I’ve been on my new job for a month now.  So far it seems to be working out.  It’s nothing that challenges my brain…or so I thought.  Actually, the challenge is to get everything done in the short time allotted for it.  I’m busting my ass in every store trying to get through my workload and on to the next stop.  All while staying under 40 hours, cuz overtime is a big fat no-no!  My friend, who works in the main office, was written up for 3 minutes of overtime.  You read that right…3 minutes.  Yikes.

I have 41 stores in my route, and 14 of them are visited twice a month.  I go in and walk around with my little pocket pc, answering the questions it asks me about certain items.  If an item is missing I try to get the store to cut it in.  And then I rotate Smuckers merchandise, bringing the oldest stuff to the front.  Smuckers is our biggest client, and they take priority over everyone else.  In the month that I’ve been doing this I’ve been amazed to discover that grocery store workers do not rotate product.  Just so you know.

I’ve also been amazed to find out how many companies are owned by Smuckers.  It’s not just about the jam, you know.  Smuckers also owns Adams peanut butter, Pillsbury baking goods, and Crisco oil, to name a few companies.  Smuckers is like the Borg of the grocery industry…they will assimilate you. 

Smuckers sends reps into the stores that we service and they do audits on how well we are maintaining and rotating their product.  Recently a California market had 31 out of 33 stores fail a rotation audit.  People were fired.  That market is the big scary example that is held in front of us now.  “If you do nothing else during a store call, make sure that you rotate Smuckers!!”  What I don’t understand is why people aren’t doing it.  Yeah, it takes time.  Yeah, it’s mind-numbingly boring.  But, it’s what they want, so just do it.  Seems easy enough.