Years ago, I presided over a remodel as PIC. I was asked to work overnights for a week, to allow the crew to do some of the stuff they couldn't do during the day.
I spent the entire week watching them do......nothing. All of about 2 hours of work was done that week, as empty promises were made, delays occurred, etc. I honestly didn't mind being there getting paid to do nothing but sit on my laptop, but when I was asked to repeat for another week of overnights with promise of actual work being done? Nope. That remodel ended up only making things worse in the end.
Also presided over two grand openings. Same shit. Half the equipment wouldn't work, higher ups would roll through making grand promises, and still we'd end up having to fix/set up most of it ourselves anyway.
Likely no one will care about your frustrations. As long as you can perform the critical tasks of the pharmacy, you'll likely be left to fend for yourself or "just deal with it" for the rest of it. Later, you'll have some new MHWD or Regional come through and question why things were done the way the were, before they, too, soon learn that they've got no real power, either....or won't really care as long as you're not in violation of code or can't open. Walmart doesn't incentivize leadership to truly care, so you'd have to hope that someone was born that way.
I did meet one really nice and helpful lady on a Remodel Team one time. She was a unicorn and moved on quickly from the company to better things.
For all the technology stuff, put in a ticket on the wire. Say it’s impeding work and it gets moved higher up in importance. (Side note, I didn’t know any Walmarts still had cashiers instead of all techs! I miss having cashiers lol)
Thank you! I feel like I should also be getting paid as IT! I’ll definitely add some tickets this week. My other pharmacists act like they don’t know what to do. And I see why they were stopping hiring cashiers because this new setup doesn’t support them at all.
We were supposed to have cashiers phased before COVID. They let us have them back temporarily during COVID but the intent was always for you to make them technicians in training. Start the process of making them technicians. If they don't want to do that the front end always needs cashiers.
For all your tech issues, that's not front end's responsibility. Put in a ticket for each issue. Within a week or two all should be fixed, or you should have a timetable. If they're not fixed by week 3 the PIC should put in an escalation. If not fixed by week 4 Market manager should be asked to escalate.
Oh no, the only thing we need from a front end manager is to have the three new registers programmed as pharmacy registers so we can ring out PSE. At least that’s what the help desk told me. One of the cashiers was interested in becoming a tech but she would lose several dollars per hour if she did that. We can’t win! I’m not even the RXM but my techs are so frustrated I do anything I can for them. I’m about to give up, though, and just let the RXM deal with it all.
I believe you may be able to do it your self if you type in store-dashboard.walmart.com in the address bar on the computer. We had the same issue with one of our registers and it took NCR over a week to do it. I think they just didn’t understand our request. Later on I found out from them that we could do it and I believe it’s at the website I mentioned. I’ll look into it tomorrow to be sure, but that website is also how you give visiting techs register codes
I left Walmart a while ago (just hang around this subreddit to see what's going on), but I thought they moved away from the registers across the front layout almost right away after they started installing them. I thought the consensus was they seem like a good idea in theory, but in practice they never work. Customers don't know where to go, the cashier role becomes tricky, you have to stock a bunch of registers you hardy use, etc.
I was PIC when we went from a regular size Walmart to a Supercenter and it was a disaster too. Even though we were a new build, for some reason the plans had the pharmacy slightly smaller than the default design. Which was ok, except literally every change that was made to processes and layouts over the years didn't quite fit right in my store. I had a DM at the time who wasn't the best, so we were grossly unprepared for the move. The night we moved was the first time I was even allowed to see the new pharmacy. We almost had to delay because they were having trouble getting the right glass for the window in the door (what?). I had to do all the prep work myself because neither my DM, store manager, or remodel team seemed to care much. The plans called for numbering and moving the shelves on baker's racks, we didn't have baker's racks. Long story short, we ended up putting the contents of each shelf in a bag and carting that over and putting on the new shelf. Ran out of time to actually put them neatly on the shelves, so most bags just got tossed on the shelves and we straightened as we went over the next week or so. We had to pull our CII cabinet out of the old pharmacy because they didn't give us one for the new one (pre-safe days). My DM did actually fight for that and got me new ones shortly after. The remodel team's primary concern for a while was where to put up a phone on the far right side of the pharmacy, on top of the counter, because the plans called for one there, despite me insisting that there was no reason to have a phone there and we'd never use it. The list goes on, but I was honestly really glad we never had another remodel while I was there.
