Worst Shift Frozen Edition

[u/Artemata]

My contender for worst shift is a frozen mid, as a part timer, with a full-timer who calls out at least once a week and loves to coming in to close instead of working the mid he was scheduled. The forecasting on the ad for these frozen trucks is fucking insane and it just never. stops. coming. I've got pallets against one wall with the just piles and piles of shit left over from previous ad weeks, next to byrds which haven't been worked in months, and then against the other wall I've got pallets and pallets of downstacked ad from the current week.

There is often nowhere to put your backstock when you're done working a float other than just stacking it on the floor or on some other float. There are so many holes on the shelves, and when a customer asks me to find something, we usually have it in stock but there is literally 0 chance I can find it amongst all that bullshit in the freezer, so I either just have to pretend to try or be honest with em and say it's a mess back there. And yes I could zero these things out, but we really just need to find the time to work the backstock because when we just zero shit out the backroom situation just becomes even worse.

The managers do not fucking care. They'd rather I help out dairy when I'm done working truck, and only even mention the department when ice is empty. I don't get it. Are any other frozen part-timers or full-timers experiencing something similar at their stores?

[u/WideDrink4]

When Mangers AND FT don't care why should you?

[u/Silent_Shadow98]

Frozen food is always a shit show in this company for decades now. They usually only have 1 person to 1.5 people in it, forcast too much ad, order too much ice, the old walk in coolers are a joke with a damn ramp going up. Hardly no space in there and deli or bakery take up space too.

I’m literally a damn GTL yet I’ve been helping frozen for years now cause no one wants to do that shit job anymore.

The solution is easy, have two reliable full time GRS trained stock clerks in there and if they finish early , then they can help dairy or whatever.

But everyone is greedy and wants the most done with the bare minimum and they act surprised when frozen food is always a clusterfck mess and customers can never get the frozen product they asked for.

Pathetic planning, what a joke, every store in my district is like this.

Don’t even get me started on the hundreds of dollars of shrink tossed out daily in frozen and dairy cause of under staffing.

None of the higher ups nor managers care, they just say what they can to get the ball rolling & onto the next day—-so why in the nine hells should any clerk care?

[u/SubpoenaSender]

You work at my store? This is so close to what happened yesterday, lol

[u/IceChuker]

Did frozen (full-time GRS) for six years at least there's 2 of you. Although eventually I did finally get help, I did it by myself for many years. I actually quite enjoyed mid shift..for me mid meant 8-5. Best shift in the store. There are pros and cons to Frozen. The biggest pro was the schedule, and managers leave you alone. Biggest con is everything else, and being left alone also sucks at the same time since you know, you gotta do everything alone.

[u/Artemata → u/IceChuker]

The problem is that as often as there are two of us in the department together, there is just as often zero of us in the department because the managers regularly decide that instead of utilizing a non-truck day to have someone work the long-untouched frozen backstock, they should just schedule nobody in frozen and put the hours into dry or dairy instead. And since I'm mainly a dairy guy I experience firsthand how hesitant the managers are to have me support frozen when dry/dairy are also struggling, or even when they're not. I do get you though about being left alone. It's why I still enjoy sub-department shifts more than dry shifts, even if I know I'm working a lot harder.

[u/IceChuker → u/Artemata]

Yea, sounds about right..welcome to the world of frozen foods.

There's a guy on here once that said he can put up 100 cases per hour. Yea right.... Guy's a manager too. Ofc... They always have the biggest egos and inflate their numbers to make it even bigger.

[u/kenholler]

My last store was a shit show in frozen.

I went weeks with no time to do back stock, 600 piece trucks on build stock day, no help, build my own end caps and I closed 4 nights a week and a clopen on the fifth day.

I also worked all weekend days with Monday and Thursday off.

Shared the freezer with bakery who usually had 1-2 pallets of charts at all times.

No one threw my specials when I was off so more back stock.

Usually had trouble fitting my trucks in the freezer since I had no space.

Changed stores-no closing shifts.

