Grocery Clerk / Jr. Meat Cutter
A&P & Dominion Grocery Stores - in GTA (multiple locations)
1985 - 1990
My Journey
I grew up being the child with the least family wealth in my peer group. I always had the least material possessions and felt inferior in someway to my peers, a consequence of being young. As soon as I was old enough to make my own money, I was going too. My first job was at A&P and Dominion. My first 2 shifts were on a Friday and Saturday. On my first day, I remember it vividly, I bagged groceries for 8 hours! That night I had a nightmare where I was bagging groceries for another 8 hours while I slept. LOL.
In this business attrition was high, so I had a lot of opportunities to try new roles. I move from bagging groceries and retrieving grocery carts, to stocking shelves, to doing inventory counts. Soon I was accepting deliveries and signing off on delivery receipts. But after a short period of time I felt I had learned all I could, so I move to the meat department where a position had opened up. The meat department manager Rocco gave me a chance. It was a great time in my life, I was young, making my own money and learning at the same time.
Top Achievement
Migrated Ford dealerships from AS/400 to Windows NT 4.0 DMS (Dealership Management Software - inventory, sales, financing, accounting, vehicle parts & service, CRM) on Schedule, within Budget without disturbance to business operations.
Grocery Department
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Providing premier customer service, including greeting them and responding to all types of questions.
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Cleaning cases and shelves, mopping and sweeping the sales floor, stock room and dairy coolers.
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Ensuring product is stocked, rotated, within date, and properly displayed on shelves according to the appropriate planogram from marketing services.
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Training new grocery associates as needed.
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Operating back room equipment, pallet jack, scissor lift, baler, compactor and scrub machine
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Managing shipping/receiving dock, loading/unloading product from trucks, ensuring order coincides with invoices, and organizing dock/stock room.
Meat Department
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Dynamically selling meat product by providing customers with information needed to make product-related decisions
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Monitoring meat counter, ensure proper merchandise organization & presentation to optimize sales of high margin products.
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Cutting and preparing all varieties and cuts of meat/fish/seafood, including the safe handling of product in accordance with product sanitation, freshness, trimming and cutting guidelines.
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Operation and maintenance of tool set including knifes, cleavers, tenderizers, bandsaws, grinders, casers, packaging machines and power washers.
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Helping to verify and unload meat deliveries from trucks.
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Maintaining, filling and rotating product in meat cases.
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Assisting in other duties as assigned.