Sports Direct

Sorry for the long post but I would appreciate help and advice, Really.

Hey guys, so I just had my first shift at Sports Direct on Wednesday and it went...meh. I thought I would be put on tills since I'm a girl and I heard that girls usually get put on tills, but I'm on footwear because they're short of footwear staff. Anyway, the training was like 15 minutes and it wasn't really training, just going through some general things like using the radio, tagging, making sure displays are presentable. Then I was kind of left to it, and it was fairly busy and whenever a customer asked for a shoe, every single time I had to ask one of my other colleagues to get it for me because obviously, I didn't know where the shoe was located in the stock room and when I did try and find them a couple of times, I just completely failed. And I guess I'm worried because a) I was scared that I was annoying my colleagues by constantly asking them for shoes, especially when they had their own customer to serve and b) I am also worried that I'll never learn, or that it will take me ages to learn where all the shoes are kept in the stock room. Like seriously, is there an easy way to know, or is it just a matter of taking time to go to the stock room when its not busy and trying to memorise locations from there? Plus the stock room is the most cramped and hazardous thing which makes it more difficult. My second shift's sunday 1-5 and I know it's going to be really busy. I am so dreading it and part of me is thinking, if this shifts terrible then I just want to quit. But I need the money and I really don't wanna be a quitter. Advice anyone? As someone who suffers badly from anxiety, I'm just not sure if this job is for me or not.

x

I'm sure Maltese will help you on the footwear side of things, but I just wanted to mention one thing.

You said ur shift if 1-5... Most likely your store closes at 5 so therefore you are doing what we call a 'closedown shift' this means that even though your rota says 5, it is unlikely you will leave until the store (or footwear atleast) is completely tidy, and as it's a Sunday it will need to be immaculate! So be mentally prepared that you MAY be made to stay until 7ish latest, store timings vary.

You will be given a break in between, mostly 20 minutes that you will need to clock out for (break start/end) but speak to your supervisor if you're unsure

Edit: you will be paid for however long you are clocked in for. Even if it is until 7.
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She'll only be given a break if she finishes at 7, if she finishes at 5 after doing a 1-5 then that's 4 hours - meaning that she is not entitled to any break


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Sorry for the long post but I would appreciate help and advice, Really.

Hey guys, so I just had my first shift at Sports Direct on Wednesday and it went...meh. I thought I would be put on tills since I'm a girl and I heard that girls usually get put on tills, but I'm on footwear because they're short of footwear staff. Anyway, the training was like 15 minutes and it wasn't really training, just going through some general things like using the radio, tagging, making sure displays are presentable. Then I was kind of left to it, and it was fairly busy and whenever a customer asked for a shoe, every single time I had to ask one of my other colleagues to get it for me because obviously, I didn't know where the shoe was located in the stock room and when I did try and find them a couple of times, I just completely failed. And I guess I'm worried because a) I was scared that I was annoying my colleagues by constantly asking them for shoes, especially when they had their own customer to serve and b) I am also worried that I'll never learn, or that it will take me ages to learn where all the shoes are kept in the stock room. Like seriously, is there an easy way to know, or is it just a matter of taking time to go to the stock room when its not busy and trying to memorise locations from there? Plus the stock room is the most cramped and hazardous thing which makes it more difficult. My second shift's sunday 1-5 and I know it's going to be really busy. I am so dreading it and part of me is thinking, if this shifts terrible then I just want to quit. But I need the money and I really don't wanna be a quitter. Advice anyone? As someone who suffers badly from anxiety, I'm just not sure if this job is for me or not.

Plus the stock room is the most cramped and hazardous thing which makes it more difficult. .

She'll only be given a break if she finishes at 7, if she finishes at 5 after doing a 1-5 then that's 4 hours - meaning that she is not entitled to any break


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Just keep at it my dear! Newbies are prone to making mistakes and I was still making mistakes three months in it's a job where practice makes perfect (or close to it)

The job is mostly about memory and being friendly, so you should try to remember where things are all the time and just keep in a general positive attitude. Not all the shoes are in the stockroom obviously but please,don't beat yourself up, because it was only your first shift!

If you want a tip, just try knowing where Nike, Adidas, and Puma are in the stockroom first for starters - these are the shoes which most customers will look to buy. Then try to learn Karrimor (running and walking), Reebok, and Lonsdale. The rest are normally found here and there in small batches, but if you can nail this within a month you should be laughing!

