In our store....when a customer asks "can you look in the back to see if there is (name of product) we all say "everything has been put out." Besides our store doesn't really want us taking stuff out of there anyway. Messes up what night stock does.
If a customer comes in with reusebale bags (most of them have major attitudes) we all silent think "Idiot!"
Yes we DO have our favourite customers and sorry you are NOT one of them!!
Fact: Minority customers are the biggest source of our go-backs-we had one lady leave a half a large cart of groceries with us because she didn't realise she did not have the money to pay for it (and they think we will just let them roll out with it.)
If it is close to close (say within 5 minutes and we see someone with a LOAD of groceries, the cashier that leaves at 11PM cuts her light off and I put up the blocker. Go to U Scan you nutcase. (Sometimes I think customers do this on purpose.)
not to digress from the point of this thread, but i can't stand customers asking me to grab stuff from the back. more often than not, it's milk, which i don't have any say in since i don't work dairy. don't you think a massive money grubbing company like kroger would want as much products on the floor being sold as possible? if it's not on the shelves, it's probably not in the back, and if it is in the back, i'd rather not mess up counts in departments that are not mine.
not to digress from the point of this thread, but i can't stand customers asking me to grab stuff from the back. more often than not, it's milk, which i don't have any say in since i don't work dairy. don't you think a massive money grubbing company like kroger would want as much products on the floor being sold as possible? if it's not on the shelves, it's probably not in the back, and if it is in the back, i'd rather not mess up counts in departments that are not mine.
Technically, Dairy is your department.
Dairy, Frozen and Natures Market fall under the Grocery Department. When you see the sales in the daily report, they are all added together.
I will scan it to see if there are atleast 5 on the BOH. Then, I will try to look. You won't hurt any counts. I will glance in the Frozen cooler on occasion. If it is a disaster, I will not spend too much time trying to figure out where it would be in the freezer. Or, Use a Make it Right sticker for something else.
Milk is a never ending refill the shelf all day. Just go into the cooler and glance to see if it is in the milk crates.
i usually will try to look, but it's just annoying to have to have to go back there when i'm trying to break down pallets. also, i didn't know dairy was grocery.
I hate how one customer ask if we have something and then I say we are out somehow they think by asking other clerks and checkers if we have it that we might have the product
Been thinking of starting a thread like this myself as I've learned some doozies:
1. The main and sole reason we have a pastry chef, is not to add on a new feature and treats in the bakery. But to secretly charge customers even MORE money when they want particular stuff made. Like for instance when we had somebody call in to order iced sugar cookies with her university's initials on them in block letters. I had asked not only our main decorator and another experienced co-worker how to handle it. And the decorator told me to charge the customer the amount for a dozen like out on the floor(as the customer wanted 4 dozen) and the other co-worker said that in previous years they would do the block lettering and it wouldn't be any additional charge.
However, come to find out a short while later, after I had given the initial customer the price for them. And then her friend called in to order the same thing. It came out that I should have given the order to our pastry chef as they could have charged both customers far more than I had quoted the first lady. Which still surprised the hell out of me, but damn.
2. The reason the writing on their cake looks not as neat or pretty as some of the other bakery peeps in my dept.(if I'm the one to write on it), is because I have NOT been properly trained on how to write on them in the first place! So if the writing looks kind of funky and not like how other more experienced peeps do it. Then that is the reason why. Hell I had to try and figure it out from online videos. And there are STILL some days, it doesn't come out all that nice looking.
3. In the same vein as number 2. Just in regards to how long something can last. Like the bread. I have no clue how long most of that stuff would last. As it's not like anybody has really told me. So my guess is a couple of days or a few longer. But just never know as I don't have that kind of info off hand. And also with particular prices of things.
4. That just because we all wear blue shirts and the jackets. Does not mean that ANY associate can help you in regards to ANY dept. In particularly me, as I'm in the bakery and the only times I venture from it is to fill the back table where we have doughnuts. Or come up to the FE to fill pies and other stuff up that way. But that does not mean, I know where egg roll wraps are or anything else is as I don't work in the various other depts. and I barely shop in there when I'm off. So I can't tell them where half the **** is they are looking for.
