September

Well I have just completed one of the busiest months I have ever had!
I had an opportunity last month to spend 2 weeks working in the Hamilton central store, in a support role to assist them through their annual stocktake (a process where everything in a store must be counted at least once for financial purposes). After a long couple of weeks and a few 5am finishes, it was all over and I learnt more about running a stocktake in those 2 weeks than I think I have in my entire career!

As I said last month, I had a lot of work to do to pack up all my stuff in Hamilton for my move South to Timaru. I made the mistake of leaving a lot of this until the final week and days which made it a bit of a rush! My last day of work at Cambridge was on the Thursday and then we had our regional conference on Saturday.
The moving truck came on Friday morning and picked up all my gear. Within an hour it was all gone and I was off to Auckland to get ready for our conference. I was leaving what had been home as I knew it for the last 12 months.
This was my first year attending a conference as an ASM, so I hadn’t been apart of a managers skit before. The theme was 80’s (to coincide with the Warehouse’s 30th Birthday), and me and my store manager dressed up in ‘Chip’s’ character costumes with bikes and all for our skit.

The entire conference was well enjoyed as always by all. The highlight would have to be Cambridge taking out store of the year!!! Out of all 13 stores in our region, region 6, we came out on top as the best store overall for the year, judged by our regional manager. It was such a buzz for not only me but the team also. Was great to see hard work by all, paying off.

After a big night of celebrating and looking after the big cup that went with the award, it was time to start a 1000km+ road trip down to Timaru, ready for my first day on Tuesday. After a long car drive over 2 days, a quick stopover for the night in Wellington, and a ferry ride, I made it.

When I first walked in to the store, I was amazed at how big it was, how bright and open it was, and how friendly the team were.

A few weeks in now, and I have met and built a good relationship with my store manager, met my management team (which is somewhat bigger than the team I had in Cambridge), and have met all the team, including nightfill. Things are happening fast as we quickly approach our ‘golden quarter’ and I look forward to going into some more detail next blog!
That’s me for September!