I was rearranging items on my desk when Russ T. Blade popped his head out from behind my computer screen. As regular readers know, “Rusty” is the miniature, imaginary produce manager who lives in my desk and occasionally appears to talk shop.
Rusty: Rearranging things. Again?
Me: Old habits die hard. When I worked in the stores, I made sure my clerks rotated everything — fresh items, certainly. But rotation also applies for lower-respiration items too. I made sure they rotated hard squash, dried fruit and even in-shell nuts.
Rusty: Rotation is a key action to ensure freshness, right behind close and accurate ordering. Rotation includes cleaning, stocking a base with fresh product, working older product on top of the display, and all the while culling and detailing a display so that it is level, shoppable and looks good to the customer’s eye. Doing all these also helps minimize shrink. I drum this into clerks who think, “Oh I can let this display slide just this once.”
Me: I’ve heard all the excuses as well and why some clerks believe it’s all right to skip the rotation: “I just rotated this yesterday” or “I rotate by stocking in the back.” That’s not proper rotation. I teach them again and again until they get it right.
Rusty: My all-time favorite excuse: “The display is fine. It doesn’t need rotation.” Grrr.
Me: It’s like so many things in a well-run produce operation. And it reminds me of an old Vince Lombardi coaching direction. He said, “You don’t do things right once in a while. You do things right all the time.” In produce, this includes rotation.
Rusty: It begins with an inbound fresh produce load. The clerks are trained to rotate every item in the cooler. First in, first out. When they’re done putting the load away carefully, handling every item with care. They are also trained to immediately clear debris, stack off pallets, and sweep and mop the backroom for safety — and because it’s a good habit.
Me: That rotation process, all the way to the cleaning, makes all a difference. An organized, freshly rotated backroom makes everything go much smoother as the day wears on.
Rusty: Clerks can find what they need; there’s no digging or overlooking needed items. When items are rotated in the backroom, that ensures that merchandise has far less of a chance of aging and ending up as shrink. Also, a good backroom rotation is followed by checking off the order for accuracy. This rolls over into the ideal time to identify any warehouse shortages so we can report these for timely credit.
Me: Yeah man, when you miss a big shortage, that ends up as big-time shrink even if you are doing everything else correctly.
Rusty: Then I turn the clerks’ focus to the sales area. Every produce item on display needs to be rotated daily. In fact, some items need rotation every time they’re stocked. Your old pal Lombardi who you like to invoke also talked about habits. He said, “Success is a habit.” Doing things the right way becomes a habit.
Me: I can think of several such rotate-every-stocking categories: mushrooms, herbs, leafy greens, berries, package salads and so much more. Rotation becomes a habit, like you mentioned — a second nature.
Rusty: I used to work with a guy who sang a little rhyme about the subject: “Ro-oh-tay-shun, that’s our occ-u-pay-shun ...”
Me: Um, nice little ditty all right. Good for remembering why we’re here, but —
Rusty: I know. It’s best he kept his day job. I tell my clerks, “Just rotate, OK?”
Me: All day, every day.
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.
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