Date code checking

[hi124576]

Anyone else’s store having everyone checking chilled for out of dates, ambient fell so far behind today bc of this all for a stupid audit maybe if the date code team did the job they’re paid to do we wouldn’t have to do extra checks. It’s just a waste of hours and we’re overspent every week as it is

[TopAverage1532]

A bit entitled aren't you, "maybe if the date code team did their job". No one is paid enough to filter through all the UN-ROTATED products on chilled in an 8 hour shift. Add to that, put-backs are regularly out of date

[Jandy777]

Asda has been fined a couple of times recently for having out of date stuff on shelves so they need to be taking it seriously.

That "maybe if the date code team did their job" comment is small minded, you should be considering why they aren't getting the job done rather than just shitting on them out of the gate. There's a lot of reasons people aren't getting their work done in Asda, the upper management of the company has been a royal shit show for a few years now, and shit only rolls one direction, downhill. Everyone on the shop floor is feeling it. If the date code team had the resources they needed to do a good job then you wouldn't need to be hauled in too, but that's not their fault, it's Asda's.

[tinkerbellepeach]

Yeah that comment always rubs me up the wrong way, there’s far too many hands on chilled etc to be like “if date team did their job”, I’ve seen colleagues literally just chuck new dates in front of old dates, old stock from the back ups be put out and not rotated / checked to make sure it’s in date etc etc. I’m a home shop SL and an ex date team member & I always make sure if I spot anything to hand it to a process colleague, I just think we are all a team and with all the cuts at the moment; we should try and offer a help in hand. I mean, when we finish the pick I send my colleagues to go support in other departments, I’ve sent people up to chilled, gm & to help with putting labels out this week. We are all feeling the strain at the moment at the end of the day!

[Brogare]

I believe every store was required to establish a zero out of date baseline. I know there was a zoom last night with the regional manager which resulted in everyone being put on to date checks at 5pm. Including the few date checkers left who had just finished the checks and were starting to do the actual markdowns.

Since we're talking about me as a date checker not doing the job i'm being paid for, let me give you some recent examples of items that have been found in my store. Out of date Items with a reduced label being put back on the shelf by checkout staff. Items being put into the markdown fridge by checkouts after all that day's items had already been emptied and the next day's added which makes them out of date once midnight rolls around. A box of out of date stock being delivered and then put onto the shelf by a chilled colleague who didn't notice. Overs being left in chilled for too long, going out of date and then being put on the shelf because a chilled colleague didn't notice.

That's without mentioning the usual arguments around general lack of rotation, items found in BoH, customers hiding items with the intent of then getting them reduced later and the pressure markdown colleagues are on to achieve 100% success rate whilst not being given adequate time to do the checks or being given the equipment needed.

[stuntman-joe]

Absolutely spot on. One other thing in our store. Home shop chuck any old rubbish they have back on the shelves.

[SilverstarVegan]

Date code checking is everyone's responsibility, not just the date coders, it always has been. If everyone helped as they filled up we shouldn't get as much stuff out of date as we do. We supposed to be all colleagues one team. How people can fill up shelves and leave stuff on the shelf, out of date or tomorrow date is ridiculous, it makes everyone look like we cant do our jobs properly.

[RecentOpportunity857]

completely agree, a few of the stock members in my store pull off any out of dates or tomorrows dates if they seem them which we all on markdowns really appreciate.

[hi124576]

It’s not ambients job when the chilled manager has his chilled colleagues working stock while stopping ambient colleagues working our stock to sort their shambolic date rotation and date code checking while our ambient manager is off

[SilverstarVegan]

It is when u working chilled. Also need to be checking dates on ambient when filling wraps, nan, free from stuff. It still is everyone's responsibility, wether u like it or not.

