I have been working at Kroger in produce for 4 years at the time of writing this. (10/01/2017) Everyone thinks produce is an easy job, myself included before working here. You just stock produce, right? Wrong. There is a lot more to it than just that. It's certainly not the toughest job out there nor is it very hard but it's not as simple as you would think either. But here are some guide lines to follow if you plan on transferring to produce or already work in produce and want to improve your performance. I have worked many opening and closing shifts, so this is what I have learned.
Opening Shift:
Probably the last thing you're going to want to do early in the morning is break down a truck, but if you work the opening shift, you will have to do this. Before you work the truck, there are some things that you have to do first. The list of things are as follows:
Work the salads backstock
Backstock Review (count your salad backstock AND the salads on the wall and make sure the BOH (balance on hand) is correct for each item)
Lows and Holes (Scan your lows (items on the wall which are 3 or less) and holes (no items in stock on the wall) and verify that they are on order)
Work your fresh kitchen (provided that your store has fresh kitchen items from Del Monte)
Code Dates (basically markdowns, but the computer assisted ones)
Mark Downs (After code dating, go through manually and check all the dates and mark down accordingly)
Cull and Clean (Go through your entire salesfloor and pull all of the less than perfect produce and collect them in a tub to be "red bagged" later, as well as a trash can to throw away any bad produce. Also, bring a water spray bottle and a roll of paper towels to clean up and messes.)
Tables:
Once all of this is finished, then you may begin breaking down the truck. In my experience, it's easier to separate the items onto carts based on what table they are going to such as, one cart for citrus, one cart for apples, one cart for potatoes and onions, and so on. Once you have these carts loaded up, it's as simple as going out and stocking them. But please make sure you rotate EVERYTHING when you stock.
Wet Wall:
Now that's all fine and dandy if you're working tables. But what about the wet wall? Well, you can't just stock the wet wall. Nope, you must water process your wet wall items first. Hopefully your store has a conditioning cart because you'll need it. First, make sure your 3 compartment sink is clean, then fill all 3 compartments of the sink with cool water. Now go through all of your wet wall items and condition them. Pull any browning leaves, torn leaves, etc from the produce and make it pretty. Some items you have to wrap with the appropriate ties such as the green leaf and romaine lettuces, then SHAVE the butts then put them in the water. Some items just need to be rinsed only like radishes, parsley, and cilantro. There should be a poster on the wall showing you the items and what to do with each one. Don't worry, once you learn this, you will remember it. After you fill each sink compartment with an item, push them down into the water to ensure that they get entirely submerged so the dirt can be rinsed off. Now this is important: water processing isn't just to rinse off produce, but it is also to allow the items you trimmed to soak up the water. A few minutes should do the trick. The produce soaks up the water just like a plant and this keeps it lasting longer, make it crispier and fresher. After your items had enough time to soak, take them out, let them drain a bit and arrange them in your tubs on your conditioning cart. Make sure the tubs have inserts in them so they can continue to drain and NOT soak in their own water drainage because that can water rot the produce. Once you are done water processing, make sure to fill out your conditioning chart on the wall and record everything you have conditioned. Next, roll your conditioning cart out to the floor and fill your wet wall, cleaning as you go.
You're not done yet! Now, grab a cart and gather up your non-water-processed wet wall items such as your cucumbers, yellow squash, iceberg lettuce, etc and work them as well. Then don't forget to grab your peppers and roots items and stock them too.
Salads:
Hopefully you already loaded your salads onto a U-boat. Don't put them on the same U-boat your salad back stock is on. Put it on an empty one. You want to keep your old stuff and new stuff separate for now. Then go work your salad wall, and don't forget to rotate! Once all of your salads have been worked, condense your new salad back stock with your old salad back stock on you main salads U-boat. It should have a sign on it that says "Salads". This is your dedicated salad U-boat. After you did your salads, you are going to want to work your juices and salad dressings next! Pretty much the same process as the salads. Don't forget to work your packaged carrots and mushrooms too!
