A shoulder chuck Roast? from a clod or a shoulder arm steak (we call them london broils up here along with top round steaks)
Must have been from one of those mutilated cows
This is from a cutter thats been around for a while?
This reminds me of a cutter I had(that just got transferred to us) that use to v-out the fat in a bnls chuck roast (from a chuck roll) and not tie the roast-looked like hell- after seeing him do it twice and asking him to tie-to which he didnt- I created a meat label/description "Jim's Sloppy Chuck Roast" - it was only then, that he got the message!
-- Edited by Mainemeatman on Saturday 18th of February 2012 03:36:05 AM
any one care to guess what it is supposed to be? i sure know what it isnt...this happens more than it should. the cutter has been working for the company longer than me. ive seen people suspended for less.
any one care to guess what it is supposed to be? i sure know what it isnt...this happens more than it should. the cutter has been working for the company longer than me. ive seen people suspended for less.
It's cross rib steaks. (sliced shoulder clod minus the flat iron). The one on the right isn't so bad. The one on the left may be seen once in a while at the large high volume chain stores, especially if put in a value pack with a few nice ones. Not a good one for sure. The one on the right looks perfectly OK to me.
they are supposed to be shoulder london broils, they are in fact different sides of the same piece of meat. i almost always take 3 to 4 inches of roast off before cutting steaks and london broils( of they are on BOGO). if they are regular price, i always seam off the other muscles and cut against the grain on the heart of the clod. for a store that does low volume 28k to 36k per week, cuts like this are crap. there are 9 different meat departments in the town i live in, and i do my best to keep it high and tight all the time cutting wise. i will be having a chat with the fella to remind him that it may be the companies store but that is MY meat case and its my way or no way. ive put in 8 years of being the only guy cutting the case and sometimes i take things personally.
i think most of us here agree with you Kbraker I for one would never put a steak like that in my case no matter what but I have worked in fast paced high volume stores where it was just cut it tray it wrap it and forget it becuase it was priced to sell fast. ...but these days i think most of us would have used that piece for stew or ground chuck.
thanks fdarn. it doesnt take much to put quality out. i guess it was a good thing i wasnt there. i may of blown a gasket like i used to back in the day. the way i look at it is if i brought it home and didnt like it there , then why would it go out in the first place?
Kb, if you were there, would he have tried to put this out?
when supervising someone you have direction, and support- direction is training support is motivation/esteem
if an employee is trained, and understands expectations(cutting standards) and knowingly displays sub-standard product- it falls into motive-he/she doesnt understand or care, that every package in the case is a reflection of not only everyone in the meat dept. but the whole store- the other question i'd have is- why would other personnel in the dept allow this? I always allowed my wrappers to throw product back, that looks sub-par- also other cutters to question each other-
The approach i'd have to this cutter would depend on past experience with cutter- I'd use this as an "opportunity" to address some serious issues- that have been building up one on one-if the guy just doesnt care- you cant live with that-
If you need to adress many issues with the crew and frustrations levels were running high. and like you said "blowing a gasket was near" sometimes I'd have a different approach- have a quick dept meeting about ten minutes- ask a question "what is our competitive advanatage"? with 9 other stores in town?
then go down a short list of what should be your advantage-(service, quality, price) when you get to quality- see what feedback you get-but thats a great time to address all quality issues-
This is an every day occurrence where I work. We're supposedly a "high end" market, a term I never liked. A USDA Choice steak is the same wherever you buy it and charging more doesn't make it better. But customers think so for some reason. We're supposed do out best to make everything look good. We have the extra labor to do that. Not just on one side, but all over. I'd never be surprised to see that steak at our competition. You would never see it in our counter. However, not a day goes by when someone says or thinks "who cut this POS?". I hear it all the time.
Also, with all the different opinions on how things should be done, I think all of us (where I work) have been questioned either to our face or behind our backs at least once in the last 12 months.
This is an every day occurrence where I work.................... However, not a day goes by when someone says or thinks "who cut this POS?". I hear it all the time.
It took exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes for it to happen (be discovered) today. Someone had over trimmed something and the boss was unhappy.
You should probably not take any more days off and then you wont have to worry about mis cuts.J/K Talk to, don't yell at the cutter and explain to him or her why mis cuts like this should not be displayed for sale. You have to remember that you are a manager, a profesional,and that blowing a gasket will solve nothing. If the cutter continues to put out mis cuts then your company's discipline procedures should go into effect. Ours is verbal warning 1st time, write up second time, suspension third time, termination fourth time, for insubordination.
