Posted on 01/19/2018 6:17:46 AM PST by grundle
Whole Foods used to keep a large amount of extra stock in back rooms and freezers so it could restock its shelves as soon as merchandise was sold (which pretty much all supermarkets do). However, according to Business Insider, the chain has recently gotten rid of that policy, and replaced it with a new policy that transfers items directly from delivery trucks to store shelves. This is causing many store shelves to be empty.
This new policy was started prior to the chain’s recent purchase by amazon.
Whole Foods says it adopted this new policy in order to save money.
The fact that it is causing many customers to abandon the chain and switch to a different one does not, for whatever weird reason, seem to be of concern to the chain’s high level executives. Apparently, their only concern is saving money.
Here are some pictures from Whole Foods stores across the country:
A Whole Foods store in Houston.
A Whole Foods store in West Hartford, Connecticut.
A Whole Foods store in Boston.
A Whole Foods store in New York City.
A Whole Foods store in Boston.
A Chicago Whole Foods store.
A Whole Foods store in West Hartford, Connecticut.
A Whole Foods store in San Francisco.
But wouldn’t Amazon have known that and decide to either drop or keep the policy?
It’s called a cooler.
At one point I delivered frozen turkeys from NC to Michigan.
Always had a split load.
The first half of the load went to a Meijer distribution center and the second half to Farmer Jacks.
The Meijer part of the delivery went smooth as silk.
Always bumped the dock within 30 minutes of my appointment time.
Every time I would be pulling away from the dock 45 minutes later. ALWAYS.
Farmer Jack’s was a nightmare.
EVERY TIME.
I would get there at least 2 hours before my appointment time, always the same day as my Meijer appointment.
They usually were four or more hours late getting me to the door.
Sometimes it was the next day.
I would bump the dock and set from 4-6 hours before they had me unloaded.
The guys actually unloading the trucks were non-union.
The people counting and signing the BOL were union.
The one time they got me unloaded in a reasonable amount of time turned into 40 miles of hell.
The union “worker” responsible for signing my BOL had left for the day.
No-one else would sign the BOL because the union said NO.
Called my dispatcher who got our management involved. The owner of our company called me later to tell me I had to wait until the next day for the worker who had counted my load to come back to work.
I finally got out of there past noon the next day.
Meijer was quick, efficient and professional.
I hope Farmer Jack’s goes out of business.
Might as well just sell the groceries right off the truck.
Who needs back-stock room, freezer or refer space?
Not Whole Foods !!!
No body gonna buy that one last black greasy banana?
They still probly have a gigantic problem with outdates. And they still just throw all that stuff into the dumpster.
Idiots!
Did your state just raise the minimum wage, with plans to raise it more in subsequent years?
“The manufacturing JIT model may not work in a grocery environment...”
My neighbor is a mid level manager at Jewel, a large Midwest grocery chain, and we have talked about how their distribution model works. Each store in the Chicago area receives from 6-10 deliveries per day, nearly every day.
If those trucks should stop for some reason the shelves would largely be bare in less than 36 hours.
Think about that for a minute.
L
I live in NYS. Empty shelves in many a Wally around here are a common site.
Funny you make that comparison. The Army tried to hire Walmart to consult for them on their logistics.
They politely refused.
It costs money to shelve, too. From what I understand from folks around here who claim to know, it’s labor costs that are keeping more shelves bare longer at our Wallys.
Meijer has their logistics down cold. I used to work for one of their suppliers and despite the fact that we were their first delivery of the day there was always someone there to take delivery. Problems were rare.
Some of the other stores we delivered to *cough* (Spartan) *cough* were total nightmares to get someone who was authorized to sign the paperwork and heaven help you if it was not the correct person.
It was not like we were delivering at all hours. You saw us first thing. If I had a nickle for every time I got called by some poor driver who was not able to deliver because they had not yet open the loading docks I would have been able to take a really nice vacation.
I work at Vons/ Safeway, and STILL shop at Walmart!!! I HATE Walmart however if I go early in the morning the normal Walmart shopper is still sleeping and the shopping experience is nat half bad!!! The prices can’t be beat!!!!
“It costs money to shelve, too.”
It sure does. But where we live there are at least 6 major mega-marts within a 10 minute drive. And one major chain, Dominick’s, was driven into bankruptcy in the last year or so. All that competition is powerful motivation to keep those shelves stocked 24-7-365.
L
You can have tons of motivation, but if you don’t have money for hours, that motivation means squat. Those shelves are staying empty.
Some stuff is stocked only by outside vendors like Coke, Pepsi, Nabisco, magazines, name brand chips and bread.
These are the people, aka, re stockers, that I’m referring to.
Basically every beer distributor restocks their beer. Some wines are restocked by the wine reps.
Some of the soft drink re stockers like Pepsi and Coke seem to live in our local store.
Local milk products are restocked by reps of the Dairy’s and manufacturers.
Health and beauty products are often restocked by reps from the manufacturers.
The same goes for the sporting goods section and often their electronic products.
There is even a Hass Avocado rep, who restocks Avocados.
Most other veggies/fruits are stocked by long time Walmart employees as you noted.
One of the most interesting company re stocker is a woman who restocks the small wine bottles at the checkout stands and all over the food section. She is on the payroll of the company which bottles the wine in the small bottles. She only has 3 Walmart’s and still works 10 hour day’s trying to keep the small bottles stocked.
In our local Walmart, as you noted, only long time employees man and stock the Deli area, the fresh meat area and produce areas. They have had the same employees in the sporting goods/guns and ammo area for over a decade.
Walmart is closemouthed in some ways. It doesn’t surprise me that they would not share their expertise. They’ve spent decades figuring out what works and what doesn’t.
Other info is not as closely held at least to associates. Any associate knows the amount of their store’s sales. That’s announced daily in the talk before the shift. Walmart also produces a monthly magazine which is for associates only in the break rooms.
The Telezons are gateways to the computers in Bentonville. Any associate can look up sales data for a specific product and the cost to Walmart, Most associates only use them to ID the location on a shelf to stock a product. Telezons can also be used to order stock in some cases.
I’m sure they will. Not that I’d mind seeing Whole Foods swirl the drain. Although I would miss the cheese section.
L
Trying to hire folks fast and stocking, ringing up has become a nightmare thanks to the minimum wage. There’s less money to get and keep very productive employees, so retailers are stuck with what’s left. And what’s left is leaving my area with a lot of empty shelves.
They probably paid some consultant 5 million dollars to come in, recommend that they go to JIT (Just In Time) inventory system, and for further insult, made everybody take Agile training and read the children’s book, “Who Moved My Cheese?”
New CIA-owner sabotage, obviously.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.