Ask a Grocer

[ironduck]

What do you make as a grocery bagger? Do people tip you?

 

[Godwynn]

What do you make as a grocery bagger? Do people tip you?

Minimum wage, they sometimes tip when you have to bring their groceries out to their car.

 

[ironduck]

Are grocery baggers the norm in the US? Are people less likely to shop a place that doesn't have grocery baggers?

 

[MjM]

Bagging for yourself can be a hassle, but more and more stores are letting you bag yourself, and even check yourself out.

 

[ironduck]

How does checking yourself out work in terms of shoplifters? Are there spies walking around the stores looking for suspicious behavior?

 

[Sophie 378]

You mean there are stores that don't let you put your own just-paid-for items into bags yourself? Why on earth should that be?

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

I'm looking in at least once a day & will try to answer questions every 48 hours or so. If I'm going to be AFK longer than that, I'll post it in the OP.

Sorry, I wrote it before you had a chance to respond the first time. *Walks away sheepishly*

 

[Mathilda]

How does checking yourself out work in terms of shoplifters? Are there spies walking around the stores looking for suspicious behavior?

The one I've been to, you get a hand held scanner (by using your loyalty card) when you enter the shop, scan all the items as you put them in your trolley.
At the check out you just hand in the scanner and pay. About 10% of the time you get checked, as in the teller will scan the items as well.
If you're caught too many times (no idea how many) trying to sneak stuff you haven't scanned you lose the privilege.
You can pack it directly into bags as you shop, saves quite a bit of time.

 

[MjM]

How does checking yourself out work in terms of shoplifters? Are there spies walking around the stores looking for suspicious behavior?

Well, there are censors at the entrance and exit of said stores, and each item's barcode will go off unless scanned. So it would be extremely diffucult to walk out of a store that has self checkout. Although, it is a real pain if you accidentally charge something twice, or something.

 

[ironduck]

(edit - to Mathilda) It's interesting.. maybe it would work better if the trolley automatically scanned the items as they were entered? This could be done if they had a plastic computer chip on them instead of a bar code..

To MjM - oh, how does a barcode go off? I'd think it'd need a chip or something, like in clothes stores.

 

[Nobody]

So how does the whole ordering product work?

When ordering at my supermarket, i take the little hand held order thing put in the bar code of the products i want ordered and the quantity. After i finish a aiel i take away all the overs from the order.

Then go to store room and log my hand held thing into the company computer.


By the way i hate working in a supermarket, i never ever try to "learn about the products", though i have learent lots just from filling the shelves. I hate supermakets and everyone involved with them except myself.

 

[Nobody]

How does checking yourself out work in terms of shoplifters? Are there spies walking around the stores looking for suspicious behavior?

In my store there are spies. Other than that we just keep a eye open for anyone doing dodgy stuff.

One thing that gets me i see a couple of young maori guys coming in with baggy cloths and think "thiefs... wait i cant pre judge these guys...." so i ignor them and 10 minutes later they run off with a cask of wine. So now i follow my prejudice and gut. Though i dont really care so much other than the alcohol department where i get crap if we get robbed.
And on top of that me and the checkout staff steal more by giving each other free shopping that the wine wrangerlers.

 

[Nobody]

How do you decide how much to mark things down by, and what are the criteria for doing a mark-down? Special offers, sales, damaged goods, nearly-out-of-date goods?

Marked down only if the outside paper is broken, not if the food is in anyway damaged

Do you ever get people trying to haggle?

It gets them no where, countdown is a faceless cooperation who cares for no one.

What's your returns policy like? Do you think that it is fair to the shop and the customers? Do you ever get people trying to abuse it?

Always better to customers, people abuse it but overall it improves store image, so countdown isnt seen as the evil company it is.

Do you order stuff in specially if customers request it?

Yes, if you want say 5 cases of wine for a party. But most of the time if you say "could you order in some "Sidmeiers chardonay" i would write the name down and your name, then throw it away when i walked out back.

Do you get rid of the unsold newspapers before you shut to ship them back for a refund? If so, do you get many people coming in at teh last minute and being pissy because they can't get the newspapers because they're gone already?