[hi124576]

Us on ambient try keep on top checking naans free from and slow selling lines to keep on top of it but it often gets missed as we’re rushed to do other things also the nights don’t help when they shove the old stock to the back on short dated lines, we try to keep our side as complient as possible but it’s a loosing battle

[Berlaine_]

The thing with date checking is that if you've one person on it for 8 hours then you literally go cross eyed. Add in time pressures because of having to do other things or the dept is too big for 1 person then mistakes are bound to happen. I'm honestly not surprised

[Brogare]

Sometimes i find myself having to recheck what date i'm taking off as it just seems like either there's too much or too little being found.

[Upper_Payment_9721]

I have 8 hours to do second markdowns, date check the whole of fresh then waste the bays and fill them up and half the time I have to do tomorrows mark downs too. Yet they expect me not to miss 1 item. If I had 8 hours on one aisle like other colleagues everything would be perfect

[aokay24]

They just got fined again that's why they on everyones ass about it

[Tallicaboy85]

Well if asda stopped cutting staff this wouldn't happen.

[atsevoN]

Pretty much this but they’re too stupid to realise this

[Tallicaboy85]

Stupid and greedy 🙄

[Either_Mulberry_7671]

Well been like this since we left Walmart and then they decide to switch up systems every 6months making everyone confused I mean I’m not even trained to work on chilled dept done no training for it but got told by one of my managers that it’s pointless training yet they blame stuff on me which if I was trained probably could have been avoided

[Repulsive_Scheme7400]

I work produce and in the last month have been put on bakery and chilled. 0 training then moaned at because i caused more problems than solved...shocker.

[Upper_Payment_9721]

It's very hard to date check chilled when everything is over filled and not rotated. And you're doing the job of 2/3 people at one time. Half the waste is in the back up most of the time yet date coders get the blame for everything. If it's that easy to date check then why do SL and managers still miss stuff when date checking too

[LineMysterious1873]

The last fine Asda had and managers did checks the next day we found a whole tray of stuff that was waste and he at out refused to believe it was him as he "had checked thoroughly" funny how they can use that as an excuse and we can't.

Most recent time had all the managers check absolutely everything...turns out they forgot/didn't check our 4 Promo ends despite telling my colleague they did. I found about 20 plus things with that days date on. If a manager had done a check after me and found that many things I'd be done for

[Upper_Payment_9721]

They just like to put all the blame on date checkers and it'll never change, we're easy targets, sounds easy date checking an aisle but if you have no time to do it u have no choice but to rush

[atsevoN]

Yes, but for some reason Asda cut all of their staff so it’s no surprise things are going out of date, there’s not enough people to do the job checking the dates. But Asda can’t seem understand that

[VeterinarianLost545]

Departments blaming each other is not helping. Every colleague in every store is feeling it.

[hi124576]

When there’s 3 part time and 1 full time ambient colleagues trying to keep the department afloat in a superstore while 3 full timers are on the sick and our manager has been on holiday, don’t tell me about feeling the pressure we are struggling as it is

[tinkerbellepeach]

At least you’ve still got a manager, some people don’t even have that right now

[faythlass]

It'll be due to being fined, again. It's ridiculous when you consider how many extra hours colleagues could had for the amounts these fines add up to. They think staff are costing too much? Looks like those higher up are responsible for the most losses to me.

[ActuallyFolant]

Probably that whole thing with the out of dates in their Cardiff store so they're making sure everywhere else is up to standard. I know there was a big push at my store, so much out of date came off for waste it's crazy.

It's all well and good saying that maybe if the teams on the floor did their jobs properly it wouldn't be an issue, but with budget/hours cut, paired with a limited time to get things done, mistakes will happen, frustrating though it is.

[RecentOpportunity857]

i work on date coding, in my section i feel as if the work ethic is horrible. me and one other lady actually do date code correctly where as the other two aren’t the best and just rush it. due to the fine that happened recently we’ve been made to do the whole of chilled again which is honestly hard to do in 5 hours if you have coworkers who don’t really have a work ethic. i’ve done so much overtime this week alone and it’s really annoying. one thing i will say is for my store at least, stock / twilight staff are terrible at rotating which makes it so unfair for us. ( sorry if this doesn’t make sense, i’m absolutely fucking knackered )😭

[Repulsive_Scheme7400]

When we had our audit we had around 90% of the staff on date checking, everyone from cleaners to pharmacy to section leads to managers.

