Im just wondering do any other kroger stores make their courtesy clerks stay on the hot parking lot for five hours. Because ita too hot outside for us to be out there that long and I haven't seen this done at other Krogers stores I have been to
during the summer temps we have 30 minute lot times but do have to do it more than once a shift. during colder temps its a hour long.
are you waiting for someone to come get you outside? cause they won't, they will forget about you. you're just suppose to come in after your time is up
yes, i've been outside for 4+ hours in 90+ temps. It's not fun.
Sure as **** beats being a cashier's slave. at least outside you can't be bitched at. If a manager wants to sit outside and critique your cart pushing abilities, then let em. The sight of manual labor will scare them back into the accounting closet.
We usually have one person scheduled outside from 7 to 3:30 on weekdays. They can come inside for water and quick rests, and if there's not many carts outside they can bag or clean (or cashier if they know how) until the carts come back. If it gets really busy to the point where that person can't even take quick rests (which is really rare in the summer since we're a college town), we do our best to send a 2nd person outside. I've been there done that (and still do 1-2 times a week if needed), not the most glamorous job sure, but between choosing our break/lunch times and getting to rest if we're tired, I don't mind too much.
-- Edited by Going 4011 on Tuesday 17th of June 2014 01:54:27 AM
Our store typically works like this. At around 11 p.m. each evening our remaining Courtesy Clerks are released from shift. We don't have courtesy clerks come back on shift until around 6-8 a.m. depending on the day (since Kroger does that stupid eschedule...). The first courtesy clerks to work in the morning, well, we are usually "slow" until around noon (again depending on the day but during the week and even on Saturdays and Sundays this is typical) so if we have, say, two courtesy clerks working, and both self check-outs and maybe one express line, then one of the courtesy clerks will go do gobacks. Or sometimes both of them will do gobacks and just get called back to the register if we get a line. I have received a phone call at 6:30 a.m. before asking if I would come in just for gobacks. The time I have done that, I worked four hours that morning doing nothing but gobacks.
So anyway. The courtesy clerks usually don't have to worry about carts in the morning. We have a single courtesy clerk working the entire parking lot from 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. Then another by themselves from 11 a.m. - noon. After the 12 p.m. hour it depends on the day and the eschedule predicted sales, but most of the time we still have a single courtesy clerk working the parking lot (which, if I wasn't clear, means the main entrance and the other side entrance) from noon - 1 p.m. At 1 p.m. we usually have two courtesy clerks working the 'lot, one on one side (left) and one on the other side (right).
Now I have seen it scheduled for the same courtesy clerk to work for two hours in one morning -- I had to do it myself once from noon - 2 p.m. but in the mornings our store generally switches out with one person. During the day, however, I have no idea how the hell we get our assigned 'lot hours. I have had a four-hour shift where three hours was in the parking lot. Basically two hours on one side then an hour off then the other hour on the opposite side I was before. I have had two-hour shifts from 1 - 3 p.m. It just varies.
Having a single courtesy clerk out for hours at a time is ridiculous especially in our Atlanta market. As it stands I have never seen a courtesy clerk be scheduled for 'lot duty for more than two hours at a time; but, again, I have had a schedule where I worked only four hours that day and three of them in total were in the parking lot. And if we have customers that seem to come out of the Twilight Zone you do have days where the carts are impossible to keep up with and you Sissyphus them in-and-in for what seems like forever. If we get days like that even if we have two on the 'lot sometimes we send out a third or fourth depending on the need for carts.
As a courtesy clerk if I were to quit and give a single reason why I quit the parking lot would be that reason. It's slave labor pure and simple. I know it's part of my job but in 90-degree temperatures or 18-degree temperatures or pouring rain, it's just not worth it for minimum wage. Especially in the rain since Kroger has no way to dry their carts but the hot temperatures are a bitch too. I have asked for a second store uniform shirt because lately with the hot temps here in our Atlanta market I come in off the parking lot looking like someone hit me with a hose.
Wow... some of these responses are really surprising. Where I'm at, the cart duty schedule for the day is made out by the opening self-scan attendant. All the courtesy clerks take turns and aren't kept outside for more than thirty minutes, when it's then time for the next person to come out. In the summer months, it's fifteen minutes.
A lot of times, reading what others have to go through at other stores, I stop to remind myself as bad as things sometimes get where I work, apparently there are far, far worse stores out there.
Our store just randomly pulls people from various departments (mainly courtesy clerks and utility) and have them round up for 15 minutes or so at a time. I couldn't imagine how it would be cost effective to have one person police the carts for hours (but it certainly sounds cruel).
Our store just randomly pulls people from various departments (mainly courtesy clerks and utility) and have them round up for 15 minutes or so at a time. I couldn't imagine how it would be cost effective to have one person police the carts for hours (but it certainly sounds cruel).
my store only uses weed smoking teenagers to get carts. they'll sit in their car and go back in after about a half hour saying that there was traffic or some other BS. if you actually bring in carts youll be promoted to cashier in about 4 months, meanwhile kroger doesn't hire another bagger until after they need one. so youll be a cashier bringing in carts for a few weeks. at least your getting an extra dime an hour, but otoh you're getting less hours and probably crappier shifts.
I can't bear to make my guys go out there for more than 30 minutes. During the summer, like now, the temps can get 100+ and with significant humidity. And I always thank them for getting carts too. I know it's a chore.
I can't bear to make my guys go out there for more than 30 minutes. During the summer, like now, the temps can get 100+ and with significant humidity. And I always thank them for getting carts too. I know it's a chore.
Which market are you in?
Here in Georgia at my store, which is close to Atlanta, we have at least been provided with a cooler, some of the chopped ice and one of the 20 (25?)-pack Kroger brand waters.
But we still are scheduled in one-hour increments.
I have learned to stay inside the cart storage area when I bring in carts for at least a few minutes at a time. Damn them if they are busy and the number of carts are low. Those shirts DO NOT BREATHE, PERIOD. END OF STORY. I always look like I fell into a pond when I am done. They are still waiting to see if they will give me a second shirt or not. And if you want to talk humidity, well, there is a reason that the older homes in Georgia still keep their windows open during the day. Georgia humidity is some of the most brutal in the entire country regardless of the season but especially in summer. It can rival California or Arizona, where at least the heat tends to be a dry heat.
