I've just been told that i am going to be the frozen lead. I've been working in grocery as a night stocker for a couple of years and was going into the ADH program, but, they decided to put me in frozen instead after the last three leads quit. Any tips? What is it like on a day to day basis? It looks like there is nobody to train me and i'll have to figure out how to run the department on my own except for maybe the cbts to guide me. Thanks
I'll be happy to answer any questions! I'm frozen lead currently. The biggest thing with running any stock based department is inventory control. The more product you hold on backstock, the more overall time it takes to work. It's much better to keep as low backstock as possible using the truck schedule to your advantage. Do not confuse this with never having backstock. On any given night my frozen department has 7 silver 4 wheelers(that you hook to drag out) and 4 u-boats about 1/4 full of backstock. Some things will require backstock to make sure they don't run out as they typically buy in spurts. IE, you may not have sold any all week, but someone comes in and buys 7-8 on a Friday and if you hadn't have ordered one in for the weekend you'd be out of luck. Having a tight inventory control will also allow you to know what's back there when ordering. You won't have to second guess an order if you see a hole on the shelf.
Easy tips for inventory control:
1) Make sure you change any incorrect balances whenever you see them. The warehouse is far from perfect and will send you product you did not order, and will short you product you did. Changing these when you recognize them saves you from forgetting later and ensures CAO has correct numbers to work off of.
2) SWIM out any product you do not think you can move in a week. This is especially true for product that gets sent to me that I don't order. Every week I will SWIM out product from changed out displays that I could not move before the sale ended. This depends a LOT on your store volume, and how fast the product moves outside of a sale price. Obviously this will change on a store to store basis. If you don't already, make sure you have at least 2 shelves of a door designated for SWIM. I have a full door, but higher volume stores may not want that much space allocated. Get with your store manager about this if it is an issue. Also, any bagged items that are being SWIM'd, make sure you tape the sticker on there, otherwise the defrost will make them slide right off!
3) Setting minimums: The general rule I like to follow is (Allocation - PAK - 1). This is not a hard and steady rule, and different items require different minimums to keep things to where I want them. For example, if I use this on Kroger Garlic Bread, it will always order me 1-2 cases of backstock on order nights because of the fact it will sell the next day. I see no need for this backstock as the shelf holds a lot, and runs little to no risk of running out if I wait till the next truck, so I bump my minimum down to only order about what the shelf will hold after 1 day of sales. This is NOT the case for things that may only have 1 row of product or low minimums to begin with. Again, this is a store to store basis, and you'll have to get used to what sells and what doesn't to set them appropriately.
4) Review your order. Make sure you allocate enough time for ordering! A lot of new leads/department heads underestimate how important this factor is. Staying with best practices, and keeping inventory at a lower level should allow you enough time to do this properly. CAO is not perfect even if your balances all are. Experience is what will perfect this part of it. I usually spend 45 minutes on ISP reviewing each order. CAO will want to order SWIM'd out items as they will be tagged with higher than average movement, holiday items will also be tagged for extra product for usually 2 weeks after the fact. For example, CAO was wanting to order absurd amounts of cool whip up to 2 weeks after Christmas. I always take things off of every order, with the average % of change being around 30%
Displays: Always set on Tuesday night, make sure product is here.
1) Vendor items! Most weeks you'll have at least 1 display door allocated to a vendor. I always set it for them, then if it is as multiple week sale, they will come in and merchandise it. Some stores leaves the display empty and have vendors do it all, however this leaves a gaping white shelf that looks terrible so I don't. Don't be afraid to leave notes for your vendors if you want them to do something, or get with your DSD receiver to deliver a message.
2) Ordering for a display change! This is largely dependent on not only store volume, but the sales price of the item & length of time on display. For example this month we have Healthy Choice & Marie Callendar dinners on sale for $1.88 these move very fast at these prices. Because of this I ordered to pack out the display and keep it full throughout the duration of the month long event. The same item at $2.00 does not sell nearly as well and I would have played it differently.
3) Selling down! If you notice that something will be going off the display plan next week, stop ordering the product to fill and let CAO take care of that. If you need some to keep the display looking decent, that's fine otherwise letting it sell down by itself will ensure you have minimal left over product after the sale. Again, a big contributing factor to keeping inventory in control.
4) Distributions! Always check your distributions. Citrix -> IE -> Applications -> ESI -> Distributions/Promotional This will allow you to make sure you don't over order for displays. For example, we had 2 pallets of Totinos pizzas come in as distros for our 10/10 sale the next couple of weeks.
Random Tips
1) Fast movers I always keep on backstock close to the door. At my store I keep Michellinas & Totinos Pizzas on there. If there are any other super hot ad items I'll keep them there too. You won't usually have time to work any backstock on load nights, so having hot product close to the door will allow you to easily cherry pick holes/low spots that may have occurred during the day.
