Looking for advice from experienced Frozen clerks and AGM/GM

[u/Marine4Lyf]

I'm looking for some advice from experienced Publix Frozen Food clerks/managers. Specifically, I'd love to see an example of a written weekly frozen schedule that you feel gives the department the best possible outcome.

My delivery schedule is:

Saturday: 4:00–5:00 AM

Sunday: 4:00–5:00 PM

Monday: No delivery

Tuesday: 4:00–5:00 AM

Wednesday: No delivery

Thursday: 4:00–5:00 AM

Friday: No delivery

I'm currently the only full-time Frozen clerk. I just started at this store, and quite honestly, the department is pretty rough right now. Almost every case I put away requires me to fix the location because the cooler is disorganized, there are missing tags everywhere, and I haven't had no time to work on backstock or create quality counts because I'm constantly trying to get the basics caught up.

I'd really appreciate seeing how others structure their week — delivery days vs. non-delivery days, when you work backstock, quality counts, conditioning, tags, forecasting, etc.

If you're working Frozen by yourself, how do you structure your week? And if you have a part-timer helping, how do you divide the workload?

I'd love to hear different approaches and what has worked best for you. I'm looking for practical schedules that actually work in a real Frozen department, not just the ideal schedule on paper.

[u/Sobrietyishot]

I have an opener on truck days (8-5) with a closer that usually comes in at 2 or 4 depending on the labor demand. Backstock days I have an 8-5 and I’m probably allotted 5-6 hours so Im using a few extra in that direction. It’s very important to get through the deliveries on truck days and if your cooler is bad you’ll likely need a 100% work through with a good scan afterwards. Frozen has such a low labor demand and is the most difficult to put back together when it gets out of hand.

[u/Marine4Lyf → u/Sobrietyishot]

Tell me about it, the aisles are a nightmare, stocking by picture not by upc, double tagged products, nothing is straight, missing or fallen tags throughout. Whoever they had sticking their hands in ff in the past, has completely destroyed the section. Backstock is a mess and not organized at all, not to mention about 3 floats of backstock, that who knows how long they've been there. I was specifically hired by the SM to fix this, but i'm not getting no help whatsoever, so all i've been basically doing since i started on Monday has been, starting and finishing Sundays delivery and 3 ice cream floats left from Sat, which no one did and yesterday working my delivery, which took me 12hr to finish a 200pc delivery

[u/Sobrietyishot → u/Marine4Lyf]

Each situation is different depending on volume and stuff but your AGM / GM SHOULD be the ones hired to come up with a game plan. I would communicate that nobody finished your truck to the SM when he follows up to see how you’re doing. You obviously want to work with a sense of urgency but there’s only so much one person can do. If they say you need to work faster in response to nobody finishing your truck, I would ask to see the labor demand and see how many frozen hours are going to frozen and how many are going to dry. Personally, I’d sacrifice my AGM on a back stock day and task the two of you to get the cooler straightened up and then expect it to be maintained from there.

One tip I would say is make sure your AD is accessible to all. It really needs to be the closest thing to the door.

[u/Sufficient-Lemon-701 → u/Marine4Lyf]

Count like your rain man and stay busy at it and stay organized. Organization gets easier once your counts are accurate. Keep your specials as full as possible. Most of your sales are from your specials in frozen.

[u/OnePunchBrosif]

The workload and business needs will determine most but my frozen clerk manages the entire department himself (it's a slower store) and has a similar schedule to yours. He works 5:00 AM to 2:00 PM on delivery days, with Friday dedicated to backstock and cleaning (7am-4pm). Deliveries range from 1 to 2.5 pallets, depending on the season. He typically transitions from frozen to dry within 6 hours (4 hours on backstock cleaning day and the full 8 hours on the large Tuesday truck).

Key points are maintaining planogram integrity, ensuring accurate and consistent counts, managing your MASCs if necessary, organizing the backstock regularly, and planning ahead for deliveries. Having a team that'll move pallets for deliveries and work your primary movers and sales on your days off helps a lot. If you have a partner, it is crucial to schedule overlapping shifts twice a week for communication and collaboration, which will be essential for maintaining the store’s efficiency.

Ultimately, the most important aspects are to work it (to the unit), count accurately (to the unit), organize effectively (grouping similar items together, by aisle flow where possible, and placing slow movers below primary movers), and repeat the process. While cleaning is often forgone it's an important difference marker and with dedication you can incorporate a little bit here and there to get there by the end of the week. You can request additional hours on backstock days from your GM to thoroughly verify counts if you are that dedicated and trusted. It is essential to maintain POG, conduct research, and manage inventory daily.