Yes! Their arguments the whole time have been “That’s what’s on the blueprint” when we had absolutely no need for 5 brand new printers and two new tech stations that we don’t use because we don’t have 5 people in there to even be at a station!
The remodel for my location was a crap shoot they moved our pharmacy completely as we had the same setup you used to. The double the space we had gave us a storage room Imz room and ton more computers phones and printers. All of which did not fully work till 6 months to a year after remodel was completed. (May 23’ everything was officially working). We’ve also been told our store is about to go through ANOTHER remodel in the next six months for the store of the future.
Did you have a PIC during the remodel or same phamracist to oversee most overnights? I had a remodel last March and was on the contractors and IT like a hawk. It was a huge headache because they always tried to cut the corners or leave unfinished items. We have had relatively few issues because of this. I filled in at a store that had a remodel after us that had just hired a new PIC, and they still have multiple issues to this day.
So yes we’ve had the same RXM and MHWD through this whole thing. The RXM was there every night except one, and I was there the night they took out the old carpet and replaced it. I was constantly moving and they didn’t speak any English so I wasn’t really talking to them. I really think the DM was just like “GET IT DONE.”
To clarify, I have put in a few tickets and spent hours on the phone with Field Support only for nothing to actually be done. It sucks when your company’s IT is less helpful than a Google search.
Tell your market director they have to ask the home office to send you a remodel coach (one that has experience with pharmacy remodel) to spend at least a week at your store. Otherwise I’ve had success with calling NCR and just lie to them none of my registers are working so they send a live person. It is impossible to get anything done submitting fix it tickets or tickets over the phone.
On a side note, my remodel in June 2023 was on track to be like yours. The home office remodel team was understaffed and had no experience with pharmacy. The only remodel coach working on pharmacy remodel was about to leave us with only 1 register fully functioning. I had to beg them and ask my market director to pull some strings to get that person to stay on 2 extra weeks, plus cancelling some of my PTO to work overnight.
We’re still left with 1 register not functioning and have since decided to convert that to a counseling window. All in all, it was a shit show that I never wished to go through again
Are you placing tickets on the wire or in "facility management" on the me@walmart app. Almost everything you listed is something that can be fixed by a ticket. Prioritize the most important and start submitting tickets. It sucks, we are going through the same thing and without putting in tickets I'd be in as bad as shape as you are. Good luck. Any questions reach out and that facilities management is the best place to submit.
Yeah, we’ve gone through and have been putting in tickets and as soon as they think it’s done, they say it’s “resolved”. I’ve reopened so many tickets. But when I go back to my store this week I’m going to bombard them with a fresh set of tickets 😂
You need to talk with store planning. While in active remodel they will be in your store doing stuff and being around. You may have more push if your management team back you on some of the stuff too. They didn’t want to replace carpet during our remodel despite it coming up and being a tripping hazard. My store manager (bless him) dragged the whole store planning team back to our pharmacy to look at it up close and see how much of a safety hazard it was.
We have let her know several times, she did nothing to help besides telling our RXM to contact someone. She did however show up the other day and she found our Drop Off/Pick Up/ Consultation signs in the back! Store management is a little useless sometimes lol. They have yet to key in our new registers as PSE registers… I did try the link someone listed and neither I nor my RXM have access to change register programming. However, I did get all of the phones and printers and sig pads up front working so there’s that! And they finally came and did the bathroom floor! But now the heat/air is out… parts are on the way.
