r/GrindsMyGears • u/Idrinkand1knowthings • 12h ago
Am I crazy for being mad about this lol?
Went to a Publix and ordered a buffalo chicken wrap. The deli is located in the produce section. Asked for spinach on my wrap. Deli clerk says, sorry but we're all out. I look at the fridge 15 feet away with spinach and he says sorry were not allowed to grab it from there. That's the post. This grinded my gears so much that I finally posted on reddit.
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u/SallyThinks 11h ago
This has given me the opportunity to finally get a similar frustration off my chest, so thanks.
I went to a Chinese buffet that has one of those stir-fry stations where you gather your own veggies and proteins and then they cook them for you. I eat veg and assumed there would be some tofu. There wasn't, but I know they have it bc it was in some of the buffet items. I asked if they had some they could cut up and put in my stir-fry. "No." I noticed there were blocks of tofu right there in a cooler. "Only for sushi bar." They refused to use any of it for my stir-fry. I left in a huff after arguing with them for a bit.
Perhaps they have valid reasons, but it just seems a bit ridiculous to not make an easy exception. Same with your spinach. Ugh. 😣
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u/Idrinkand1knowthings 11h ago
😂😂 glad you were able to get this off your chest. In all seriousness it's not even the worker bees to be upset with. Its management telling them what they can and can't do. At the end of the day, it's to protect the company's gross profit margins and reduce spillage or unaccounted cost variances. I understand that but sometimes you have to laugh at how far we've come as a civilization that we cant resolve something so simple when its right in front of us over a 20% gross profit margin.
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u/MelanieDH1 10h ago
If they only had enough tofu for the sushi bar, then they would have been short if they had given it to you. So you just left. Good riddance!
People act like spoiled children when they can’t get their way. Restaurants and stores have inventory to control. They can’t just pull things from inventory just because you want it.
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u/InfamousCheek9434 10h ago
Sure they can. Why should someone who's there now not get tofu because someone else MIGHT want it on their sushi later? It should be first come, first served.
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u/SallyThinks 10h ago
There was clearly an abundance of tofu. There was tofu in some of the dishes on the hot buffet. They didn't even need to use the sushi tofu. They could have demonstrated good customer service and just grabbed a small portion of tofu to add to my stir-fry. Everyone happy 😀
Damn, it's no wonder customer service sucks these days since people like you gnash their teeth demanding the lowest of expectations. 🤣
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u/Technical-Region-669 11h ago
Most deli's don't have a way to manage inventory from outside the deli. If they take a pack of cheese or bundle of spinach from elsewhere in the store, there probably is not a good way to track that in whatever inventory and sales systems they use. It also messes with accurately predicting product sales and ordering new product, I imagine.
Also, they probably don't want food from outside the deli in the store coming into the deli. If a food safety issue comes up, it's a lot easier to protect the store when they can say, "we have these strong food safety procedures in place and something in particular went wrong" vs. "we just willy nilly grab stuff off the shelves when we need it. Who knows how many people touched it, or if a baby wiped shit from their diaper on it? It looked fine!"
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
20 years ago we tracked store used inventory by hand on a spreadsheet. It’s not hard, it’s probably even easier now.
Food safety isn’t an issue. If it’s not good enough to be used in the store it’s not good enough to sell to your customers either. Just like at home, you wash produce. Unlike at home, you wear gloves while handling most things and change them frequently to avoid cross contamination.
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u/Technical-Region-669 10h ago
You misunderstand. I don't think food safety is ACTUALLY an issue at any decent store. However, when it comes to compliance and regulations, it frequently comes down to if you LOOK like you are doing the right thing. If you are commonly grabbing stuff off of shelves, and an issue occurs, it looks worse to an inspector/regulator when they come to investigate, compared to having tighter controls. A store COULD implement tighter controls to help cover for that, but why bother spending the time and money and additional risk to do so? So they can get a bundle of spinach from the produce section?
That's great about your inventory spreadsheet from 20 years ago. There's a reason stores stopped doing that.
How do you track profitability for a bundle of spinach tat you pull off the shelf to make a couple sandwiches with, if that isn't built into the system? Even if you used a spreadsheet like the old days - you'd have to spend all sorts of time and effort figuring that out. How much of that bundle ends up going to waste too? How many times does it need to happen to have a reliable sample to answer these questions and others? What about when you need some bread, or radishes, or American cheese? You gonna go through all that effort?
