Or is it like any other job at Kroger where you clock in and start work not knowing what to do. I swear I came in yesterday morning at 6:00 am. Here's what was in the go back cart: bacon, 1/2 gallon soy milk, apples, red bell pepper, squashed loaf of bread, dvd, and a couple of platic bags full of groceries I didn't dare open. Ugh. Doesn't anyone have any common sense?
The new courtesy clerk kept asking me to hand her things after I scanned them. Hand me the mouthwash, hand me the toothpaste. She had about 6 bags worth of frozen food right in front of her. Bag that first! You don't get to pick and choose honey.
Don't get me wrong - we have some of the hardest working courtesy clerks I've ever seen but OMG this newest round of new hires is killing me!
Or is it like any other job at Kroger where you clock in and start work not knowing what to do. I swear I came in yesterday morning at 6:00 am. Here's what was in the go back cart: bacon, 1/2 gallon soy milk, apples, red bell pepper, squashed loaf of bread, dvd, and a couple of platic bags full of groceries I didn't dare open. Ugh. Doesn't anyone have any common sense?
The new courtesy clerk kept asking me to hand her things after I scanned them. Hand me the mouthwash, hand me the toothpaste. She had about 6 bags worth of frozen food right in front of her. Bag that first! You don't get to pick and choose honey.
Don't get me wrong - we have some of the hardest working courtesy clerks I've ever seen but OMG this newest round of new hires is killing me!
Front End Supervisors and Management personnel.
Although when I started I was put with an existing courtesy clerk whom had been there about a year and he took me through on how to do the parking lot, bag groceries, etc.
When I was hired, they literally told me to come in with put any training and work. Then a week later, I went to training and it was basically the stupid computer crap and then back to work I went without being taught anything. I figured everything out on my own. I feel your pain I also hate our new CCs because they are sooooo lazy all they do is complain. Im a cashier and whenever I have a price check they dont want to do it, they whine ever time and take forever to return
Just explain to the complainers it goes like this WITHOUT EXCEPTION:
Senior Management
Co-Managers/Asst Managers
FE Supervisors
Checkers
Utility/Courtesy Clerks
That's how we explain it to lazy courtesys at our store. NO EXCEPTIONS. EVER.
You wanna run with the big boys, get promoted. Otherwise do as you are asked.
When I was hired, they literally told me to come in with put any training and work. Then a week later, I went to training and it was basically the stupid computer crap and then back to work I went without being taught anything. I figured everything out on my own. I feel your pain I also hate our new CCs because they are sooooo lazy all they do is complain. Im a cashier and whenever I have a price check they dont want to do it, they whine ever time and take forever to return
Welcome to kroger.
This was my experience as well.
When I would be spoken to by my manager (this was mostly after I had first started) I would tell her I felt as if I didn't have enough training.
Her take on it was that I had watched the videos; therefore, I should know what to do.
I think that the courtesy clerks just get thrown to the wolves, when it comes to training. Much like a lot of the cashiers. I have been working for Kroger for 9 months. I love the store and staff, for the most part. Little things that irk me, but that is for another thread.
When it comes to price checks, change requests or anything else that would cause any sort of delay in service, I usually handle them myself, unless there is an FES/FEM available willing to make the run for me(in the case of change requests). I just can't wait for the courtesy clerks to lazily walk back there and half-assed look then lazily walk back to my register to slowly give me the price. Nor can I rely on them to do the correct thing and pull the usually expired tag off the shelf, if there even is one for that item.
For the cold returns in the basket in the early morning, that is supposed to be handled by the closing/end-of-night staff, cashiers and CCs both. In my experience, calling for someone in a particular department to come get their perishables, is like trying to talk to a deaf-mute-blind person. Your words just fall on deaf ears. Or even calling for a cold return in general.
I was closing cashier for 2 1/2 years. I would have taken them all back myself or had someone do it since most of those departments are gone at night.
I went into the store around 11:45 two nights ago to get some ice cream (we close at midnight). The cashier and courtesy clerk were just standing at the register talking. I looked around - every register was trashed, dirty, stuff everywhere. I didn't say anything since I was off the clock but I will be speaking to the manager Thursday when I go back to work. I know for a fact what working the night shift is like so there really isn't any excuse they can possibly come up with.
