Is this Real Life? (A Market vent thread)

Joined
Jul 15, 2013
Messages
2,815
I am a PA in Market, was just promoted about 5-6 months ago. I work in an A Volume store (which I think is high Volume) store. (We were top 20/1800 stores in Volume Black Friday 2012) And every given month anywhere from 25-29% of my stores volume leaves through my work center in Market.

Even though it is this close to Thanksgiving we on average, have 3 people in Market throughout a day

An Opener (Who is usually my counterpart PA).
from 6:00am - 2:30pm

A Mid who is usually me, anywhere from 9:00am-6pm (Sundays) or 11:30-8:00pm

And the Market Closer 6:00-11:00 (I close one day a week 2:30-11:00.
Market has always been a Very High Intensity area (which is why I like it and thrive over here, I can't gain weight no matter how much McDonald's I eat, or get enough sleep, no matter how much zZZQuil I take.

But this is getting borderline ridiculous...

The Market section of my store is the consistently the only positive section of my store in Sales (And Vibe, I have yet to see a guest comment that falls outside the "AMAZED" category. and yet they have trimmed back hours even though it is easily our busiest time of the year... (We get 80 cases of Turkeys tomorrow) yay..

Are any other Market Team Members (Or team members from other area's experiencing this) in other stores experiencing this same thing?
 
Last edited:
where are you putting all those Turkeys?? 80 cases at one time seem like a lot. We ordered about 20 cases on our first order and have gone through about half of them. I just ordered about 10 cases to come in on Thursday. We only have room for 1 pallet of Turkeys in the Freezer. We always have to leave room for the 3 to 4 pallets of Freezer on Truck days and with the 6 metros of backstock in the freezer it is pretty much full. Not to mention the ice pallet and the vendor area with over- flowing pizzas.

As for over worked that's what i like about being a PA. We have hardlines to zone dry groceries and freezers.
 
We have one exec who is absolutely clueless about Pfresh (and the whole store, really) who consistently goes in and adds unnecessary amounts of crap to our order. One day he went in and added 12 cases of those Green Giant stringless peas, among other things... Which he needed me to show him how to do because he didn't have a clue how to place an order in the first place. We don't even sell through two cases of those in a week, but sure let's order 6 times more than we sell!

But this guy aside, overall we've been fortunate so far that the majority of our leadership understands Pfresh and what our workload is like each day. We only have to zone the Pfresh area and the coolers and freezers, but I'm expecting that to change once 4th quarter is over and hours get slashed and we have 1 person to zone all of hardlines in the evening... There are some nights I won't start my zone until 8-8:30 because there are so many other things that need to get done, so I can't even imagine having to zone the entirety of the market section, and how bad it would look if I had to.
 
where are you putting all those Turkeys?? 80 cases at one time seem like a lot. We ordered about 20 cases on our first order and have gone through about half of them. I just ordered about 10 cases to come in on Thursday. We only have room for 1 pallet of Turkeys in the Freezer. We always have to leave room for the 3 to 4 pallets of Freezer on Truck days and with the 6 metros of backstock in the freezer it is pretty much full. Not to mention the ice pallet and the vendor area with over- flowing pizzas.

As for over worked that's what i like about being a PA. We have hardlines to zone dry groceries and freezers.

You must live in a warmer State than I as Ice is not in demand here, its already falling from the sky, where I am from.

We are putting them in our Freezer, on flats, all over the place.. as our store has a huge demand for them and next week they are on the front page of the Weekly Ad, we will get bombarded.. We have about 20 cases of just BB 20-24 coming (which is only 40 turkey's).... We literally will have them on flats all over the place in our freezer..

Somehow my store expects the market closer to help Hardlines get through Dry (which is almost always destroyed at the end of the day). Then do Paper/PFresh/Freezers/Routines alone.. and then Touch-Ups..


As well as Re-shop its nuts, and almost always ends with hardlines getting called back over to touch up dry.

By overworked I mean some days it feels like it is impossible to actually feel like u had a successful day, as you were never even given an opportunity. And I hate that feeling.
 
Last edited:
There is only 4 people (Not including FATL) who know how to do the order at my store.. (out of like 200+ employees)
 
flats in the freezer, I hate that, those wheels get frozen and near impossible to move around in the freezer.
Good luck, I hope all your turkeys fly out of your freezer and out the door soon.
 
flats in the freezer, I hate that, those wheels get frozen and near impossible to move around in the freezer.
Good luck, I hope all your turkeys fly out of your freezer and out the door soon.

Thanks, I think they will, ya gotta have em to sell em, and if we somehow have leftovers they will sell at Christmas
 
We have 4 PA's at our store, and only ever have an opener and a closer. Maybe once a week there will be a mid, but they usually are off doing another task list for market during their shift.