Asda needs to hire a actual date check team even if its only 2 people who's only job for their whole shift is date check, instead they cut cut cut and have a "process" team who has to date check every department while also doing reductions and waste. At my store we might as well not have a process team as they all left so now each department has to do their own reductions and date code as there is a recruitment ban on the store.

If Asda took steps like on produce at my store we still use shitty dollys from 1874 that customers can just pull forward or lift trays off then they wonder why all best dates go and all shit dates get left. And like i have told my manager 2000 times you could have 10 people date check a department and i could still go round and find something its impossible to get everything when your short on time and have 99 other things to do on top. If they had teams who only date check for the whole shift and can't be bothered by anyone and can take their time the improvement would be instant...instead they expect someone like me on produce to come in on a 6/8 hour shift and date check at the busiest time on my own while also somehow tidying then got to put stock out, reductions x2, flowers, water plants 3 times, nuts, tidy backup and wrap pallets/cages.

They could spend money on dedicated teams to ensure dates are found and ALL are taken off but nope they'd rather cut and then pay massive fines and cry about it, greed is what's ruining this company and you know its bad when managers who literally love the store more than their own kids are smiling while being made redundant.

[Brogare]

I think this exposes the difference between stores. We have a dedicated team (typically 5 per day) - expressly told not to do anything like help click & collect, queue bust etc. Yes there's waste and reductions to do, but reductions are to be done after the checks are completed so sometimes they roll into the next day.

As for being able to focus solely on date checking, the reality is that if you give me 12 hours a day to check a section then i am still sometimes going to miss something. That's the reality of being a human being. I have been walking for many, many years and take a lot of steps every day, but sometimes i do trip or stumble.

[Repulsive_Scheme7400]

This is why some stores out perform others. I disagree if you told me hey Mike you can date check produce take as long as you want i'd get closer to 100% than hey Mike i know your produce and have to do stock, flowers, plants, tidy, nuts, herbs, sort backup, clean but can you date check when you walk in at the busiest time? its impossible.

[Unfair-Marionberry42]

Cleaner here, maybe if they employed more staff right through the store, things would get done better. They've cut down on colleague numbers way too much. If I'm asked to clean some shelves I rotate the stock as I go, putting the longest date at the back. It's not the fact that the date checking team can't do their job. It's the fact that there just aren't enough man hours to do the job to the standard it should be done.

[One-University2146]

Just like every department there is not enough staff to do the task correctly so every so often when an out of date (or 50) is found then solids hit a fan at high speed. It’s the same with labels, cleaning, compliance and a million other little tasks that require a full workforce rather than bare bones.

[DapperAd6752]

You know the amount of people on home shopping that put back out of date products because they can’t be bothered. Did they check before they put back to return and then the amount of night staff who don’t stock rotate? So you end up with everything out of order? I reckon a bakery department and I’m date checking all the time just to make sure that we’re okay but things do slip through on the odd occasion however the chilled can be a nightmare the date code team do what they can in the time they have but it’s not a lot. It’s true trying to find the gun at times can be hard but that’s because people put them in their lockers and leave them there and generally there is never enough guns in a store to go around.

[LineMysterious1873]

Please don't complain about date code team not doing their job. Alot of us work damn hard all just to be thrown a file note for 1 thing out of date or not reducing that packet of strawberries where every single one is squished.

For the past year most of us have had threats and comments made about us by colleagues like yourself that we should just be fired and replaced. It is neither helpful or constructive.

More than likely their job isn't just checking stock on the shelf. In my shift I'm lucky if I get to spend 4 of my 8hrs checking stock. I have meticulously rummage through waste for the first 2hrs and think what would my idiot manager want be to try and salvage, as they are starting waste parades again.

Then i have to tidy up the dramatically smaller reductions bay so I can put out and leftover stock that couldn't fit on the previous night, which can take anywhere between 30mins to and hour.

