Supermarket Managers Pressed For Time

By Paul St. George, Director of Product Management – Mobile and Interface Solutions, APG Cash Drawer

While nine of 10 US grocery store department managers in a recent survey said they love their jobs, many lamented “not having enough time” to do them effectively even though survey participants gave themselves high marks for time management.

About half of the respondents said their departments don’t get “enough labor hours to effectively complete our work and serve the customers.” Tight payroll and labor budgets are one of the food retail industry’s biggest challenges, according to the Supermarket Department Manager Survey conducted by the Food Marketing Institute. Grocery departments are understaffed and as a result, managers feel their effectiveness suffers.

Tight payroll and labor budgets come as no surprise in an industry that operates on razor-thin margins. More surprising – and encouraging – is that even with these negatives, 90 percent of survey participants said they agree or strongly agree with the statements, “I love my job,” and, “I find my job to be personally rewarding.”

While 90 percent is impressive, we shouldn’t dismiss the issues that are troubling managers, including a shortage of labor hours to effectively service customers. One way to address them is to ensure responsibilities such as cash management don’t take up a disproportionate amount of the supermarket managers’ time.