Archived Full freezer

[Cullsfordays]

So I've been using this site for a while now for funny stories and to learn some basic knowledge from all of you.

I just recently made an account because I need some help. My backroom freezer is completely full. There isn't a single bit of space in the entire freezer and I still have two vehicles of backstock. I talked to the CTL an she says the best she can do is my support it and good the FDC sends less freezer. Any ideas what I can do? Thanks in advance.

 

[craycray]

If you have alot of turkeys in the freezer, just donate them. It could free up some space. Keep the bagged ones.

 

[Targe]

I'm not sure how your backroom is on pulling freezer, but I would check your sales floor as well to make sure that your merchandise is properly pushed. IE: Check the "poultry cooler" to make sure the MTFZ chicken is pushed to capacity, check the bakery department to make sure it is being pushed properly, and so on.

I know that it wont do a significant difference, but making sure the team isn't burning the freezer batches can mean a world of difference.

Though it would be a good idea to MySupport the issue, that may reduce the freezer portion of your FDC trucks, as craycray stated.

Has your store already went through the "flip flop" freezer transition?

 

[Produce Queen]

Are you sure everything is located? You could locu 4 ft sections then re-sto.

Is there any vendor product located? There shouldn't be.

Is there a bunch of NOP product? Run a detail report and check.

These are issues I had when I transferred to my current store. Tons of unlocated product especially. Instocks would change counts, more product would come....yada yada. Nobody gave a crap about the freezer until I made it a priority.

 

[Circle9]

Leave the freezer door open overnight. That'll clear up some space.

 

[StrawberryBanana]

At one point my store had a ridiculous amount of turkeys (like those twenty-five pound butterball ones). It wasn't close to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter so we weren't selling a ton. They were taking up a fair amount of floor space and I'm assuming stacked way higher than what they were supposed to be in order to be safe. I'm unsure why we had so many turkeys, but the TM in market finally TPCed them to half off. It took about a week and a half, but it finally cleared up some space. So if there is a particular item that is taking up a ton of space maybe market can mark them down for you.

Edit -- a word

 

[SFSFun]

For starters, all pallets need to be pushed. That alone should free up tons of space and give some room to get in there and backstock. If for some reason nothing can be pushed right away, you can pull the pallets out and put them back in sideways to make room for the next truck.

But yeah, push everything, backstock everything, then research everything.

 

[mrknownothing]

Here's the burning question:

Is the floor getting filled?

 

[glo]

You've got problems.

Everything not located needs to be pushed to capacity.
Go through case stock and check that it's all in date.
LOCU 4 ft sections and push.
Ensure that everything is backstocked properly.

After that, you just need to maintain it.

It'll take hours that your store doesn't have, but if your floor is empty and your freezer full, you're missing potential sales. A lot of BRTLs will put coolers/freezer at the bottom of their priority list because its not visable, but when they get a visit from someone and they just so happen to open those doors, that TL will be expected to answer to it.

 

[Cullsfordays]

So for a bit more information I had gone through and researched the entire freezer so all on hand counts should be correct (although that was a week ago so they're probably wrong again).
I also went ahead and did a freezer backroom report and pulled anything that was STO'ed for more than six months and all d-code.
I'm the PA at my store so if it's not getting pushed correctly I probably need to sit myself down and have a serious chat.

I have thought about LOCU everything and pushing it, but I don't know if I'll ever get the time, and I certainly won't get help.
And @glo The floor is mostly full too.

 

[ColonelAngus]

We have a similar issue at our store. The freezer routinely takes 6+ pallets a night from FDC but the biggest issue is when vendors overload the freezer with their stuff (pizza vendors i'm looking at you) or when the meat freezer is filled to capacity and they start throwing turkeys in with our freight. Our dairy cooler is the same, except worse. Hardly any room to move around, let alone backstock the multiple tubs of case stock, yet they continue to order a ton of product.

 

[tgtguy]

I always try to purge out at least 5 wacos per shift. This opens up more room and fills the floor. If I have a crap load of the same product I will talk with the CTL and see if its a salesplanner coming up etc and if there is anything she can do to help ( ie setting it early ) . If the backstock sits ( un backstocked of course) in the freezer for more than three days... I will try to push part of it out with the pulls. If I don't have time I will touch base with the ctl.. However, all the above it based on actually have a few extra hours a week...which here lately just hasn't been happening .

 

[Rock Lobster]

Its hard to say without access to more reporting. How are your sales in those departments? Are the B-Markdowns high? If you can show you are defecting out lots of stuff that would help some. How are your count updates? I have seen a few bad TMs think we need more stuff and just zero out counts of things they shouldn't be (you said your OHs were way off, so why are they off?) .... There are TONS of reasons this could be happening. You need to make sure everything in the store's control is taken care of first, and then you can blame the FDC because otherwise they just assume its the store messing up everytime.

 

[Circle9]

We have a similar issue at our store. The freezer routinely takes 6+ pallets a night from FDC but the biggest issue is when vendors overload the freezer with their stuff (pizza vendors i'm looking at you) or when the meat freezer is filled to capacity and they start throwing turkeys in with our freight. Our dairy cooler is the same, except worse. Hardly any room to move around, let alone backstock the multiple tubs of case stock, yet they continue to order a ton of product.

That's definitely something the CTL and receiver can have a chat with the vendors about.

 

[Cullsfordays]

So I started to LOCU everything. Only got one section done but it did open a lot of space.
I still don't know what caused such a full freezer since everything was backstocked correctly and most of the on hands were accurate.

Thank you all so much for your help.