In the current climate everything seems to be going up. Competition is rising, the pressure to keep stores looking as good as possible is growing, and wages are hitting new highs. It means I am having to think harder about how I manage my store, and get the best out of my staff.
For me, asking staff to spend hours on end facing up displays is not getting the best out of them.
Facing up is a crucial job, but it’s one of my most hated, and I know the staff feel the same. It’s labour-intensive, products can get damaged, and it’s incredibly boring. At the moment, the whole store is done at the end of the day, which takes about 90 minutes, and key categories such as bread, eggs and milk are done throughout the day, up to six times.
It’s a significant amount of time and money that could without a doubt be better spent elsewhere. So that’s why this May I am investing in a new display solution from German company Pos Tuning, which will effectively face up the entire store automatically.
Unlike other spring-loaded systems commonly used in the soft drinks category, this technology slowly brings products to the front of the shelves using a variety of mechanisms depending on the products and their physical environment. The system in the freezers, for example, uses frictionless mat technology, and is different to that used for ambient health and beauty products.
It should take a few days to install and I’m anticipating payback within a couple of years, which I think sounds like a pretty great outcome when you consider the hugely positive impact it should have on productivity and staff wellbeing.
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