So...at the shop I'm working in now (probably where I'll be after I test)...we had a sit down with the manager about ways to improve our grosses. Our sales have been up from last year, but our loss is high.
The company has been trying to force us to all prepackaged pork over the past year or so...but over the past 3 months or so have gradually taken alot of it back out. We suggested that we go back to doing most of our own processing, because we could keep only exactly what we needed in the case at any given time. We also made the point that he was paying us cutters to work out alot of this stuff, when we could cut it ourselves and provide a higher quality product.
Much to our surprise, he was all in for it. His only complaint was that we cant get bone in pork loins to cut on site. I think a lot of the older managers at the chain stores "get it" when it comes to central processing. What say y'all?
Good news! cant get bone in pork loins to cut on site??
do you work in a chain store or independent??
the older managers, also see that the more you go pre-pack, the less cutting hours available, and the more you are like wal-mart most cutters have been told, or have thought- that prepack meats are just a matter of time-HOWEVER, walmart leads the way in case ready meats, and everyone competes against them-so no chain supermarket can compete with walmarts grocery prices- so they have to make a difference in the perimeter of the store- meat depts. will lead the way- so what walmart is doing, ironically, may be security to many retail cutters Most people know walmarts meat sucks- so they buy it somewhere's else- if all stores went case-ready meats, then you are no better than walmart
I work for a Kroger. Our main competition comes from WalMart and a local independent chain. It's mixed signals from higher up, but we hear the contract to carry centrally processed pork is up next year for our zone, and they're putting tons of apprentices in...just makes ya wonder.
It is amusing though, the prepack comes pack 12, and would sit for 4-5 days and get marked down. I cut 24 packages this morning, and had to cut 24 more this afternoon. We're pretty confident our sales are going to increase if we do more in house.
Kroger-(never seen one) is huge-at the top of the food chain of supermarkets 2nd to only walmart in grocery sales-so im sure they do thier homework and other supermarkets are watching what they are doing- Going case-ready is attractive if you are an accountant-saving on payroll/benefits/workers comp,/equipment, etc, If kroger decides to pull the plug on case ready meats-thats huge-because others are watching
What is a major strength for a supermarket AGAINST walmart??????????? It's the fresh cut meat department and cutters on site-they can advertise that every week.
I was THE trial store for case-ready (hatfield) pork in 1993-the damn stuff would turn gray after a day-not green, but gray-all the pork experts use to visit on a regular basis-they wanted this case-ready for the contract- as a meat manager I wanted no part of this case-ready product
I had calls from many other meat managers wanting to know if this stuff is selling-then one meat manager suggested I leave the boxes in the back room for a few hours, to sabotage the whole program so it wouldnt work -
We aren't sure what the deal is for sure...all we hear is rumors. Most stores in my area are losing their collective arses on the case ready stuff. Customers dont want it, and they make that known. Gradually they have given us back a good portion of it. 8 months ago they wanted all prepack. Now it's just loins, and it's only supposed to supplement us on the bnls. We cant order bone in loins. In my opinion, the quality isn't there.
The department head and I talked about it, and decided we could do 85-90% of it ourselves with higher quality, better sales, and less shrink. Our manager totally agreed. We're a small shop (35-45k/wk) the head cutter is a production machine, and everyone says that I'm right up there with the faster guys (I truthfully don't know where I stand)...so it's not a labor issue.
rd68910 I would say this more than a rumor, I've been hearing for some months they were going to make some changes.
this was in Mar. 23, 1998 The Kroger Co. is poised to give case-ready fresh meat its biggest real-world trial to date in the United States, with a pilot project that could enable the chain to virtually eliminate meat-cutting at the 154 stores in its Atlanta marketing area.
I've hear from a few meat men I know in Atlanta that they have loss their ass on this since the buy local movement has started there and a lot of their meat cutters that have left and went over to companies like Whole foods
Does it deliver? according to a study by Keymark Associates, Marietta, GA, that concluded: “Case-ready cost savings? Maybe, maybe not.” Keymark principal Huston Keith says the economics of case-ready remain questionable: “Retailers find out that it doesn’t eliminate labor.”
Wal-Mart is a case in point. According to Supercenter meat manager Lauren Story, the labor savings aren’t as big as one might think—or as Wal-Mart may have hoped. The retailer doesn’t allow boxes on the store floor, he explains. As a result, workers must unload the sealed trays of meat in the backroom onto carts, wheel the carts to the case, and stack the packages in the display.
The packaging for those case-ready products is not inexpensive. Keymark pegs costs at 30¢ to 80¢ more per pound for case-ready packaging compared to chubs or primal forms.
This on top of most customers don't want it, when I was Market Manager of my last Market before I retired I was across from a Wal-Mart, it use to amuse me that 18 or so of their female employee would come buy meat from me instead of from their store. making remarks to me that they didn't want the stuff even when they marked it down.
I like that. If Kroger does pull the plug on the case ready program they are using It would really give me a good feeling it just might bring the meat cutters back.
Leon i noticed the same thing. I had employee of the walmart up the road in charlottesville coming to my meat dept every day still wearing their work cloths.
AP the Labor is the same...that was the BIG point that we made in the meeting. You're paying us to cut...and we're sorting case ready. They still pay a cutter and wrappers...why not use us?
If they take steps toward promoting cutting as a stable field...I think they would find the shortage of good cutters start to disappear as well. There's alot of us graduating college only to find that it aint as easy as they tell ya!
I for one would like to see the Elimination of pre cut pork and prepack grinds. Our sales have been ok with it but the shrink is absurd. Something like 4 to 8 % loss. Before its was like 1.5 %. And store cut looked better.what affects one division will soon spread to the others.
A floater came in today, and we were talkin about it. Most of the smaller shops in my area are doing the same thing. The ones with the lower shrink numbers anyhow. We're running 4-5%. Pretty sure that'll be headin down. Stuff that usually sits was flyin out today. Some customers actually commented on how much fresher the grinds looked.
Hopefully the higher ups are takin notice and take the right course of action.
What kinda volume you guys do? One of the reasons we're confident we can pull it off is it's a fairly slow shop. Me and the head guy are both used to higher volume, so it's really no big deal to cut/grind everything.
We are a 30 to 40k shop. Sometimes we will have a 28k week. There is no service case of any sort. We make our sales in quality and variety as opposed to volume. There is no " hunk and chunk" cutting allowed. I'm the only cutter with day off coverage.
Bout the same volume as us, we have a service case though. I think the potential is there for more sales. There was about 3 months where there was a guy runnin the place that just didn't care. Pretty sure he drove away alot of business. We were told that there would be 2 or 3 days at a time where the guy didn't cut a single piece of meat.
i remember in the mid 80's our contract was up and we ok'ed a strike we were still working as they worked on a contract so they brought in case ready beef ,pork.Well 5 days latter when they had boxes of green steaks bad pork chops and each of the 4 stores lost 18k to 20k they ok'ed the contract.People want to see us cut there meat grind there burger.
In the mid-90's case ready really started making it on the scene in the major chains I was working for, Nash-Finch and Hy-Vee. Actual meat cutting jobs went out the door. You essentially became a glorified meat clerk. I managed the service case at Hy-Vee for about 2 years. It was all tube grind and all the meat we cut was portion cut, which I think is bogus unless you're in a really tight financial spot. No bone in cuts all boneless. The younger 'cutters' were clueless as to where each cut came from on the animal and how to cook the meat. It's turning around now though, people want to know where their meat comes from and how to prepare it. They also don't want the prepacked stuff that's pumped full of junk. Meats meat and a man's gotta eat!