Been thinking of starting a thread like this myself as I've learned some doozies:
1. The main and sole reason we have a pastry chef, is not to add on a new feature and treats in the bakery. But to secretly charge customers even MORE money when they want particular stuff made. Like for instance when we had somebody call in to order iced sugar cookies with her university's initials on them in block letters. I had asked not only our main decorator and another experienced co-worker how to handle it. And the decorator told me to charge the customer the amount for a dozen like out on the floor(as the customer wanted 4 dozen) and the other co-worker said that in previous years they would do the block lettering and it wouldn't be any additional charge.
However, come to find out a short while later, after I had given the initial customer the price for them. And then her friend called in to order the same thing. It came out that I should have given the order to our pastry chef as they could have charged both customers far more than I had quoted the first lady. Which still surprised the hell out of me, but damn.
2. The reason the writing on their cake looks not as neat or pretty as some of the other bakery peeps in my dept.(if I'm the one to write on it), is because I have NOT been properly trained on how to write on them in the first place! So if the writing looks kind of funky and not like how other more experienced peeps do it. Then that is the reason why. Hell I had to try and figure it out from online videos. And there are STILL some days, it doesn't come out all that nice looking.
3. In the same vein as number 2. Just in regards to how long something can last. Like the bread. I have no clue how long most of that stuff would last. As it's not like anybody has really told me. So my guess is a couple of days or a few longer. But just never know as I don't have that kind of info off hand. And also with particular prices of things.
4. That just because we all wear blue shirts and the jackets. Does not mean that ANY associate can help you in regards to ANY dept. In particularly me, as I'm in the bakery and the only times I venture from it is to fill the back table where we have doughnuts. Or come up to the FE to fill pies and other stuff up that way. But that does not mean, I know where egg roll wraps are or anything else is as I don't work in the various other depts. and I barely shop in there when I'm off. So I can't tell them where half the **** is they are looking for.
1. You have a pastry chef? We have a store chef but they're not a pastry chef. We have decorators and bakers. I'm the head baker. I forget how much we charge for iced sugar cookies but it's so much per dozen. $5.99 maybe? It's been a while since I've taken a order for them.
2. No one can train you on how to write on cakes or cookies, but here are a few tips.
Visualize what the writing is going to look like on the cake before you start. That way you won't be in the middle of writing Congratulations and run out of room. In that same note, make sure the tip of the bag is the right size. If the tip is too big and you have to fit a lot of writing on a small cake, the letters are going to be too big and it's not going to all fit on the cake. Conversely, if you have a lot of space and not much to write, then you want the writing to be bigger so it doesn't look lost on the cake. If you're writing on a cake and the icing comes out in squiggles, it means you're squeezing the bag too hard. If the icing breaks while trying to write, it means the icing is too stiff or too dry. Roll the bag between the palms of your hands to soften the icing. Assuming you're right-handed, use your right hand to squeeze the bag and do the actual writing motion. Use the tip of your left index finger to steady the tip and help guide the writing bag.
3. Artisan breads are good for a day or two. Regular breads are probably good for 3 or 4 days after the sell by date listed on the package. Pastry items are the same way. Cakes and cookies are probably good for 4 or 5 days, especially if the cakes are not cut. After they're cut, I would say eat within 3 days. Pies should be eaten within 3 days after the sell by date. Note: the previous is not any sort of standard. It's just been my personal experience.
i usually will try to look, but it's just annoying to have to have to go back there when i'm trying to break down pallets. also, i didn't know dairy was grocery.
I agree about the annoyance too. Unfortunately, night crew are usually the only employees customers can go to after 8pm. The only other associates in the store are the front end. But, the customer always comes first. I will park power jack and remove the key just to look.
I get annoyed when there are 4 cashiers standing around uscan shooting the breeze. I have a 1800 case truck with two call ins. I hear a call for customer service on 141. Then, Grocery gets paged for call on 141. Customer at another store wants to know if we have a particular cheese in stock. After I can't find it, I realize it changed names and labels but the same product.
I always thought regular eggroll wraps were in the Frozen Department. The certain brand pita wraps that the customers always ask for are in the Produce Department.