Stores closes at 11, at about 10 all but a few are disposed of, Just cut out the lable then the paper is thrown in the bin, Though news papers are like the only product in the store mangement will give free to staff once it is marked down.

Do you stock much ethical stuff - organic, local, Fairtrade etc? Do you sell a lot of it? Do you make a lot of profit off those items?

Stock lots of organic ect. and like free range eggs. Dont seem it sell super well. I dont know about profit.

........cgmnfhjdh

 

[Nobody]

Minimum wage, they sometimes tip when you have to bring their groceries out to their car.

I do a little bit of everything, so i have trolly boyed it and done checkout, i get slightly more than minimum wage. But no tips ever, ever, ever infact if we get some i have to turn it over to the company.

Closest thing to a tip i got is the beer company gave me some shirts which i didnt tell the mangers about.

 

[Xanikk999]

Why do you do it? Or rather, why did you choose a grocery store?

Did you ever work as a courtesy clerk, did you hate it/like it?

How much do you get paid?

 

[MjM]

To MjM - oh, how does a barcode go off? I'd think it'd need a chip or something, like in clothes stores.

Well, I really don't know. I don't know how it works, but unless every single product has some sort of chip, which I'd think would be too exspensive, than the scanners pick up the barcode, and see it hasn't been scanned.

 

[Sophie 378]

Maybe it works like library books, with a tiny strip of conductive stuff that gets demagnetised while you scan it, and trying to take a magnetised one trhough the doors will set of the scanners there?

 

[Shylock]

Are grocery baggers the norm in the US? Are people less likely to shop a place that doesn't have grocery baggers?

Baggers are the norm at mine. We are committed to customer service first and foremost, Safeway.

 

[Maimonides]

are there any legal restrictions or regulations about this?

There are property rights. If I don't want someone on my property, I throw them off & sometimes have the police issue a tresspass warning depending on the situation.

In the case of a competitor surveying my pricing or selection, usually a stern look drives them out the door.

I would love to answer that, but, if they knew, it would help them put me out of business. I will say it's not easy.

Upon further review, I can give a few examples without shooting myself in the foot.

1. My store is about 26,000 sq. ft. A typical supercenter is over 100,000 sq. ft. Elderly & disabled people tend to favor my store because they can park right at the front door, don't have to walk a mile in the store to get the items they want, get checked out quickly & get their groceries carried to their vehicle. It's just too hard physically for them to shop at a huge store. This also works well for any customer who's looking for a fast, convenient shopping trip. Everyone's time is valuable.

2. There's a saying in the restaurant business that the three most important things are location, location & location. This is true for my grocery store as well. I am located in a historical, downtown district. Allot of historical buildings would have to be bulldozed to make room for a supercenter which is very unlikely to happen. There is another independant supermarket & a supercenter a little over three miles away so I have a nice buffer zone between us. I do, however, have a dollar format chain store & a few convenience stores near me.

3. Target & Wal-mart supercenters eliminated their butcher positions a few years ago. All of their meat department items are shipped to the store precut & prepackaged. They also use additives in many of their meat items to preserve, improve color or tenderness, or add weight. My meat department draws people from miles around. My customers can ask our butcher to cut them something to their individual specifications & have it done on the spot. My fresh meat items contain nothing but meat & possibly bone. What you see is what you get.

Interac is another name for debit in Canada. I'm not sure exactly how debit works in the U.S. but I think yours are handled by credit card companies while here the transactions are directly handled by the banks.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. Debit cards here use the same electronic processing newtorks that credit cards do. The difference is that debit cards withdraw the amount directly from your bank account while credit cards incur debt to the credit card company.

So how does the whole ordering product work?

1. Some items we scan into a handheld device & then transmit the order via modem to a wholesaler.

2. Some items we "prebook" which means that we order them weeks or months in advance from a wholesaler or directly from a manufacturer. Often, a manufacturer will give us a lower price for prebooking because it helps them plan their production schedules and anticipate demand. Holiday items such as Halloween candy must be prebooked as much as six months or more in advance because the manufacturers only make enough to fill preorders. Nobody wants Halloween candy the day after Halloween. The same is true for Christmas, St.Valentine's Day, etc. Prebooking is done in a variety of ways.

