It’s difficult to drive down any main street without noticing billboards, banners, yard signs, or a handwritten note taped to a business door that reads, Now Hiring!
The sign on the door is also a sign of the times. The U.S. is hiring.
The trouble is, as inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods, there’s not enough workers for all the jobs to fill. Many years ago, I learned in an economics course that when the unemployment rate is at 4%, this is considered full employment; the outstanding 4% are students and seniors — the groups of not yet or no longer in the workforce.
Unemployment rates in many parts of the country are well below 4%. Blame it on COVID-19 aftereffects and “The Great Resignation” period when boomers opted for early retirement. Blame the shortage on our flat birthrate, as fewer people are entering the workforce. Blame it on scores of other equally worthy factors and you will arrive at the same summary: Everyone needs help, especially in the service sector, as well as warehouses, transportation and retail.
Every business, including in the produce department.
Supermarkets have adapted. As consumers, even we are recruited, so to speak, to help with self-checkout. Produce operations have evolved over the years so that things such as prepackaged produce, source-wrapped lettuce and ready-to-display bins of all commodities are commonplace. Each helps reduce the labor hours necessary to prep and stock fresh produce.
However, as one director pointed out to me lately, “It ain’t near enough. Produce is all about hands-on and constant stock maintenance if you want to succeed.”
Indeed. So, this is the time of year when I drag out and stand upon my old, WGA wooden produce crate, and preach about how important it is to line up your extra summer help. Now.
I know, it’s mid-April. I can just hear the pushback: There’s plenty of time to get ready.
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Hardly. Most produce departments’ busiest period is from Memorial Day, peaking during midsummer, with sales not slowing down until well past Labor Day. Consider for a moment the increased volume of stone fruit, cut fruit, watermelon, berries, grapes, melons, salad fixin’s, corn for cookouts and spuds for summer potato salad.
And don’t forget the summer superstar: cherries.
All these commodities require training for proper prepping, handling, rotation, stocking, and more. This training will be imperative. As a mentor once told me, “Untrained people throw money away.”
Your regular clerks will systematically take well-deserved time off this summer. Their vacations, and in fact much of the produce department, occur during the busiest volume and highest shrink period of the year — which is handled with the least experienced hands.
Are you ready?
Now is the time to lock down the extra two, three or more extra bodies needed to fill in your labor needs. This could be the recurring a college student or two who regularly helps, or it might be the produce-experienced cashier, the newly promoted courtesy clerk or any combination of people.
But first, you must make darn sure you have these people committed. After all, plans tend to fall apart, many times at the last minute. Students graduate and move on, or the spare cashier is snatched up by the front-end manager.
Secondly, you must get these people on the schedule to train. Now.
If they can work a few shifts a week between now and summer, you’ll be able to train them so that when the heavy summer volume hits, they’ll be somewhat prepared. Also, you may want to write some mock summer schedules now to match up anticipated sales volume with your available help and labor plan.
It’s mid-April in the produce aisle. Do you know where your summer help is?
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.