A Quick 'hello' from an absentee Mrs D!

[shirlthegirl43]

Mrs D for Prime Minister!!!!!!!

Yup, we need a woman back in that role. Oh and a person who likes cars too - bonus!!!

[beefy]

Good to here that all's well in your world Mrs D.
See you soon.

[SueA]

Sound like you've got it all sorted Mrs D.! Can you come round & sort out our local Co-op & Tesco while you're at it, they need someone with good organisational skills like you! Shame that the travelling still takes so long, can't you get a company car out them, point out how you lifted the other branch up & now it's falling again now you've gone!

[Sue]

Mrs D
Full of admiration, having run shops myself know the work involved and the stress and effort that goes in to turning round an ailing branch. How has the ex-manager kept his job?????
Look forward to hearing from you soon
Sue

[Nicos]

Good to hear from you Mrs D!!!

Your OH has been keeping an eye on us you know.....

[yoanbob]

just noticed this suzanne! been in your shoes, bet your so busy you cant think! good tho init?
hope things get back to normal soon.
bob says hi.
dont over do it.

[gardenplot]

Good to hear from you Mrs D
And
Good luck with the The new store

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Guys, and thanks for the lovely comments!

Well, been in the new store for 4 weeks now, only done budget once in that time, but as I said to our Area Manager, our focus currently is on building the foundations to allow us to move forwards in strength, so its not been our top priority for the past few weeks, but is now coming onto the agenda!

80% of the store has now been reprofiled, the number of gaps is now down to less than 300 (thats well over half of them filled), and will continue to improve as we get the stockfile more accurate. The new promotion is on and looks great, lots of point of sale, all matching colours and really strong compared with the last one!

The upstairs warehouse has been sorted and organised (thanks to Mr D who came and did it on his days off - even tho he doesnt work for Halfords), and we've done about a quarter of the downstairs one too!

Wages and rotas are now under control, with adverts for the 2 full time positions in the company communications and local job center, in branch communications are now as they should be, and we even had a staff meeting last weekend, so they all know where we are coming from and where we are going!

Last month we beat last years sales by 6%, which pulled us back to only 1.5% down on last year for the year, just a shame that we missed budget, but we're going to do it for the next few weeks as its a lower target!

We've had 2 customer compliment letters so far, one which was forwarded to us by the MD, along with a thankyou to the 3 members of staff involved and £20 of gift vouchers each (Mr D got mine as a thanks for his help - he spent it on Dickies workwear for going to the plot in)!

Had a visit from our Area Manager last Friday, who left the store bouncing, (in fact I thought he was going to do a cartwheel at one point), as he cant believe the difference he saw after only 3 weeks, so he's happy! The store does now feel as it should, a lot tidier and a much nicer environment to be in, still a few areas to sort out, but hopefully the plan of being done by easter will not be too difficult and then we can start earning some bonus for the next quarter, which would really lift morale to an even higher height!

My old branch has now dropped in weekly sales to 15th or 16th a week, so the ex-Manager of my new branch and now manager of my old branch had best watch out or he will be history!

Its been hard work, lots of unpaid extra hours(averaging abut 60 to 70 a week for the past few) and stressful (had the beginnings of a skin flare up on Thursday, a sure sign I'm pushing myself too hard and allowing stress to creep in, but after a lovely relaxing night with Mr D and a good nights sleep its starting to subside!) I've another week to go, then I'm on holiday for 10 days (well, not at work for 10 days, but have got a meeting to go to on one day and a stocktake to help out at on another), so should be able to rest, relax and get some digging done on the plot that week!

Once again you have my apologies that I've not been online and on the vine, but I'm only touching the computer a couple of times a week atm, which should improve as I get a bit more time now that we are getting the branch sorted!

[madderbat]

Hi Mrs D
Lovely to know you are bouncing along beautifully, seems like you've got management theory off pat - I second Pigletwillie - how about it?
I've not been online a lot recently but really hope to catch up with everyone this year.
Congratulations and best wishes.
Jane

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol MB!! I'm afraid I'm not into politics, so deffo no chance of me running for PM!!

Had a stressfull day today, the audio guy rang in sick 1st thing, with 3 fits booked in for him to do, which left me with only 3 of us on the shop floor, and 3 irrate customers to sort out, so not fun at all, but I did my best to get them all sorted!

We finished the weekend in 1st place in the area vs budget, with 60% of our target done in only 2 days, so everyone is buzzing, just hard work with lots of customers and no staff, plus computer problems on 4 out of 6 terminals to contend with! Ah well, it'd be no fun if it was too easy! lol!

Had another compliment letter forwarded today from the MD, with another £20 gift voucher in it for me! Looks like Mr D is going to get some more Dickies workwear for the plot!

[Headfry]

Good to hear from you and very glad all is well. I hope things clam down a little for you
love HF xx

[moggssue]

Sounds as though you're doing a fantastic job Mrs D - and enjoying it as well. I reckon if you enjoy what you do, you'll do it sooo much better.

But hope things calm down for you soon so you can spend a bit of time on the lotties with Mr D too.