2) A lot of things will come down to store experience. You getting used to what sells and when it sells. A good habit to get into is always F3'ing an item to check movement so that you can adjust orders appropriately.
3) Schedule properly! Always pull your sales plan as soon as possible and see how many displays will be changing out the following week. Weeks with lots of display changes I'll have someone in here with me, and weeks without any I won't.
4) Keep things organized. I know the freezer is cold, but it is absolutely necessary to keep things organized so that you can keep track of product and utilize all of the space that you have. Trust me, it won't be enough a lot of the time.
5) Train whoever else is in your department with the gun. Make sure they are changing incorrect balances when they see them as well.
If the last 3 leads have quit, you're likely heading into a mess. Don't let this panic you. If necessary ask your store manager for some extra help for a week to get things organized and to your liking so that it may be run efficiently.
There are tons of things I'm leaving out/forgetting(specifically holidays), but if you have any questions feel free to post them here.
EDIT: Something else to note: Order nights. When the poll time opens, I review the order in ISP, then I go and walk the department, order & condition as I go. This entire process usually takes the majority of the poll time(1:15-4AM) Lots of people try to minimize this time because their department is not organized, and other things take a lot longer. Don't be that guy, keep it organized & tight so you can do a proper order. Trust me, it'll make your life a lot easier.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Saturday 7th of February 2015 03:38:44 PM
wow, thank you so much! I'm sure I'll have more questions down the road but you left me plenty to chew on for the time being. Very much appreciated kind sir.
Same as Grocery except much smaller trucks from my experience. I have only helped in frozen on occasion. 3 aisles vs 10 aisles. I have been in grocery for the last 7 years. When unloading the trucks, they would have 3 pallets vs 14 pallets of grocery. 200-300 cases vs 800-1200 cases.
The Grocery manager can teach you to pull up, print and plan the sales plans. Learn as much as you can from the Day Grocery manager if they are knowledgeable. If you are quick, you can run off of pallets. If not, you will need to figure out how to get the truck broke down in a timely manner. Most people do not like running ice cream so always run that first when there are less customers in the store. See if you have a blanket to keep the pallets cold. Treat your crew well. I hope you get a crew! lol. Teach them to scan residual backstock daily. Casually check allocation and mins often. Run backstock carts daily after you get settled in. Do a full backstock scan on the carts when they are supposed to be scanned. Separate the backstock carts into sections or aisles or fast sellers vs slow sellers. Figure out how to make freezer area have a good workflow.
Ordering is just like Grocery except you use frozen review instead of grocery. Try not to over order at first. Figure out what are the fast sellers and what needs to be stocked and how often. Maybe at first, only order holes/low spots and let the computer order other items until you get he hang of it.
Learn how to use the CAO functions. F3 shows the daily sales amounts for the last month. Order forecast uses those numbers when ordering. Control O shows when items were ordered and if they were received. F0, F9 shows when BOHs were changed within last 30 days. If it is a 5 digit #, that means a shipper has been sent. Learn how to edit the order in ISP before sending it to make sure you aren't getting items you do not need. I think you have to use the CAO to change a 1 case to 0 cases. You can edit 10 cases to 1 case in ISP.
Good luck.
If you do well, you could make it to a department manager eventually.
"IE, you may not have sold any all week, but someone comes in and buys 7-8 on a Friday and if you hadn't have ordered one in for the weekend you'd be out of luck."
Yah, I run and order the canned veggie aisle in a high volume store. I have customers that keep doing this to me! And they buy everything on the shelf randomly and the strangest products. I will do an order the night before, the shelf will be full of no salt green beans. Someone will buy all 48 of them! I won't have more for another 2 days...
Last thing that got bought out was my 12 pks of ramen noodles. Someone bought all 40 chicken and 20 Beef all in one day.
Yep, same as grocery really. The main difference in frozen I notice is I have to keep more backstock. This will depend on store volume as well, but if you're in a 3 truck schedule store like mine, (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) the Friday order is always going to be bigger than the rest and you'll have a boat load of backstock if it all gets worked on Friday(due to the fact that all of the sales will be done Saturday/Sunday) but by the end of the weekend it should be back to normal levels. A typical week for my store is ~450 Monday ~350 Wednesday ~550 Friday. I usually work alone on Wednesday.
"IE, you may not have sold any all week, but someone comes in and buys 7-8 on a Friday and if you hadn't have ordered one in for the weekend you'd be out of luck."
Yah, I run and order the canned veggie aisle in a high volume store. I have customers that keep doing this to me! And they buy everything on the shelf randomly and the strangest products. I will do an order the night before, the shelf will be full of no salt green beans. Someone will buy all 48 of them! I won't have more for another 2 days...