Red Bags:
Remember all that semi bad produce you collected in a tub? It's time to red bag it! Hopefully you know where your red bags are. If not, find them, and start bagging. Gather a certain amount to each bag. Such as large apples, 3 to a bag and small apples, 5 to a bag. Your manager can show you what he expects on this. If not, ask some one. Then fill your red bag shelf.
Don't Be Lazy!
You have closers coming in after you so show some consideration for them and clean your mess! Put the remaining back stock on the skids where it goes. Gather up your empty pallets and put them on the salvage truck. Take your trash out to the dumpster and your boxes to the baler. Don't leave items laying around in the back room. If you scan something out, throw it away so there is no confusion later to throw off your BOH. Sweep the floor. Put your watermelon bins and/or pumpkin bins out on the sales floor if need be. Put your RPC's on the RPC pallet. Oh, and don't forget to DATE all of your new back stock with today's date. (For instance if its October 12th, then put "12")
Closing Shift:
The closing shift isn't too bad considering the morning shift didn't leave you in a mess. Basically, keep everything stocked and maintained. What I like to do is make a list on the metal clipboard of my closing duties and check them off as I go so I don't miss a thing. Instead of loading up carts and taking them out, I just push the skids out to the floor and work through every item on the skids so I don't miss a thing. Make sure you rotate. You may have to water process some things to fill the wet wall. The list I make is as follows:
Keep Everything Full (maintain the fullness and freshness on the sales floor)
Work Salads (work all remaining salad back stock around 6pm)
Boxes (bale your boxes)
Trash (take out your trash)
Sweep back room and cooler
Sweep sales floor
Cover Onions and Potatoes (cover them around 8pm)
Condition (condition your salad wall, dry goods etc)
Clean Up (clean the sinks and floor drains and anything else)
Truck Ready (if there is a truck tomorrow, clear space in the back room for the truck)
RPC's (if your RPC's are full, wrap them up and put them on the salvage truck then replace with a new pallet)
Salvage (put any remaining salvage on the truck. The morning crew should have done this already)
Closing List (sign and date your closing list, then have a manager check it off for you)
Clean Floors (not something you do every night, but once a week, scrub the floors with chlorinated cleaner)
Red Bags (keep your red bag rack full, red bag any semi bad produce you may find)
So basically what I do is work the wet wall first just to get it out of the way. Then I move on to the tables working skid by skid. Around 6pm I work the salads. Then I work red bags. Around 8pm I cover the onions and potatoes, making sure they are full first. I condition the department. Clean up, sign all my documents, etc. Along the way I help customers, help Floral customers since there is never anyone in Floral and I get called up to the front end to check a lot too. Usually, my morning crew leaves me a whole heap of a mess I have to clean up as well such as all their boxes and extra carts of boxes, every trash can full to the brim and heavy, items randomly scattered across the back room, red bags not done, products not dated, code dating not done, mark downs not done, truck not completely broken down, items still on carts, pallets not put away. I do a lot at my store. Probably more than I should. But above all, I do it and I don't complain even though I probably should. Expect this. If you're one of these lazy people that come in to not work and just expect people like me to do the work for you then don't work in produce. We don't need people like you taking up the spots when we could have people that actually work helping us.
-- Edited by NaturesProblem on Sunday 1st of October 2017 10:39:08 PM
-- Edited by NaturesProblem on Monday 2nd of October 2017 04:46:33 AM
Seems pretty good, just never realistic given the amount of labor at certain stores. Our normal shift is 4am wet rack, 6am opener, and we either get an 8am or 10am (sometimes we don't get either and only a closer at 1 or 2pm). Truck will come around 7-9am. Store up time here is 8am. Which means that opener would have to do everything you said by 8am (minus the scans and mark downs, but you also have to do some orders before 9:30) along with pulling the truck. Given the lack of labor, you can expect every shift to be behind day after day (usually culls, cleans, and red bags will be affected the most) Wet rack has to be set by 8am, which means 4 hour up times on a (14 or 16ft wall) with 1 person, and then conditioning (most times you don't get the required conditioning done) for tomorrow and load breaking in the next 4 hours (and WR orders, if your WR guy does orders). We got 6 people in our department, and we do around 80k a week. Other produce departments breaking 100k get over 14 people. Seems fair. There's also the nut racks to do. This process is even worse on ad change days with updated signage and promo tables.
