So I got into a little argument with the other bakery closer about what we are supposed to do during a normal shift. Im a bakery back up and the other closer. The other closer very rudely tells me that my only responsibilty is the pull for the baker, cleaning out the donut case and marking the donuts down and packaging the leftover bollilos and rolls. She starts the pull right when she comes in at 1pm. I tell her you arent really supposed to start the pull until after 5pm and the pull shouldnt take you more than 2 hours to do depending on your experience. I tell her that when I come in I usually replenish the tables (which she was working tables today and they were in pretty bad shape), bake cookies, work truck, and make tortillas since we dont have someone doing that and do whatever my dept head tells me to do... So what do yall usually do while closing the bakery dept ?
I'm a bakery dept head but I have been closing usually 2 nights a week. When I come in at 1, I spend the first two hours working on floor fill or cookies depending on what we need at the moment. I try to do CAP around 3 or 4. I know this sounds early, but I love to have more time after breakout. I can usually be done with breakout by 5 or 6 depending on the size of it (my store is one of the highest selling for donuts in my district even though we aren't a marketplace, it's crazy the amount of donuts we break out. it's literally a whole trolley full every night) which gives me another hour or so for floor fill or packaging cookies. After that then I will pull and markdown donuts in the case around 7pm and work on cleaning the dishes, spray the floors, etc.
We get our trucks in the morning and we don't make tortillas here.
But i'm tired of people who think it takes 8 hours to do breakout!! I feel your pain.
1. Bake and package cookies, pies, croissants, turnovers, and pastry bites.
2. Box up the leftover donuts.
3. Clean the donut case.
4. Wipe down the tops of the counters and work tables.
5. Make sure dishes are washed
6. Sweep and mop the floor.
7. Take out the trash and cardboard.
Number 3 almost never gets done. Number 6 is sometimes hit or miss too.
We get our trucks in the morning. We do our bread breakout around noon. I wouldn't trust any of the night people to do it. You can do CAP early if you take into consideration that you're going to sell some of the items you're counting between now and the following day when it gets put out for sale. I usually do CAP around 11:30 in the morning. I write down what's left on the overstock cart and make note of what hasn't been bagged yet. On CAP I choose Prep for Tomorrow. I then go out on the sales floor with the CAP sheet from that day and scan an item. I count how many there is of that item but don't count the ones that are being marked down that day (our markdowns don't get done until late morning or early afternoon). I then look at the CAP sheet and see how many of that item it's forecasting that we're going to sell that day. I subtract that number form my count and enter it into the AFS (available for sale) field. If the forecasted number is higher than the number I count, I enter zero.
Exactly!! Granted when I first started closing like 2 years ago it would take me 6 hours to do the pull and 2 hours to clean (thats how I was trained though) I got a new manager and they taught me everything that I am supposed to do while closing.
The other person has been working for kroger for like 15 years. Thats the most frustrating part. They dont understand cap and they dont follow it. Its hard to try and tell them the right way to do something cause they get defensive.. management doesnt care cause they want to retire anyway. If I do things the way they do things, management makes a big deal about it cause Im a more valued employee than they are. Anyway glad someone understands
1. Re-fill and work the back stock for the floor/pull from freezer
2. Package and label cookies, pies, etc.(pending on when they started the bake, will determine what all still needs to be packaged and labelled)
3. Spare a moment to pray for a blue line before too many people leave and you are stuck with a landfil of trash to take out by yourself/if lucky get said blue line
4. Not everyone does this early, but when I close bakery I print off how many bread labels I need(typically I count how much bread is out on the floor when I'm re-filling things and before I get to labeling on cookies and so forth)
5. Get a break before 5
6. After break get to slicing on the bread. Not sure about other stores but our open air display is rather long and wide. And pending on the time of the week, barely any bread gets sold. And you have a ton to slice by the end of the night as well as the baguettes(which we all wish they would go back to slicing these in the morning. it erally slows you up)
7. When the bread is done, I pitch out the bagels and pretzels, I move down to marking down the bread and cleaning out the doughnut case(and as I'm about the only one that does it, I'm the same one that gets bitched at for not keeping it clean. Even though I'm not the only closer down there mind you)
8. Do some of the cleaning(two of the table mostly, putting away the extra date guns, dusting off the table the old slicer is on, emptying the customer slicer and collecting up additional trash)
9. Slack out the doughnuts for the next day/help more customers
10. And more cleaning(clean off the table I used, put doughnuts away, sweep the floor, spray it down)
11. Pray there is another blue line before you have to leave for the night/get one and if there is time enough do a light re-fill on the floor(as it always seems that without fail that everything that you really need for the floor in the freezer is along the far back wall. Which is uber blocked by tons of U boats. Which is VERY tiresome to pull out of the way if it's been a grueling kind of night)
Our CAP report and slack out stuff is usually getting done around the time I'd come in at 1 p.m. and should be finished by 5 p.m. The back up manager usually handles the CAP report before she leaves for the day and whoever the truck person is for the day, they do the truck, bake, and slack out. So don't have to worry about any of that.
I am a bakery dept head, I have 1-2 closers Monday-Thursday, Fri-Sat-Sun I tend to have 2 closers, with a "mid" shift staying to at least 5 or 6pm.
One person is the dedicated "closer" - their responsibilities are- Cookies CAP / Bake / Package, Replenishing from backstock racks/boilillos CAP for next day Bake and the breakout for it Cleaning up the department- trash, dishes, donut case (pack and mark down), wipe down tables, power wash floors.
Occasionally I will assign an extra task to them- like, "we still have some supplies to put away, please finish that before you start on your normal routine" or- "we're behind on these tasks on the cleaning calendar, try and knock one out when you can and initial the board when you've finished.
The Extra "closer" is really just there for them to call up front to be put on a register. (-___-) Sometimes they can work on filling the cake freezer, backup cakes, replenishing the single serve island, or making tortillas- all while primarily assisting customers. But seriously, constantly pulling my people up to check people out for an hour or so at a time, often half the night- we just always feel Behind because we don't have padded hours to just Give away like that!
Keep in mind though, when I was closing just a few years ago before I even went into the ADH program, I was expected to- Break down the frozen truck (2-3 pallets)- put it all away, stock the floor completely (with or without CAP), then do all the cookies, the breakout, the cleanup, and because I was a lot better at managing the inventory because I was literally handling Every single item from the bake to the pre-packs, I would even find time to do all the ordering for the two big ones- Frozen and Jakes. But my closers aren't getting any younger, so I don't want them overworked and stressed- especially since for half of my crew this is their Second job... they don't Want to work as hard at it, they're tired and overworked as it is! Better to just give them Enough, and leave them time to be friendly associates for our guests and coworkers.