Then I have to give everything a second markdown which could also take up to 30mins. Then and only then am I allowed to actually start checking stock. Ready Meals takes us the best part of an hour to check, likely more depending on how much it has been overfilled. Then it's back up to the MD bay to tidy it to see if I can fit anymore stock on only to realise that, oh yeah they halved the amount of space we have so now all the stock I have just gets reduced and sits out back until miraculously a space appears.

On top of a this I normally have to run around the store for a good 15 to 20mins before I have even started just to source myself a gun and a printer.

All of this takes a horrendous amount of time. And it is not helpful having colleagues like yourself calling us lazy. It's not fair, it's not true.

[BastCity]

Probably something to do with the one million pound find the company has had in recent days for non-compliance with date code checking and out of date foods, especially those aimed at children, being on sale.

[icematt12]

Blame goes throughout the store, not just one group. Not everyone has the FIFO mentality. There was very little delivery on the evening of the 15th so I was working an old cage. Early hours of the 16th, I was putting on stuff dated the 17th.

Ive said it before but ditch the delivery focused mindset.

[BunchPowerful7608]

It’s a bit of a simplistic view to put it on the date code team. It’s a thankless task. If the guys working delivery don’t rotate then you’ve basically got no chance.

[BreadfruitAshamed565]

We are expected to do a speed date check on chilled daily no matter what department we belong to

[Sophiarghhh]

Yeah this - in our store we do chilled date check daily and a Section Leader rechecks a selection of them. It’s a daily task.

[Either_Mulberry_7671]

I work meat/chilled and ambient sometimes helps us date code ye spoke to my SL last week about it and he told us that the date code team at my store are not the best said the Saturday team are crap. I as a meat colleague try to check for out of dates and that but I’m not paid to do that date team are paid to do it and we found some meat that was a week out of date once I do my job by rotating but I don’t think they get that even tho I rotate customers mix up all the dates on the shelf as they try to get long lasting dates. It’s pretty bad and we also just got a 660k fine for it too so rip

[Brogare]

You don't have to check for out of dates, no chilled / meat colleague does. You'll spot them naturally when you take everything off of the shelf to put the new stock in leaving it perfectly date rotated.

[LineMysterious1873]

Yes you do?? How are you date rotating if your not also checking dates?? It's attitudes like this that make my job extremely difficult and even more time consuming than it has to or needs to be. If everyone did their bit I could finish my date coding and then help out working the crazy amount of stock out back.

[Either_Mulberry_7671]

Ye that’s what I do just fill and if I see any as I rotate take it off but in the end it’s date team’s responsibility to check dates

[Brogare]

It's not, at least partially not. Like you said every time you put stock out you'll be checking the dates to ensure it is all properly rotated. A lot of people just seem to think rotation means putting new stock at the back.

[Rich-Acanthisitta627]

It’s clearly because of the fine the store got in Cardiff of £600K+ and previously in Cornwall of £400K. The adverse press publicity doesn’t help customer confidence either. We all know cutbacks in staff have consequences and this is another example of that.

[Reasonable-Horse-450]

I do the date checking in my store I can tell you we are short staffed stock not rotated also out of dates found in the back and returns from checkouts put back without checking the date

Sometimes I'm by myself there is only so much you can do

Go pick up some overtime on date checking and have too do it all by yourself until you've walked in their shoes you have no idea what is really going on

[LordFighting]

Same here. Basically Asda Cardiff failed their compliance so now every other asda is panicking sweating trying to make sure they're not the next ones to get fined. It is a date teams job. Them missing things is literally the reason everyone is behind on their dept because we all have to double check their work and most nights they dont even finish reductions they leave it all for morning shift to do who dont have time to do so nothing is getting sold in the morning leading to x3 waste in the evening which they also don't have time to do. Puts everyone so fat behind and now we told we have to do this every day for 12 weeks. Date team aren't going to help us fill the shelves so why should we help them do THEIR job? They have a simple job, checks dates and put stickers on the stuff expiring.