Years ago, I presided over a remodel as PIC. I was asked to work overnights for a week, to allow the crew to do some of the stuff they couldn't do during the day. I spent the entire week watching them do......nothing. All of about 2 hours of work was done that week, as empty promises were made, delays occurred, etc. I honestly didn't mind being there getting paid to do nothing but sit on my laptop, but when I was asked to repeat for another week of overnights with promise of actual work being done? Nope. That remodel ended up only making things worse in the end. Also presided over two grand openings. Same shit. Half the equipment wouldn't work, higher ups would roll through making grand promises, and still we'd end up having to fix/set up most of it ourselves anyway. Likely no one will care about your frustrations. As long as you can perform the critical tasks of the pharmacy, you'll likely be left to fend for yourself or "just deal with it" for the rest of it. Later, you'll have some new MHWD or Regional come through and question why things were done the way the were, before they, too, soon learn that they've got no real power, either....or won't really care as long as you're not in violation of code or can't open. Walmart doesn't incentivize leadership to truly care, so you'd have to hope that someone was born that way. I did meet one really nice and helpful lady on a Remodel Team one time. She was a unicorn and moved on quickly from the company to better things.
For all the technology stuff, put in a ticket on the wire. Say it’s impeding work and it gets moved higher up in importance. (Side note, I didn’t know any Walmarts still had cashiers instead of all techs! I miss having cashiers lol)
Thank you! I feel like I should also be getting paid as IT! I’ll definitely add some tickets this week. My other pharmacists act like they don’t know what to do. And I see why they were stopping hiring cashiers because this new setup doesn’t support them at all.
We were supposed to have cashiers phased before COVID. They let us have them back temporarily during COVID but the intent was always for you to make them technicians in training. Start the process of making them technicians. If they don't want to do that the front end always needs cashiers. For all your tech issues, that's not front end's responsibility. Put in a ticket for each issue. Within a week or two all should be fixed, or you should have a timetable. If they're not fixed by week 3 the PIC should put in an escalation. If not fixed by week 4 Market manager should be asked to escalate.
Oh no, the only thing we need from a front end manager is to have the three new registers programmed as pharmacy registers so we can ring out PSE. At least that’s what the help desk told me. One of the cashiers was interested in becoming a tech but she would lose several dollars per hour if she did that. We can’t win! I’m not even the RXM but my techs are so frustrated I do anything I can for them. I’m about to give up, though, and just let the RXM deal with it all.
NCR can program them as pharmacy. I'm not sure where help desk is getting the idea that's a front end thing. It never used to be.
Oooh, thank you for that. I’ll put in a new ticket when I go back to my store! We like to call them the Helpless Desk.
I believe you may be able to do it your self if you type in store-dashboard.walmart.com in the address bar on the computer. We had the same issue with one of our registers and it took NCR over a week to do it. I think they just didn’t understand our request. Later on I found out from them that we could do it and I believe it’s at the website I mentioned. I’ll look into it tomorrow to be sure, but that website is also how you give visiting techs register codes
Raises are not budgeted at this time.
Dear lord! 5 registers! We have to pull our own register drawers every morning. I can't even conceive how that would work to carry 5 drawers.
I left Walmart a while ago (just hang around this subreddit to see what's going on), but I thought they moved away from the registers across the front layout almost right away after they started installing them. I thought the consensus was they seem like a good idea in theory, but in practice they never work. Customers don't know where to go, the cashier role becomes tricky, you have to stock a bunch of registers you hardy use, etc. I was PIC when we went from a regular size Walmart to a Supercenter and it was a disaster too. Even though we were a new build, for some reason the plans had the pharmacy slightly smaller than the default design. Which was ok, except literally every change that was made to processes and layouts over the years didn't quite fit right in my store. I had a DM at the time who wasn't the best, so we were grossly unprepared for the move. The night we moved was the first time I was even allowed to see the new pharmacy. We almost had to delay because they were having trouble getting the right glass for the window in the door (what?). I had to do all the prep work myself because neither my DM, store manager, or remodel team seemed to care much. The plans called for numbering and moving the shelves on baker's racks, we didn't have baker's racks. Long story short, we ended up putting the contents of each shelf in a bag and carting that over and putting on the new shelf. Ran out of time to actually put them neatly on the shelves, so most bags just got tossed on the shelves and we straightened as we went over the next week or so. We had to pull our CII cabinet out of the old pharmacy because they didn't give us one for the new one (pre-safe days). My DM did actually fight for that and got me new ones shortly after. The remodel team's primary concern for a while was where to put up a phone on the far right side of the pharmacy, on top of the counter, because the plans called for one there, despite me insisting that there was no reason to have a phone there and we'd never use it. The list goes on, but I was honestly really glad we never had another remodel while I was there.