There are also other wraps in the International aisle.
Been thinking of starting a thread like this myself as I've learned some doozies:
1. The main and sole reason we have a pastry chef, is not to add on a new feature and treats in the bakery. But to secretly charge customers even MORE money when they want particular stuff made. Like for instance when we had somebody call in to order iced sugar cookies with her university's initials on them in block letters. I had asked not only our main decorator and another experienced co-worker how to handle it. And the decorator told me to charge the customer the amount for a dozen like out on the floor(as the customer wanted 4 dozen) and the other co-worker said that in previous years they would do the block lettering and it wouldn't be any additional charge.
However, come to find out a short while later, after I had given the initial customer the price for them. And then her friend called in to order the same thing. It came out that I should have given the order to our pastry chef as they could have charged both customers far more than I had quoted the first lady. Which still surprised the hell out of me, but damn.
2. The reason the writing on their cake looks not as neat or pretty as some of the other bakery peeps in my dept.(if I'm the one to write on it), is because I have NOT been properly trained on how to write on them in the first place! So if the writing looks kind of funky and not like how other more experienced peeps do it. Then that is the reason why. Hell I had to try and figure it out from online videos. And there are STILL some days, it doesn't come out all that nice looking.
3. In the same vein as number 2. Just in regards to how long something can last. Like the bread. I have no clue how long most of that stuff would last. As it's not like anybody has really told me. So my guess is a couple of days or a few longer. But just never know as I don't have that kind of info off hand. And also with particular prices of things.
4. That just because we all wear blue shirts and the jackets. Does not mean that ANY associate can help you in regards to ANY dept. In particularly me, as I'm in the bakery and the only times I venture from it is to fill the back table where we have doughnuts. Or come up to the FE to fill pies and other stuff up that way. But that does not mean, I know where egg roll wraps are or anything else is as I don't work in the various other depts. and I barely shop in there when I'm off. So I can't tell them where half the **** is they are looking for.
1. You have a pastry chef? We have a store chef but they're not a pastry chef. We have decorators and bakers. I'm the head baker. I forget how much we charge for iced sugar cookies but it's so much per dozen. $5.99 maybe? It's been a while since I've taken a order for them.
2. No one can train you on how to write on cakes or cookies, but here are a few tips.
Visualize what the writing is going to look like on the cake before you start. That way you won't be in the middle of writing Congratulations and run out of room. In that same note, make sure the tip of the bag is the right size. If the tip is too big and you have to fit a lot of writing on a small cake, the letters are going to be too big and it's not going to all fit on the cake. Conversely, if you have a lot of space and not much to write, then you want the writing to be bigger so it doesn't look lost on the cake. If you're writing on a cake and the icing comes out in squiggles, it means you're squeezing the bag too hard. If the icing breaks while trying to write, it means the icing is too stiff or too dry. Roll the bag between the palms of your hands to soften the icing. Assuming you're right-handed, use your right hand to squeeze the bag and do the actual writing motion. Use the tip of your left index finger to steady the tip and help guide the writing bag.
3. Artisan breads are good for a day or two. Regular breads are probably good for 3 or 4 days after the sell by date listed on the package. Pastry items are the same way. Cakes and cookies are probably good for 4 or 5 days, especially if the cakes are not cut. After they're cut, I would say eat within 3 days. Pies should be eaten within 3 days after the sell by date. Note: the previous is not any sort of standard. It's just been my personal experience.
4. Usually eggroll wrappers are in produce.
1. Yep, apparently around the time we were moving into our new/current store. They must have put out a search for a pastry chef. Although lately, they've been trying to figure out some way to break up her 40 hours, which I guess might be termed under the chef hours. So that she can have her set of hours and we can get some of the remaining hours for the rest of the bakery so we can have a second closer again. Given how slowly things are going, it might be a while before they can figure all that out.