I'd be more interested to hear about other produce departments labor/sales and what they're actually getting done, it's not always that people are lazy.
Wow, you get 3 people in the morning? That is lucky. My store gets only 2 people in the morning. Sometimes only one person in the morning on a truck day, even if it is Sunday. Of course there were some things I left out like ordering. I left that out because this was a guide to being a produce clerk and only the manager or back up do the ordering. Other things I left out like details on the dry goods and juices and salad dressings and other misc I have forgotten. I tried my best to remember everything in one sitting and I plan on updating as I do. At least for my store, it is laziness. We have been going through lots of people in my department. They hire these kids off the street who are 18-25 and they are usually the type who say "I don't need this job. My parents make 6 figures a year. This is only a summer job." or "I'm a student in college so I won't be working here forever." or just the inexperienced kid who is working his first job ever, etc. Overall, these people don't last and either get moved to the front end or just get fired or they just quit. There are some individuals who however have great work ethic and they usually quit because my department head is a dick and runs them off with his screaming and cussing because thats just the way he is. and that sucks because those people would have been a great addition to our department. So now the people we still have with us are these lazy spoiled teens who just talk and never lift a finger, and disappear for 3 hours, come back then disappear again til they go home. It's embarrassing.
What are your sales? (small department? how long does it take for a thorough cull?) How many people are in your department? How many trucks a week? (6x here, 500-900 pieces) What's your required up time? I find it hard to fathom they have 1 guy doing wet rack, culling/cleaning, filling lows/holes on tables, all cao/salad, all scans and markdowns, next day conditioning and truck alone (truck done by noon) unless they come in at midnight or are coming into a department with everything filled and faced from the closer. We get 3 people in the morning probably 4x a week (usually mon/fri/sat/sun) I know similar stores usually get 5-6 people a day, and million dollar stores getting 8+ a day. Some more perspective would be nice, so I know how well we are faring.
I don't have the sale on hand at the moment to answer that but I will add that later when I do.
Most of the time, we have 2 guys in the morning, but never more than that. Some times however, we only have one and it is up to the closer to finish their job when they don't complete it. Because honestly, it's just not possible for one man to do all that work in the time they want us to.
We get 4 trucks a week. 400 pieces and under. For some reason they won't allow us to order that much and their reason is because we are over buying which doesn't make sense to me because we are usually low on a lot of things because they won't allow us to order enough. Our openers are scheduled to come in at 5am. My manager will usually come in earlier than that because he realizes 5am is ridiculous. They also have the second guy come in at 6am or 7am which is just stupid. It may take up to 30 minutes to cull the entire department. Probably not even that, but that is the max time I would say, just guessing. Our truck days are Sun, Tues, Thurs, Sat.
I don't have the sale on hand at the moment to answer that but I will add that later when I do.
Most of the time, we have 2 guys in the morning, but never more than that. Some times however, we only have one and it is up to the closer to finish their job when they don't complete it. Because honestly, it's just not possible for one man to do all that work in the time they want us to.
We get 4 trucks a week. 400 pieces and under. For some reason they won't allow us to order that much and their reason is because we are over buying which doesn't make sense to me because we are usually low on a lot of things because they won't allow us to order enough. Our openers are scheduled to come in at 5am. My manager will usually come in earlier than that because he realizes 5am is ridiculous. They also have the second guy come in at 6am or 7am which is just stupid. It may take up to 30 minutes to cull the entire department. Probably not even that, but that is the max time I would say, just guessing. Our truck days are Sun, Tues, Thurs, Sat.
Oh. Thanks for that. I work as a manager and I always get bitched about our performance when it's physically impossible to keep up (my crew consists of all young and strong/fast guys, with good work ethic, we gotta live on energy drinks just to try and keep up) But they want to make it sound like our performance is an issue (when 80k/week @6 guys is remarkable whenever I compare vs other crews) I know one store has 2 guys that come in to do wet rack (one works sales floor, the other breaks truck and conditions), and one guy works exclusively organics (must be really nice, this doesn't even include the standard openers they get) and they only do 20k more than us a week.
