I went to do my shopping when I got off work and noticed some of the aisles have an extra shelf on top of what used to be the top shelf. There's a strip on the shelf saying to ask for help if you need something from there. Has anyone else seen this, and why did they do this?
Where have you been? Many retailers have shelves above the top shelf. Limit is 150 pounds.
They are called Top Stock shelves. Not all aisles have them. That is where half the backstock is going to be placed instead of on uboats in the backroom. Grocery stockers are going to purposely put product up there with the barcode facing the aisle. Day grocery department has a new routine to add to their tasks. Day grocery clerks are going to do a Top Stock scan. They are going to walk down the aisle with a zebra and scan every product up there daily. The zebra will ding or vibrate to tell the clerk that one+ sold and to pull that many down to replenish the shelf.
It's a genius plan. There will be much less backstock in the backroom and many empty uboats for everyone to use. So far, it is half working in my store. We shall see how well this works out in the next 6 months.
Sounds like a swell plan! Unfortunately, at my store anyway, no one does a top stock scan daily or otherwise. Which of course leads to even more out of stocks since the top stock never gets touched. Our coffee aisle has top stock that hasn't been touched in months. Top stock is designed to hide the problem of too much backstock cluttering up the back room from the district manager, president, etc. when they do a store walk. Now, instead of the back room, the top shelf is where backstock goes to die. Kroger lives but mostly dies by the good old fashioned dog and pony show.
Sounds like a swell plan! Unfortunately, at my store anyway, no one does a top stock scan daily or otherwise. Which of course leads to even more out of stocks since the top stock never gets touched. Our coffee aisle has top stock that hasn't been touched in months. Top stock is designed to hide the problem of too much backstock cluttering up the back room from the district manager, president, etc. when they do a store walk. Now, instead of the back room, the top shelf is where backstock goes to die. Kroger lives but mostly dies by the good old fashioned dog and pony show.
I was under the impression that this new thing was copied Directly from Walmart. I've seen this at my Walmart for several years.
However I am SURE that Walmart operates this system MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY than Kroger EVER will!!!!!!!!!!
Any feedback from Walmart employees who are more familiar with it?
Where have you been? Many retailers have shelves above the top shelf. Limit is 150 pounds.
They are called Top Stock shelves. Not all aisles have them. That is where half the backstock is going to be placed instead of on uboats in the backroom. Grocery stockers are going to purposely put product up there with the barcode facing the aisle. Day grocery department has a new routine to add to their tasks. Day grocery clerks are going to do a Top Stock scan. They are going to walk down the aisle with a zebra and scan every product up there daily. The zebra will ding or vibrate to tell the clerk that one+ sold and to pull that many down to replenish the shelf.
It's a genius plan. There will be much less backstock in the backroom and many empty uboats for everyone to use. So far, it is half working in my store. We shall see how well this works out in the next 6 months.
Sounds like a swell plan! Unfortunately, at my store anyway, no one does a top stock scan daily or otherwise. Which of course leads to even more out of stocks since the top stock never gets touched. Our coffee aisle has top stock that hasn't been touched in months. Top stock is designed to hide the problem of too much backstock cluttering up the back room from the district manager, president, etc. when they do a store walk. Now, instead of the back room, the top shelf is where backstock goes to die. Kroger lives but mostly dies by the good old fashioned dog and pony show.
I was under the impression that this new thing was copied Directly from Walmart. I've seen this at my Walmart for several years.
However I am SURE that Walmart operates this system MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY than Kroger EVER will!!!!!!!!!!
Any feedback from Walmart employees who are more familiar with it?
Its nothing new its been around for decades. Go out and touch grass once and awhile troll.
Sounds like a swell plan! Unfortunately, at my store anyway, no one does a top stock scan daily or otherwise. Which of course leads to even more out of stocks since the top stock never gets touched. Our coffee aisle has top stock that hasn't been touched in months. Top stock is designed to hide the problem of too much backstock cluttering up the back room from the district manager, president, etc. when they do a store walk. Now, instead of the back room, the top shelf is where backstock goes to die. Kroger lives but mostly dies by the good old fashioned dog and pony show.
lol, I know day crew won't touch it. I was just trying to be positive.
The holidays should be interesting. We have 4 months to practice until then.
It works at Walmart because Walmart isn't too cheap to hire enough employees to do the job. Regardless, it doesn't help the backroom/free boat situation. Top stock has been a thing for a while in my area, and we still have boats of full-case repack for each aisle in the back. Somehow the warehouse just KNOWS when you have a square inch of free space in the back, and don't you worry, they'll send crap to fill it.
I worked in retail for many years, and this is one of those things I saw come and go, many times.
In theory it works great...but in practice, it is as above described: stuff not getting scanned, rotated or sold. Enormous shrink magnet.
And as for 'ask an associate for help'? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA, what associates? So Cletus or Rhonda decide to climb up there themselves to get what they came for (yea, those jack ass customers, always wanting what they want! BULLSHT, aint it?!), they fall, bust a hip, and the company gets sued. And once again, down come those too-tall risers.
Til some other new hot shot SM decides HE'S gonna be the one to do it right this time.
Sounds like a swell plan! Unfortunately, at my store anyway, no one does a top stock scan daily or otherwise. Which of course leads to even more out of stocks since the top stock never gets touched. Our coffee aisle has top stock that hasn't been touched in months. Top stock is designed to hide the problem of too much backstock cluttering up the back room from the district manager, president, etc. when they do a store walk. Now, instead of the back room, the top shelf is where backstock goes to die. Kroger lives but mostly dies by the good old fashioned dog and pony show.
I was under the impression that this new thing was copied Directly from Walmart. I've seen this at my Walmart for several years.
However I am SURE that Walmart operates this system MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY than Kroger EVER will!!!!!!!!!!
Any feedback from Walmart employees who are more familiar with it?
No wonder I've never seen it. I never shop at Walmart. In fact, with the exception of groceries, I buy nearly everything online or from catalogs. The only time I set foot in a store is when I need something immediately.
This has been normal for decades. *claps hands* you found it all you had to do was look up. n.c. has been stocking that top most shelf for decades.
You can honestly say that those top shelves have been around since 2002? You said decades which implies more than one. So that's at least 20 years. Maybe where you live it's been there for decades, but where I'm from it has not.
This has been normal for decades. *claps hands* you found it all you had to do was look up. n.c. has been stocking that top most shelf for decades.
You can honestly say that those top shelves have been around since 2002? You said decades which implies more than one. So that's at least 20 years. Maybe where you live it's been there for decades, but where I'm from it has not.
Yes decades. Yes long before 2002. Not every one lives in a hick town Andy.
It's also to cut blackstock back some. Less bsckstock means you won't have to over order product. However, you MUST work the top shelf for it to work properly. For example there are usually 9 rows for ABC cookies and all 9 shelves are full. But there is now a 10th shelf above ABC cookies. We have extra ABC cookies in backstock so we put the rest on the top shelf, now we have all our ABC cookies out ready to be sold.
Now we just have to keep remembering to work the top shelf properly
It's also to cut blackstock back some. Less bsckstock means you won't have to over order product. However, you MUST work the top shelf for it to work properly. For example there are usually 9 rows for ABC cookies and all 9 shelves are full. But there is now a 10th shelf above ABC cookies. We have extra ABC cookies in backstock so we put the rest on the top shelf, now we have all our ABC cookies out ready to be sold.
Now we just have to keep remembering to work the top shelf properly
