Supermarket Pet Peeves

[Setec Astronomy]

Why is it that the supermarkets have to start restocking the shelves while the store is still open? It`s really irritating (to me) to not be able to get a cart around a pallet of something, or worse, not be able to get to something on the shelf because there is a skid of bottled water right in front of what I need to get to. I KNOW they are going to have people there after hours working, why can`t they START after hours? This even happens in the upscale place where they place more emphasis on customer service and convenience (at a price).



Since the supermarket workers are unionized here in NJ (hence no Targets or Wal-Marts with the built in supermarket, just the 7-11 kind of stuff) it may be that there is some union time schedule (perhaps 8PM) for when the shelf stocking shift starts, which was fine when the stores closed at 6, 7, or 8, but now that they are open until 9 or 10, it has created a problem.



Otherwise, this makes no sense to me. If I am going to have to have workers in the store after hours anyway, why not just start them a couple hours later? I`m sure it`s not because they can`t get done before the store opens in the morning.



EDIT: While I`m at it, I love how some markets (A&P comes to mind) put the slowest cashiers on the express lanes (I guess if they put them on a regular lane the food would spoil before the customer could get checked out), and whenever they get a decent (fast & accurate) cashier, they promote them right away to the desk...so you can never get out of the store. And don`t get me started about Lowe`s, HD, and Target with the 20 checkout lanes and only 2 open (Wal-Mart seems to usually have about 4 open).

[Big Leegr]

Although I agree that it`s annoying, sometimes the stores get the trucks to unload while the store is still open, but don`t have enough room in the receiving area, so they pull skids to the floor to empty out the back. Since the freight is already heading to the floor, they may as well have someone stock it. Plus, if the shelf was empty, there is now a chance to get some product out and get sales that day (as well as possibly preventing a customer from getting mad about them being out of stock on stuff.).

As to getting the stuff done before the start of the next day, some stores have an evening crew and an overnight crew, since it (typically) is tougher to get reliable people to work overnight shifts than it is to find people to work evenings. With a small staff overnights, sometimes they can`t get a big store stocked overnight.



But, yeah, it can be annoying to the customers.

[Setec Astronomy]

All good points.

[Accumulator]

The place I patronize the most has to do their restocking during the day because a) it`s more affordable, b) it`s easier to supervise, and c) they have cleaning crews in after-hours.



Some employees *are* less than considerate, so it can be necessary to attitude-adjust those who forget whose satisfaction oughta come first

[Grimm]

Also remember that there are a lot of items that the stores do not actually stock. It is done by employees of the vendor. The bottled water for example may very well be done this way. I know Pepsi has a line of water, so it`s probably stocked by the Pepsi employee that takes care of the soda pop. So there is some sort of schedule that dictates when a store is stocked.

[BobD]

A lot of the people stocking supermarkets are actually from the manufacturers and not the supermarket as well.



The thing that irritates me is the cashier that has to comment and talk to me about everything I am buying. I know they are just being friendly and they mean no harm bu dang it...I know these are good! That is why I am buying them! There used to be this lady at my local Kroger that would tell me how good everything was as she scanned them.

[Setec Astronomy]

Thanks guys, just to clarify, I`m not referring to the bread/potato chip/soda delivery guys that come during the day, I`m talking about the pre-positioning of stock in the evening. I`m not sure they are actually putting the product on the shelves yet, just leaving stacks and skids of stuff in the aisles.

[paul34]

Well, I think you should come to the South and come to our favorite grocery store, Publix. Possibly the best grocery store in the country, I think all other grocery stores should strive to be like Publix (plus, the Tiramisu is AMAZING).



Anyway, they do stock during store hours there too, but they do it in a way where they block as little space as possible, and they will move if necessary for you but usually its just easier to ask them to get something for you and they will be more than happy to do it for you.



Plus, we don`t have unions to mess things up in the South



I`ve been up North and still haven`t found a really good grocery store. I hear "Genuardi`s" (spelling?) is pretty good but also expensive, which wouldn`t be acceptable to me.



Of course, while Publix is one of the few good things left in the world, go figure Wal-Mart is trying to destroy Publix by building one of their crappy "neighborhood markets" across or next to every Publix! How dare they do such a thing!



Oh wait, I forgot, its Wal-Mart... I should be expecting as much :angry

[Setec Astronomy]

If I`m in FL and have to go to the market, I usually go to the Pubix...er...Publix

[Scottwax]

Chatty Cathy customers and cashiers piss me off. A few pleasantries are fine but I don`t want to hear anyone`s life story from birth to the present while I am stuck behind them.



People who cannot follow visual and audible direction on the self scanners irk me too. How do these people ever successfully use an ATM or even a touch tone phone?

[paul34]

If I`m in FL and have to go to the market, I usually go to the Pubix...er...Publix

hey don`t make fun of them! :lol

[Evenflow]

I used to work at a SuperMarket when I was younger. For the sake of not being at the market till 5 in the morning putting things away we would always start stocking and front facing a few hours early. Also payroll budget plays a huge roll in getting truck put away fast enough. The company doesn`t want people working their till 5 in the morning and have to pay for that.