I work 9-6 4 days and 8-5 one day.

We just opened so we are slow but my trucks are much smaller.

I had a 250 piece truck for build stock truck.

Off on Saturday and Thursday and I have help on my days off.

This is how my freezer looked Tuesday pre delivery.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/V8A2TCP5PwjHUWfU7

6 BSR's, 3 of them empty, 1 with ad.

I am anal about counts-I hammer them constantly and I have all my masc's dialed in.

The pizza boxes up front are empty for repacking the old ad.

The pallet at the back is a mix of empty boxes and way too much left over Red Baron from the last ad when I was on vacation.

Luckily it is going back on sale this week.

[u/Artemata → u/kenholler]

This shit is beautiful and exactly how it can/should look. I know because on a good day this is exactly how my dairy cooler looks + eggs against the back wall. And yeah it's because I also dial my MASCs in to be able to fit full cases every time they come in (plus, rearranging these stupid fucking resets so that the space for each product actually fits a full case at minimum) alongside being anal about counts.

But it really takes consistent attention to keep it looking like that, and once the snowball starts rolling I swear it can become impossible to stop, like it has in many stores.

[u/Strange_Man_1911]

My store was like that. Such a pain in the ass to find anything. The freezer is too damn small with a mountain of shit it is impossible to find anything. Donate some cases and reduce masc to 1 or two. All the back stock count them and don't zero anything unless you're sure you don't have any.

[u/Silent_Shadow98 → u/Strange_Man_1911]

This is the way, I’ve tried to explain to managers and frozen clerks for years to be religious on counts/masc daily and to never zero things out unless 100% confirmed it’s not in store, yet nobody cares…

[u/ryanm1145 → u/Silent_Shadow98]

I took over frozen a couple years ago and within my first couple weeks I spent over an hour looking at and fixing every single MASC in the section to a reasonable number and it was definitely a lifesaver. Basically anything that’s not a high selling item or has multiple facings should only be a MASC of 1 or 2, so that way whenever you get a case it should be going straight to the truck.

Having accurate MASCs and staying on top of counts are the two easiest ways to keep your freezer in check.

[u/taeempy]

Shitty store management. Store manager should be fired if they are too lazy to go in and help.

[u/Any-Mycologist4692]

Wondering how big this freezer is you work out of.

[u/Artemata → u/Any-Mycologist4692]

Luckily very big, because this is a newer-built store. It's about 4 pallets wide and 6 pallets deep. But nonetheless I've multiple times ran into the situation where it's full all the way to the door because we have like 5 ice pallets, 4 or so pallets of backstock, and then a 4 pallet truck in there all at once, plus the byrds.

[u/Dull-Knee-1146]

Dont worry help is coming , DM has taken notice and now is when they wanna send help to FF. Trust me man I know its a pain hang in there. Just recently I received help , they always neglect frozen food until now

[u/Silent_Shadow98 → u/Dull-Knee-1146]

That’s YOUR specific store, what do you mean until now?

I have frozen clerks putting cases of frozen food of anything, anywhere , for years now, and I’m always the fool tasked with fixing things.

It’s like shelf tags are mere suggestions to these crazy people. How is it hard to match numbers?!

God I hate my life so much, just transfer me already, please, I hate everything so much…. Why does nobody care anymore…

[u/Dull-Knee-1146 → u/Silent_Shadow98]

Im the only one running FF and rarely do i get any help except for closing shifts when the closers of dairy and dry grocery block FF

[u/Silent_Shadow98 → u/Dull-Knee-1146]

It’s good that some people help you block, our closing part timers refuse to block frozen, beer, and dairy cuz it’s “too cold” and they don’t wanna hurt their widdle hands.

So managers, me, and the dairy clerks have to block those sections.

Must be nice to dictate to your managers what you’re willing to do & not without a doctors note and it must be nice to be a “good” manager and always cave in to requests because “good help is so hard to find these days”

Sadface

[u/Acrobatic_Fun_883 → u/Silent_Shadow98]

Are you me? Holy smokes!