3. Some items are ordered by the vendor. Vendor is an industry term for anyone who sells items to the store for resale. Some vendors such as bread companies & beverage companies deliver to the store several times a week & their salepeople know better than me how their products sell in my store because they can watch it much more closely than I have the time to. If I want them to send me extra product, I just tell them. In these cases, the vendor guarantees every item so, if it doesn't sell, they pick it back up & issue me credit. These vendors are called DSD meaning Direct Store Delivery as opposed to wholesaler distribution.

4. Chain stores now commonly have a computerized ordering network that automatically orders items that have been sold. Their POS (Point of Sale) system reports every item sold to this network. Store management can adjust these orders to account for items lost to theft, damage, etc. This software is expensive so only the largest independents use it. Problem is, if the system crashes, you've got empty shelves...or ten truckloads of canned peas at your backdoor. This rarely happens, though.

5. And then there's the old fashioned way: walking around the store with paper & pencil, writing down the things you need & phoning them in to the vendor. Some small stores still do it this way because they don't have the financial resources or vendor support to upgrade their technology. My store has one seasonal department that I still order this way. The vendor doesn't even have a fax machine.

You seem rather anti-credit card...

I am definitely anti-credit card.

...but surely credit cards are good for your business because consumers spend more money - more than they can afford to spend! - at your store.

That's true, but it would help all of us if personal debt levels weren't at a record high. Ethically, I don't want my customers to be in debt. I accept credit cards because they are the payment method of choice for lots of my customers, but I wish this weren't so.

I get bankruptcy notices several times a week. Customers mistakenly list my store as one of their creditors. It saddens me to think that those customers will probably never again be able to open a bank account or get a home or car loan.

I know one independent grocer who is so alarmed by the growing use of plastic that he actually rewards customers paying cash with a discount. This is a bit extreme for my store, though.

Some people can use a credit card responsibly, never spending more than they can afford. That's great, but the fact is that a growing number of people are ruining their lives by burying themselves in debt.

How do you decide how much to mark things down by, and what are the criteria for doing a mark-down? Special offers, sales, damaged goods, nearly-out-of-date goods?

Markdowns are generally items that are unsaleable under normal conditions due to damage, date or lack of demand.

The price for an item on sale, special or temporary price reduction (TPR) is arrived at based on cost, other expenses and/or strategic planning.

Do you ever get people trying to haggle?

Yes. I usually ignore them. We don't hang price tags all over the store because we have a psychological obsession with signs.

There are farmers' markets, swap meets, flea markets & the like where haggling is still acceptable, but not at a grocery store in the U.S.

As a matter of fact, we get people trying to do every crazy thing you can think of & then some. Welcome to retail.

What's your returns policy like? Do you think that it is fair to the shop and the customers? Do you ever get people trying to abuse it??

It's not set in writing, but based on reason. I give a full refund if:

1. The product has been recalled.
2. The customer has a recent receipt.
3. I or my employees remember the customer purchasing the item.

I do not give a refund if:

1. The item is a tobacco product. Thieves try to cash in stolen cigarettes this way. All they have to do is find a discarded receipt with the same type of cigarettes on it.
2. The product has been abused. If you leave a package of meat sitting in your trunk for two days in the summer sun, it's yours.
3. The "customer" has no receipt, has the product in another store's bag & I've never seen them before.
4. It's not an item I carry.
5. The "customer" has walked all over the store before trying to return an item. Another method of theft is when the thief will pick something up off the shelf & try to return it. Again, sometimes they pick up a discarded receipt. I see this attempted a couple of times a month. It's easy to catch & never works in my store, but might in a store with poorly trained, unmotivated employees.
6. The product is far out of date. I.E. you bring back a gallon of milk 45 days after it's sell by date because it's sour.

There are more scenarios, but, hopefully, you get the picture. I think my return policies are as fair to eveyone as can be.

I once had a woman who sent her young son into the store to return a jar of mayonaisse. The jar was opened, frozen solid (in September) & was nine months out of date. Then I realized that it was a size I had never carried. I told the kid to take it back to his mom & tell her that if she was going to be a thief, she should have the guts to do the dirty work herself & not involve a child.

