I had a new experience just over a week ago when Ship to Shore 4 Square carried out its annual stocktake. Inside the store it looked just like any other day but behind the scenes it was more like a military operation as a slick team scurried about counting stock in the chillers, freezers and storage areas. The shop closed its doors early at 3.30pm and then an army of us swarmed down the aisles counting every item in the shop.
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The sign had been up for a number of days but several people still tried to
get in after we closed |
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| Stock in the storeroom was counted early before the shop shut |
I was a 'counter' and first counted the stock behind the tills before helping Jules and Matt on aisle 2 (including herbs, baking items, plastic wrap and cat food). We grabbed a handful of paper strips, counted the stock, wrote the number on the strip and popped it under the item we were counting. Jules then came along with her electronic recorder, scanned the item and entered in the number we had written on the strip. Easy peasy! When the 'recorders' had finished an aisle, they coloured it in on the master map and then started on the next section.
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The 'end' display has been 'counted' with numbers written on the paper
strips - it's now waiting to be 'recorded' by Jules |
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| The aisle 3 team |
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Sam and Charlotte recording the stock behind the tills; Jules
'recording' the scene with her camera |
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| Fern recording numbers on aisle 1 - paper strips galore |
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| Karen and Richard working hard in aisle 4 |
Teamwork won the day and I was very impressed with the planning and execution of a difficult job; consistent methods and, with experienced people on hand to guide the newbies, the whole operation was completed by 8pm - it would have been earlier but Carol had made us a fab roast turkey dinner with roast veges, followed by an ice-cream or drink. Such a buzz to work with dedicated and hard-working people that work toward a common goal.