As for demand for ice, believe me where I am it's snowing a little already & we still have a pallet of ice. People want it for parties for some crazy reason. I feel like turkeys are about to start flying off the shelves, it's gonna be nuts.

I feel like our ETL would know better than to go in & add to our order. If anything, he would check with our CTL and ask him what's up and they would go from there. We are still trying to figure out how to make sure we get more than enough ground meat, especially right now when it is on sale.
 
My store was pushed 9 1/2 pallets of turkeys two weeks ago. Between setting the coffin using the metro racking and people buying them we've managed to get it down to only having 4 pallets on the floor in the freezer. We are already ordering more birds. This is my first time being PA for the holidays and I've gotta say, it's crazy. Looking forward to Q1.

Is anyone else having trouble ordering a bunch of products? They come up as 'not store orderable.' A lot of the problems are the AF turkeys as this is a transition year per the mysupport response, but the ordering problems are not limited to them.
 
Is anyone else having trouble ordering a bunch of products? They come up as 'not store orderable.' A lot of the problems are the AF turkeys as this is a transition year per the mysupport response, but the ordering problems are not limited to them.

They wouldn't happen to be ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, or lettuces, would they? Any products that are 211-03, 268-05, and whatever the department/class for ground beef is are HQ replenished now. We're still fighting the system on trying to get enough beef sent to us. Lettuce and chicken have been fine since the initial hiccups, but we just can't catch a break with our ground beef.
 
Is anyone else having trouble ordering a bunch of products? They come up as 'not store orderable.' A lot of the problems are the AF turkeys as this is a transition year per the mysupport response, but the ordering problems are not limited to them.

They wouldn't happen to be ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, or lettuces, would they? Any products that are 211-03, 268-05, and whatever the department/class for ground beef is are HQ replenished now. We're still fighting the system on trying to get enough beef sent to us. Lettuce and chicken have been fine since the initial hiccups, but we just can't catch a break with our ground beef.

Same. We are getting too much of certain ground beef and not enough of others. I did a little research in ground meat on low ones yesterday, hopefully that helps for tomorrow. (Yes, a PA did research, my TL & ETL gave us permission to do so on things that have a habit of not showing up. Our instocks team always makes a mess out of outs in our area.)
 
Is anyone else having trouble ordering a bunch of products? They come up as 'not store orderable.' A lot of the problems are the AF turkeys as this is a transition year per the mysupport response, but the ordering problems are not limited to them.

They wouldn't happen to be ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, or lettuces, would they? Any products that are 211-03, 268-05, and whatever the department/class for ground beef is are HQ replenished now. We're still fighting the system on trying to get enough beef sent to us. Lettuce and chicken have been fine since the initial hiccups, but we just can't catch a break with our ground beef.

Same. We are getting too much of certain ground beef and not enough of others. I did a little research in ground meat on low ones yesterday, hopefully that helps for tomorrow. (Yes, a PA did research, my TL & ETL gave us permission to do so on things that have a habit of not showing up. Our instocks team always makes a mess out of outs in our area.)

At this point the trouble it's been to try and get this product into the store is not worth the extra half hour I have to do other tasks that I'm not spending ordering these things. And yesterday I had to QMOS an entire freaking case of ground beef because some moron in the backroom put it on a pull right next to a case of chicken (bonus: they put more ground beef in with some Lunchables, too!). The one time we get product in, and it has to be tossed out because people are careless and lazy. I was pissed...
 
Is anyone else having trouble ordering a bunch of products? They come up as 'not store orderable.' A lot of the problems are the AF turkeys as this is a transition year per the mysupport response, but the ordering problems are not limited to them.

They wouldn't happen to be ground beef, chicken, ground turkey, or lettuces, would they? Any products that are 211-03, 268-05, and whatever the department/class for ground beef is are HQ replenished now. We're still fighting the system on trying to get enough beef sent to us. Lettuce and chicken have been fine since the initial hiccups, but we just can't catch a break with our ground beef.

Same. We are getting too much of certain ground beef and not enough of others. I did a little research in ground meat on low ones yesterday, hopefully that helps for tomorrow. (Yes, a PA did research, my TL & ETL gave us permission to do so on things that have a habit of not showing up. Our instocks team always makes a mess out of outs in our area.)

At this point the trouble it's been to try and get this product into the store is not worth the extra half hour I have to do other tasks that I'm not spending ordering these things. And yesterday I had to QMOS an entire freaking case of ground beef because some moron in the backroom put it on a pull right next to a case of chicken (bonus: they put more ground beef in with some Lunchables, too!). The one time we get product in, and it has to be tossed out because people are careless and lazy. I was pissed...

