3rd week at Safeway now, and I'm doing closing :-) Most people hate closing, because it means a lot of extra work and stress, and you're responsible for the completion of a lot more tasks. If someone else screws up, it just means more work for the people who do closing-- if the people closing screw up-- they get in trouble with management, who will see all your mistakes and things you neglected to do, when they do morning inspections. So basically, if you don't do closing perfectly, your boss(es) will definitely know, and you'll get called into the office if you slack off too much.
But for me, who is a perfectionist to begin with, I see this as an opportunity to demonstrate my strong work-ethic, and to get more much-needed experience doing go-backs. Perhaps after a couple of weeks doing closing, I will have nearly the entire store down-- that would be good.
The biggest problem I had with doing closing today (other than the go-backs-- which sadly I am still having way too much trouble with, although I'm fast improving!) was with sweeps, which I had to do twice as fast (the whole store in 15 minutes) in order to have time for all the other closing duties stacked onto the regular stuff. I had to work really fast, and tried my best (but somewhat failing) not to cut corners to get everything done. All the other courtesy clerks cut corners, but not me. I need to stay ahead of the pack if I want to be successful here.
Closing duties consist of turning off the power to the secondary entrance (to optimize traffic) at 9pm, taking out all the trash and recycle, both in and out of the store, replace all the garbage bags, refill all the plastic bags for the checkstands, pick up all the trash around the checkstands, wipe down the barcode scanners and food belts with windex, put away all the carts, and....of course go-backs. There are also other closing duties that need to be done from time to time, but these are the ones you do every day (if you're closing).
First day of closing, I did everything right, except I didn't know I was supposed to refill the checker's bags, and I still had a lot of go-backs leftover when I had to check out. I'll do better with closing tomorrow, hopefully.
Showing posts with label go-backs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label go-backs. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Going To Make A Map!
It's the last day of work this week, and I've got the whole system down-- well, almost the whole system-- the hardest part of the job is still go-backs, naturally. And helping customers is just as hard for the same reason: I still don't know where so many things are! To make matters worse, most of the customers here are fairly intelligent and knowledgeable of Safeway stores, so they almost always ask about the stuff that can't be answered by common sense or even a basic knowledge of the store-- the stuff that really is hard to find, like tofu, wheat germ, and mint leaves.
From the very beginning, I had been planning on creating a blueprint of the entire store, so that I could memorize everything about the store in a week or two, and be done with it. Yesterday I spent hours painstakingly surveying the entire store, literally down the the millimeter (scaled to the millimeter, mind you!) I used my footsteps to measure the store (an ancient, but very effective measurement scheme known as "paces"), and scaled each footstep down to a millimeter using a ruler. I then charted out a map of the main store area using North, South, East, West, NE, NW, SE, and SW measurements. I didn't have a geometry compass, so I manually traced right-angles to compensate. It's a very accurate map, and all things considered, a damn good one!
The whole map, when it's done, will be color and number-coded, the isles labels (i.e. isle 1A and 1B), and have a Legend at the bottom to interpret the whole thing. It's going to be a massive project, and will include the parking lot, the back areas (break room, various freezers/storage/loading areas, etc.), and will tell me absolutely everything there is to know about the store, down to the exact shelf location of every size of every brand of every type of food, product, etc.
The map will also tell me the locations of everything in the produce department, coded by PLU#; this will help me to learn the PLUs for every produce item, which I will need to know to become a food clerk or manager.
I'm completely in the rhythm of things now, and everyone, from management to my peers, really likes me. Hopefully I can maintain the full support and favor of everyone here, so I can quickly move up in the company-- I'm really looking forward to that!
Now that I've completed a draft of the map of Safeway, I'm going to (once I get a scanner, or ask my dad to use his!) scan it to jpg., and once I complete the whole thing, bundle the whole set of images as a pdf for you for your viewing pleasure here.
From the very beginning, I had been planning on creating a blueprint of the entire store, so that I could memorize everything about the store in a week or two, and be done with it. Yesterday I spent hours painstakingly surveying the entire store, literally down the the millimeter (scaled to the millimeter, mind you!) I used my footsteps to measure the store (an ancient, but very effective measurement scheme known as "paces"), and scaled each footstep down to a millimeter using a ruler. I then charted out a map of the main store area using North, South, East, West, NE, NW, SE, and SW measurements. I didn't have a geometry compass, so I manually traced right-angles to compensate. It's a very accurate map, and all things considered, a damn good one!
The whole map, when it's done, will be color and number-coded, the isles labels (i.e. isle 1A and 1B), and have a Legend at the bottom to interpret the whole thing. It's going to be a massive project, and will include the parking lot, the back areas (break room, various freezers/storage/loading areas, etc.), and will tell me absolutely everything there is to know about the store, down to the exact shelf location of every size of every brand of every type of food, product, etc.
