Opperations Management
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The times that I go in this business I always seem to be disappointed in the way this establishment is run. I am sure that every one of these places is not managed the same way but the Acme Supermarket needs some help. Acme needs help maintaining their facility from the outside, laying out the store better, managing their employees, and keeping up to date on their computer system. Every time I go in this place there is always a problem with at least one of these factors.
The first impression of a business is the way it looks from the outside. This means not only from the front of the store put also the parking lot. As like most grocery stores I am sure there are carts everywhere. The only problem is that I never see an employee taking care of them. The only time I see people is when the store is not busy with customers, then they have time to clean up the carts. If I were a manager I would have at least two people scheduled at all times that are able to perform this task. There should be three people during the busy times, like when customers are getting off of work and on weekends. Not only is this an inconvenience when you have to get out of your car when you are parking your car to move a cart, but when you get into the store there are no carts where they should be because they are all outside. Having people available to do this task should be a main priority. You want to keep the customer happy and if they get frustrated before even stepping into the store then it has already become a trying experience.
Another aspect that needs to be looked at is the way the front of the store looks. Acme always seems to try to sell products that do not fit in their normal product line of groceries, like lawn furniture for example. In the entrance to the store is very compact. The last thing I would do as a manager is jumble it up with stock that they do not sell that much of. I would take the opportunity to use this area as advertisement space. The store entrance is a great place to show customers what is on sale and what they need to look for. There is so much inventory in a grocery store that customers miss what is on sale most of the time. Normally when a product is on sale it is because there is an abundance of it, by advertising the sale Acme would sell more which brings down their inventory. I am sure Acme is required to carry the products that are out of their normal product line, like the lawn furniture. I would move these kinds of products to the side of the entrance, not the side of the store, but next to the entrance. Large signs should then be made to promote these specific items to draw customers over to them. This way they are not jumbling the entrance way but still being placed in an area that can be noticed.
I also believe that the inside of the store needs to be laid out better. When a customer walks in with a cart it is very hard to maneuver around. Acme has displays of products everywhere. I know they want to sell a lot of different items but they need to take into consideration the amount of space they have to work with. The displays throughout the isles need to be cut back. The isles get so congested with customers the only thing you are worrying about is getting to the product you need and getting through to the next isle. When trying to do this the products that Acme wants you to look at are getting passed by and knocked into because customers just want to get out of that isle. Again advertising throughout the store better would help alleviate this problem. I would place flashing lights next to these items on the shelf and display them there. I would also display more items on the end caps of the isles. I would display two different items instead of filling the whole end cap with a single item. This would then fee up the isles a little more and give the customer time to look and see the different products that Acme has.
As a manager myself I know how important the employees are in a business. I also know how hard it is to shape these employees into what you would like them to become, but it needs to be done. The main problem with the employees are the ones they have running the cash registers. I have been in their numerous amounts of times that I have been rung up wrong by either scanning to many items or not even ringing items up. It has happened so many times to me, I now check my receipt every time leaving the store. The main reason I believe this is happening is because the cashier is a school kid (16-18 years old) that just does not care about their job. They are talking to other co-workers and not paying attention to what they are doing. When I approach the customer service counter to fix my receipt and explain to that person, which is usually a higher level employee, what has happened and what the cashier was doing they do not seem to care. They obviously do not try to fix the problem because the problem keeps happening. Not only are they getting unhappy customers from this but Acme is also losing money. If all of my grocery items are not rung up then how many times do you think that happens throughout the day, week, or year?
Most people when getting this problem would try to blame the cashier at the register. The fact is though that these are mostly kids, working their first job, that have no reason to care about this business. To them this is a way to put some money in their pockets and if they get fired then they will just go work somewhere else. The real people to put the fault on are the managers. The managers need to try to encourage the employees to do better and correct them when they are wrong, not just fire them. By firing them you are just then going to have to hire someone else and go through the same process with them. If the employee turnover rate is kept down you will then have employees that would have worked their longer and care more about the business and how it is run.
If I were running Acme I would have more extensive training for the managers and cashiers. A business is reflected through the managers, if they do not understand how important it is for the business to be run correctly then it will not