Man, you want to see a crazy meat metro?? I'll have to post pics I took of one once. No rhyme or reason to where things were put. And it was an autofill so it was HUGE. We have had problems with people thinking ham is fresh cut, not pre-cooked meat lately (an issue with sto-ing and on the metro). So much fun.
 
Man, you want to see a crazy meat metro?? I'll have to post pics I took of one once. No rhyme or reason to where things were put. And it was an autofill so it was HUGE. We have had problems with people thinking ham is fresh cut, not pre-cooked meat lately (an issue with sto-ing and on the metro). So much fun.

Please post picture you can upload the picture to http://imageshack.us/ signup is free and easy copy the your photo link and then post image link from URL and uncheck the box for Retrieve remote file and reference locally.
 
Last edited:
Man, you want to see a crazy meat metro?? I'll have to post pics I took of one once. No rhyme or reason to where things were put. And it was an autofill so it was HUGE. We have had problems with people thinking ham is fresh cut, not pre-cooked meat lately (an issue with sto-ing and on the metro). So much fun.

Please post picture you can upload the picture to http://imageshack.us/ signup is free and easy copy the your photo link and then post image link from URL and uncheck the box for Retrieve remote file and reference locally.

This. Imgur works too.
 
I feel all of your pain.

I'm a recent promotion to PA (Promoted within my 90 days to boot. Hardlines for a month, Grocery for a month, PA for a month now), and it's driving me absolutely crazy.

My store is on a razors edge from being one of the top dogs in sales for our district. We're green YTD in every department...except Grocery, where we're down a few points YTD, though up MTD. We're supposed to have two PAs, plus our CTL, and yet here I am as the only PA under our CTL, with three team members technically under me that are essentially full time positions. Our HR insists on writing our schedules, and failing miserably to ensure that neither the CTL or I are working turnarounds or scheduled for more than couple hours of us both working together in Pfresh. My CTL is absolutely amazing, but he's just as harried and haggard as I am, especially with the time of year it is, and with how much work we're having to pick up because of the lethal combination of incompetent vendors, ineffective and tuned out ETL-Hardline and outright hostile ETL-Guest Service, FA, SBK and Flow team leads that get on us about what we need to ensure that our workstation runs smoothly (I'm looking at you, ETL-Guest Service. To hell with you for allowing your FA people to order 3 times as much product as they need and then complaining to us when we moved all of it out of 01F and 01C because it was taking up space we needed to stage seasonal dairy and turkeys. Half of it was boxes of...boxes that could have been staged in the damn FA backroom in a corner!)

Our qmos is consistently amazing, but that's mostly because we tend to order very conservatively, because we haven't been able to get through to the ETL-Logistics and the Flow Team Lead that just because it's on the pallet three times a week (I hate that we're M/W/F with no weekend schedule) doesn't mean it can be pushed out, and that just because there's a hole on the floor next to it doesn't mean you need to fill it with a different product (very, VERY huge annoyance for both my CTL and myself), mostly because with us having to do backroom SDA because morning backroom refuses to do it, along with our SDA, basic open procedures, waking bananas, etc. means we have absolutely NO time at all to run EXFs and manual pulls before our truck drops.

Not to mention the fact that we have to deal with major cuts on every truck, having to fight for a PDA on order days and then justify why we need a PDA until at least 10AM to the Backroom TL, a non-salesfloor team member suddenly being transferred onto us for SF training and PFresh training, a brand new TM that's super driven but utterly incompetent and, oh, the fact that I'm not even fully trained. My CTL may or may not (no admission here) have forced through several LPs and Certs for me because we simply didn't have time for me to actually get it done with both of his PAs quitting on the same day.

I was never trained on how to properly stack a metro, I don't know how to clean a single thing and I have to force our HR to schedule me at times with our CTL so I can have him explain how I actually do something, since none of our ETLs know the slightest thing about PFresh, besides the fact that grocery drives over a quarter of sales.

I'm so very tired of being expected to know every single facet of how to run PFresh, though I appreciate my CTL because he's behind me 100% of the way and is really happy with everything I've done so far, and the fact that Steritech didn't ding our workcenter at all aside from a couple noncrits and that District and Regional both think our PFresh is one of the best they've checked. And, in all honesty, I think I'm underpaid (south of $9/h) for the work expected of me (PFresh runs it's own Stand Alone Researches, has to fill the water wall because flow/backroom won't, Ordering, Cleaning procedures [Though, like I said, I haven't clue one on how to do pretty much any of the cleaning procedures aside from, "Grab the sterilizer and wipe down any shelf in milk that only has a couple things on it and is dirty], and everything else.)