Last thing that got bought out was my 12 pks of ramen noodles. Someone bought all 40 chicken and 20 Beef all in one day.
Yep lol. I always would order at least an extra case of each of the canned veggies for the weekend just for situations like that, even if the shelf was full. They sell regardless. Well except for wax beans, they hardly touch those.
Thanks for the additional tips! The ADH (Asistant Dept Head)program is what people at my store informally call the new course that prospective backup leads have to take in order to be certified. I guess before the program the regional mgr just visited the store and talked to you for a few minutes to see if you know what you are doing and boom your certified. Anyway, thanks again for the great tips! :)
I wish it took me 45 minutes to order, but it takes an hour on average. And if they buy a whole lot of stuff.. 2hours. My dept does 160k a week -,-
Frozen Food is really all about 2 things: 1. Keeping the aisles "healthy". And 2: Preventing the Freezer from being over saturated with backstock. Because yes yes, when it gets out of hand, it takes a LONG LONG time to get back down.
Running Frozen Food can be no different from a Grocery Manager running Grocery. Store managers can grill you to the point of murder. Especially when it comes to the got damn Ice machines.
Not to mention you have a lot of responsibilities, that require you be a master at time crunching.
Above all things, ORDERING TAKES PRIORITY. Always set time for ordering, no matter what.
Tonight is my first night in Frozen and there will be a 450 piece truck. I'll be by myself from 11pm-5am and then joined by the other frozen clerk who is scheduled from 5am to 1pm. How long does it normally take to stock a load that big alone? I've only helped condition frozen maybe three times in all my time at kroger so i'm not familiar at all with where any of the items are located. Is it realistic for me to expect to have the truck done by the time i leave? Also, is it normal to have the relief come in at 5? Sorry for all the stupid questions I just want to know what to expect.
-- Edited by biscuitparty on Sunday 8th of February 2015 12:41:29 PM
450 pieces should take around 10 hours of stocking time. If I have to do everything by myself, I can usually throw on average 350 pieces + condition in an 8 hour shift without killing myself. If you don't have to condition, I'd wager that you'll have 1-2 pallets left for the other guy to finish up + condition. Why you're working 2 different shifts, I don't know. It really depends on how you work, I actually work earlier(8P-4A) so I have a 4 hour window where the store is open, so I don't spot anything. Spotting will obviously let you work faster.
By ice machines, do you mean the bags of ice that we sell? During the summer months the vendor just drops a pallet in our freezer and I'll fill when we get low, and in the winter the volume is much lower so the vendor takes care of everything. Different stores will be different though.
I wish it took me 45 minutes to order, but it takes an hour on average. And if they buy a whole lot of stuff.. 2hours. My dept does 160k a week -,-
Frozen Food is really all about 2 things: 1. Keeping the aisles "healthy". And 2: Preventing the Freezer from being over saturated with backstock. Because yes yes, when it gets out of hand, it takes a LONG LONG time to get back down.
160k in frozen a week? Jesus. What's your store volume 1.5M+? It would have to be. I'm guessing you are probably cinci/ATL division given that volume. Just the order review takes me 45 minutes, then I'll order as I condition anything CAO didn't pick up. Given your volume I'm assuming you have at least 5-6 trucks a week.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Sunday 8th of February 2015 07:32:58 PM
I'm working on my day off to organize the freezer and backstock carts. Right now, non of the carts are labeled and backstock is just randonly placed everywhere. How do i print out those "best practices" cart labels like the ones grocery uses for it's backstock and what is the best way to divide up the carts? By aisie, section, brands? Thanks.
I'm working on my day off to organize the freezer and backstock carts. Right now, non of the carts are labeled and backstock is just randonly placed everywhere. How do i print out those "best practices" cart labels like the ones grocery uses for it's backstock and what is the best way to divide up the carts? By aisie, section, brands? Thanks.
As far as printing off, I'm not sure, I'd just leave a note for management and have them do it when you have it organized the way you want it.
How you divide it, is up to you. My store has separated bread(biscuits/garlic bread etc) and chicken sections of the store so I keep them on u-boats. As for on the aisle, keep in mind that you don't want to have to walk too much once you bring it out there, so keep each section in one area, but have it make sense too. I have one for breakfast, one for veggies, one for TV dinners, one for pizzas/potatoes/hotpocket area, one for ice cream novelties, and one for ice cream pales. I also have a fast movers u-boat & a sales u-boat. But that's just how my store is setup, yours is probably different.
