait a few mintues to get there smokes.
I used to work for Rgis, but thankfully I am now retired. Looking at this site.
I can not believe that the USA is still putting yellow tag on everything. We in Canada quit using tags 4 years ago. At least in Edmonton Ab.
Anyone that is a Top Gun is estimating!! Trust me I have noticed it for 3 of the last 4 years.
Thankfully I do not have to worry about RGIS any more,
It's not really worth whining about APH, either I'm going to make it or I won't, as long as it all averages out, in the end. If there were one thing that I would personally complain about, is the fact that the APH standards aren't uniformly administered. It all depends on which AM is running a store, and District the store is in. For example Kohl's, you go to one store where you are told the goal for specialist is 600, then you go to the next and you're told it's 850. In different stores you'll be told that the number is one number, but when you get your quarterly report, the actual number is completely different, and the number you were told was inflated significantly. I also realize that those who run the stores is trying to motivate the auditors to raise their numbers, but if the number is inflated too much, it kinda makes it harder to care. Just my thoughts, and not the thoughts of RGIS or other employees of RGIS.
Anonymous on 3-4, yes, people complain about APH because your pay depends on it. Doesn't matter if you are dependable,etc. It's all about how much you count even if everything you count is wrong!
As long as you are fast, accuracy doesn't matter. There was a time when you geared up for the January rush, working all kinds of stores no matter what you were counting. It was team work and the goal was counting the store as accurately as possible, and working together to get it done and get out. It was a time when they remembered how hard you worked for them in January, how they could call you and you would always come to help and you always showed up. They would remember what you did at raise time. Now, you can go out of your way to work extra hours, etc in January. And, your reward is at the end of week 7 of the quarter, you get a letter warning you that your rate of pay might go down after week 13 unless your average goes up. And, this comes after helping out in stores with averages set so high that even the very best topgun can't hit the average. Thank you all so much for being there for us during our busy season!! Reward..your pay might go down. That is what this APH thing has created.
You have to remember the APH in the procedures are well above what you are rated on. This is a secrete set of APH numbers per account that an Auditor is not privy to.
It is a pure and simple scare tactic to get you to count faster. If a 1800 APH is in the procedures you probably can get by with counting 1300.
Accuracy does count unless it's a financial/multi quantity store. The clothing stores are killers. Old Navy, Victoria Secret, etc. They do count back most areas so you do need to be 100% on your pieces. If you've got a table of 200 t-shirts, count it 2 or 3 times and then power scan through the tags. If your count is high, delete a few. If you're low, scan a couple more tags. They're looking for accurate counts, not distinct sku's. Now if you scan an XS shirt 200 times, you're gonna get busted but just scan most tags. However, if it's a smaller boutique clothing store, they may check printouts against the inventory in which case you do really need to scan each piece.
If we no show a lot even when we is supposed to drive can we still show up late drunk and high at the next store and batch like crazy?
If we smoke weed every day wood we bee better off working at pics, rgis or wis? It'd be cool to count pills at walgreens and cvs right after smokin a bowl.
do you think wis and rgis would hire me if have tattoos on my neck and face?
Will rgis people be getting there paid breaks until a new pope is selected? Are any rgis managers and gray shirts at the papal conclave at the vatican?
i just got hired at rgis. i want to be specialist soon. can i show up hi an drunk at old navys targets and victorias secrets and batch? how often can i no show?
I'll disagree on getting by with the lower number. I've had people on my team get letters that their Aset level is in danger. They have asked for printouts of their stores to see which stores hurt them. They must provide you with these printouts if you ask for them and in my district, even with things usually not so much on the up and up, they do provide you with these printouts if you ask for them. The Aset levels are based on some elaborate formula of points. If, for example, a topgun needs to count 1800 as per procedures, and they do, they get a point score of 10 for the store. If they hit somewhere between the 1300 and 1800, they receive a 5 for the store. If they fall below that lower number, they receive a 0 for the store. At the end of 7 weeks, they take all these scores, add them and divide by the number of stores, and that is what determines the Aset level. If you had too many stores with very high averages and you only got scored for the lower number, or just 5 out of 10, then you are going down. As far as not being accurate in financial/quantity stores, are you aware that many of them now use the RM verifiers? That even some supermarkets are using them to check on individual Skus?