I agree Number9 being profesional is a mark of a great manager! Too many times mangers just blow it and freak and all it does is cost them there respect as a manager. :)
ouch, looks like they couldn't find a steak knife so they used a pair of scissor's!
quality control is what keeps us in business for sure, we get compliment's on it all the time, it's tough when you try and take a day off and things don't go exactly the way you wanted. I think having consistent standard's (written and verbal) are a must. I'm sure you'll have a motivating chat with that cutter :)
I read a book awhile back called "13 Fatal Errors Managers Make and How You Can Avoid Them" and one thing that stuck out for me was that as a manager, whenever you decide to take a shortcut to a rule you have, you are never breaking a rule, your creating a new rule.
Glad to see your not going to let the cut up cross rib steak go unnoticed
Thanks for all the encouragement and consructive advice. There are some things I should of been more clear on in my earlier posts. The meatcutter in question is a floater he very rarely comes but maybe five to ten days a year to work in the store, that and coupled with ten years of hardcore drug use has fried his shorterm memory. I also am not the dept manager but the backup, but when the boss is gone it is up to me to have things taken care of. I don't know if I mentioned it also, but I am the only cutter, the boss cuts on the days I don't work unless there is a floater. I haven't blown a gasket on anyone in over 14 years, lippy yes, but not harsh. The last guy I'm sorry to say did deserve it and it was a long time coming.
It's an interesting thing. I work for Kroger too, and we run those things bogo too often. The two shops I've been in are radically different. One is 120k/week, that first cut goes in the case Not sure what he was doin there, you can make that a decent lookin roast if you take like 1/2 off the end. The place I'm at now is 45-50k/wk and we shy away from puttin stuff like that out unless it's in a combo pack.
Meat Monkey, I suppose it's a good thing I have two different stores "fighting" over where I'll be when I test out then...I know what you mean about the floaters. I'm hellbent on not bein one of "those" guys. They get all the night shifts for a reason LOL
Never seen a "floater" who was worth a damn. There's usually a reason no one wants him permanently.
Mostly, you're right. Up til now. Things are changing. The way labor is cut, some very good guys are becoming floaters. At Safeway stores in San Jose. You have a head meat cutter and some clerks. Some have one extra cutter and maybe they can use him/her full time. Maybe not. That one person will be floating from one store to another. A perfectly good cutter/worker in a changing industry. Changing labor wise.
I know what you mean though. Back in the 1990s and before, if you were a floater, there was a reason. You sucked, or somehow got on the supervisor's bad side. You were unreliable and/or a trouble maker. Or you were new. Some very good new people floated for a while before getting a permanent store. I think some of the floaters were good, but there is some truth in what you wrote.
Fried Brain cells?? I've had a few of these guys, I'd nickname them "Reverend Jim" (Jim ignitowski's character on the old show "taxi")
If you have good systems in place, and cutters watching each other back-the cutters (and a good wrapper) should speak up and say this cant go in the meatcase.
I use to like taking pics as you did of this stuff- it might come in handy when a meat supervisor is comparing you to a store full of hackers- usually saying thier payroll percent is better
Floaters are thier to fill a schedule and avoid overtime- some can be decent-
I use to volunteer to be a floater when I was learning-best thing I ever did-it gave me exposure to other meat managers-so when a position opened up- they knew who you were in the early 80's, the retail stores were saturated with cutters- in the 70's, the chain stores went from hanging beef to boxed beef As a clean up kid-learning how to wrap and grind- I was told, it would probly be at least ten years before I could have a chance at being a meatcutter- because of too many trained cutters and not enough positions.
When the chance came up to fill vacations, I jumped on it- wasnt totally trained (I was learning how to cut on my days off) I wasnt making a meatcutters wage-but I was getting great experience. Anyways, after working for several stores filling vacations- I got hand-picked to be a first cutter in a fairly high volume store- with only 3 years from a clean up kid-this was quite a break-One meat manager told the meat specialist he wanted me to be his head cutter- the meat specialist said no way at first "we need to spread out more cutters" and I wasnt even a fully-trained "meatcutter" so how could I handle a head cutters position, particularly being only 21. "the other cutters will spit him out" Thankfully, the specialist called around to other meat managers- and they all put in a good word-
I guess I should've put a qualification on floaters. It is a great way for a young guy to get more block time. And during lay-offs, there were a few good people just looking for hours. Even so, somebody usually "finds" room pretty quickly if they're really good. Most people don't like going to a different store every day. Having a routine, and knowing exactly what is expected of you, makes the job a little easier.
i floated a little bit between The two Giants in the same city of virginia. I was waiting for a full time opening until then they juggled me between stores to fill in for people on vacation. It was more hours but then they started downsizing and trying to get their full time people to either retire or accept part time jobs thats when I said i am done waiting and went to the next town and landed a full time gig within days..
J/K Talk to, don't yell at the cutter and explain to him or her why mis cuts like this should not be displayed for sale. You have to remember that you are a manager, a profesional,and that blowing a gasket will solve nothing. If the cutter continues to put out mis cuts then your company's discipline procedures should go into effect. Ours is verbal warning 1st time, write up second time, suspension third time, termination fourth time, for insubordination.
