The youngster pulled his rusty wagon up and down the alley near his home in the mid-1960s, looking for discarded treasures. Occasionally, a neighbor placed a box of magazines out with the trash.
An avid young reader, he loaded all the copies of the Reader’s Digest that his wagon could hold, to read and reread. I know this kid well — it was me.
Years later, plugging along in this crazy fresh produce game, I learned that a lot could be “read” or understood about a grocery store operation by driving around to the back of the store. I learned about the value of this little detour from a district manager, as we occasionally visited stores together.
“Any store can appear all right in the front,” he said. “However, when you drive around the back, you can discover all sorts of interesting things.”
The district manager pointed out concerns such as unattended, open or unlocked doors, debris, or leaning stacks of broken or excess pallets.
“That tells me the store is mismanaged,” he said. “Security breaches. Scattered trash that invites pests, which can infiltrate the otherwise clean-looking store. See those pallets? They cost us money and need to be returned to the warehouse. Who’s to say someone isn’t helping themselves to resell the pallets? Not to mention the busted ones are a safety issue if anyone happens to be walking around back there, or suppose these end up as homeless shelters. All things the back of your store doesn’t need.”
In the backside vision of stores visited, I could also see how the produce dock played into our inspections.
One or two stores had remnants of dropped and broken produce cases with decaying fruit or vegetables strewn about. Talk about something that needed to be taken care of (considering the pests the manager mentioned). The monetary loss. The stench. It was a health issue to say the least.
Later, as an assistant store manager, I was more than aware of what could happen in the back of the store (besides surprising wayward courtesy clerks goofing off).
I once peeked down in between the rubber bumpers gaps where an empty trailer was parked against the dock door. Beneath these gaps was a huge pile of cigarette cartons, signaling that we had an employee on the inside (employee theft being high) obviously working with an accomplice on the outside.
The back area of a store can function for many innocent, even handy purposes: storing pallets, produce RPCs (recyclable plastic containers), empty dairy wires, floral or bakery racks, surplus produce fixtures. The space is convenient as long as the area is kept clean and organized, is monitored often — and only if the storage is temporary.
The goal for managing a store is, ideally, having nothing stored in the back area if possible. The area is rarely designed as a storage overflow and is not intended as an employee smoking or break area. It’s too often an overlooked weak point of any operation that can be used and abused far too easily.
When the district manager discovered the back of any store in disarray, you might imagine the store manager would get an earful about it soon afterward.
Those Reader’s Digest editions I salvaged as a kid? A wonderful find. Each had the memorable features within you may recognize, such as Laughter, the Best Medicine, Quotable Quotes, It Pays to Increase Your Word Power, Humor in Uniform, etc.
The feature that fits the back-of-the-store inspection? Hands down, I’d say it was Pardon, Your Slip is Showing.
A well-managed store is managed well, fore and aft.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. Read more of his insight here.