Does the new pope approve of rgis and wis people batching and estimating?
Does top gun mean top batcher and top estimator?
Is it easy to get away with batching cosmeticks or will we be likely to get caught?
@ Anon 3.18/13 02:43:00 PM:
My own experience batching in cosmetics:
It was at a Long's Drugs (now CVS). Someone had left a plastic tray full of Revlon lipsticks on top of one of the displays. There were probably 40 or 50 lipsticks in the tray and because I was too lazy and disgruntled to count them all individually I just scanned one and did a quantity count for the whole lot of them. But the area I counted was printed out for the store manager to check and...busted.
What's funny is that the only reason that area was printed out is that I had a reputation for not batching so the RGIS manager running that inventory felt safe in printing out that one area. Sucker.
Anyway, nothing really bad happened. The RGIS AM running the inventory told the store manager that it was probably an accident, like a miss-key or something like that. And then he asked me to recount that basket of lipsticks.
But that's just one example in one district. Maybe someone else can share their experience of batching in cosmetics (or "cos", as our DM liked to call it. Douche).
do rgis am's and dm's and other managers and grey shirts get special training with learning how to lie and cheat?
will rgis, wis and pics people be able to batch on easter sunday?
Misfit, they now use an RM verifier in Cvs. The store is given RM's with all the data that has been counted in it. They can go around the store just pulling up individual SKU's or whole areas and check item by item. No more printing out safe areas. You have no idea what they will check. I saw one store actually pulling up individual greeting card Sku's and checking them.
where am all of the hours we was going to get during jan threw march? lots of us aint being given many hours since early jan. I only be getting one day a week for a while. our rgis managers lied to us bout that. are things any better at wis? should i try to go work theire?
i weigh over 450 pounds do you think rgis or wis will hire me? would i be able to get to where black sweats and hitops at work? i has lots of retail experence i did inventorys at 1 of my old jobs. do i always have too be acurate all the time?
@ TL Too: Wow, they checked the greeting cards? Oh man, that would have been a disaster in my dist., back in the "good" old days. People used to batch the hell out of greeting cards.
Batching greeting cards? They are one of the easiest things to auto scan, I make my numbers easily when doing greeting cards, without batching.
In terms of store employees using RM verifiers, it's still sorta a joke. Most either don't know how to use it, don't want to use it or don't have time to use it. Doing these last night audits, the employees want to go home as much as we do. They can count inventory behind us just fine but for many, having to use a verifier is just a pain. It slows them down since they're often using it for the first time. They don't get lasers and they often seem to make mistakes so that it's really a distraction for them.
A large sporting good store on the east got RMV's and all the do is watch the store progress on percentage complete.
They still bother me for printouts even though the procedures say not to print and instruct store on us of RMV.
Can't wait for True Count or whatever they call it.
why are rgis managers so hung up on its peoples tuking there shirts in? many of its people show up to work drunk and high. some of its people are smelly like they aint never bathed before. rgis dms need to get busy getting its peoples lasers that work instead yelling at there people all of the time.
FYI: Rumor has it that Calc stores and APH are out as of the end of last week.
No words on what will replace it yet.
So no more bonuses? That was a joke to begin with, since they rarely told you if a bonus was even available.
Much more often than not lately we have not been using the yellow tags at the stores.
If my aph were to drop below 750 would I get demoted from specialist back to an auditor?
rgis is so generous that its gray shirt supervisors who get to run inventories at stores like holister, vicotria secrets and michaels get $3 more per hour. so a specialist who gets $9 an hour normally would get $12 a hour while running a large store and being in charge of a lot of people. with huge pay like that no wonder so many people want to run stores for rgis.