The map will also tell me the locations of everything in the produce department, coded by PLU#; this will help me to learn the PLUs for every produce item, which I will need to know to become a food clerk or manager.
I'm completely in the rhythm of things now, and everyone, from management to my peers, really likes me. Hopefully I can maintain the full support and favor of everyone here, so I can quickly move up in the company-- I'm really looking forward to that!
Now that I've completed a draft of the map of Safeway, I'm going to (once I get a scanner, or ask my dad to use his!) scan it to jpg., and once I complete the whole thing, bundle the whole set of images as a pdf for you for your viewing pleasure here.
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Confident
I can now smile genuinely, and am confident and graceful in the performance of my duties. There are occasional mishaps, such as when pushing the carts down inclines (or worse, over speedbumps!), or when a customer wants groceries bagged in their own over-sized or lopsided reusable bags...but I'll get used to it all very soon.
My biggest struggle at this point is (you guessed it!) not knowing where the go-backs go, and by unfortunate extension, being able to help customers to find things with the grace they deserve, as part of Safeway's World Class Customer Service™ experience. I know it's only my second week here, so I can't expect to be perfect, but I hope to be as close to as perfect as humanly possible. I'm grateful for this job, and want to make the most of it, and show everyone I work with how much that I deserve it.
I met my store manager today, and she's a very nice person, just as I heard from my friend who used to work with her. I hope I can do whatever I can to please her-- she is after all my ticket to promotion.
My biggest struggle at this point is (you guessed it!) not knowing where the go-backs go, and by unfortunate extension, being able to help customers to find things with the grace they deserve, as part of Safeway's World Class Customer Service™ experience. I know it's only my second week here, so I can't expect to be perfect, but I hope to be as close to as perfect as humanly possible. I'm grateful for this job, and want to make the most of it, and show everyone I work with how much that I deserve it.
I met my store manager today, and she's a very nice person, just as I heard from my friend who used to work with her. I hope I can do whatever I can to please her-- she is after all my ticket to promotion.
Friday, May 27, 2011
First Day of (Actual!) Work
Today was my first day of actual work (as supposed to the computer training, which was pretty boring and consisted mostly of watching long politically-correct presentations about World Class customer service, safety, yadayadayada. Finally, I can actually do my job; I'm both excited and anxious, as I am basically being thrown to the sharks, and expected to learn to swim, survive, and help other people do the same.
As I'm working a store where I know almost nothing about where everything is, I have either two options when a customer asks where to find "X" item: wander aimlessly and hope against hope I will find the item they're looking for in less than a minute, or pray that there is another courtesy clerk / department manager in the area that can help them find it.
Often, unfortunately, I have been unlucky enough to not be able to do either, and I am left to regretfully tell the customer I wish I could help them, but that I'm new at this store, and have no idea where anything is. It's quite embarrassing, and gives me all the more incentive to learn where everything is in this store ASAP, and by any means store policy will allow.
As such, I have formulated a plan to develop a map of where everything (and I mean everything!) in the store is, and goes-- a blueprint of sorts.
My plans for the blueprint go like this:
1. Number code by isle (1A[#1], 1B[#1])
2. Produce locations coded by PLU# (also known as PAUL: "Produce Accuracy Using Label")
3. Include Legend that accounts for every food, product, and item, at the bottom.
4.Add all vital information regarding the back areas, parking lot, offices, etc.
5. Study, Study, Study!
6. Submit map idea to management.
Other than my difficulties with go-backs (putting items back where they belong) and customer assistance looking for items, today was pretty perfect overall. I did make some mistakes-- mostly in regards to properly logging sweep hours:
I had logged sweeps only once for my sweep hour, but apparently you're supposed to log it twice-- once for each half-hour. As it turns out, this is mostly for auditing purposes-- by making sure that everyone logs their sweeps twice per hour, it can help guarantee no hours are missed-- which is what the auditing team checks for.
Update: The information I was given regarding sweep audits is not only wrong, but it's a breach of Safeway contract and sweep policy. This information was given to me by the 2nd Assistant Manager and fellow courtesy clerks, who believe that doing it that way is more efficient, but the store manager, district manager, and health and safety specialists disagree, and for good reason! I'll explain these reasons in a later post, so stay tuned!
I was actually pretty nervous my first day, and although I smiled a great deal, it was a very nervous, strained smile. While bagging the groceries I messed up a little bit, but nevertheless, the day has passed by very smoothly, and amazingly quickly.
My fellow courtesy clerks are fairly supportive of me, but it's the food clerks (colloquially, they're called "Checkers") that are helping me out the most, particularly with finding things, and backing groceries.
They are also incessantly reminding me of important things like "BOB" (Bottom Of Basket), which refers to items that customers (either accidentally or intentionally) put on the bottom of the cart; there is a high possibility that these items might pass through unpurchased ("free"), if both the Checker and I don't work together to make sure that the items on the bottom of the cart of properly accounted for.