If you want any extra advice, or help, or anything else, feel free to quote me in or drop me a PM - I'm more than happy to help


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In a couple months that horrible stockroom will become your closest friend. (until it becomes your job to clean it)

Hi again guys, thanks for your help so far! I've decided to stop moping and instead of dreading tomorrow's shift(which I've been doing for the past 48 hours lol), I'm just going to try look forward to it and cut myself some slack. It was only my first shift and first ever experience in retail. My plan is when I go in tomorrow, if it is particularly busy then I'm just going to stay out on the shop floor serving shoes and tidying, and also learning the location of different brands on the actual shop floor whilst asking other colleagues via my radio if they can locate and bring the shoes for me. Then if i'm called in for a weekday shift where hopefully it will be less busy, then I'll take the time to look through the stock room and become a bit more familiar with where different brands are located. Does that sound okay?

Also a question for Malteser, the guy who trained me told me that I should try offer KPIS whilst I am selling and then I'll get commission from it but my question is, say I managed to sell football socks along with the football boots, then how would it be recorded that I was the one who sold the socks? Or does it not work that way? I was a bit confused by the whole KPI thing

And yes my store does close at 5 tomorrow, I thought I would mention.

Well I have 24 hours to go...Time to prepare myself! Haha.

Hi again guys, thanks for your help so far! I've decided to stop moping and instead of dreading tomorrow's shift(which I've been doing for the past 48 hours lol), I'm just going to try look forward to it and cut myself some slack. It was only my first shift and first ever experience in retail. My plan is when I go in tomorrow, if it is particularly busy then I'm just going to stay out on the shop floor serving shoes and tidying, and also learning the location of different brands on the actual shop floor whilst asking other colleagues via my radio if they can locate and bring the shoes for me. Then if i'm called in for a weekday shift where hopefully it will be less busy, then I'll take the time to look through the stock room and become a bit more familiar with where different brands are located. Does that sound okay?

Also a question for Malteser, the guy who trained me told me that I should try offer KPIS whilst I am selling and then I'll get commission from it but my question is, say I managed to sell football socks along with the football boots, then how would it be recorded that I was the one who sold the socks? Or does it not work that way? I was a bit confused by the whole KPI thing

And yes my store does close at 5 tomorrow, I thought I would mention.

Well I have 24 hours to go...Time to prepare myself! Haha.

Commission for football boots only works on specific boots. These being:

Sondico boots:
1) Sondico Precision
2) Sondico Touch
3) Sondico Flair

Basically, if the boot colour is Blue/White, Blue/Black, Green/Black, or Red/Black.

Puma boots:
1) Puma Evo Speeds

Boot colour is either Black/Grenadine (Black and Red) or Prism Violet (a pinky purple and yellow)

How it works is that if you're successful in selling the boots with the socks, write your payroll number (not your PIN/Password number) on the box by the barcode and/or inside the lid next to where you sign it to pair check it. This is how they can see who sold the boots.


If, however you mean just football socks in general, then this is a department-wide KPI where they just don't care who sold them, but more like how many you sell as a department so they won't track specifically who sold however many socks, just how many socks were sold in total. Due to this, the department is congratulated as a whole instead of the individual people (as it is with bags for life, insoles etc.)




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Football socks in particular aren't a 'personal' kpi, they are targets for the store to reach. You won't get personal commission for those...

But there are sondico football boots on which you will be required to put it payroll on the box so the till staff can put it in with the boots. Someone else will tell u whether that's personal monthly commission or if it's a yearly store commission pot.... We've got quiet a lot of footwear workers here they'll fill u in

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Also, heel cups and insoles give you commission, I apologise if it's already been mentioned! Heel cups are 50p and insoles are a £1.00 and the day you get till trained and put on tills, bags for life give you commission as well! But you can worry about that until you do get till trained


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Someone else and I was discussing how much it costs us to make our own brand football boots compared to the selling price and he said for every pound we sell it for, it has cost us just a penny, or 1% of the selling price. This means that for the blue Sondico's it costs us just 30p to make? That can't be right surely, so the D30's cost us 60/70/80p? Surely not?

Nahh, not that low - especially for the Nappa/Kangaroo leather football boots.

I'd say on the Sondico Touch football boots (green ones?) for £60 we make £40 profit roughly.


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