Anonymous, it isn't as simple as that, there is no real set number, that if you fall below it, and your aset level falls. It's all dependent on the type of store, the store, and the contract with the store. In a grocery store for example, 750 an hour would be beyond horrible, because for a specialist, the aph would be somewhere around 3000-4000 an hour. Which is why I love doing them, if I need to raise my numbers put me in a grocery store, because that where I got most of my experience, and I can usually double the expected aph. Even with clothing stores, there isn't a set in stone number, again it all depends on the store, and the contract, sometimes the number will be lower than 750, and at other stores in the same brand, it will be higher than 750, and some stores because of the contract won't count at all towards your aph. It doesn't help that you're not consistently told what the expectations are, and often are not given the correct number. I've always just done the best I can and hope I made it. Remember these are the opinions of me, and not those of RGIS, or it's employees.
Well I've thoroughly enjoyed your blog. Whatever happened to Mondo and Luis? I'm sure with Mondo, even management in that district got fed up with his horrendous BO.
I've just passed 90 days at RGIS (District 231 in Glen Burnie, MD). Still an Auditor, working my ass of hoping to get promoted to Specialist.
Does everyone love the office meets where you ride in rgis van 1 hr each way to work 2 to 4 hrs and you dont get paid for the 2 hrs of ride time?
aint it fun riding in the middle of the 3rd seat of them mini vans between 2 fat people with one of them bein smelly then getting to hand scan every thing at kmart and not getting breaks?
happy april fools day. at rgis and wis a happy inventory is a batched inventory.
Bonus store was a joke. It appeared when they cut everyone pay. VP went on and on how we would make more money with bonus even though our hourly rate was being cut.
They NEVER added any new bonus accounts in our area. BS if you made it one store but not the next they took the money from ya.
More lies than worth it.
is home depots bonus stores?
Anon, I don't live anywhere near the office, so we meet in a parking lot of a bank. Even better than that, is traveling 3 hours each way to work 2 hours, and getting paid for 4 hours of travel.
Does everyone love how some AMs end up sticking some poor specialists in JCP jewelry departments? Im sure that helps there aph.
Regarding gettting stuck in jewelry, that's what sucks about RGIS. You could also be stuck up on a ladder and/or in clearance. Anyways since not knowing where I might be stuck in a store, I try to sneak around to the best areas when certain AM's are at a store. Some AM's don't care about flow and we can pretty much pick and choose our areas but other AM's are more finicky.
I wonder how many long time rgis people are getting less hours than the rgis newbies? Are things the same way at WIS? Is WIS better to work for then RGIS?
most of the time when i get stuck in jewelry i am one of the 1st people to get sent home. me getting stuck in jewelry means i usually get less then 4 hours when im at that store.
One time I had bonus points for home depot and targets in the same pay period but rgis took my bonus away because of team perfomance.
Do non-management people at rgis ever get bonuses and do the bonuses amount to much money?
Its stupidly funny to watch rgis people skip counting the tough areas.
Some AM's don't care what your Aset level is when they stick you in 'one on one' areas. They should be using lower Aset levels but they stick experts in jewelry, then send them home when jewelry is done because they are 'bottom producers', or averaging lower then they should for their Aset level. Fair, isn't it?
How many people have had some 2 hour work weeks at rgis lately?
Do any rgis workers feel like they have taken the vow of poverty while working at rgis?
Do peoples team leaders schedule RGIS people and it seems like they keep changing my team leader all of the time?
Do RGIS people get drug tested before they put on the Walmart teams?
Can we get away with estimating while we inventory pills in walgreens and cvs pharmacies?
rgis should create a new position of inventory estimator which would be above the current top gun position.
one person in each district who is best at pulling numbers out of their asses should be promoted to inventory estimator and they should get 50 cents more an hour than the top guns do which means a huge $12 an hour instead of $11.50 an hour.
i heard that it really sucks to be on the rgis reset crews that are run by rgis east coast managers.
Do people at wis get regular raises?
The RGIS careers page shows all those happy, smiling people. Wonder what their expressions would be after having a week's worth of work cancelled for no reason.
>>week's worth of work cancelled for no reason.
Funny you should say that, scheduled emailed Friday had jobs for the following week. All of sudden surprise surprise emailed new schedule Monday, BLANK no jobs...
Those people on the web page are probably union card carrying actors paid a lot more for 2 hours of work then we are.
