Sometimes, the answer to a glaring problem is tough because few want to commit to a big change.
Take, for example, one new store I once oversaw. The location started out with a bang. The produce department sales easily topped $125,000 per week and commanded over 30% of the store’s sales. The produce manager who opened it hailed from a sister store where he was highly regarded.
However, despite the incredible sales, the initial gross profits were poor and only declined over time. Shrink was out of control, and everything was disorganized. Out of frustration, the manager quit just prior to my arrival. How could someone with a successful background fall so flat on his face? It happens.
It wasn’t his fault. The problem had everything to do with the story’s layout.
The backroom was far too small for the volume. Retail produce by nature is a bulk business. We need ample space — space for storage, space for merchandising.
Even worse, the receiving area in the troubled store was shared with several other departments. When the produce load arrived in the morning, there wasn’t enough room to put anything away. Especially as other loads such as dairy, etc. arrived. So, pallets of fresh produce were crammed into any available spot: in the cooler, outside of the cooler, in the dry grocery section, blocking hall space or on the minimal section of outdoor dock space (where the summer temperatures were in the 90s).
Inevitably, items like bananas and tomatoes ended up stored too cold, and extra-sensitive items such as lettuce, mushrooms and berries ended up in the heat, neglected for hours. It was a produce manager’s nightmare.
We had plenty of help, although inexperienced. Without proper training, this only added more fuel to the fire. Produce was mishandled and mis-rotated. You get the picture, and it wasn’t pretty.
The solution? We needed to bring in the produce load at closing time, about 10 p.m.
Related: Read more insight from Armand Lobato
By having a night delivery, we had the bottlenecked backroom space, and entire store, to ourselves. I worked, training two able-bodied clerks for the new produce graveyard shift. (Actually, we lucked out. They volunteered for the shifts, as it worked out for their schedules personally.)
The produce load was taken off the trailer, and “staged” out on the sales floor where we had room. Lesser perishable items were parked in one row, while the extra-perishable pallets needing immediate attention, restacking and refrigeration were tended to first.
One pallet at a time, we properly rotated the cooler, stacked everything neatly so that when finished, clerks had enough space to maneuver, with safe access to anything they needed to stock the next day. Every item neatly arranged so anyone could identify varieties of apples, pears or whatever, and code-dated in the FIFO (first in, first out) method so they could discern what needed to be stocked first. Then the entire backroom was swept and mopped.
No more cluster. No more out-of-control shrink. Inventory and ordering from then on was a snap. Clerks time was more organized, with them spending minimal time in the backroom and more time maintaining displays. Meanwhile, the produce manager could concentrate on training and directing the crew.
At first it took two guys all night to work the load. Some nights were more involved than others, but after they got their rhythm down, they finished early and even had time to get started prepping, crisping leafy greens and setting up the rack, the ad or other morning displays.
You’d think this was an obvious solution, but the store manager was reluctant to switch to the night load. He pushed back hard on the decision, unaware of the potential benefits.
It took many weeks to get delivery schedules set up and management’s blessing to proceed. Overnight produce receiving isn’t for everyone, but in many stores, it helps — especially during heavy volume times, such as holidays.
This store needed the night delivery as a permanent solution. It seemed to work. And along with a new, experienced produce manager on board, things finally started to look up.
Whoever said nothing good happens after midnight?
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.