Day: 4/8/08

It particularly irritates me at the absolute laziness of some people in the business world. Granted, there are some jobs that just by their very existance makes you wonder what they are there for since there are no duties actually assigned to such a position. But, it is the labor force of our society that I am talking about. The grunts in the foxholes on the front lines of retail. I have tried over the years to do my job, regardless of what it is I am supposed to do, to the best of my abilities at the time. I like knowing that a job I have finished is done to the best that I could have done. Sure, someone else might have done it faster, or even better, but for me, it was my 'A' game.

While I was at job #2 last night, I was given the task of filling the open door drink cooler. Normally, this is a job I try to get out of, just because I already know what is about to happen. It turns out, I was right this time too.

In a retail environment, it is only natural that there is some level of disorganization that occurs as customers browse the varied products, read labels, and even change their minds on a product. It is natural that while some people actually think to put the product back where they got it from, many at the same time do not. So, in the end, the retail employees usually have to spend some part of their day straightening and reorganizing merchandise so that customers can find things more readily.

This disorganization is only increased when the employees do not take the actual time to reorganize properly and just start putting products all willy-nilly in the general vicinity of where it belongs. This is my store's big problem with the drink cooler: Willy-Nilly Organization.

Now, I don't know how many people have actually noticed, but the price stickers in front of the merchandise is actually quite informative when you learn how to read the information. Typically, there is the price, a short or abbreviated description of what item the price refers to, and in some cases the UPC that is printed on the item. Other bits of info may be here, but these three are the most important parts. This information is critical for the organization of the store. We place product on the shelves using this information. We receive a product and send it to the department it is assigned to. The clerk of that department then takes the product to the proper area of that department. Using the package information, the price stickers (mylars), and a little common sense the clerk matches the product UPC and/or description to the mylar and places it on the shelf proper.

So when it comes to the drink cooler, I have to ask myself if it is just laziness or that someone actually can not read? I opt for the first, laziness. For an example: We carry some fifteen varieties/flavors of Gatorade. Each flavor is assigned a position in the drink cooler and is mylared to indicate where each flavor belongs. Not all flavors are kept cold, some are kept room temperature on the 'hot' shelf. So I ask you, why do I have to remove near every bottle of Gatorade from the cooler, resort the flavors into their respective position in the cooler, take the 'hot shelf' items to the 'hot' shelf just to take cooler items from there to put back in the cooler? Does it make any particular sense that I should remove from a single line of Gatorade six different flavors?

What really annoys me about all this willy-nilly'ness is that it is detrimental to the customers. I think everyone can agree that there is a particular flavor of something that they like. Be it a drink or a candy bar, when you go to a store you expect to find it without having to go on a treasure hunt for it. I certainly hate to have to look for a flavor that I like. If I don't see it on the shelf where it should be, I will ask an employee where it is (perhaps it had been moved to a new location) or I will just leave without and go somewhere else to find it.

This 'find it or leave' mentality is what I consider when I'm resorting the drinks in the cooler. How are we supposed to sell this stuff when noone can find what they want?

Anyways, I think I've ranted enough for the moment. :)