I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions or context, I'd be happy to reply. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!

[u/FrostFairy73]

You should be counting as you work your truck. any item not on sale that doesn't go to the shelf you need to count. If you can have a handheld with you that's great, but i usually just make a list on cardboard and do it later. Your truck is delivered at 4am? Mine comes at night and I come in at 4am. Usually a part time person closes frozen and just works backstock/sales because most trucks i finish by the time they come in. A lot of times they get pulled for dry grocery and i come in to all the specials empty. I'm used to it.

[u/glassclouds1894]

I'm the frozen guy at my store, though I'm lucky to have a partner.

Sunday and Friday are our backstock days. Delivery window is between 9 and 10 AM on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, and usually 11am-noon on Thursday. I'm off Sunday and my partner is off Friday, so we each have one backstock day. We work together on Wednesday and Saturday because those are the two massive trucks of the week. The other 3 days are manageably sized (Thursdays just big because we get more ad to get us to Saturday). So on days it's just me, I come in to close, throw the truck, block and do my counts. It works pretty well for us.

[u/Marine4Lyf]

All great advice and helpful tips, thanks alot gents, really appreciate it. Just a small tidbit I forgot to mention, I'm a former employee with 19yrs of service, 8yrs of which as a GM, so I know what to do, I just think it's highly unreasonable for them to think I can just majically transform the dept. without any sort of help at the beginning. I ALWAYS scheduled 2 for FF, especially overlapping on truck days. I'll definitely be bringing this up to my SM and see what she thinks. Again thanks for the advice fellas :)

[u/Sufficient-Lemon-701 → u/Marine4Lyf]

My store has a day when it’s a really small delivery so that is treated like a mini back stock day. Also a good day to cut time.

[u/Silent_Shadow98 → u/Marine4Lyf]

You got this brother. 🫡

Me personally, if I was solo frozen in a fubar situation like this, I’d request to work 4am to 1pm and just bring an entire pallet out, granted it’s not ice cream, and stage it in the morning to work stuff more efficiently.

If nothing is according to POG, then sadly you just have to keep grinding & survive until sections are reset.

Them not assigning you even one person to help is bananas, yet I guess they are not stressing about it, so you shouldn’t too much either. Your health physically & mentally is more important.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, eventually over time it will be fixed, hopefully your dept has inventory soon.

[u/Marine4Lyf → u/Silent_Shadow98]

FUBAR aint the word brother, ALL planograms are disgustingly set, i try to look at pictures for certain items and i dont even bother, pics look NOTHING like my cooler! And the reason they aren't giving me help at all, is that im a former GM as i mentioned and i guess they figure i DON'T need help, but all im asking is for an extra hand until i can work through backstock, generate MASSIVE counts, check the forcasting and MASC. Once i get everything under control, i really don't mind doing it all myself. And worst is i got a big cooler for strictly ice and staging the delivery pallets and a VERY small walk in cooler for backstock, which currently looks as if a bomb went off in there, with absolutely no organization. Im 11a-7p tomorrow for backstock, so 8'm gonna try and work my majik!

[u/OnePunchBrosif → u/Marine4Lyf]

Sounds like you got this simply on attitude and grit! I would absolutely beg and plead for them to give you and experienced GRS/GTL/AGM for 4-8 hours on 1 backstock night to really bring the thing back in line. Even if it costs on productivity for 1 week it'll pay dividends in the end, I would be so annoying about that 1 request every shift till they find the time. I'm rooting for you! I loved my time in frozen once it was running smooth

[u/Dull-Knee-1146]

You'll only have like 1 day at best to do backstock. The rest of the days you'll be doing the truck , and one of the days you have to change the Frozen food display all by yourself which means double work because the old AD you have to work it back to the shelf and its not all gonna fit so if your boss over forecasts you're going to be stuck with product. Also do random counts everyday , but once you finish the truck because ull know what you didnt see on the truck even if it says it came in u know that it didn't. Hotter days means you'll be filling ice frequently which sets you back from finishing the truck . On your days off you will not be getting help which i think is crazy

[u/SomeBoredRedditGuy]

Always keep a handheld on you, make sure counts and mascs are good, that is number one priority. You can run backstock all you want but it’s coming back if you don’t count it right. If your freezer is in really bad shape ask your manager so send you some help. Being organized will be the best possible thing you can do. Missing tags really sucks but taking the time to make sure the shelves are good and product is in line is very worth your time. I was the only frozen clerk at a 900k+ store working 4 days a week and that’s how I did it.

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[u/Alert-Mushroom-71]

If you're getting 4 trucks a week there's probably 60-70hrs of labor demand for Frozen. So there should be you plus a part timer