But yea, our pastry chef of sorts does some interesting things with cakes at times. Like making unicorns, definitely has a thing for smaller versions of wedding cakes and other stuff. But even some golf ball sized buckeye candies too. The funny thing is though, and yet another secret folks don't know. As with a lot of our supplies, she orders in tons of different mini cakes and custards and stuff. And just adds extra fruit or flowers made of icing or adds additional piping along the edges of some of the bar cakes and what not. Even has these mini chocolate cups with chocolate running out to go on top of the Tiramisu cakes. And the customers are always so amazed at all that she has "made". When there is roughly just a few things she ACTUALLY makes herself.
2. Thanks for the tips, and actually just recently heard a few of them from one of our back up managers and a few of the other more experienced co-workers(since I guess they are finally used to me now). And although I wasn't expecting a whole tutorial or anything on learning how to write on cakes in general. But I would have appreciated learning about warming the icing up, about it being stiff and what to do when that happens. Heck for that matter a comment that, I might be holding the piping bag wrong or a little too close to the cake. I got nada on writing on cakes, other than "you have to learn, cause I'm getting tired of writing on cakes when I have other stuff to do", brought to you by our back up cake decorator.
And don't get me wrong, I know I would have to learn it true enough since I first saw the "training" packet and it had it in there. But dude, as I said before, I have never worked in a grocery store, or even in a bakery. Hell even as a kid, I never even frosted cookies with my own mother(mainly cause she definitely liked having things her way, and when they weren't done just so, she would be like "time to wrap it up. Your done kid, good bye. I'll call ya when it's time to eat something"). So for the life of me, I haven't a clue on how to frost cupcakes, (which one would think is pretty simple, right?) or write on a cake.
I'm thankful, that I have enough attention to detail to observe which tips are best to use on what size cakes. But, I'm still a bit iffy on the spacing at times. Most especially when the pre-decorated cake has some really huge flowers and the customer wants the writing to go a certain way and the flower "bush" is right in the way. So I've taken to kind of staggering my messages at times. Like this: Happy
Birthday
Susie
Doubly thankful, I don't do that often, and some customers are fine with however I turn it. So, I don't have to do the staggering thing all the time and can write things a bit more clearly. But yea, I would have totally appreciated some pointers going into writing on my first one. So that, the customer isn't always making a face and dropping it off in some other dept. Or get to the register and decide on sending it back. And that actually makes me feel bad. Cause I'm quite sure we could have a lot more sales on those cakes, if I knew how to write better on them(side note: I had been practicing a bit on how to do it when we were at our old store in between shifts since I got hired on. But I'd still would have appreciated a bit more of those tips early on, so I could have been much more comfortable with it by now). Which, I'll add I've gotten a degree better. But, I think I'm mostly getting better, since I'm learning a bit more on how to write on the cakes in a way so that I'm not lifting off of each letter I write, and making the letters flow one into the other better. Still totally a work in progress though as I'm still not super quick with it like others in my dept. are.
3. Still good to know at least that much from experience. As I don't usually do a lot of my shopping at Kroger, so haven't really tried out quite a bit in our dept. to be able to tell other customers about it too much. But yea, I think they totally need a sheet posted somewhere that says stuff like that. And if not posted in the binders where we find PLUes for different things. But either way, help us to better help the customer at times.
4. Good to know. About the only wraps I can tell folks about off the top of my head is the Kangaroo, StoneFire, and Naan variety stuff, we have on the end of our roll display. Anything else, is definitely a wheel house for others outside of my dept.
Our night crew starts to clock in around 10PM, what store has night crew starting at 8PM? Not ours! At my store when the afternoon manager leaves around 11PM usually it defers to the night stock manager. But we close at 1AM so there are no customers until we reopen at 6AM
Our night crew starts to clock in around 10PM, what store has night crew starting at 8PM? Not ours! At my store when the afternoon manager leaves around 11PM usually it defers to the night stock manager. But we close at 1AM so there are no customers until we reopen at 6AM
Most service departments shut down at 8pm.
They might be busy cleaning. But, I never see them there at 10pm. I guess they could be all the employees leaving the building as I am walking in at 10pm.
Always make me chuckle when employees page for "security" that we don't have at our store. It's usually to spook shoplifters or whenever a customer asks us to page security
If a customer insists we have fresher bread in the back, even though the loaf they have was just baked that morning, I'll run a new tag and change the date on it just to get them to shut up and leave.
