Ultimate Store Policies

[Seshat]

* There are panic buttons in discreet places near anywhere money or valuable goods are handled. Staff are presumed to be adult enough to make their own decisions to press them. They are tested on a regular basis, and will notify mall security/the police that there is trouble at the store.

* There are cameras pointing to the customer side anywhere money/valuable goods are handled. The cameras have a good view of the customer's face, and also a good view of the money/valuables. Staff are shown where to handle money so as to give the cameras the best view.

* Management can replay the saved information on the cameras, thus proving to the customer that yes, that was a $50 and not a $100 that you gave, and yes, the staff did give you the correct change.

* Staff are ALWAYS encouraged to call management and use the camera replay if they suspect a quick change artist is trying to scam them.

* All staff are considered more important than any merchandise. Let the cameras get good images of shoplifters, don't risk getting hurt.

Closing procedure is important, as is store neatness, though employees do have lives to themselves, and will NOT be permitted to stay more than an hour after store closing.

...unless previously arranged for special occasions such as inventory. Or a huge slap-up party and multiplayer gaming session. The latter probably a treat for getting the former done.

[Will-Mun]

Forgot one!

*The store will NOT close when a state of emergency is declared... At that point they should have already BEEN closed. The store may close at any time for weather related reasons, this will NOT be up to the corperate office, but will come to Manager discression, since the Managers are actually IN the store.

[Hon'ya-chan]

Problem with that is, if the suspected shoplifter turns out not to have any merchandise on him/her, they have a slam-dunk false arrest suit against you. You can't apprehend a person based on a suspiscion, you have to have video on them or be following them and you have to keep watching from the point they conceal merchandise to the point they walk out the doors.

His word against ours. Especially when we give him sleeping pills and dump him in the middle of nowhere.

[JustADude]

His word against ours. Especially when we give him sleeping pills and dump him in the middle of nowhere.

Remember, gotta keep it realistic, Hon'ya-chan. No dumping and drugging, sorry.

Complete video surveillance, with overlapping fields of coverage should do the trick, though... and a 24/7 security monitoring booth if the store gets profitable enough.

[Sofar]

* Staff will be identified through lanyard-badges, since they're so much cooler than name-tags.

Since we only have three customer service representatives at my restaurant, and one of them is Boss-Man, our boss had something cooler than normal name tags made. Our name tags are more like military tags than anything else, they're little rectangles of steel with our nick names printed on in heavy type, which hang around our necks on a chain.

[Gurndigarn]

My own personal items include the GOOD example from above as well as:

* Dress code will be presentable casual. If it's not ratty or trashy, you're fine.

Possibly. But consider providing reasonable quality logoed t-shirts or polo shirts, because:

* Staff will be identified through lanyard-badges, since they're so much cooler than name-tags.

Screw that. Staff will be identified by a description of them, if it's really needed. NO badges with names of any sort. If you want the employees name, then you be a nice customer who the employee doesn't mind giving his name to. Employees are not required to give out their names. If you want to know who's running the place, look for the shirt.

(EDIT: if name badges are needed, the employee is allowed to make up a name for it. Gurndigarn is a good example of a wonderful name.)

* There will always be at least 2 people working for security and boredom reasons.

This may run into P&L reality issues, depending on how busy the place is (that second person is going to cost you +/- $50 a night. It's worth it if you're busy, but $200 per week adds up quickly if you're not so busy.)

Instead, management will spring for a decent security system. And employees are allowed to do homework/play games after regular stocking/cleaning duties are finished, and when no customers are in the place. Employees are allowed to play games with customers, within reason. Employees are encouraged to talk with customers... but real talk about the products, not canned "Did you find everything you needed?" questions.

[Will-Mun]

* There will always be at least 2 people working for security and boredom reasons.

This may run into P&L reality issues, depending on how busy the place is (that second person is going to cost you +/- $50 a night. It's worth it if you're busy, but $200 per week adds up quickly if you're not so busy.)