No problem. You probably have dicks for managers who just nag on you no matter how good you do. My produce manager is like that. Very rarely will he ever be nice to me. I am probably the best worker he has, even better than the back up. But its whatever. I try to do a good job and do everything right and I try to learn as much as I can. My co managers like me. They trust that I do the job and are happy when I close oppose to others. So I know its not just me who sees it. I wish we had more guys in my department with great work ethic. If I could clone myself and just have my clones work with me in this department, I would. Things would work a lot smoother.
Thank you for this guide, I was recently transferred to produce but they had me filling in for several weeks unofficially as the front end "accidentally" kept me on front end register due to some mishap with my scheduling (never stopped them before when they would just go right through my availability).
Anyways the store I work at is probably a 600-800k a week store in my small county that I live in and we sell a lot of produce. We usually have 3 or 4 in the morning one who does the conditioning rack and the produce manager and people that do "lows and holes" I come in usually in the afternoon but I am able to work other hours as they schedule me. The manager selected me to work there in the department he liked how I treat the customers and the work I had been doing in produce and he had about all he could stand of this one lady that had been in the dept a long time and moved her to the front end.
We didn't have a truck last night and it was just me closing but I had gotten everything done with like 3 mins to spare. I am working with a lot of kids that don't want to work the dry rack or don't want to do salads or various other things. One major problem we have is the front end keeps calling us to the front to open a register, I do with no problem usually there for 5-10 minutes and I am back to work, it doesn't go so smoothly with the others though or they just get into a big inter departmental fight.
I will say that I like produce a lot and it is a good place for someone with OCD (which is myself). I grew up around fruits and vegetables as my grandfather used to sell produce to local markets and my family would help him in the summer.
I just wish they could fix the ordering problem they are having now, we get a lot of what we don't need and none of things we do need.
All of this would be good reading for anyone working in the produce department at Kroger. One tiny problem: It is ALL extremely unrealistic when it comes to the hours allotted to our department at MY store. Even with hard workers. Every store can be different. Even "minor' things no one really thinks about. Like the way the sales floor is laid out; how far you walk to and from the produce cooler area; exactly how the schedule is made out - how much "overlap' there is in the employee produce shifts (if any); which shift/employee has time to take care of lots of those little details............like abiding by the COOL requirements (huge fines can be given out to Kroger if we fail a surprise inspection on "Country of origin labels", including red bag markdowns.
Code dates (mark downs)......there are often DOZENS of markdowns that are due but not "caught" by the computer system, so we have to go over all the salads, fresh kitchen (vegs) and mushrooms AGAIN to make sure we don't miss any. Which takes up a lot of TIME.
Our sales in this dept are up over last year at the same time, yet our hours are DOWWWNNN DDOOOOWWWN DOWN! Go figure.
Code dates (mark downs)......there are often DOZENS of markdowns that are due but not "caught" by the computer system, so we have to go over all the salads, fresh kitchen (vegs) and mushrooms AGAIN to make sure we don't miss any. Which takes up a lot of TIME.
This is why I said code dating first and then manual markdowns so you can hit the items that the computer missed. COOL is another thing to be added as well as others I have missed.
Can you do a guide in getting out of front end? Cuz I have been trying for years and front end gets worse and worse.
That is tricky so I don't think a guide can be made for it. It all depends on your store.
Depends on who the manager is of the department you want to go to. Depends on if they have a spot open, enough hours available in their department, and if they think you will be a good addition, as well as the front end manager wanting to let you go, etc. If you're a cashier, it may be easier to do this than it is if you're a courtesy clerk. It's ****ed up but courtesy clerks get treated like crap and that seems to be ok to everyone there. I guess a lesson to be taken from all of this is to never be a courtesy clerk.
What I recommend is to talk to your immediate supervisor (the head of your front end) and the department head of the department you want to move to. See if it is ok with them first. If yes, then ask your store manager about moving you. But please make sure that this is something you want to do and something you want to stick with and take seriously. Don't be fickle.