For the cold returns in the basket in the early morning, that is supposed to be handled by the closing/end-of-night staff, cashiers and CCs both. In my experience, calling for someone in a particular department to come get their perishables, is like trying to talk to a deaf-mute-blind person. Your words just fall on deaf ears. Or even calling for a cold return in general.
I've never heard that we're supposed to come and get our perishable returned items. Isn't it the CC's job to do go backs? Or are the departments supposed to come get them?
For the cold returns in the basket in the early morning, that is supposed to be handled by the closing/end-of-night staff, cashiers and CCs both. In my experience, calling for someone in a particular department to come get their perishables, is like trying to talk to a deaf-mute-blind person. Your words just fall on deaf ears. Or even calling for a cold return in general.
I've never heard that we're supposed to come and get our perishable returned items. Isn't it the CC's job to do go backs? Or are the departments supposed to come get them?
At our store if we are just too busy we can page for meat or dairy to come get the items.
For the cold returns in the basket in the early morning, that is supposed to be handled by the closing/end-of-night staff, cashiers and CCs both. In my experience, calling for someone in a particular department to come get their perishables, is like trying to talk to a deaf-mute-blind person. Your words just fall on deaf ears. Or even calling for a cold return in general.
I've never heard that we're supposed to come and get our perishable returned items. Isn't it the CC's job to do go backs? Or are the departments supposed to come get them?
Dept can come and get their own perishables. Nothing wrong with that. If there is no cc to do it for them and they don't come, then the stuff rots and gets all nasty resulting money loss for the dept and the store itself
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it but how often are they supposed to check? I mean you can't expect someone to go up to the front of the store every half hour, but i wouldn't want a package of meat sitting there for 4-5 hours either.
It's the front end (specifically CC's, but anyone really) duty to put go-backs back. ESPECIALLY if they are perishable. At our store lately this hasn't been getting done, every go-back just gets thrown into a cart at the front and pretty soon there are just carts in a huge clump at our last register, many of them with now-bad milk, eggs, frozen goods, meat etc. It's disgusting and it costs the store.
It's the front end (specifically CC's, but anyone really) duty to put go-backs back. ESPECIALLY if they are perishable. At our store lately this hasn't been getting done, every go-back just gets thrown into a cart at the front and pretty soon there are just carts in a huge clump at our last register, many of them with now-bad milk, eggs, frozen goods, meat etc. It's disgusting and it costs the store.
That is why I ALWAYS scan our go-back shopping carts when I am working. Even if we are extremely busy, I look at them. I usually shake my head mentally at the bread items, but at least they can be left alone for awhile. Today I found a zucchini and a bag of onions. But I have found tomatoes in there before and other miscellaneous produce items. And cold items. You would think that we would at least learn to leave cold items next to a register or have a cashier ask a courtesy clerk to take them back. That is why even if I get asked to take a cold item back -- take it back as a go-back mind you and not a replacement for a customer -- if I can't do it immediately because I am caught up in bagging (and sadly, I usually am...) I tell the cashier to put it 'X' (over there, over here, etc.) and as soon as I can I grab the cold item or produce or meat or whatever and take it back to where it needs to go. It gives me an excuse to get away from bagging for a few minutes and if you have been bagging for more than an hour straight you start to see spots sometimes. It gets repetitive. A break, even if you use a go-back as an excuse, is worth it. And as you point out, it saves the store a few dollars.
Depending on how busy your store is, it might save a LOT of money. Especially with the using a cart as a go-back dumping ground method. Items get crushed or broken underneath the heaps, adding to the unnecessary shrink. It's gotten so bad before that when we knew a VIP was coming someone would have to stash the carts of go-backs somewhere, like in a truck, or in the locker room. Like a shameful, dirty secret. There've been times when the go-backs just build up, cart after cart - I'm talking six, eight, twelve of them, some of them months old. Always in the way, because there's nowhere to put them even temporarily that doesn't get in the way of somebody, whether customers or employees.