Ahem...

* There will always be at least 2 people working. No employee should be responsible for the entire store alone.

Sorry, but it is COMPLETELY realistic for at least two employees to be working at the same time. And usually it will be required since the only person with keys to locked inventory is Manager staff. Managers, Asst. Managers, and Third Keys. Also on the same vain, no store should have an employee go into the back, leaving the floor unattended. Better security systems is one thing, but it will never stop 100% of theft.

[greensinestro]

* We go by the time on our watches, not yours. So, if we open at 8, and it says 7:55am on our clocks, we are not opening just because your watch says 8am.

* I don't care if you know the manager personally. I am not caving in for you.

* No, I am not going to grant you a discount on an already discounted item.

* No, I am not going to grant you a discount on that scratch and dent item. We already discounted it for that reason.

* If you are not done shopping, you may not park your cart in an available check out line to save your spot, then leave to do some more shopping. I have other customers that would like to get the heck out of the store and get home, and I will not allow you to hold them up.

* Cellular phone usage is not allowed in my business. If you bring one in and start yapping on it, you will be asked, no, ordered to leave. I do not want to hear about your illegal business transactions, the hooker you met at the beach last night, your financial problems, nor your sick hobbies.

* I do not care how old you are. All customers pay the same price for their merchandise, from ages 0 to 100.

* If we ask you for ID, having a baby with you is not acceptable proof that you are over 18 or 21 years of age. And no, I will not wait for you to go out to your car to get your ID either.

* There are plenty of spaces in the parking lot. Do not hold up an aisle for that close as hell spot and block traffic. In the five long minutes you spent waiting on that spot, you could have been in the store already.

* The coupons you are using are fine as long as it matches the name of the item you are buying. You may not use a coupon for Lake O Lakes cheese and expect to the get that discount on Velveeta.

* If you bring a shelf tag up to the front because you think we are going to cheat you, you will be charged $5 extra being we now have to get some employee to take it back and reattach it to the shelves.

* I don't care how they do things in New York. This is Florida, and if you hate the rules so much, move the f*** back there and stop taking up our space and breathing our air!

[Gurndigarn]

This may run into P&L reality issues, depending on how busy the place is (that second person is going to cost you +/- $50 a night. It's worth it if you're busy, but $200 per week adds up quickly if you're not so busy.)

Ahem...

* There will always be at least 2 people working. No employee should be responsible for the entire store alone.

Sorry, but it is COMPLETELY realistic for at least two employees to be working at the same time.

No, it's not, not in all situations. I managed an arcade for many years, and with rare exeptions, we ran the place with one person on weekdays. When I worked in the junkyard, my boss would often run the place by himself. I've seen plenty of specialty shops that only have one person-- why put two people on when you only get a handful of customers each hour? Especially when that one person obviously has nothing to do already? I mean, the companionship might be nice, but you can only talk to someone so long before that gets boring, too-- and, unless you live in a utopia, there are bills to pay. Having a second person on the clock when there's absolutely nothing for him to do can easily mean the difference between mildly profitable and losing money.

I've seen the P&L sheets demonstrating that last part.

[Delphae]

You will need a second person to cover bathroom breaks, food breaks emergencys, taking out the garbage, any time the cashier needs to leave the counter. My boss never scheduals at cashier for the first hour of the day and it is inconvenient, even if there are only a few customers.

[Broomjockey]

I think as a second person, we basically mean manager/shift leader/whatever you want to call it, as most nights there'd be work for them to get done such as payroll, ordering, etc. and then when they need a break they can hang with the other employee, and would be available to cover breaks and such.

[JustADude]

Possibly. But consider providing reasonable quality logoed t-shirts or polo shirts...

Oh, of course. I was actually thinking of T-shirts or silk-screened club-style shirts. Not mandatory, though, and available to customers for a price (staff get 1 club shirt and 2 t-shirts free) since hopefully the logo will be a thing of awesomenessitude that people will want to have on their clothes.

