Walmart Preferred Vendor List

@Shop-et-al wrote:

I have three merchandising days in the near future. I work with a company that is not on the "approved" list. Will these three days contain my last assignments for this company within Wal-Mart locations? I don't know. Here is what I know. Recently, two different types of assignments required less time for the merchandising task than to check in, work with team member, and check out of the locations. I have another project type that takes longer for the actual task/-s than to check in, check out, and work with store staff.

I wonder what people who perform these tasks in future will experience. Will they have a similar breakdown of on-site timings? As time passes and everyone gets an idea of how long various things should take, will anyone see an opportunity for multiple tasks per store per day? Will this be possible? Will more local or more traveling merchandisers be working in the Wal-Mart stores? Will anyone want to change from local to traveling, or vice versa?

I merely wonder about such things...

It doesn't go into effect until next year. And it depends on who you are doing the merch for. Is it a direct vendor? Are you authorized thru the Marketing team or is it negotiated with a buyer? There are a number of work arounds to the new rules.

Who are you working for? If you can say. The vendor or a merch company that wasn't chosen? Alot of contracts will now be driven to the 5 merch companies as opposed to just any company sending in a team. So perhaps you will need to apply at those 5 companies in order to keep doing the jobs that you are doing now. Just a different employer

I just don't think we will see much change. People will still be hired to merch Walmart if the vendor is determined to do so. My receiving department had not even heard of these new rules! Implementation will present some challenges. Walmart counts on vendors to pay to have their product merch'd because they do not hire or give enough hours to Walmart employees to properly service Walmart branded products let alone everyone elses!

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@LeslieKay111 wrote:

For example, Duracell batteries ships directly to stores and get paid POSB, or paid as the product sells thru. They have a merchandiser that is not affected. (I am not sure if she works for the company or a merchandising rep. I'll ask her next time I see her). But we discussed how this will not affect either of our jobs.

Premium does Duracell merchandising now and is a preferred vendor.

Former mystery shopper, current merchandiser.

@iwahstore wrote:

I agree. With all the clients Acosta represents one could begin zoning on the first aisle and make an entire day of it.

I haven't seen Acosta reps leave or sleep (but people in my region have), but I also haven't seen them zone for the heck of it. I mainly see them working very leisurely, like they have time to fill. They always have time to chat, which is nice when I also have the time.

Former mystery shopper, current merchandiser.

Hey, guess what I heard today. SAS and Advantage teamed up so Advantage can stay in Wally World. How very clever! edited for spelkung

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2017 10:52PM by spicy1.

@spicy1 wrote:

Hey, guess what I heard today. SAS and Advantage teamed up so Advantage can stay in Wally World. How very clever! edited for spelkung

So is Advantage merging with SAS under the SAS name or was some other kind of arrangement made?

I don't know the specifics of the deal. I know that SAS's pay is VERY low and they only had venture work, not regular merchandising work I hope that Advantage does not take lessons from them because the lower paid merchandisers take foreverrrrrrrr to do the job, bum cigs and lunch money and cannot be calm when learning what upc means and how to set a peg wall.

eta: and many just do not show up at all or go home without saying anything. Sucks when you've traveled to a different State to do overnight resets and over half the people they hired do those things!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2017 02:23PM by spicy1.

Yes, Advantage did partner with SAS and will still be working in Walmart. Acosta had anticipated getting many of Advantage's contracts, but with SAS/Advantage merger Advantage is keeping the contracts. Acosta jumped the gun.

How did they jump the gun? There were no new hires to cover any anticipated jobs that would jump.

One question. Will there still be work-alone jobs with Advantage?

Bach is not noise, Madam. (Robert, in Two's Company)

Do you work at Advantage?

Acosta told their employees that they would be hiring 500 new employees to cover the anticipated additional business coming to Acosta.

I am on, and have been on, the Acosta homepage and I have not seen that information. Where did you hear that Acosta told their employees that they would be hiring 500 new employees to cover?

It was told to employees on a conference call that I was a part of right after it was announced who the original five Wal Mart vendors would be. Sometimes you need to rely on information passed on to you from reliable sources. Companies don't put "everything" on home pages. First you don't believe me when the employees are laid off and now you don't believe what I heard on a conference call.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2017 08:56PM by iwahstore.

???

As of this morning, Acosta is advertising for full time Walmart merchandisers in my area.

Thats correct. I work for RMS, and we are losing a large Loreal contract because of it.

~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~* Shoppin' Mama of 4 lovely & unique girls and Nana to Bella, Delilah and Lincoln, shopping in Oregon and parts of Washington

Ohhhhh, RMS had L'Oreal. I didn't know that. I love L'Oreal. Who's getting L'Oreal now?

Big fan of L'Oreal as well!

I suppose the hiring is good news for those companies that are left. Hopefully these manufacturers like L'Oreal continue to outsource their merchandising / retail needs.

Any sense of other large manufacturers (in addition to L'Oreal) whose Walmart business may be up for grabs now? Any and all potential new clients help...

Jaosmom -- Sorry for your company's loss

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2017 01:13PM by buddythedog.

I wonder who will do their cosmetic resets now, I could do those

@spicy1 wrote:

I wonder who will do their cosmetic resets now, I could do those

Most likely Crossmark. They are doing cosmetic resets in Walgreens and CVS now, so it makes sense. Crossmark recently split their teams and now have Walmart dedicated reps and what they call syndicated reps who cover all non Walmart locations. From what I hear the Walmart reps are only assigned one store and must be available for team reset work in other Walmart locations.The larger Walmart location have multiple Crossmark reps assigned to handle the current volume.

Thanks Bill

Good to know Bill, thanks!

So on Sep 8 I was told by my Acosta Unit Manager that I was among 150 merchandisers getting laid off. With two weeks of severance my last paycheck would be through Sep 22. He sent a copy of the Reduction In Staff letter to my email address and told me that HR would be sending me details in the mail. As of yesterday Sep 19 I have received no correspondence from Human Resources. Have left voicemails with HR but nobody has returned phone calls. How does a big company like Acosta terminate 150 people with nothing to back it up?

Wow, iwahstore, that is terrible. I am sorry for your situation. I hope it all works out for you.

What state are you in if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in North Carolina

Oh I have a friend that works for one of the big three in the Chicago area and he has seen some large clients shift business out of the area as well. It is a time of change for the merchandising industry. I am hopeful that things will stabilize and believe that this recent turmoil is temporary but would be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts as well.

We thought we were going to get the Clorox account back...but it happened but not like we wanted. Only until the end of the year. Lysol must've offered more money cause us here in my area going to be doing that account now. Hourly rate increased though! We're all training next month on this new manufacturers products. I don't care just as long as I can feed my kids. Wife told me to take this other job at Coca-Cola earlier this year and could kick myself that I didn't!

Loreal is going to Crossmark I heard recently

I've been asked by a few of the vendors who didn't make the cut if they were under our shadow. I asked my boss (who asked her boss) and she said she doesn't know why some of these smaller vendors are spreading such false information. She said that they just want their employees to keep business as usual but lots of us don't think that's right to lead them on. That's Walmart for you! they care nothing about but the almighty dollar! I'm almost to retirement and I'm counting the days until I can get away from this nonstop drama. They should be ashamed right here at Christmas doing this to all these people!

Thomas C - I am in the same boat as you, whatever pays the bills. Can I ask which company you work for?

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