That went on much longer than I thought. I'm just so very tired of the grind. I love the work, just wish the soul shattering grind would ease up a bit so I can actually learn everything I need to know to be an effective PA.
 
Last edited:
Good job, gf. You have a good ctl, which is plus. On vendors issues, partnered with your receiver & flagged them red for being late & having lack of product out. Thre is a lot of info on workbench about pa's. I would listen to your etl-hr & ctl on your stuff. Now, with fa stuff, talk to your etl-log to help get rid of fa stuff out of the freezer. The fa-tl needs to step up & fix the issues.
 
One of threads may help you:
Here is a good link for those answers:
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/305
Partner w/ctl, etl-log, & etl-hl to get all teams on the same page. Don't forget the weekends, when you have sf hl helping you out. Training & pushing fast are the keys. Milk & freezer pulls are the easiest to push.

But FIFO & culling are important things also. Make sure that happens!.

These links maybe help:
pfresh grand opening & backroom bakery & meat
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/305
pfresh backroom issues
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/565
pfresh closing roles
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/690
pfresh asst
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/410
team work
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/1477
fifo stuff
http://www.thebreakroom.org/showthread.php/1538
 
Gulfcoast- Be glad you have a competent CTL, it makes all the difference. It definitely sounds like your store just doesn't give two shits about pfresh though, which is sad (although at my store the ETL-HL and ETL-LOG have gotten into it a few times over pfresh...)

Check out the links above, they are very helpful. Just try to get a routine down, and follow that. I know in my experience once I got into a routine, I felt so much more comfortable in the role.

Usually for cleaning, its Wash (degreaser), Rinse (water), and Sanitize. I know in our room that we keep bananas & such in, we have a cleaning guide hanging off one of the metros, ask your CTL where yours may be. Make sure you regularly sweep out coolers as well, I typically like to get a deep sweep in on the night before a truck comes in because the coolers are usually all backstocked & neat. Every store is different on who helps out pfresh, but if you are lucky enough to have regular help, make use of that. Delegate some more basic tasks (pulls & such) so you can go through and cull, learn, that sort of stuff.
 
Since this is a market vent thread, I should tell you what my new (ish) CTL did this past week. I walk in Tuesday to find that that he decided to put Market Pantry Turkeys in the spot of butterball turkeys because quote "we needed more room for Market Pantry. He also didnt out any Turkey Breast even though we had 4 cases. When I showed him the breasts, we was surprised we had them. Also on Tuesday for his order, he said he went over the guardrail for a lot of stuff just so we can quote "have it and stay in stock"

I was off Wednesday and Thursday. I came into today to 22 cases of Market Pantry Turkeys in the backroom. Yes, 22 cases. my CTL tripled the recommended amount the order. I have worked in p fresh since we opened in October 2010 and MP turkeys are not high sellers, especially the weekend before thanksgiving. Above that, he ordered an additional 10 cases of MP turkeys for Saturdays delivery (2 of each weight). He also ordered 8 cases of MP turkey breasts for Saturday as well. He didnt order enough butterball turkeys when they are the better selling turkey

I took it upon myself as a PA to TPC the market pantry turkeys to .59 cents a pound. Yes it is over 50% but I know they wont sell in time. I also put a .50 cent coupon on all the MP turkeys.

What is funny, I told him that butterball turkeys sell better than Market Pantry Turkeys. I also said we SHOULD NOT over order turkeys for the weekend before thanksgiving since they dont sell that well. I know he stubborn as hell. That is hurting us in p fresh. He twice didnt do a Thursday order (for Saturday delivery) because he was too busy doing his LOD shift. He is not valuing my opinion and experience since I know more than he does.

Good lord wow. I think we've been ordering MAYBE 2 cases of each of turkeys, typically 3-4 of the breast turkeys. The only thing my CTL has told us to go crazy ordering has been potatoes, and they have been selling like crazy. Sounds like your CTL is just...I don't even know. Anytime you post about your CTL it just makes me even more thankful for the one I have, who has been amazing to work with, even when I was on hardlines.
 
Ok, finally uploading the pics I mentioned before. This was my meat metro one morning for an auto fill. I couldn't believe what I had found.
5564.jpg


n0qm.jpg


bowv.jpg
 
We have the same kinda metros at our store.

it looks like you br tm doesn't know how to read. Pork on the top shelf, hell no it says "pre cooked" and ground meat on the bottom next to chicken as i laugh at all the qmos you had to do that day.

oh and I see those REV's on the 2nd shelf, ouch more qmos.

Alos that 3rd shelf has some sort of beef or maybe even chicken parm. ontop of ground meat. more qmos.


I hope things have goten better at your store.
 
Back
Top