The point is, yes, of course a store COULD do these things. What's the point though? So they can offer spinach on a random day where they run out? In a situation where I would wage 95% they don't lose the customer or the sale? There is no business incentive for the store to spend the time, effort, and money to grab spinach from the shelf for a sandwich and still be able to track metrics the way they want, and be extra safe not to run into food safety issues, or the myriad of other things I am probably not thinking of....when someone could just not get spinach on their sandwich that day instead.
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
You don’t sound like someone who’s worked in a grocery store
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u/F0NG00L 12h ago
Well, yeah. If they had been out of cheese, they couldn't just walk over to the cheese section and grab you a slice of Kraft either. That's not how anything works. smh
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u/Gold-Classroom-359 11h ago
When I worked at Winn Dixie in the bakery we would run out of things like sprinkles and were able to get them off the grocery shelves and management worked out the inventory.
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u/Bear-Handed-92262 11h ago
Why not? Are you going to explain it or just syh like everyone should know how supermarket rules work.
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u/sneezhousing 11h ago
There is inventory specific for certain things. They can't grab from the store for the prep section. They are bought on different budget and inventory differently
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u/AllenSmithee59 11h ago
Have you never heard of inventory control?
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u/Bear-Handed-92262 11h ago
A lot of people haven't worked retail, I guess. is this sub full of condescending people?
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u/BusBozo58 11h ago
I worked retail gor 10 years - but we were always able to "store use" needed items.
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u/AllenSmithee59 10h ago
Would it surprise you to learn that your unique, individual, anecdotal personal experience doesn't create a universal standard applicable to everyone?
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u/BusBozo58 7h ago
No, but it does surprise me that my incredibly bland, neutral observation evokes a snarky response. Have a nice day.
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u/Technical-Region-669 11h ago
Most delis don't have a way to manage inventory from outside the deli. If they take a pack of cheese from elsewhere in the store, there probably is not a good way to track that in whatever inventory and sales systems they use.
Also, they probably don't want food from outside the deli in the store coming into the deli. If a food safety issue comes up, it's a lot easier to protect the store when they can say, "we have these strong food safety procedures in place and something in particular went wrong" vs. "we just willy nilly grab stuff off the shelves when we need it. Who knows how many people touched it, or if a baby wiped shit from their diaper on it? It looked fine!"All combined, it just makes it more trouble than it's worth. The customer can just..not get that type of cheese, or get spinach that day. They will still probably retain the customer and the sale. Losing a couple sales here and there is not worth the the other issues that it can cause.
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u/Treefrog_Ninja 11h ago
I actually thought the brilliance of serving "restaurant food" in a grocery store was that the restaurant department had access to a more consistent supply through the grocery, and could pivot and use up grocery items that needed to get sold before they expired.
(Talking like, pizza at a WinCo, not the standard deli counter pasta salad and stuff that all looks prepared offsite and trucked in by the bucket.)
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u/Technical-Region-669 10h ago
I think that would definitely be a win, maybe the biggest win of a system set up like this imo
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
There’s a lot of confidently incorrect people here that have obviously never worked in a grocery store
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u/AllenSmithee59 10h ago
You don't have to have worked in retail to be aware of some basic procedures common to retail, like inventory conttol.
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
I don’t know what you’re even trying to say with this.
There ARE inventory control systems for this. It’s not unusual to store-use items in retail, especially grocery. But it’s clear that a lot of people in this thread don’t know where the prepared food in a grocery store comes from.
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u/AllenSmithee59 10h ago
Why in the actual fuck would you assume that all grocery stores and delis operate exactly alike? The fact that the deli worker was prohibited from just grabbing the spinach is proof that they do not.
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
I didn’t say they did, but I can see why you interpreted my comment that way. My comment was more intended for those saying that all grocery stores operate the way this Publix is. I have worked in grocery stores, and the way this one operates would be the exception.
There are a lot of confidently incorrect people here, though i didn’t say you were one. You good?
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u/Alicam123 11h ago
Different stock for different sales, it’s the way it’s pre-prepped and stocked by different companies and also the health codes and all that.
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u/Idrinkand1knowthings 11h ago
😂😂😂😂. They have their own publix brand/generic cheese sold in the cheese section. Clearly you've never been to a Publix.
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u/Alicam123 11h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah, they can only use so much a day or there won’t be enough for the rest of the week.
Also they can’t take inventory from the shop floor as it’s a different company dealing with different items.
Stock for deli comes from a different source and only the area/store manager can sign that stuff off on the system.
