I’ve heard the following saying often — which fits into professional as well as in personal life — “If you always tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
At the very least, if applied, you don’t have to worry about your memory either. The saying is attributed to Mark Twain, however, I bet every good parent has uttered the same message throughout the ages. Worry being key here. I hear these worries and more expressed from many encounters with produce managers over the years.
“I’m worried about my sales. I’m worried about not hitting my gross profit margin goals. I’m worried about how best to keep my shrink in check.” You get the gist. It’s a string of concerns that can be like a storm cloud hanging over a produce manager and can morph into a confidence-killing path.
I learned long ago that most of the things we worry about never come to pass.
However, some produce managers become so preoccupied with meeting their goals that they are willing to take unconventional actions to try to reach them. They’re basically asking, “What magic bullet is out there to improve a goal by, say 3%, by the end of the quarter?”
The truth is that any secret formula, any “magic bullet,” not unlike the free lunches, were all given out last year — or never existed in the first place.
Related: More insight from Armand Lobato
My advice to such worrisome managers was simple: Stay calm and focus on these steps. (They usually already know them, but it takes someone to remind them from time to time.)
- Order carefully: Scratch that. Order very carefully. Accurate ordering is at the heart of everything in managing a successfully produce department. Arrive as early as possible. Familiarize yourself with your backstock inventory, as well as what is on display. Highlight your order guide so you know what items are coming off the old ad, what items are currently on ad and what items are coming up on ad for the next week. Simple. Then, inventory every item and know what you’re expecting on any inbound loads. Finally, order only what you anticipate selling until your next delivery, considering quality, pricing, anticipated sales and customer traffic. Weigh in factors such as days of the week or month, holidays, sales history, even the weather. Ask a trusted crewmember for another opinion if you’re stuck on a particularly tough decision.
- Rotation: Insist that everyone rotates every produce item, every time they stock, every day. Rotate inbound items in the back room upon delivery. Emphasize that all produce is handled and stored correctly, put away promptly, never breaking the cold chain, and prepping necessary items correctly (i.e., crisping leafy greens and de-lidding and air-stacking bananas daily).
- Keep your eye on the bottom line: As in, check your inbound daily invoices carefully and report any shortages or damage to your distribution center promptly. Your produce department has several internal critical-control points: receiving, billing, pricing system accuracy, cashier produce identification tests and in-store produce transfers (to the salad bar or deli), to name some of the basics. Your chain should have some protocol about how to check on each point to ensure that any possible “bleeding” points can be spotted and dealt with on the spot (such as if the warehouse bills you for a volume fill pack and you receive a tray pack instead, or discovering a cashier who regularly mistakes organic as conventional).
- Training: A wise mentor once said, “Untrained people throw money away.” Training is a constant, whether a clerk is new or seasoned. Take time to ensure that everyone on the crew knows how to handle and stock produce correctly and train them to acknowledge customers and always provide the best customer service.
- Sanitation: Yes, keeping everything regularly cleaned may not seem to directly affect a P&L sheet, but a clean regiment does add a certain discipline to a safe, organized, positive and ultimately profitable produce department.
There’s more to be sure, however, strive to take these few steps — every shift, every day, every week, every month — and you’ll be surprised at how striving to do things right all the time, will result in achieving maximum sales, hitting the best gross profit, with minimal shrink, and best of all, lowering that nagging, worrisome stress.
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.