Produce Accountability Checklist

Do you have multiple items that are similar that are displayed in various areas? For example, if you have 3 kinds of garlic are they displayed together?

Is the produce department visually appealing with clean, uncluttered and attractive displays?

Are promotional items displayed at the front of the department attractive utilizing contractor supplied signage?

Is proper signage current, attractive, and displayed for all items including Country of Origin (COOL), YES! Program and Promotions?

Is the department set to display the proper amount of product based on season, demographics, quality, price, weather and availability? (This includes grocery items (juice, dips, etc.) merchandised in produce.)

Is scheduling done properly? Schedule should have an evening heavy emphasis, more employees scheduled in the evening to ensure that the busiest hours are scheduled. Scheduling more employees in the evening will ensure the floor is filled for the morning crew and starts the day off in a proactive manner. Ensure the employees in the evening are scheduled to stay late (1-2 hours after close) so they may complete their duties prior to departure.<br>

Does the manager place their orders from behind the desk or have standing order quantities?

Is the Order Guide being properly used?

Is the inventory on the Order Guide accurate?

Are there multiple received dates on items?

Is there product that is older than a few days in the warehouse?

Is 100% case and quality verification being performed?

Are the products being broken down and counted inside the coolers or in the warehouse (should be done in the coolers)?

Are the products being separated and placed in the proper coolers with the proper temperatures?

Are dates being affixed to every case as it is received?

Are the products being rotated by received date, and if affixed, expiration date as well?

Are Produce Inspection Worksheets (formerly the 10-21) being used? All produce non-conformances (poor quality products, missing/extra products, wrong items, late trucks, etc. all need to be written up on the Produce Worksheets and emailed to the correct email addresses to track contract performance and credits).

Are items being returned within the 24 hour window; not being repackaged into that days packaging to be sent back?

Are credits being tracked to ensure that the department is actually getting paid back for returns by the distributor?

Is the department in tolerance (unlimited gain with no loss)?

Are sales, receipts, transfers, and VCMs input into the General Ledger daily?

Are sales, receipts, transfers, and VCMs reconciled with the SAL and VRGC so that they match to the penny, every day? If SAL is off by a penny from the receipt then change the receipt value to match, if off more than pennies then find the source of the error.

Are Block Numbers being posted in the Produce Pricing System for all Receipts, Sales, Transfers, and VCMs?

Do the Order Guide prices match the prices in the Produce Pricing System?

Are items marked up no more than 7%?

Are only active items currently being carried? Deactivate all items not currently on the sales floor or coming in on the new item report in the Produce Pricing System.

Are price changes being downloaded or manually input? Must be downloaded, call Help Desk if not working.

Are price changes being performed on the sales floor weekly?

Do the Order Guide/Produce Pricing System prices match the sales floor prices?

Is the Produce Manager performing price verification and submitting price corrections to product file maintenance?

Is the inventory being input in the Produce Pricing System and is it accurate?

Are inventory worksheets being used to count the sales floor and warehouse? If the pricing system is maintained properly all items should be manually keyed on its own line for the warehouse and sales floor with correct pricing into the inventory calculator for all inventories.

Are all items, random weight, being weighed every inventory and items selling by the each, being counted? No estimating.

Is the Inventory to Sales Ratio 20% or below? Divide the end of the month inventory dollar value by the month’s total sales for the department, then multiply by 100. 20% to 39% means either too much inventory is being kept on hand, often resulting in poor product and losses. 40% and above means that too much inventory is being maintained on hand. If the inventory to sales ratio is consistently trending up or down it demonstrates that money may be being hidden; if it trends up consistently then it means they are possibly trying to hide losses; if it trends down, they may be trying to hide too much gain. Please provide the Inventory to Sales Ratio.

Has management staff performed a complete inventory with the department manager from start to finish? If so, provide name, title, and date.

Is a salvage log being utilized? Track salvage to identify causes and correct them. Too much being ordered? Poor quality coming in from distributor? DeCA Form 40-331: Produce Department Salvage Log should be utilized for this purpose.

Are VCMs being tracked to ensure that the department is actually getting paid back for damaged/expired vendor items?

Are there any outstanding VCMs that are more than 60-90 days old?

Does the manager know how to do their duties as well as the employee’s duties? Ask them how to properly do things and have them demonstrate.

Does the Produce Manager have the DeCA Manual 40-04.01 printed and available?

Do the employees know how to do all aspects of their job properly? Culling, Receiving, Rotating, Processing, etc. Monitor and inspect their work to ensure they are doing it properly, if not make sure the manager knows how to do it and if they do they should be training the employees and monitoring them as well.<br>

Are job aids printed and available for employees?

Are vendors doing demos? Naked, Bolthouse, Fresh Express, and your distributors should be performing demos.

When it’s too cold outside do you have indoor farmers markets? Do they focus on cold weather meal ideas?

Do you have items displayed near the meat department? Potatoes usually do well here… Reds, Russets, Microwave, etc.<br>