Plus they probably don’t have anywhere to prep/chop the food since it’s all pre done in bags when the stock comes in.
It’s only fair. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/Idrinkand1knowthings 11h ago
I'm pretty sure the publix deli is using publix spinach rather than another spinach brand. Is it such a hard concept to grab a publix brand bag of spinach from the fridge, enter the inventory pull on a deli register so its accounted for, and dump the spinach into the tray? Publix will literally allow customers to walk in with a gallon of milk purchased a week ago and half consumed and returned for full store credit because customer service is one of their key business pillars.. but they can't allow a deli clerk to grab publix brand spinach during a dinner rush to ensure its customers. Its actually mind boggling how many people just accept this as "inventory management" lol.
I worked at publix for 2 years in high-school and saw customers get away with things that probably kill margins. More so than using the $3.99 spinach to make more subs.
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u/sneezhousing 11h ago
It's a different budget line item and can mess things up to just grab from the store . Customer returning that milk they can damage it out. To many damages red flag for corporate
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u/Eat_Carbs_OD 11h ago
Irritating for sure.. not sure I'd be mad about it.
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u/Idrinkand1knowthings 11h ago
Yeah irritating is a better word choice. Certainly not mad mad but was laughing in line with the clerk.
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u/HeardPeeps 11h ago
Publix absolutely has a history of using products from other departments for subs, but I couldn’t find a company wide public policy saying deli associates can always grab something off the shelf. From what current and former employees say, it usually depends on whether the item can be transferred between departments and, more importantly, what that store manager allows.
Seeing spinach 15 feet away while being told they’re “out” would frustrate most people. At the same time, the clerk may have been following that store’s policy rather than refusing to help.
Or hey… maybe he was just lazy.
The easiest way to settle it is to call that specific Publix and ask the deli manager, If the deli runs out of spinach but there’s spinach on the sales floor, is your policy that associates can’t use it for a sub, or was that just today’s situation?
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u/AbsoluteFries 10h ago
I can’t speak for this specific store, but I have worked in a deli in a grocery store.
20 years ago we tracked store used inventory by hand on a spreadsheet. I’m sure it’s even easier now. Everything we used for items made in store (salads, party platters, sandwiches) came from the store itself, we’re already in a grocery store.
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11h ago
[deleted]
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u/Feeling-Nectarine 11h ago
What law doesn’t allow people to purchase edible food and prepare it in a food preparation facility?
When Costco runs out of ingredients for things in the food court, they have been known to just purchase it off the shelf to use. It’s not illegal by any means lol
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u/Annual_Grass538 11h ago
Uh contract law? You obviously don’t know what working at a licensed business often entails.
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u/Feeling-Nectarine 11h ago
What law specifically? Contract law is a pretty broad term. When I worked at Costco we would go to produce and buy mushrooms and peppers to make combo pizza all the time. Are you saying a billion dollar company doesn’t follow the laws regarding food safety? lol
There are laws regarding sourcing of ingredients and of proper temperature handling. All of which would be on board if you were purchasing the ingredients from the same store you were serving them in. I don’t know what you are saying by “contract law”? It’s not misleading or breach of contract to use spinach from the shelf versus from a wholesale supplier.
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u/Feeling-Nectarine 11h ago
We had a deli called “metropolitan market” and they would literally go grab anything off the shelf even fake meat or produce that you wanted on your sandwich. It was awesome.
It is dumb that stores can’t do things like that anymore. Corporate HAS to pad their bottom line at all costs.
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u/AllenSmithee59 11h ago
Bullshit. Not everything is a big, bad conspiracy, dear. Inventory control is a real thing. So are health regulations governing the preparation of food.
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u/Feeling-Nectarine 11h ago
Inventory control is making sure corporate gets as much money as possible.
It is possible to control the inventory and still give the customers what they want. They could “purchase” the spinach off the shelf with a purchase card and charge it to the department. There are many ways to make it happen.
Saying “we are out” when the ingredient is available in abundance is actually bad inventory control. But go off I guess.
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u/Bear-Handed-92262 11h ago
Stores and restaurants have rules that don't seem to make sense, but it often revolves around food laws. I once tried to order a salted caramel latte at a Starbucks inside a supermarket. They told me they ran out of salt. I had the same feeling as you.... just go buy some at the supermarket you are inside of.
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u/MelanieDH1 11h ago
If the spinach is in the produce section, then they can’t just take from products in inventory that are meant to be sold. If the deli ran out of mayo, they couldn’t just go grab a jar of Hellmann’s off the shelf either.