I just worked 4 days and averaged 3.25 hrs a day. After putting $20 in gas each day I am not making anything. Been with RGIS since Sept. Also I have been sent home from a store, because someone was twisting the arm (his words)of my team leader. He didn't want to send me home and said so. So if your APH isn't up where they think it should be then they send you home after 2 1/2 hrs. Doesn't matter if there is still a lot to be done and you drove an hour to get there.
I just started with RGIS in March 2013, in District 293 (Upland, CA). I mostly enjoy it. However, this upcoming week, I have ZERO hours. It was rather unamusing to e-mail my DM to confirm I'd received my schedule with ZERO HOURS and ZERO STORES. So unamusing that I'm now looking for another job. Apparently they're doing a lot of Target stores in the following week and don't let anyone that's below the high Supervisor range in those stores.
We also use the yellow paper tags in most stores-- but not in Kohls. Apparently they think the tags look "messy", which considering the state of the Kohls stores I've been in so far, well, so funny I forgot to laugh.
Next up-- a 99 cent only store that we meet at the district office for and then commute up the 15 to Victorville. Should be a barrel of monkeys; it has a bad rep.
Our Fat DM yells at people a lot and powertrips about making his people tuck their shirts in.
Would I have to pass a drug test in order to be allowed to drive RGIS vans?
do everyone love the favoritism going on at rgis?
some people are getting mutliple stores in the same day lately and a lot of hours while most of us aint been getting many hours.
favorites being put on target, walmart, home depot and lowes teams and getting lots of hours and double shifts while most of the rest of us get like 1 or 2 days a week.
do wis play favorites?
Its funny at some RGIS inventories lately when the grey shirt or manager running the inventory during the pre inventory speech calls out this one specialist on our crew by his name and tells him no batching or they look right at him when they tell us not to batch.
Someone mentioned bonuses earlier, asking if there were still bonus stores. I noticed that there was a bonus store on the most recent check stub, the total of which wasn't even an hour of minimum wage.
When it comes to the amount of gas I use, I guess I'm lucky, because the area we cover as a travel team, I rarely have to drive further than the meet site, which is pretty close to where I live. The furthest I ever have to drive, is out to the Res, and that's only 22 minutes away, anything further than 1/2 an hour we all car pool.
Happy RGIS payday everyone.
Some people in our district no-show a lot on payday Fridays.
One guy got sent home early the other day for mouthing off to the gray shirt who was incharged of the inventory.
I did this work while in college years ago making $12.50 a hour.I did not have to use my vehicle and never had to clock out!As far as aph and being top gun here is the thing would you rather take your time than rush less money and don't worry they will never fire you they need ppl trust me on that!What is funny is most of the ppl that work for rgis has a piece of scat ride or no ride at all!Beware if you have a nice car cause they will love you just to use your car!
Fuck this company before they fuck you
A RGIS gray shirt showed up drunk at one of the inventories at a big store recently. At the same inventory I think one the experts was popping pills or something cause she was extra jittery looking like she was ready to explode. I stayed out of her way and didnt make any comments to her when she was skipping hard sections. Some of our other people were either hi or drunk. A lot of our machines and lasers did not work right. Nothing too new here for the RGIS longtimers.
Are things the same way at WIS?
saw WIS tags at Penney's last weekend. Did RGIS ever do JCP?
@ Anon 5/14/13: I remember RGIS did JCPenney's back around 2001 or so. We did a couple of Penney's in the area for a couple of years in a row. One manager told me Penney's signed a short-term contract with RGIS, just as a sort of tryout but I have no idea if that's even true. I don't think they're doing Penney's anymore but that may be just around here (No. CA). Maybe it's different in other districts.
Anonymous because I'm ashamed I work for RGIS. I have been there less than one year and have seen 5 DM's come and go and 3 AM's come and go, not to mention the team member turnover here in Georgia. The starting pay is 8 bucks an hour. They treat you like shit, work you like a slave and expect quality work for 8 bucks an hour?? I just tell myself "you get what you pay for" and don't even stress about the crappy job or play their stupid APH games. And OMG - some of the people they hire are straight up thug and nasty!!! That's one of the reasons I'm ashamed I work there......just sayin'
RGIS lost most JCP's. We only did one January cycle and that is because WIS couldn't cover it.
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