Same deal with the parts store I work at now. We get a truck with 18 pallets in, as soon as we get the truck we have two people stay on the counter while the other 10 people work on the truck beginning in the morning. We definitely dont want to be there till 3 in the morning putting product away, so why not get a early jump on it?

[Way2SSlow]

Chatty Cathy customers and cashiers piss me off. A few pleasantries are fine but I don`t want to hear anyone`s life story from birth to the present while I am stuck behind them.



People who cannot follow visual and audible direction on the self scanners irk me too. How do these people ever successfully use an ATM or even a touch tone phone?

Agreed. I usually make some small talk with the cashier. I really try to be as friendly as I can be to them, because I was a cashier once (not a grocery store) and I know how miserable a job it is. I dont hold up the line talking, that drives me nuts.



Ya know what else I really love....At Wal mart, when they have 2 registers open out of the 4,000 that they have.....You get just about up to that spot in the line where you can start putting your stuff on the belt, and BOOM!!! Off goes the open light and you get "this register is closed, I`m on my lunch break." or "We need to change out this drawer" and they begin counting down the drawer Would it kill you to turn your light off and just handle the people that you have in line before you take an attitude with us? GRRRR...

[imported_pappy]

Alright, I work at a target as I am going to school. Not saying this is how all places do it, but for target, we start at either 11 in the morning or 1 in the afternoon to start stocking the shelves. From Opening to that time, vendors are all over the place in the grocery part of the store. The stocking done through out the day is automatically pulled from the back room from stuff that is purchased. So If there is someone who buys 20 bags of candy, then a box of that candy comes out a little later to fill the opening. If we didn`t stock throughout the day, the store would be dang near empty by the end of it, and then people would be mad because we don`t have anything on the shelves. Then at night the overnight offloads the truck or trucks that come in that day and take ALL of that and put it on the shelves.



Would you rather step around a flat of water, or have no water to buy until the next morning when the overnight team fills the shelves. (or substitute your favorite food)





Cashiering I don`t have a ton of experience with, since I only go up when its really really busy since I`m on the sales floor. Whoever said that there is 30 registers and only 2 going, If there is a long line (3 or more) at any of those 2 registers other people will jump on to anther lane (thats how its supposed to work). If you ever just sit and watch throughout the day, it comes in spurts. They could have both of the cashiers waiting around doing nothing for two hours then bam, they have 20 people in each line...After those people are gone they are just standing around doing nothing. It wouldn`t pay of to have any more people just standing around all day not doing anything. (when it gets to 3 people waiting in any line, there is a button on the register that the cashier is supposed to hit, it sends a signal to all the walkies on the people on the sales floor that they need help, and then 1 or 2 or 3 or how ever many they need will come up and open up another lane until it settles back down, then they leave and go back and do their job).



For the most part, way2slow, they are supposed to turn their light off and finish the people on the lane and then leave, or get someone to come and take over for them.



When I have to go back-up cashier I never turn my light on, I just signal a person from a long line on over to mine, but its amazing how many people I will have in my lane even with the light off, its a never ending thing. So if someone was going on break and just turns their light off it may take half and hour or more just to get people to stop coming to her lane, all people see is the people in the lane, they don`t see that the light is off.

[Corey Bit Spank]

I`ve never had this problem at Wegmans. They seem to start stocking later in the evening.



Edit:



And when I was head cashier, a lofty position at such an establishment, I used to put Molasses on express because she took too long otherwise. People always have too many items when they attempt to go through express anyway, so it really doesn`t matter. And I was always nice, suggesting that 17 items is in fact larger than 10 at the end of cashing them out, and they would cock at attitude such as, "The other lines were longer," or, "I have a family at home that is hungry." It took me a month to figure out that it simply wasn`t worth making it a point since everybody is more important than everybody else. And then about 5 months later two scumbags decided to argue over it. It was so entertaining. I remember who it was, too. Blush versus Marlboro 100 Lights, Boxed. Blush always had a terrific excuse for being unintelligible. It was that everybody else was easily confused. Brilliant. Marlboro 100 Lights, Boxed always had an issue with something when it was her time to be cashed out. It was a bad combination, and by the end they both seemed to blame the store for Blush`s inability to count and Marlboro 100 Lights, Boxed`s vicious temper.



Customers would comment on express. In fact, that`s how Molasses got her nickname. A customer said, "I see you have Molasses manning the ship on 1," and he agreed she wasn`t doing anybody any favors at any register. Well, since wild-hair-Janet was always on the last register at the other end of the store. God she peeved me. She would leave her register for the worst reasons. She always came back from "the bathroom" while chewing on the nearly-expired hummus that the deli would put out in conjunction with the bakery`s stale bread.



"Where did you go?"

"To the bathroom, Cor."

"OH!"



So really, working at a Supermarket is really a lot of fun when it`s made into a story. Now I work in a lab at school and it`s not full of any fun stories.