I guess I shouldn't complain too much, I got a lot done at work today. Not everything that needs done mind you, but enough that it wasn't like I milked the clock for the 7.5 hours I was there. Of course 7.5 hours isn't much of a shift, unless you aren't even on the schedule, then it is a sizable amount of time to be at work.
I managed to get the order done for Monday, all of the invoices off of my desk until Monday morning, almost all of the Pricemaster order is now tagged, I only have a couple of boxes of stuff left to go, but I managed to run out of labels in two different pricing guns, which I took as a sign that maybe I should stop. I also did 19 pages of price changes that I had to get caught up on and continued my work on getting all of the crap out of the computer system.
But I'll be honest, for all of the work I got done, my heart wasn't in it. Not that work was bad, but I am distracted by thoughts of the upcoming hockey game. And technically my last day of this pay period is tomorrow, but I am off, so by leaving a some work behind I can add some hours to the next pay period, and trying to get all of our items into the computer system and priced properly will be a time consuming process. If I do it during the next pay period, or at least make a more than noble attempt, than I will be getting paid literally the day before the game. And having some cash on hand when out with a female companion might not be all that bad of an idea.
So I will start banging hard on the hours come Monday, but for now I am just going to settle in and do some light reading until then.
I have to say from reading your blog I had no idea how labor intensive a grocery store was. I mean I see the stocking of shelves and the inventory. I don't think the local stores around here put prices on anything anymore. They rely on the computer to scan everything. Which of course sets people up for possibly paying the wrong amount. It is interesting to hear what goes on behind the scene and gives me a greater perspective on what the people at the store have to do. That's a lot of work to keep it stocked and everything fresh.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a lot less work if everything ran smoothly. But it rarely does. Ed likes everything in the store to have a price on it, something with which I agree. People should know what it is they are paying ahead of time, whether that be via a shelf tag or the item actually having a price on it.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, a large portion of our employees are computer stupid, that is, I wouldn't trust them near one. Including the people who used to do what I do now. All of the items they put into the system they did wrong. Our system identifies products one of two ways, by bar code and/or SKU #. Bar codes are ptretty self explanatory these days so I will not revisit that issue yet. A SKU # (some systems will call them PLU numbers) is a number that a store uses to identify a product. In grocery stores you will often see them on produce, the four digit number on the sticker affixed to the item. This allows a store the ability to have items in the system that do not have bar codes. In our system we have them for items on the deli menu, the fountain beverages and coffees, hot dogs off of the roller, etc. Our system is designed in such a way that any new item entered in will automatically be given a SKU number, then if a barcode is available, there is a place to scan in the bar code as well. The only stipulation is the system will only recognize a number once. The problem is that the people who used the software before me would erase the automatically generated SKU number and instead put the bar code there, then turn around and enter the bar code in the bar code spot as well. Because a number can only be used once, the systme would then alter the bar code in some way, usually deleting the first or last number so no duplications took place. When that item is then scanned at the register it may work, the system will search for the closest availabe bar code if the exact number isn't there, but it isn't foolproof. So my task is to go back and remove literally years worth of numbers and items that were put in the system wrong the first time. And the effort given at keeping those prices up to date was sporadic at best as well, so there are times when I go in and find an item that is literally dollars off of what the SRP should be. In our business, that just crushes the margin you should be working with.
My job probably wouldn't be nearly as complicated if things had been done right the first time and adequate upkeep of things had taken place, but instead it feels like I am constantly paddling upstream just to try and get us where we need to be. Plus the fact I asked for more responsibility back when Amy was fired, I am trying to do my old job, plus all of the additional bonuses of hers as well which means there is never a day where I go in and say that there is nothing to do.
Back a million years ago I was a market analyst for the Arbitron company - you knew them for radio but I was on the television side. The management came up with this brilliant failure known as ScanAmerica in which they thought metered families would bring everything they purchase home and scan it to record purchases for analysis of viewing vs. product purchase. Needless to say it was an epic failure. It was too much effort and compliance sucked. Still in ScanAmerica households for the months it was operational we had to look at the SKU/barcode data and check the calculations vs. the share of viewers. It was a royal pain in the ass and I learned more about SKU numbers and barcoding then I ever wanted to know.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me when I say I appreciate the work you do.