I'll be happy to answer any questions! I'm frozen lead currently. The biggest thing with running any stock based department is inventory control. The more product you hold on backstock, the more overall time it takes to work. It's much better to keep as low backstock as possible using the truck schedule to your advantage. Do not confuse this with never having backstock. On any given night my frozen department has 7 silver 4 wheelers(that you hook to drag out) and 4 u-boats about 1/4 full of backstock. Some things will require backstock to make sure they don't run out as they typically buy in spurts. IE, you may not have sold any all week, but someone comes in and buys 7-8 on a Friday and if you hadn't have ordered one in for the weekend you'd be out of luck. Having a tight inventory control will also allow you to know what's back there when ordering. You won't have to second guess an order if you see a hole on the shelf.
Easy tips for inventory control:
1) Make sure you change any incorrect balances whenever you see them. The warehouse is far from perfect and will send you product you did not order, and will short you product you did. Changing these when you recognize them saves you from forgetting later and ensures CAO has correct numbers to work off of.
2) SWIM out any product you do not think you can move in a week. This is especially true for product that gets sent to me that I don't order. Every week I will SWIM out product from changed out displays that I could not move before the sale ended. This depends a LOT on your store volume, and how fast the product moves outside of a sale price. Obviously this will change on a store to store basis. If you don't already, make sure you have at least 2 shelves of a door designated for SWIM. I have a full door, but higher volume stores may not want that much space allocated. Get with your store manager about this if it is an issue. Also, any bagged items that are being SWIM'd, make sure you tape the sticker on there, otherwise the defrost will make them slide right off!
3) Setting minimums: The general rule I like to follow is (Allocation - PAK - 1). This is not a hard and steady rule, and different items require different minimums to keep things to where I want them. For example, if I use this on Kroger Garlic Bread, it will always order me 1-2 cases of backstock on order nights because of the fact it will sell the next day. I see no need for this backstock as the shelf holds a lot, and runs little to no risk of running out if I wait till the next truck, so I bump my minimum down to only order about what the shelf will hold after 1 day of sales. This is NOT the case for things that may only have 1 row of product or low minimums to begin with. Again, this is a store to store basis, and you'll have to get used to what sells and what doesn't to set them appropriately.
4) Review your order. Make sure you allocate enough time for ordering! A lot of new leads/department heads underestimate how important this factor is. Staying with best practices, and keeping inventory at a lower level should allow you enough time to do this properly. CAO is not perfect even if your balances all are. Experience is what will perfect this part of it. I usually spend 45 minutes on ISP reviewing each order. CAO will want to order SWIM'd out items as they will be tagged with higher than average movement, holiday items will also be tagged for extra product for usually 2 weeks after the fact. For example, CAO was wanting to order absurd amounts of cool whip up to 2 weeks after Christmas. I always take things off of every order, with the average % of change being around 30%
Displays: Always set on Tuesday night, make sure product is here.
1) Vendor items! Most weeks you'll have at least 1 display door allocated to a vendor. I always set it for them, then if it is as multiple week sale, they will come in and merchandise it. Some stores leaves the display empty and have vendors do it all, however this leaves a gaping white shelf that looks terrible so I don't. Don't be afraid to leave notes for your vendors if you want them to do something, or get with your DSD receiver to deliver a message.
2) Ordering for a display change! This is largely dependent on not only store volume, but the sales price of the item & length of time on display. For example this month we have Healthy Choice & Marie Callendar dinners on sale for $1.88 these move very fast at these prices. Because of this I ordered to pack out the display and keep it full throughout the duration of the month long event. The same item at $2.00 does not sell nearly as well and I would have played it differently.
3) Selling down! If you notice that something will be going off the display plan next week, stop ordering the product to fill and let CAO take care of that. If you need some to keep the display looking decent, that's fine otherwise letting it sell down by itself will ensure you have minimal left over product after the sale. Again, a big contributing factor to keeping inventory in control.
4) Distributions! Always check your distributions. Citrix -> IE -> Applications -> ESI -> Distributions/Promotional This will allow you to make sure you don't over order for displays. For example, we had 2 pallets of Totinos pizzas come in as distros for our 10/10 sale the next couple of weeks.
Random Tips
1) Fast movers I always keep on backstock close to the door. At my store I keep Michellinas & Totinos Pizzas on there. If there are any other super hot ad items I'll keep them there too. You won't usually have time to work any backstock on load nights, so having hot product close to the door will allow you to easily cherry pick holes/low spots that may have occurred during the day.
2) A lot of things will come down to store experience. You getting used to what sells and when it sells. A good habit to get into is always F3'ing an item to check movement so that you can adjust orders appropriately.
3) Schedule properly! Always pull your sales plan as soon as possible and see how many displays will be changing out the following week. Weeks with lots of display changes I'll have someone in here with me, and weeks without any I won't.
4) Keep things organized. I know the freezer is cold, but it is absolutely necessary to keep things organized so that you can keep track of product and utilize all of the space that you have. Trust me, it won't be enough a lot of the time.