And even when some rando CC gets the pitiable job of having to deal with the go-backs that nobody has been doing for weeks, if they don't know where everything is, they'll put stuff in the wrong aisles... so night crew has to remove them, and when they're done they all have carts of misplaced items that are now go-backs too, so the cycle continues. Until the end of time.
And one time we had this sandwich holder thing that holds sandwiches. Well just because it holds sandwiches does NOT mean it goes with the sandwich bread. (I know weird) sometimes they are elsewhere. Well one, I kept an eye on one of those said items. One of our cc's put it down the bread aisle because he " felt it goes down there." Well, off it came and back into the basket it went. 5x this happened. Finally, a note was written by night crew manager and placed by our timeclock. It said:
"Please DO NOT place ANY item in the wrong place, EVEN if you feel it goes there. If it goes down an "unlikely aisle" then that's where it goes. Do NOT put it down an aisle you "feel" the item should be at.--Nightcrew Mngmnt.
For the cold returns in the basket in the early morning, that is supposed to be handled by the closing/end-of-night staff, cashiers and CCs both. In my experience, calling for someone in a particular department to come get their perishables, is like trying to talk to a deaf-mute-blind person. Your words just fall on deaf ears. Or even calling for a cold return in general.
I've never heard that we're supposed to come and get our perishable returned items. Isn't it the CC's job to do go backs? Or are the departments supposed to come get them?
at our store the CC's do gobacks. I have never seen other departments come to "retrieve" their items.
If we did that then our bread guys would never get a single job done and our bakery would be rotating more than a merry-go-round.
they get trained by the other CCs so its really a crap shoot. Sometimes they get trained right, but for the most part they get shown how to do things half way. Generally it takes their manager getting on their case. Right now it seems like they are always leaving a cart of produce returns, that is full of spoiled fruit nutrition, and deli. Not to mention perishables like milk and eggs being dumped in the salad case. Seems like the closing managers here just let 'em slide (probably becuase they want to go home) and claim ignorance. My personal favorite is when they will put something like peaches where they belong, but leave them in the bag. Why?
they get trained by the other CCs so its really a crap shoot. Sometimes they get trained right, but for the most part they get shown how to do things half way. Generally it takes their manager getting on their case. Right now it seems like they are always leaving a cart of produce returns, that is full of spoiled fruit nutrition, and deli. Not to mention perishables like milk and eggs being dumped in the salad case. Seems like the closing managers here just let 'em slide (probably becuase they want to go home) and claim ignorance. My personal favorite is when they will put something like peaches where they belong, but leave them in the bag. Why?
I don't know which is more fun, finding cold and produce in the goback carts or underneath the register in the goback for the cashier.
Trained by other CC, that sounds about right, that is how it happened for me. But at my store it is a matter of labor vs. busy.
In other words, the other day we had SIX shopping carts full of gobacks. But because that goddamned computer system is what creates the schedule, we didn't have the labor to have a CC work solely on gobacks. In fact EVERY time I have independently tried to do gobacks for our store less than five minutes later I am back bagging for a customer in line.
It may be part of CC's list of tasks to do, but if we're slammed up in the front and can't spare the CC, it is only reasonable to expect a particular perishable department to send one of their grunts up to the front to retrieve said perishable, thereby increasing the chances of actually selling it, rather than writing it off as a loss/credit from vendor item.
How it's supposed to work here is a new courtesy clerk will be placed with a "trusted" courtesy clerk that's been there for awhile and can be seen as a good role model. It's supposed to be at least a six hour training shift (when possible) so that the new courtesy clerk can be shown by the person that he or she is put with the basics like doing propane exchanges, getting cigarettes and tobacco, where go backs go, where damaged go backs go, and can ask questions that may have not been covered by the training modules. Unfortunately, it's usually too busy for there to be any sort of effective training. What should be done is an extra courtesy clerk should be scheduled so that the one that is training can actually leave the front end and show the new one the stuff that he or she needs to know as well as take the time to explain how things are done at that particular store, but Kroger doesn't want to spend the little extra money to allow for that adequate training to happen.
