Archived Is there a case for overstocking?

[IWishIKnew]

My favorite is in the cereal aisle at my local grocery store when they stock the top shelf of cereal standing normal, THEN lay down the additional boxes 5-10 high on top. I’m 6’ 4” and cant reach those so clearly other shoppers won’t get them and won’t be able to take the boxes below the stack

Layering stuff on the top shelves is THE WORST. At 5'2", I would really appreciate not having to take a risk of getting brained trying to veeeeery carefully wiggle the thing I can reach and the stuff piled on top of it off the shelf and down to my cart or the floor so I can get the one thing I need then put the remaining one(s) back.

Sliding items on top of other boxes looks like shit and can make it hard to get any items out. See also, sticking two appliances (or furniture items, or kitty litter tubs, or...) in a spot meant for one so it hangs out halfway into the aisle so it gets shoved over and knocked off and destroyed by people who can't push a cart or (god forbid) drive a motorized cart.

About the only time I flex is if the next-door item is a similar product, we have none on hand (and none on the way) and IS THE SAME PRICE. We were out of the red mini-crockpots for like a month before the Super Bowl, so we stocked the black ones in that spot, and they sold nearly as fast. Fast selling, particularly sale items can be flexed a little more readily, but FFS but a blank label over the price, at least, or make sure the item you're flexing isn't more expensive (or significantly less expensive) than item that's supposed to go there.

I backstocked a couple carts of pillows that had been crammed so thoroughly in there you'd pull one out and the rest shot out like some kind of pillow canon. HATE.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Produce and stuff in bins are different deal. In that case, particularly with irregular-sized items, whatever you can put in that looks nice and full without stuff falling out seems like it should be the "capacity". In Bullseye's Playground you stuff that shit as full as you can, as well as any location with the same price.

But for most HL locations, quantities exist for a reason, and the whole system to keep things ordered and stocked doesn't work right if locations are overstocked, in addition to looking like shit and guests bitching because the item they have is more expensive than the label that was under it and wasting BR time pulling and then re-backstocking stuff in locations that are already full and so on. Plus, when stuff is overstocked, if the actual location sells out of the item, it makes it that much harder to find the "8 on floor" that are in that aisle somewhere but aren't where they supposed to be.

 

[IcePeasant]

There was one year, someone overstocked Easter baskets and the tower fell on a guest. Clearly a TM’s fault, way too many on the floor, top shelf, and not fully on the shelf. I had Plastics WAY over capacities and I always brought 2-3 flatbeds of backstock from a closing zone because it could injur someone. Having a tower of baskets let alone plastics injur someone isn’t something I would want. If it’s small flexing here and there, I don’t mind it, but personally I find it irritating and more stressful when you’re trying to make an overstocked mess look like a pretty overstocked mess. Also could tie into research and replenishment too. If you have so much flex and overstock and you can’t keep track cause everything is a mess, how are you going to be able to get a good research in and actually try to get replenishment in. I started teaching TMs how to change SFQs and how to research in my area to ensure that at least from auto generated fills wouldn’t have an item pulled to just get backstocked.

 

[can't touch this]

In toys, any extras I get of the smaller pegged stuff like Shopkins and Beyblades get flexed to the back of the shelf underneath. Kids snap that shit up and are more likely to grab it if it's down at short stuff level anyway. I've had more than a few kids reach for a pegged toy that I just flexed to the lower shelf and run over to their parents to beg for it, and fairly often they'll say UGH FINE just to stop the whining (lol+lmao)

Anything huge gets backstocked like normal with a few exceptions. The B. Zany Zoo (204-06-0407) sells like bottled water in a disaster area for whatever reason, so if I end up with an extra or two I just set it on a random shelf facing the main aisle and it's gone within the hour.