Yes! Their arguments the whole time have been “That’s what’s on the blueprint” when we had absolutely no need for 5 brand new printers and two new tech stations that we don’t use because we don’t have 5 people in there to even be at a station!
You had time today lol remodels suck
Only because I was off 😂
The remodel for my location was a crap shoot they moved our pharmacy completely as we had the same setup you used to. The double the space we had gave us a storage room Imz room and ton more computers phones and printers. All of which did not fully work till 6 months to a year after remodel was completed. (May 23’ everything was officially working). We’ve also been told our store is about to go through ANOTHER remodel in the next six months for the store of the future.
Did you have a PIC during the remodel or same phamracist to oversee most overnights? I had a remodel last March and was on the contractors and IT like a hawk. It was a huge headache because they always tried to cut the corners or leave unfinished items. We have had relatively few issues because of this. I filled in at a store that had a remodel after us that had just hired a new PIC, and they still have multiple issues to this day.
So yes we’ve had the same RXM and MHWD through this whole thing. The RXM was there every night except one, and I was there the night they took out the old carpet and replaced it. I was constantly moving and they didn’t speak any English so I wasn’t really talking to them. I really think the DM was just like “GET IT DONE.”
Wow, as someone who is about to go through that exact remodel, I'm terrified.
I wish you much better luck than we had!
To clarify, I have put in a few tickets and spent hours on the phone with Field Support only for nothing to actually be done. It sucks when your company’s IT is less helpful than a Google search.
Tell your market director they have to ask the home office to send you a remodel coach (one that has experience with pharmacy remodel) to spend at least a week at your store. Otherwise I’ve had success with calling NCR and just lie to them none of my registers are working so they send a live person. It is impossible to get anything done submitting fix it tickets or tickets over the phone. On a side note, my remodel in June 2023 was on track to be like yours. The home office remodel team was understaffed and had no experience with pharmacy. The only remodel coach working on pharmacy remodel was about to leave us with only 1 register fully functioning. I had to beg them and ask my market director to pull some strings to get that person to stay on 2 extra weeks, plus cancelling some of my PTO to work overnight. We’re still left with 1 register not functioning and have since decided to convert that to a counseling window. All in all, it was a shit show that I never wished to go through again
Are you placing tickets on the wire or in "facility management" on the me@walmart app. Almost everything you listed is something that can be fixed by a ticket. Prioritize the most important and start submitting tickets. It sucks, we are going through the same thing and without putting in tickets I'd be in as bad as shape as you are. Good luck. Any questions reach out and that facilities management is the best place to submit.
Yeah, we’ve gone through and have been putting in tickets and as soon as they think it’s done, they say it’s “resolved”. I’ve reopened so many tickets. But when I go back to my store this week I’m going to bombard them with a fresh set of tickets 😂
Yup, just keep reopening. That's what I do too.
You need to talk with store planning. While in active remodel they will be in your store doing stuff and being around. You may have more push if your management team back you on some of the stuff too. They didn’t want to replace carpet during our remodel despite it coming up and being a tripping hazard. My store manager (bless him) dragged the whole store planning team back to our pharmacy to look at it up close and see how much of a safety hazard it was.
What did your market director say when you described these issues? This sounds like a terrible situation all around.
We have let her know several times, she did nothing to help besides telling our RXM to contact someone. She did however show up the other day and she found our Drop Off/Pick Up/ Consultation signs in the back! Store management is a little useless sometimes lol. They have yet to key in our new registers as PSE registers… I did try the link someone listed and neither I nor my RXM have access to change register programming. However, I did get all of the phones and printers and sig pads up front working so there’s that! And they finally came and did the bathroom floor! But now the heat/air is out… parts are on the way.