As was first introduced in the Tuesday computer training videos, SHRINK, the codename for inventory which leaves the store unpurchased, refers to items that were purchased in bulk by Safeway for sale, but were never sold due to spoilage, breakage, theft, etc. SHRINK takes away considerably from company profits, and is considered one of Safeway's biggest damage control/liability concerns.
Working at Safeway is pretty easy to get used to if you pay attention-- for the most part, everything's pretty automated, and time flows extraordinarily fast. The whole day of work today felt like 15 minutes (no hyperbole!), in fact. The two most difficult things to do (other than go-backs, of course!) were to remember to go on break and lunch. Remember go-backs is going to be a real b*tch though-- that's going to be an ongoing process for sure ;-(
I'm starting to get into the rhythm of things now-- a few more days and I'll have nearly my entire job mastered. Towards the end of the day, I'm no longer feeling nervous, and I can now socialize with customers with ease while still performing my job with a professional grace. Safeway is looking to be a very fulfilling and relatively relaxing job. I think I will love my job more and more as my days here go on ;-)
As I'm working a store where I know almost nothing about where everything is, I have either two options when a customer asks where to find "X" item: wander aimlessly and hope against hope I will find the item they're looking for in less than a minute, or pray that there is another courtesy clerk / department manager in the area that can help them find it.
Often, unfortunately, I have been unlucky enough to not be able to do either, and I am left to regretfully tell the customer I wish I could help them, but that I'm new at this store, and have no idea where anything is. It's quite embarrassing, and gives me all the more incentive to learn where everything is in this store ASAP, and by any means store policy will allow.
As such, I have formulated a plan to develop a map of where everything (and I mean everything!) in the store is, and goes-- a blueprint of sorts.
My plans for the blueprint go like this:
1. Number code by isle (1A[#1], 1B[#1])
2. Produce locations coded by PLU# (also known as PAUL: "Produce Accuracy Using Label")
3. Include Legend that accounts for every food, product, and item, at the bottom.
4.Add all vital information regarding the back areas, parking lot, offices, etc.
5. Study, Study, Study!
6. Submit map idea to management.
Other than my difficulties with go-backs (putting items back where they belong) and customer assistance looking for items, today was pretty perfect overall. I did make some mistakes-- mostly in regards to properly logging sweep hours:
I had logged sweeps only once for my sweep hour, but apparently you're supposed to log it twice-- once for each half-hour. As it turns out, this is mostly for auditing purposes-- by making sure that everyone logs their sweeps twice per hour, it can help guarantee no hours are missed-- which is what the auditing team checks for.
Update: The information I was given regarding sweep audits is not only wrong, but it's a breach of Safeway contract and sweep policy. This information was given to me by the 2nd Assistant Manager and fellow courtesy clerks, who believe that doing it that way is more efficient, but the store manager, district manager, and health and safety specialists disagree, and for good reason! I'll explain these reasons in a later post, so stay tuned!
I was actually pretty nervous my first day, and although I smiled a great deal, it was a very nervous, strained smile. While bagging the groceries I messed up a little bit, but nevertheless, the day has passed by very smoothly, and amazingly quickly.
My fellow courtesy clerks are fairly supportive of me, but it's the food clerks (colloquially, they're called "Checkers") that are helping me out the most, particularly with finding things, and backing groceries.
They are also incessantly reminding me of important things like "BOB" (Bottom Of Basket), which refers to items that customers (either accidentally or intentionally) put on the bottom of the cart; there is a high possibility that these items might pass through unpurchased ("free"), if both the Checker and I don't work together to make sure that the items on the bottom of the cart of properly accounted for.
As was first introduced in the Tuesday computer training videos, SHRINK, the codename for inventory which leaves the store unpurchased, refers to items that were purchased in bulk by Safeway for sale, but were never sold due to spoilage, breakage, theft, etc. SHRINK takes away considerably from company profits, and is considered one of Safeway's biggest damage control/liability concerns.
Working at Safeway is pretty easy to get used to if you pay attention-- for the most part, everything's pretty automated, and time flows extraordinarily fast. The whole day of work today felt like 15 minutes (no hyperbole!), in fact. The two most difficult things to do (other than go-backs, of course!) were to remember to go on break and lunch. Remember go-backs is going to be a real b*tch though-- that's going to be an ongoing process for sure ;-(
I'm starting to get into the rhythm of things now-- a few more days and I'll have nearly my entire job mastered. Towards the end of the day, I'm no longer feeling nervous, and I can now socialize with customers with ease while still performing my job with a professional grace. Safeway is looking to be a very fulfilling and relatively relaxing job. I think I will love my job more and more as my days here go on ;-)
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