5) Train whoever else is in your department with the gun. Make sure they are changing incorrect balances when they see them as well.
If the last 3 leads have quit, you're likely heading into a mess. Don't let this panic you. If necessary ask your store manager for some extra help for a week to get things organized and to your liking so that it may be run efficiently.
There are tons of things I'm leaving out/forgetting(specifically holidays), but if you have any questions feel free to post them here.
EDIT: Something else to note: Order nights. When the poll time opens, I review the order in ISP, then I go and walk the department, order & condition as I go. This entire process usually takes the majority of the poll time(1:15-4AM) Lots of people try to minimize this time because their department is not organized, and other things take a lot longer. Don't be that guy, keep it organized & tight so you can do a proper order. Trust me, it'll make your life a lot easier.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Saturday 7th of February 2015 03:38:44 PM
This is still the best advice i've received so far on here and anywhere. I've been Frozen Lead for about a month and I still come back and read this post a few times every couple of days to squeeze out a few more gems to help me better do my job. Thanks again and if you have any addittional tips that you can provide that you forgot to mention that would be fantastic. You should be promoted or be a district frozen dept trainer or something
I'll be happy to answer any questions! I'm frozen lead currently. The biggest thing with running any stock based department is inventory control. The more product you hold on backstock, the more overall time it takes to work. It's much better to keep as low backstock as possible using the truck schedule to your advantage. Do not confuse this with never having backstock. On any given night my frozen department has 7 silver 4 wheelers(that you hook to drag out) and 4 u-boats about 1/4 full of backstock. Some things will require backstock to make sure they don't run out as they typically buy in spurts. IE, you may not have sold any all week, but someone comes in and buys 7-8 on a Friday and if you hadn't have ordered one in for the weekend you'd be out of luck. Having a tight inventory control will also allow you to know what's back there when ordering. You won't have to second guess an order if you see a hole on the shelf.
Easy tips for inventory control:
1) Make sure you change any incorrect balances whenever you see them. The warehouse is far from perfect and will send you product you did not order, and will short you product you did. Changing these when you recognize them saves you from forgetting later and ensures CAO has correct numbers to work off of.
2) SWIM out any product you do not think you can move in a week. This is especially true for product that gets sent to me that I don't order. Every week I will SWIM out product from changed out displays that I could not move before the sale ended. This depends a LOT on your store volume, and how fast the product moves outside of a sale price. Obviously this will change on a store to store basis. If you don't already, make sure you have at least 2 shelves of a door designated for SWIM. I have a full door, but higher volume stores may not want that much space allocated. Get with your store manager about this if it is an issue. Also, any bagged items that are being SWIM'd, make sure you tape the sticker on there, otherwise the defrost will make them slide right off!
3) Setting minimums: The general rule I like to follow is (Allocation - PAK - 1). This is not a hard and steady rule, and different items require different minimums to keep things to where I want them. For example, if I use this on Kroger Garlic Bread, it will always order me 1-2 cases of backstock on order nights because of the fact it will sell the next day. I see no need for this backstock as the shelf holds a lot, and runs little to no risk of running out if I wait till the next truck, so I bump my minimum down to only order about what the shelf will hold after 1 day of sales. This is NOT the case for things that may only have 1 row of product or low minimums to begin with. Again, this is a store to store basis, and you'll have to get used to what sells and what doesn't to set them appropriately.
4) Review your order. Make sure you allocate enough time for ordering! A lot of new leads/department heads underestimate how important this factor is. Staying with best practices, and keeping inventory at a lower level should allow you enough time to do this properly. CAO is not perfect even if your balances all are. Experience is what will perfect this part of it. I usually spend 45 minutes on ISP reviewing each order. CAO will want to order SWIM'd out items as they will be tagged with higher than average movement, holiday items will also be tagged for extra product for usually 2 weeks after the fact. For example, CAO was wanting to order absurd amounts of cool whip up to 2 weeks after Christmas. I always take things off of every order, with the average % of change being around 30%
Displays: Always set on Tuesday night, make sure product is here.
1) Vendor items! Most weeks you'll have at least 1 display door allocated to a vendor. I always set it for them, then if it is as multiple week sale, they will come in and merchandise it. Some stores leaves the display empty and have vendors do it all, however this leaves a gaping white shelf that looks terrible so I don't. Don't be afraid to leave notes for your vendors if you want them to do something, or get with your DSD receiver to deliver a message.
2) Ordering for a display change! This is largely dependent on not only store volume, but the sales price of the item & length of time on display. For example this month we have Healthy Choice & Marie Callendar dinners on sale for $1.88 these move very fast at these prices. Because of this I ordered to pack out the display and keep it full throughout the duration of the month long event. The same item at $2.00 does not sell nearly as well and I would have played it differently.
