A Day in Retail

 Our own Mrs Graham used to work in retail! Read on to find out what her typical day was like!

Early Shift tomorrow, I say to myself when setting my alarm for 04.30am. Alarm goes off, shower uniform on and out the door as I have to be in the shop for 05.30am. I pick up the newspapers and magazines that have been left outside the shop hoping that it’s not going to be a long day. Walking into the shop I know I have 30 minutes before the doors open to the customers and there will be the regulars queuing outside to get in. Quickly I go out the back of the shop to check how much delivery is left from the late shift last night, check the handover shift notes and make a coffee. Right plan of action, magazines in newspapers, price changes, delivery, reductions lets go. Don’t forget to check the work phone in case someone has called in sick! 

I lay the newspapers out in order and place the correct magazines next to the right newspaper and then start the conveyor belt system to get them prepared for the early morning customers who will have something to say if there not ready.  

The bakery lady turns up to work at 05.45am ready to get cooking. Don’t you just love the smell of fresh bread when entering a shop? I know bread and milk are now going to be looked at and rotated correctly. 

Next task is price changes. Price increases are a higher priority than decreases.  It is a legal requirement to complete all price increases before the store opens (we only have 32 today). The store will lose money if the price has increased and we are still showing old POS (point of sale). 

Doors open to customers at 06.00am and we still have price decreases to do as there was 84 but don’t worry the customers like it if they get to the till and find the product scans cheaper that what it stats it should be on the POS. All complete and its 06.45am, no bread or milk delivery yet I say to myself. A change run needs doing as there is no money in the tills. I set the safe off knowing I have 15 minutes until it will open right lets go. 

Check bread and milk put out new stock if needed and then bring out last night’s delivery. Stock rotation is key to ensure you have the food/ products on the shelves with the shortest date on and the food and products out the back with the longer dates on. 2 cages of delivery was left from last night so this is a priority to put out as the store is ran on a computer system and this system automatically sends signals to the distributers to state we are running low on stock as they know what we sell and when we sell it. Bell rings from the till, safe had beeped change run needs completing. There needs to be 2 members of staff for a change run and cameras in the office to ensure everything is recorded as there is often a lot of money in the safe. 3 tills need money so I make 3 piles of coins tick on the bags and the sheets what going in each till then out of the office straight into the tills the money goes. 

Half way through the first cage and the milk delivery turns up. Count the milk in, sign the paper work and hand it back to the delivery driver. Check the fridges when you are walking past to see if you have anything on your trollies that is out of stock. When you put the new milk in the fridge you must put it at the back to make sure the older milk sells first. 

More staff starting now at its 08.00am. Hand the delivery over to the new staff and the using the hand held machines we are now going to reduce the food that is going out of date today. I love this job but many don’t. Starting at the fruit and veg and then working your way through all of the fridges checking the dates on everything. You may get a notification when scanning items as crisps, nuts, chocolate bars are date scanned when we put the stock out to ensure we don’t forget about these items when they’re going out of date. (Date Scanned: All food items need to be scanned into an electronic calendar. This task is completed on a hand held machine that is like a little computer. Anything that goes out of date within 1 year of it entering the shop must be scanned. This ensures that the store does not sell anything out of date. Sometimes night shifts run in the store and this give staff the chance to re scan and check all entered dates in the system). 

Half way around and the bread delivery has turned up. Check the bread sign the paper work off and check the shelves on the way out to the back just like we did with the milk. Back to reductions as we are nearly there and these must all be complete by 10am. The other staff have finished putting the delivery out from yesterday and now are working on the overstock (over stock is delivery that will not go out on the shelves as there is already too much stock out) from the previous few days. The key to a good shop is a low/ empty warehouse but fully stocked shelves. 

And the day begins now 09.30am and fresh delivery has just turned up! Only 6 cages today Wednesday and Saturday we normally get about 15 cages so it’s a good day today. Check all the numbers and logs sign off the delivery and straight into the warehouse to sort the delivery and put it out. All hands on deck now, bakery lady has finished in the bakery my delivery from yesterday is also complete so myself and 3 others to put the fresh out! Let’s go I say to my team as I split the delivery down from the large 4 sided caged to the blue top trollies that you see in the shops. The 4 sided cages are too big to be on the shop floor in an express store it’s against health and safety laws to have these on the shop floor and we must conform to health and safety at all times. 11am and only 1 cage left to put out of the new fresh delivery. I have just had a notification to say ambient delivery has left the warehouse and it’s now en route. Let’s hope it’s got a few drop offs before it comes to me this will ensure I get all of my fresh delivery out. 

11am also means stock control start work. It is this ladies job to scan a certain number of items each day and let the system know how many we actually have. She has 150 units to scan today so she’s going to be busy today. Stock control is a massive job in any store as items may be missing from delivery, damaged or stolen and if the system thinks we have it in store and we actually don’t the store is losing a lot of money each day as these items are not selling. 

11.45am just over 2 and half hours to go!! Ambient delivery is nowhere to be seen. Quickly make a coffee and start tagging the new delivery that has gone onto the shelf. Cheese, meat, coffee, alcohol and laundry products and the most pinched item in any store. This is because these items can easily be sold on. Staff are extra vigilant around these areas and we never put too many of these items out at once. 

12.20pm and here is the ambient delivery outside. This is pop, juice, wine, tins anything that does not go in the fridges basically and today there is 16 cages coming in! It takes about 30 minutes to pull in the delivery and sign it off. Great team in today and staff have already started to put out the new delivery when the last cage is pulled in. The lady on the till has some delivery taken down to her and if she doesn’t have customers she can put this out. I think to myself well if I get 4 cages completely cleared by 14.30 that will be great. We have a system in place and it flows so nicely we all work from one case spilt the delivery onto a blue top and then straight onto the shop floor. When you put the delivery out you face up (face up in pulling items to the front of the shelves). 

At 13.00pm I lose a member of staff to complete 2nd reductions. They reduce further the stock that is going out of date today. This is the easer job as all of the items are in the reduced cabinet. It only takes about 15 minutes and we will have a full delivery team again. 13.30pm 1 hour to go I check the work phone quickly (as it’s been very quiet today). No sick calls and no customer service on the phone that has to be a first! 

And before you know it the clock hits 14.30pm home time!! We managed 6 cages of delivery leaving 10 cages and routines for the late shift. Some of the morning staff stay later as there is an overlap in some of the shift times. I give a hand over to the next shift. Tobacco delivery on way, change run will need doing again in about an hour, lottery on way also. No staff sickness and no communication from customer service today.10 cages well 9 cages left now as we have talked and worked. All overs have been worked too. Enjoy your evening don’t leave the shop a mess for me and I will see you tomorrow! 

And that’s a morning shift complete.