Why is it that most managers do NOT understand what a FRESH produce department looks like? They will of course come "inspect" the department everyday, go into the backroom and gripe and complain about a few things not being dated, or some items on the salads/fresh kitchen/etc. not being "full enough", but they will never, EVER look at the quality of actual produce. It's even worst when it comes to the green rack. I've been told several times by all co-managers that we get good closes every night, but when I come into the department every morning, I have to put up at least 3 full trucks worth of product that is in the cooler that didn't get put out by the night crew. Even worst, they leave stuff empty and don't quality check when we have the stuff in the back.
The wall rack will also always be a disaster by the time the evening crew gets their hands on it. It can go from visual guide example ready to a huge mess by the time I come in. The problem doesn't rely on the night crew entirely, or at all, because the co-managers never say anything. It's like they have no clue what a good produce department looks like. And they wonder why our fresh scores are always suffering. It's just going to get to the point where everyone starts blaming us dept heads for the mess caused by the incompetency and laziness of useless co-managers.
If these dumb managers had to come in everyday at 5 am and recover the produce department from what didn't get done the night before, they'd change their tunes. But they love to look at things from afar and never close up. It's going to drive me to quitting or finding a new store. I don't want to be the scapegoat because others cannot get in line
1) Are there enough produce employees throughout the day (including 'prime time' from 1 PM to 7 PM) and especially during the last few hours to TRULY get all the work done that needs to be done??? At my store, the answer is NO, there usually are NOT, in spite of what a co-manager or someone else might say. Eschedule / ELMS is crapola. Anyone who actually says that Kroger's work scheduling it is a great system and actually believes it, is living in LaLa Land.
2) What time does your store close? (Is it a 24-hour store?)
3) What time do the produce employees have to clock out for the end of the day?
4) Have any of your co-managers ever worked in produce? If so, they may realize what a bunch of BS the Produce "standards" are for the "Good Close" and will perhaps give a decent score because they realize there is not time and enough help to get it all looking good again, especially on Sat, Sun and Mon evenings when our sloppy, careless and thoughtless customers literally TRASH the produce dept, (all parts of the dept but especially the salads section and the green rack).
5) How large is your store? Is the display area (sales floor) close to the storerooms/cooler, or a considerable distance away which involved ALOT of walking and dragging heavy carts back and forth all day?
6) What is the weekly sales for your store, and your dept on average?
7) You sound almost as if it is the co-managers themselves that are actually working in produce and are leaving you the mess. Yeah, I know they are "responsible" for the 'good close sheet' but the dept can never be made to look really "magazine perfect" in the evenings with the skeleton crew we have at our store. Especially when some of the product is running out (no backstock to get out of the cooler). (Don't know about your store.......maybe you do have some lazy employees in the evening, but still yet, even with great workers, the hours given to Produce dept is ABYSMAL!! So unfair of a company like Kroger that has a net profit of over a billion $ a year and refuses to staff depts so the store really looks good. And if ALL the tasks listed on the "GOOD CLOSE SHEET" was done AS THEY REALLY SHOULD BE DONE, it would take a few more hours in the evenings. As it is now, they expect Produce employees to be leaving and clocking out at 9:00 PM sharp.
This is why it's usually cool to get a Manager or Co-Manager that came from being a Department Head (Produce, Grocery, Drug). They understand the struggle. But like I said "usually". We got a CM in my store now that was a Produce Lead for a couple years, so he knows how to talk to them and understands their system. On the flip side of that, I've also had a CM that was a Deli Lead but he only spent time helping the Deli when they needed it and neglected other departments. Or just straight up didn't know other departments operated.
Then sometimes you get a Manager who doesn't have a clue how any of the departments or the backrooms work, yeah they suck. They're the ones that were Customer Service Managers or something. Only know Front End Operations and the like.
Yeah, all of you guys are speaking TRUTH! I find myself agreeing with everyone here...Still, the question remains...Does anybody DO a damn thing about it???? NOOOOOO!!!