3) Selling down! If you notice that something will be going off the display plan next week, stop ordering the product to fill and let CAO take care of that. If you need some to keep the display looking decent, that's fine otherwise letting it sell down by itself will ensure you have minimal left over product after the sale. Again, a big contributing factor to keeping inventory in control.
4) Distributions! Always check your distributions. Citrix -> IE -> Applications -> ESI -> Distributions/Promotional This will allow you to make sure you don't over order for displays. For example, we had 2 pallets of Totinos pizzas come in as distros for our 10/10 sale the next couple of weeks.
Random Tips
1) Fast movers I always keep on backstock close to the door. At my store I keep Michellinas & Totinos Pizzas on there. If there are any other super hot ad items I'll keep them there too. You won't usually have time to work any backstock on load nights, so having hot product close to the door will allow you to easily cherry pick holes/low spots that may have occurred during the day.
2) A lot of things will come down to store experience. You getting used to what sells and when it sells. A good habit to get into is always F3'ing an item to check movement so that you can adjust orders appropriately.
3) Schedule properly! Always pull your sales plan as soon as possible and see how many displays will be changing out the following week. Weeks with lots of display changes I'll have someone in here with me, and weeks without any I won't.
4) Keep things organized. I know the freezer is cold, but it is absolutely necessary to keep things organized so that you can keep track of product and utilize all of the space that you have. Trust me, it won't be enough a lot of the time.
5) Train whoever else is in your department with the gun. Make sure they are changing incorrect balances when they see them as well.
If the last 3 leads have quit, you're likely heading into a mess. Don't let this panic you. If necessary ask your store manager for some extra help for a week to get things organized and to your liking so that it may be run efficiently.
There are tons of things I'm leaving out/forgetting(specifically holidays), but if you have any questions feel free to post them here.
EDIT: Something else to note: Order nights. When the poll time opens, I review the order in ISP, then I go and walk the department, order & condition as I go. This entire process usually takes the majority of the poll time(1:15-4AM) Lots of people try to minimize this time because their department is not organized, and other things take a lot longer. Don't be that guy, keep it organized & tight so you can do a proper order. Trust me, it'll make your life a lot easier.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Saturday 7th of February 2015 03:38:44 PM
This is still the best advice i've received so far on here and anywhere. I've been Frozen Lead for about a month and I still come back and read this post a few times every couple of days to squeeze out a few more gems to help me better do my job. Thanks again and if you have any addittional tips that you can provide that you forgot to mention that would be fantastic. You should be promoted or be a district frozen dept trainer or something
You're welcome. If you aren't already, be on the grocery conference call. Maybe some divisions have a frozen specific call, but ours just has grocery & dairy, so they are urging frozen leads to attend the grocery one. You don't need to be at the store to do this, I always do it from my home as it's outside of my store hours. A good coordinator will alert of hot items & be there to answer any questions for you. It's also good to try to form a good relationship with them as they can be your go-to for information. Ours is currently my old store manager, so it's a bit easier to communicate with.
Ordering for display changes, I always pull up the excel sheet that provides scan data from past sales to order the top movers to put on display(Same place you find the sales plan). It allows me to order directly off of a spreadsheet instead of having to walk the aisle and find everything that is changing out. It's also good to get in the habit of knowing how much product fits to a shelf, so that you can order your displays properly ahead of time. For example, 2 cases of most dinners per row. So for example if my lean cuisines/stouffers are going on for $1.88 or cheaper, I know I'll have 4 shelves + 1 tie-in. And I also know that each shelf = 4 rows. So, I'd be ordering 2 cases of 16 different items to fill the display(obviously you can do less variety, really depends on the store/how you run it). It's a lot easier than just ordering a lot and not doing the math.
Other than that, I pretty much covered it I think. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer if I can.
Ordering for display changes, I always pull up the excel sheet that provides scan data from past sales to order the top movers to put on display(Same place you find the sales plan). It allows me to order directly off of a spreadsheet instead of having to walk the aisle and find everything that is changing out. It's also good to get in the habit of knowing how much product fits to a shelf, so that you can order your displays properly ahead of time. For example, 2 cases of most dinners per row. So for example if my lean cuisines/stouffers are going on for $1.88 or cheaper, I know I'll have 4 shelves + 1 tie-in. And I also know that each shelf = 4 rows. So, I'd be ordering 2 cases of 16 different items to fill the display(obviously you can do less variety, really depends on the store/how you run it). It's a lot easier than just ordering a lot and not doing the math.
Other than that, I pretty much covered it I think. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer if I can.
