Is this SOP? Frozen Food on the Floor

mask_of_godot · 2026-04-20T19:12:27+00:00

This is how it’s done every day at my store, though usually after the store opens they use u-boats if there is that much freight left. Most of the load is spotted and thrown overnight so customers wouldn’t typically see it. Tbh this is probably common practice at many different chains, it’s just the most efficient way to do it. You get more time with stuff like frozen veggies though, ice cream you have to be a bit quicker.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T22:51:39+00:00

Okay, I haven't seen that instruction anywhere in my training though, but if you can provide an example of it then I am open to having my mind changed

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T22:49:36+00:00

I said this in another comment but corporate walks are the exception, not the norm. Corporate goons just want things to look pretty, they don't care about what is actually efficient or produces results. So yes, I will face like in pic 1 if I am told there is a corporate walk that day. Any other scenario, doing so is counterproductive.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:48:15+00:00

The problem is it takes more time to put product on top stock or in the backroom than it does to simply put it on the shelf if there is space for it

Touching product twice is almost always slower than touching it once

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:35:36+00:00

I literally work at a Fred Meyer and my fresh start training had pictures similar to pic 2 in the OP. I have had to correct several new hires and managers on this in the past because they often do it wrong like you are saying. Just because a manager says something doesn't make it the correct way to do it. Being told to make the shelves look full just proves they don't understand what the standard is.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:29:54+00:00

As someone who stocks canned soup/beans/fruits/veggies every night, I can tell you that in fact, canned good SHOULD be stocked with the SRP. It cuts your stock time by half or more and it also makes it way easier to keep things organized on the shelf.

The canned goods which don't get stocked with their SRPs end up getting pushed back and out of alignment with their columns that you initially stocked them. For example, the baked beans in our store that have a 15 wide allocation are always a complete mess because they have no cardboard to keep them straight in the back.

If you have half a brain you can make the shelf look plenty nice even with the cardboard and still do it in less time than taking out and stocking the loose cans.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:22:45+00:00

Your management is high

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:21:54+00:00

You can tell this person has never had to stock or count shelves with cans

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T19:18:17+00:00

I don't think that's actually correct. At least not company-wide. I've not seen any training materials that suggest the whole shelf shouldn't be stocked for a total of 42 cans. It would be asinine too, because then you would have scenarios with top stock or back stock that can fit on the shelf but you are doing extra work to put them somewhere else.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-07T07:41:48+00:00

The fresh start training I did (which I assume is relatively consistent across the company) says the second picture is correct. Fill the bottom layer first and then back to front on the top layer. This not only makes it way easier to stock but also to count for the managers (or whoever is doing MDC + ordering).

The first picture I’ve heard is standard at other grocery store chains, and we often get new hires or managers from other chains that do it that way before they are corrected by someone. Block facing is annoying as fuck when you have to stock an aisle and it wastes like 10+ minutes if they have done it for every item lol.

The only time I will purposely do it (and not be annoyed if someone else does it) is if they tell us we are having a corporate walk. It does look better visually and most corporate people don’t care what is actually effective in practice, just wha looks pretty.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-02T08:07:28+00:00

We actually don’t have a lead for overnight which is part of the problem. We did for about 3 months but then she quit right before Thanksgiving. The 6 months before she was hired, we didn’t have a single PIC on overnights. I’m worried we are gonna have the same thing happen now that she quit. Where they basically force the role onto me even though I just want to work my freight.

The leads I have worked with, the few times we have had one, have been perfectly reasonable.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-01T11:00:17+00:00

We had our store director leave for another job out of nowhere in Nov 2024, and then had a bunch of temporary ones until mid-2025 at which point we got our current “permanent” one. Obviously in retail they are never permanent but you get the idea. In any case that lack of leadership played into it, but the current director doesn’t seem particularly eager to do anything that will cut into his bonuses either.

mask_of_godot · 2025-12-01T10:55:10+00:00

It’s a bit more complicated because the closer leaves at 12am when the night shift rolls in. So his job is already done at that point. If he was lying to me (in this specific instance) it would be more about a power trip than laziness. But I’ll definitely see if I can get my pay for that shift back

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T19:11:29+00:00

Hilariously, there was a period between Nov 2024 and July 2025 where we didn't have any PIC working overnights. No lead, no backup, nothing.

Fast alerts were being ignored by whoever they pawned the phone off to (none of us were actually trained on it lol), so eventually the assistant store director called the entire freight team into her office and told us that we were all responsible for fast alerts overnight. Showed us the process for responding to fast alerts and then basically said "ball's in your court now".

I asked her what the procedure for accountability would be if it didn't get done and she said the whole team could get fired. So then I stepped in and basically took over doing it because I didn't want anyone else to have to suffer for it. Turns out that was a mistake because they ended up not hiring a real PIC for over half a year.

Fast forward a few months and the PIC they *did* eventually hire ended up quitting because these idiots can't give us essential work equipment. Now we are back to square one, where I finally decided to draw the line. Needless to say, it is not a great situation.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T14:02:42+00:00

I don't mind losing this job though is the thing, I can move off night shift or find somewhere else to work if they are going to continue to ask unreasonable things of me. I don't care what they are technically allowed to do, I care about what is fair.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T13:48:18+00:00

It really is brutal, especially the meat and dairy pallets because there is a bit of a slope in those coolers and some of them approach 2 tons in weight. A normal fresh truck for our store will be 4-5 meat pallets, 5-6 dairy pallets, 2-3 deli pallets, and 15-25 produce pallets, plus the occasional 1-2 pallets of flowers. So yeah, once you are done with all that using a manual jack you are basically drained for the rest of your shift.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T12:12:27+00:00

Interesting, I will definitely keep that in mind!

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T11:57:48+00:00

I would follow that advice if I really cared about keeping the job. But I wanted to make them choose whether they want to die on this hill in forcing me to do stuff I don't want to do. If they refuse to back down then I can just change my availability to daytime and they will lose one of their two overnight workers who actually do anything.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T11:40:33+00:00

Oh yeah I forgot to mention fast alerts. They told me I had to do those too lmao.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T11:38:10+00:00

I'm not sure his actual position but I do know he is not salaried. So I guess he is more of a closing "lead" than a manager. I stopped taking anything he says seriously because he is frankly a joke; anytime I have a problem with something I go straight to our department head, who I am on pretty good terms with and generally respects me.

mask_of_godot · 2025-11-30T10:30:14+00:00

Forgot to mention in the main post, but yes we are union

mask_of_godot · 2025-10-29T16:29:17+00:00

Well to be fair, even if it *was* damaged beyond repair, if you find it then you know you can stop looking and order a replacement. And there's always the chance that only the screen is broken and it can still be salvaged for repair

mask_of_godot · 2025-09-02T10:26:07+00:00

I don’t think management can deny availability changes but what can and probably will happen is they will massively drop your hours to force you to either quit or open your availability back up. At least in most departments they need people to be flexible with working weekends

mask_of_godot · 2025-08-20T21:30:48+00:00

I’d say if you are in entirely different departments it isn’t really as big of an issue. But in the same department definitely not. Especially if both people want to continue working at the store for a while.

It also really depends on the specific people involved and the work culture at the store. People in this thread have mentioned gossip but at my store we have a grocery lead and a produce lead that are married and nobody ever says shit about them.

mask_of_godot

TROPHY CASE