Some stores have a no questions asked return policy. They will happily hand over cash for stolen items & pass the cost along to their customers in the form of higher prices. Their thinking is that this will result in customer loyalty. My thinking is that someone who is trying to take advantage of my employees, my family & me is no customer.

When I was in university many years ago, a local supercenter had a no questions asked return policy. The students would go there at the beginning of the school year & buy TVs, stereos, furniture, etc. for their dorm rooms & apartments & then return everything at the end of the year. Total folly for that retailer.

Do you order stuff in specially if customers request it?

Absolutely! I am happy to unless the item is highly perishable & I'm worried that nobody else will buy it. In that situation, I require the customer to buy the whole case.

Do you get rid of the unsold newspapers before you shut to ship them back for a refund? If so, do you get many people coming in at teh last minute and being pissy because they can't get the newspapers because they're gone already?

I'm not sure of what you mean by "get rid of before (I) shut to ship them back." Newpapers that don't sell get picked up by their distributor & I am issued a credit. They are then recycled.

Sometimes we do sell out. Especially when a customer's child in in the paper. Family members buy up multiple copies. There's not much I can do about that. First come, first served. The early bird gets the worm. you snooze, you lose.

The number of papers delivered is determined by our sales history. If we've been selling out frequently, they start sending more. I can request extra papers if I think they're needed.

Do you stock much ethical stuff - organic, local, Fairtrade etc? Do you sell a lot of it? Do you make a lot of profit off those items?

Hardly any organic items. I've never had a single request for them. I don't think my customers even know what organic means. I would stock them if there was a demand.

I buy produce from local farmers as often as possible. I also carry many items because they are locally produced.

Fairtrade has not been introduced in my area, yet & I'm not sure there would be much demand for it.

I tried introducing a hormone & antibiotic free brand of beef a couple of years ago, but it flew like a lead weight.

Specialty food items are more profitable, yes, but their volume tends to be much lower than mainstream items.

You don't get it? Why in the world would I want to use crappy bags that I have to throw away all the time when I can just bring my own good ones? Here all stores sell bags (plastic and paper and they both have handles), and the bags are plenty good to be used over and over which I do. Less waste and better bags.

If that works for you, that's great. It's certainly more environmentally friendly. Maybe it's a cultural difference. Most of my customers would be offended if I tried to charge them for bags. I do charge customers for extra bags, but not the ones they carry their groceries home in.

Have you ever watched Open All Hours? It's feh-feh-feh-funny cornershop comedy.

Never heard of it. What network is it on? Is it available in the U.S.?

There was a short-lived comedy called "Ten Items or Less" on a cable network last year based on the employees of a grocery store. Unfortunately, it wasn't very funny & the writers clearly had no idea what working in a grocery store is like.

I always found "buy one get one" a funny phrase. In most transactions, when you buy one, you get one. With BOGO, when you buy one, you actually get 2.

Wait, what?

We're grocers, not mathmaticians.

Well here the phrase is "Buy One Get One Free". Which makes perfect sense.

Sometimes that's used here, too. The more common the promotion becomes, the more it's abbreviated to "BOGO" because consumers understand what is meant.

I'm curious as to the name of your store, no adress or anything.

I'm sure it won't be considered advertising, it is the topic of this thread.

Sorry. Another reason I want it to remain anonymous is so I can be more candid with my anwers. If you knew what store I owned, I'd have to be much more discrete.

Another reason is that I don't want anyone coming into the store & saying, "Hey! I saw your thread at CFC!" I'm much too busy to deal with that.

Do you carry any organics (produce and/or processed foods)?

Very little. See above.

Is your buisness profitable. Is it a good branch for making money.

The answer to the 1st question is proprietary & the question is in bad taste. My closest friends wouldn't ask me that question & I wouldn't answer if they did. Suffice it to say that my family is fed, clothed & has a roof over their heads.

It takes a special breed to be successful in this business. It requires a strong work ethic & brains. If you have those, you can have a great career in this industry.

 

[ironduck]

Maybe it works like library books, with a tiny strip of conductive stuff that gets demagnetised while you scan it, and trying to take a magnetised one trhough the doors will set of the scanners there?

Library books work that way in the UK? I guess that works, but what if the customers carry any kinds of magnets on them?