I was looking for that last night and stumbled across something called Gap Allocation tool. It opened up an excel spreadsheet but didn't have any frozen info on it, just Dry Grocery. Is that what you are referring to? Also, could you break down elms and how many hours my dept should be alloted? We are currently at around 27,000 in weekly sales. Before i took over the dept, the store manager told me that I would have 120 hours, that number has steadily decreased to about 90-100 hours despite my sales increasing every week.
That's not what I was referring to. If you go to where your display plan is located, it should be an excel file in the same place. It will have most of the display items listed with divisional movement on past sales. For example, we're getting ready for the Easter ad, so Sister Schuberts & cool whip are on one priority. It showed all the participating flavors and their respective divisional movements so you can see which ones are the most popular regionally. I suppose it's possible your division doesn't have this information, but it seems to me that it'd be detrimental not to.
Also, your coordinator should have(or will be shortly) sending you scan data from last easter to help you with easter ordering. You can also look this up when you go to grocery merchandising on the left side, there should be an easter holiday sales link. It should be in the format of an excel spreadsheet where you have a drop down box where you select your store. Then, on the movement side, right click and sort largest to smallest. This information is crucial as you'll have to anticipate these heavy movers the week of easter. For example, we sold something like 400 tubs of cool whip, 350 sister schuberts of each kind, 80 pecan pies, 60 coconut flakes etc. The warehouse will also start scratching these items the closer to Easter you get, so it's important to bring it in, and make space for it around a week early. Also, if your store is currently doing the marie callendar pies for $4.99 through easter, I keep a u-boat pretty much full of them at all times. Our shelves only hold 4-6 of each kind, so I always order a case when they drop below 10 for the duration of the event.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Monday 23rd of March 2015 03:50:55 PM
That's not what I was referring to. If you go to where your display plan is located, it should be an excel file in the same place. It will have most of the display items listed with divisional movement on past sales. For example, we're getting ready for the Easter ad, so Sister Schuberts & cool whip are on one priority. It showed all the participating flavors and their respective divisional movements so you can see which ones are the most popular regionally. I suppose it's possible your division doesn't have this information, but it seems to me that it'd be detrimental not to.
Also, your coordinator should have(or will be shortly) sending you scan data from last easter to help you with easter ordering. You can also look this up when you go to grocery merchandising on the left side, there should be an easter holiday sales link. It should be in the format of an excel spreadsheet where you have a drop down box where you select your store. Then, on the movement side, right click and sort largest to smallest. This information is crucial as you'll have to anticipate these heavy movers the week of easter. For example, we sold something like 400 tubs of cool whip, 350 sister schuberts of each kind, 80 pecan pies, 60 coconut flakes etc. The warehouse will also start scratching these items the closer to Easter you get, so it's important to bring it in, and make space for it around a week early. Also, if your store is currently doing the marie callendar pies for $4.99 through easter, I keep a u-boat pretty much full of them at all times. Our shelves only hold 4-6 of each kind, so I always order a case when they drop below 10 for the duration of the event.
-- Edited by DeltaGrocery on Monday 23rd of March 2015 03:50:55 PM
I'm pretty confused when it comes to putting up displays. Would be smart to put up the most sale items on the display? Is ordering really hectic during holiday season? One more thing, what's a tie-in? Thank you. I'm trying to get the BOHs right, because whenever I go to order review, the gun keeps ordering stuff we already have in the back so I have to cut out the orders.
I'm pretty confused when it comes to putting up displays. Would be smart to put up the most sale items on the display? Is ordering really hectic during holiday season? One more thing, what's a tie-in? Thank you. I'm trying to get the BOHs right, because whenever I go to order review, the gun keeps ordering stuff we already have in the back so I have to cut out the orders.
A lot of my advice is outdated due to the introduction of order evolution. But a tie in(not sure if these change division to division), is one shelf of a display dedicated to a different product type, in ours it is the bottom shelf for frozen. Display compliance is mandatory here, you have to go by your sales plan and your particular stores needs. As for individual flavors on displays, I don't always use the best sellers. I put whatever has the most risk of the shelf running out during a sale. But, at least in our division, they've introduced much higher distribution counts, so I usually don't actually order much for display changes so it's not up to us as much anymore. Holidays are hectic, but as long as you stay ahead of problems you'll be fine. Pull those holiday movements early, get that backroom as organized as possible, and stay on it throughout the holiday.
I've done Frozen for about 2+ years as a back in forth for Grocery and Frozen so I think I'll be cool. I'll just sale what's on the sales plan. It calls for one display Urban Pizza and that doesn't sale as much, but it's my first time doing ordering and display. I've done Residental scan & lows & holes before, but our lead is in an coma in the hospital and the other guy I work with is going into the Navy soon. So it'll be me left and I have to train a new guy for everything. I'll do what you say on first reply. Alot of good info, thanks.
