From the "short timer"

You can't "get rid" of me that easy...

I have not forgotten about the blog - although it did slip through my mental list of things to do. I have been working on Jeff City, and am proud to say that (with good weather) I can make it down there (or back) in 4 hours and 30 minutes!!! (Rose you were right!) The other supervisors are truely amazed at my skill!

Store is taking shape more and more each day - will be one week out on Tuesday (02.13). Different culture in Jeff City - people move at their own pace, and don't seem to worry about much. That is until the Trainer posts a two page list of things to do prior to opening. I received some jaw drops with that one. It seems that even though I explained multiple times that there is much to do - having a piece of paper stating it was louder than my voice. Register training is going well - store's trainers are all very good. Conducted a W.C.S.T. Mod 7 this week, and found it interesting that the new employees were a little challenged by the ROCS questions. But are VERY excited about the store - and thankful for the program and can state the Motto, Mission, Vision, 14 Fundamentals, and Awesome Service Definition BY HEART. Will do another on Wednesday - to a large group of new part-time employees.

Rose and I conducted 6 face-to-face interviews today (02.08). Cindy/Denise/Rose conducted a few phone interviews prior to selecting the top 10. The remaining 4 interviews are scheduled for tomorrow (02.09). Fairness to everyone, that is all I will say about that.

Hope all are having a good week.

DSD Training

Cindy and I presented a 2 hour DSD seminar yesterday in Cedar Falls for the market area stores. This seminar was held at the request of several Store Directors in the area. We covered topics ranging from setting up and effective DSD program to Best Practices and how to deal with problems. We received good feedback from the stores in attendance. The topics covered are below:

o Welcome & Introductions

o Setup of DSD Vendors & Best Practices

o Receiving DSD Vendors
o Have list of P.O. numbers
o How to adjust counts
o How to “properly” delete an invoice
o What to do with “D” status batches

o Miscellaneous Adjustments (Credit & Debits)

o Handling Free Items

o DSD Vendor Deals

o Questions

I also have a Power Point presentation I can share if anyone would like to use it in the future.

Dept. time study

I am currently in the CR area doing time studies in the accounting dept to see how long it takes them to do things. Meri and I are hoping to use these to give the store directors some direction in knowing how many hours they should have in their dept. We are hoping that it will also give them goals for their depts.

This so far has been interesting to do. Normally when I am at a store I am doing training...actually timing them and watching what they are doing is a whole new experience. Hopefully we can come out with good results from this.

Cedar Rapids 3 update

Well, here it is one week from opening and things are looking pretty good right now. Having to break-in the new liquor supervisor has gone fairly well, just needs a little more time. Otherwise, just the normal last minute things going on. Everyone forgot about this item or that one and we need more signs everywhere. As usual, we'll make it through and everything will be fine. Have a great week.

My First Blog

I didn't think I would ever get this done. Since Bryan is in the office today, he helped me get started. Last week I spent several days in Cuba (that's Cuba, Illinois). We bought a pharmacy clinic satellite for the Canton store. Thanks for your help, Bryan.

Welcome and Customer Service Training

***FIRST BLOG ATTEMPT***
Last week Cindy and I spent a couple of days in the Sioux Falls area training the WCST program and once again it was well received!! It's awesome to see their excitement and enthusiasm about implementing this program in their store! Next week I will conduct a training class for the Ames area. On deck is the Quad Cities area.... Hope everyone is having a good week!

Training Department Retreat Summary

created by Stephanie during the retreat

Mission Statement:
“We promise to provide proactive, comprehensive training solutions to affect positive change in those who serve our customers.”

2007 Training Plan (initiatives & objectives)
1. Develop strategies to share the training responsibility at store level.
2. Develop and enhance our training solutions.
3. Develop training for assistant managers.
4. Create standards to measure our training effectiveness.
5. Educate corporate & stores what we do and how we can help them achieve strategic objectives.
6. Monitor the stores’ completion of compliance programs.

Objective Team Members (team lead in BOLD)
1 Cindy, Denise, Bryan, AVP Ops, Setup Supervisors
2 Matt, Carey, Kristine, Denise, Cindy (the design team leaders)
3 Bryan, Becky, Carey, Sarah, AVP Ops, Store Director, Michele Matt, Design Team 5
4 Stephanie, Carey, IT, Kristine, Internal Audit
5 Cindy, Meri, Matt, Marketing, IT (Brad Styve), Julie
6 Rose, Becky, Carey, Sarah, IT (Eric Smith)


Design Team Objectives
* Create and/or enhance programs to meet the 5 criteria:
- Skill building
- Informative
- Simple & easy to use
- Interactive
- Measurable
* Inform subject matter experts how to use resources


Design Team Design Team Members (Team Leader in BOLD)
1 - Cashier Kristine, Sarah, Stephanie, Julie
2 - Branding Cindy, Meri, Matt
3 - Supervisor Carey, Becky, Cindy
4 - Customer Service Counter Matt, Jason, Meri
5 - Assistant Manager (new) Becky, Carey, Sarah
6 - Phone Skills Denise, Bryan, Rose

Greatest Challenges to Implementing our PLAN

Challenges...........................Solutions
Time.................................Focus on making issue #1 work to share responsibility
Buy-in of others.....................Recruit team members for each issue's plan
Logistics of getting us together......Schedule quarterly meetings or conference calls:
Feb - May - Aug - Nov
Hold meetings before staff meetings
Balance of creating & training ........Block off time to design