The Economy

Just about all of the seasonal resets come from the top down, as well as which items go on clearance at most retail stores. Inventory is also mostly automated — the system automatically places an order for widgets at the DC when you sell down to a certain number of widgets.

My biggest tell of a badly-managed store is aisles that aren't zoned and product is strewn all over the place.

 

It’s still almost symphonic how the parts fit together. I don’t expect there to be perfection at the local dollar store, but it would be nice if they zoned on occasion. Then again they’re probably being paid $12/hour, if that, so…

 

"A time for moanin' is a time for zonin'."

 

Is “zoning” the term most stores use for organizing shelves and pulling things forward? When I stocked at Kroger it was called “conditioning.” I’ve never worked retail other than that.

It seemed so automated now that I cannot believe a human being was once responsible for ordering that amount of stuff. It’s mind-boggling.

 

"Front-facing" or "front-and-facing" is the same deal.

 

My first job was with a small drug store where they kept a 3 x 5 card for every item on the shelf. We used to "run cards" and if something was out or low, we'd pull the card. Shipments came from Memphis of all places, probably from some outfit FedEx eventually bought out.

 

I worked at Target for a few months when I was between high school and college. For part of that I was the guy in the back helping to do the receiving. So many moving parts…

 

The store receiver was the Sergeant Major of the store. You didn't fuck with him (or usually, her).

 

AKA a "Continuous Review" system with a predetermined "Reorder Point." How the latter is determined (in a very simplified setting) will occupy 75 minutes of my young charges' time in early March of 2022. Nine out of ten will doze off.

 

Why did I start hearing “Ballad of the Green Berets” in my head?

 

These men (generically labeled) are not "America's best" ...

 

Probably bad because Milton Friedman, Road to Serfdom etc.

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