My Job as a Stocker

Thesis: A stocker has many duties, which include keeping products on the shelves, cleaning the store, blocking the products on the shelves and keeping the displays of specials filled.

        I. The main job of a stocker is to stock the shelves.

               (a) Back breaking work.

                (b) Danger of breaking things.

               (c) Has to deal with backstock.

        II. After stocking the shelves, he has to clean the store.

              (a) Stack empty pallets together.

               (b) Sweep up, throw the trash out and clean the bathrooms.

               (c) Store remaining products on shelves.

              (d) Clean the store floor all over.

        III. After he has all finished cleaning the store, he has to block the shelves.

              (a) Blocking means moving stock forward so the shelves look full.

              (b) Blocking the display at the front of the store can be a problem.

       IV. When he finishes blocking he has to fill the specials.

               (a) He has to get the sale items from the back to fill the shelf.

               (b) He may also "borrow" some items from the shelves.

Every day after my classes are over at Southside, I drive to work at Byrds grocery store in Chase City. During the three years that I have worked at Byrds, I have performed a number of different jobs. I began working as a bag boy, then as a cashier. I managed the produce department for a while and even learned to cut meat, but being a stocker is the one job I have done most often. A stocker has many duties which include keeping products on the shelves, cleaning the store, blocking the products on the shelves and keeping the displays of specials filled.

The main job a stocker has to do is to stock the shelves. This is back-breaking work. It is hard because it involves a lot of heavy lifting of cases of cans and many more bulk items. Unloading a pallet of tweinty-five pound bags of dog food is tiring, and although a six pack of cokes does not weigh very much by itself, stacking ten cases of six packs can make a worker's his back hurt when he has to bend over each time to place the cokes on a shelf. Another bad part of stocking is that the stocker will sometimes break things. For example, I have broken such items as jelly, juice, and even vinegar. Jelly makes a sticky mess on the floor while vinegar makes the whole store smell bad. When something gets broken, the stocker has to stop and clean it up right away so that it does not get tracked all over the store.

Also the stocker has to deal with what is called "backstock." This is the stock that would not fit on the shelves when the truck came in. He usually works backstock on Sundays. In working backstock, he has to take all the stock in the back room and fit it onto the shelves to replace what has been sold. This keeps out-dated food from showing up weeks later.

Second, after he's done stocking, he has to clean the store. This consists of stacking all the empty pallets together. This is also back-breaking work. A large pallet made of oak can weigh as much as fifty pounds, and the stocker has to stack them high to save space. After he has done that, he has to sweep the back room, throw the trash out, and clean the bathrooms. Throwing the trash out and cleaning the bathrooms can be nasty work. Broken items and spoiled produce get thrown in the trash, and people make a mess of the bathrooms.

When he has finished with the back room, he has to clear up the store area by taking the products he has not been able to place on the shelves into the storage room. The store has big wooden shelves in the backroom with a number on them for every aisle. This is so the stocker will know where to put the backstock, so it won't get mixed up. The last step in cleaning the store is to clean the floor . The stocker uses a big push broom to sweep the isles and a dust pan to pick up the trash. When this is done, he uses a mop and hot water with a cleaning solution to mop down the floors.

After he has finished cleaning the store, he has to block the stock on the shelves and fill the displays of items that are being sold as specials. In blocking he has to pull the cans and glass items to the front of the shelves, so that the shelves look full. But when blocking the front wall display which is made up of cases of a product, he sometimes has to build a hollow place behind the front row of boxes to make the display look regular and solid.

Finally, when he has finished blocking, he has to refill the special sale items. He will go to the back of the store and look on the backstock shelves to find the items he needs, and then he puts them in the special display areas. If there are not enough items in the backstock, he may take some from the regular display shelves to fill out the specials display.

As you can see, a stocker has a number of duties and the job requires strength, the ability to work quickly and to follow a routine. The stocker is the one who makes sure that the bread and milk are there when the customers come in and that the store is neat and clean.