I have now been working in produce for Kroger for over 5 years now and I can say, at least in my experience, that yeah, the job duties VS time given to do the, is unrealistic, however, the longer you do the job, the faster you become. I am finally reaching the point where I can do everything within an 8-hour shift. Of course, I am usually by myself when I close, not to mention, I often have to complete the morning crew's job and clean up their mess, sometimes it is absolutely insane. And I think because of this, I have got a lot faster. Recently, we hired 2 new guys and I have been training them. After working a few days with them on my shift, then suddenly by myself again, I have noticed I have gotten slower. I guess I subconsciously got used to having help and kind of depended on it. I must not let myself do this. I must always work as if I am by myself to keep my speed up. Here is an example of some of the mess I have to clean up when by myself, before starting my actual duties.
EDIT: I fixed the photos. Sorry about that. Also, I am not uploading these to shame my fellow employees. Let this be a good example as not what to do. Help each other help you.
Openers should set closers up for a good close and closers should set up openers for a good open. It goes hand in hand. Don't let it be a battle between shifts. Both sides are in the same department which means you are on the same team. So act like a team. Try to have a good understanding with each other across your department. Communicate. If you don't see one another, leave notes if you need to.
-- Edited by NaturesProblem on Tuesday 22nd of January 2019 12:13:51 AM
EDIT AGAIN: LOOKS LIKE THE PHOTOS DID NOT FIX. I rotated them and saved them. REMOVED the ones I uploaded initially. Then uploaded the new ones. WTF?
-- Edited by NaturesProblem on Tuesday 22nd of January 2019 12:20:30 AM
Also, I want to make a revision of this guide sometime in the near future. I have better methods in which I have learned, there are some things I have missed, and I will be learning more things soon in my ADL program. I will create a completely new guide in the future. Please look out for that. I will try to include pictures as well to make the guide more user-friendly and easy to understand. Thank you.
I have now been working in produce for Kroger for over 5 years now and I can say, at least in my experience, that yeah, the job duties VS time given to do the, is unrealistic, however, the longer you do the job, the faster you become. I am finally reaching the point where I can do everything within an 8 hour shift. Of course, I am usually by myself when I close, not to mention, I often have to complete the morning crew's job and clean up their mess, sometimes it is absolutely insane. And I think because of this, I have got a lot faster. Recently, we hired 2 new guys and I have been training them. After working a few days with them on my shift, then suddenly by myself again, I have noticed I have gotten slower. I guess I subconsciously got used to having help and kind of depended on it. I must not let myself do this. I must always work as if I am by myself to keep my speed up. Here is an example of some of the mess I have to clean up when by myself, before starting my actual duties.
I have two questions:
1) Do you take all of your breaks and your lunch? I suspect you can't possibly do so, if you get all your work done in only 8 hours.
2) Why are all of the pictures upside down? I have trouble viewing them without making myself dizzy.
1) Do you take all of your breaks and your lunch? I suspect you can't possibly do so, if you get all your work done in only 8 hours.
2) Why are all of the pictures upside down? I have trouble viewing them without making myself dizzy.
Thanks!!
Answers:
1) I don't take the 2 15-minute breaks or the 1 30-minute break per se. I take small 2 minute breaks throughout my shift to smoke. Sometimes I even slip a little lunch break in there which takes me maybe 5 minutes to eat. I am a very quick eater. Then I follow the meal with a cigarette. I don't try to spend too much time with breaks. I try to stay busy.
2) I do not know why the pictures did that. They came directly from the cell phone. I will see if I can re-orientate them on Windows first and re-upload them. Sorry.
-- Edited by NaturesProblem on Tuesday 22nd of January 2019 12:21:13 AM
To bad most stores give people very little time to fully adapt to the job. I was started to learn wet rack. In less than 2 months I was taken off wet rack. Because there was not enough hours for me anymore. Back story the other opener quit, another person was brought in to replace them and got 40 hours a week,then we get another assistant manager. I was stuck getting less than 30 hours a week working between produce and deli.