Screw that. Staff will be identified by a description of them, if it's really needed. NO badges with names of any sort. If you want the employees name, then you be a nice customer who the employee doesn't mind giving his name to. Employees are not required to give out their names. If you want to know who's running the place, look for the shirt.

(EDIT: if name badges are needed, the employee is allowed to make up a name for it. Gurndigarn is a good example of a wonderful name.)

Never said they'd have to put their real names on them, just that there'd be a lanyard badge. It's a quick, easy way to make a visual ID of someone as staff that isn't as dorky as a stick-pin name-tag, and can double as a swipe-card for access to staff-only areas of the store. You know, like the break-room and the room for dealing with Amazon/E-Bay orders, etc. Wearing a uniform-shirt is one of my biggest pet peeves for some reason, so I'm not going to make an employee of mine do something that annoys me.

Instead, management will spring for a decent security system. And employees are allowed to do homework/play games after regular stocking/cleaning duties are finished, and when no customers are in the place. Employees are allowed to play games with customers, within reason. Employees are encouraged to talk with customers... but real talk about the products, not canned "Did you find everything you needed?" questions.

Oh, there'll be cameras and panic buttons alright, but I also want a 2nd set of eyes in case, as others have said, the first person needs to leave the floor for some reason, or someone tries to pull a fast one. With collectibles, getting into a locked display case showing off vintage Transformers (just as an example) could cost you WAY more than the 2nd employee on the shift would've for the whole month. Plus, as others have said, you need someone to cover breaks, do paperwork, etc.

Good point on the customers, though. Considering it's a specialty shop, hopefully everyone who works there will be into that kind of thing, and will know WHY customers are going 'oooh' and 'aaaah' at the $200 NES cartridge w/box and manuals in the bullet-proof-glass box behind the counter, so there'll hopefully be plenty to shoot the breeze about. I'd always considered that a given, but it should probably be written into the policy so that it can't be ground under foot if the place gets big enough that the owners can't take a direct hand any more.

[Gurndigarn]

Wearing a uniform-shirt is one of my biggest pet peeves for some reason, so I'm not going to make an employee of mine do something that annoys me.

Ah. Nametags are my pet peeve (even with fake names), so I'm reacting the same way about them as you are with uniform-shirts.

Oh, there'll be cameras and panic buttons alright, but I also want a 2nd set of eyes in case, as others have said, the first person needs to leave the floor for some reason, or someone tries to pull a fast one.

I guess I've worked small (2-6 people on staff) operations so long that it's second nature to me. You just take bathroom breaks in between customers, do paperwork at the counter, and so forth. It really depends on the nature of your business as to whether or not it can work.

With collectibles, getting into a locked display case showing off vintage Transformers (just as an example) could cost you WAY more than the 2nd employee on the shift would've for the whole month.

Each case would run a bit under one month's wages/witholding/etc for one extra employee, or a hair under two months if you wanted a higher-security case. (Price based on the first website google came up with; it may be possible to find less expensive stuff if you shop around. Price also based on standard equipment. Economy and stylish varieties availible. Bullet-proof glass will run you considerably more.)

I'd always considered that a given, but it should probably be written into the policy so that it can't be ground under foot if the place gets big enough that the owners can't take a direct hand any more.

How about: you will refuse to expand past the point where the owners can't visit and work at each location they own a minumum of [times] per [acceptable time period]. If it was a typical retail, probably once per week (IE, 3 locations-- one day each plus a floater, and one day to deal with emergencies/holidays/etc. If it was more bland retail, possibly a dozen locations, minimum of one day per month.

However, since you're looking at specialty retail, you're going to have a finite amount of money your customers are going to be willing to spend, so that's your limiting factor. Probably one store in a medium-sized town, two in a larger one, or 3-5 in a metropolis.

Of course, "can do" does not always equal "should do". It's probably not worth the headaches (and travel time) of more than two locations-- possibly not even more than one.