One last question, lol. They taught me how to do the displays correctly. Now distribution. If you're getting a product let's say: Chocolate paradise. Will this show up on the ISP to avoid overstock? Management told me to cut an order of said product because distribution sends some. Thanks.
Man, this really really HELPED me out alot. For the last three months, I've been doing great on the order and come back to this every now & then. The inventory guys messed up the minimums and it kept ordering more and more product. So I set the minimums to fill out the shelf. For example: Ice cream, we have a 2 for 5 dollar sale going on and they go off like hot cakes. But the inventory yet the minimums to the allocation. So I set the allocation to 8 and the minimum to 2 or 3. Just enough to fill up the shelf and not keep it ordering more & more filling up backstop. Ty you for the post, It's a great reference I can come back to.
I just got the frozen lead position at Kroger and I just really need some tips because Im still training and the freezer is full like half the time I can barely fit a truck in the freezer and its just really stressful because the store manager wont give me the hours to really get the job done...its just me and one other person and I have a third person but he only can work in the department for 4 hours because he has to go to dry grocery to help them...I just want to do a good job I basically am coming into to this not knowing anything and nobody is really helping me but one person but I just feel like I still need more training like how can I get my freezer back together?! my freezer is full of backstock pallets and u boats...I just really need some tips on how to diminish all the backstock and like some tips on using the handheld?
I just got the frozen lead position at Kroger and I just really need some tips because Im still training and the freezer is full like half the time I can barely fit a truck in the freezer and its just really stressful because the store manager wont give me the hours to really get the job done...its just me and one other person and I have a third person but he only can work in the department for 4 hours because he has to go to dry grocery to help them...I just want to do a good job I basically am coming into to this not knowing anything and nobody is really helping me but one person but I just feel like I still need more training like how can I get my freezer back together?! my freezer is full of backstock pallets and u boats...I just really need some tips on how to diminish all the backstock and like some tips on using the handheld?
What do you need to know about handheld?
What department are you experienced at?
Who does the ordering?
Correcting BOHs will help lower the backstock. Not adding too much to order and taking stuff off that you don't need will help too.
Run backstock and residual scan often. Organize by sections so you can find everything easier.
Set aside an area in the freezer for Vendor stuff, Ice, Meat Department and Bakery. Keep your products separate. Make the best use of space.
-- Edited by Anonymouse1 on Tuesday 24th of July 2018 09:26:24 AM
I just got the frozen lead position at Kroger and I just really need some tips because Im still training and the freezer is full like half the time I can barely fit a truck in the freezer and its just really stressful because the store manager wont give me the hours to really get the job done...its just me and one other person and I have a third person but he only can work in the department for 4 hours because he has to go to dry grocery to help them...I just want to do a good job I basically am coming into to this not knowing anything and nobody is really helping me but one person but I just feel like I still need more training like how can I get my freezer back together?! my freezer is full of backstock pallets and u boats...I just really need some tips on how to diminish all the backstock and like some tips on using the handheld?
He probably doesn't have the hours to give you enough time to get the job done. I'm a Grocery Manager and I have to take hours from elsewhere just to help my frozen lead get the job done, because he's not overly efficient. I took over a horrible freezer situation when I was a frozen lead a long time ago and it took me a month to fix it, but largely by myself as I rarely had help. Good ordering, manual ordering stripping CAO if necessary at times, really look at minimums and movement. 5S in the freezer, organization of carts is key. If carts look like dookie, ain't nobody got time to run that. Learn how to stack carts properly and box contents properly, and that is half the battle. Don't know how many guys I've seen over the years have half filled boxes on top of one another and then start cussing when it falls over. Cart would be half as high if you just boxed it better.
Also, if you sell 2-3 a month and you got a complete box of backstock, adjust your minimum and mark that box or most of the box down. Sale ending on an otherwise not popular item? Mark. It. Down. Don't let it accumulate in the freezer; get it gone. I did frozen this way and do grocery this way now.
1. If I know it's new, it goes on new item cart.
2. If I know it's unauthorized, it gets marked down immediately.
3. If I'm pulling off a display and it's not a popular item, I fill the shelf and mark down the rest immediately.
4. I date my slow mover boxes and anything that is still around after a month; MARKED DOWN.
As far as stocking, do the ice cream first. It's your most popular item this time of year and to me it was always the easiest pallet to throw up. Then hit pallets that are frozen grocery only. Then if you have time, hit the deli/meat ones, otherwise let them break that down and you can run your product later. And good relationships with meat/deli will make everyone happy.
My store's frozen manager is awesome, he'll bring up our bakery skids, so i'll always be willing to break it down quickly to pass it back along to him. Usually his garlic bread is on the bottom of one of our skids. So yes definitely having a good relationship with the other departments will help you greatly.
