Ranger les produits ou répondre aux clients ?

Abstract

Store shelf employees constitute the largest population identifiable in alimentary big box stores in France. Yet cashiers took the prize for years in studies examining this sector. This article is intended to correct a misapprehension in the description of the work of these essential store employees: they are the ones who keep the products rolling off the shelves in stocking them from the dawn. Since the middle of the first decade of this century, the customer-focus policy developed by the supercenters or “big box” sto­res has complicated this task by demanding that everyone satisfy the incessant demands of the customers. Strict control by managers, surveillance and customers cause the threat of punishment to be felt. These employees find themselves caught between the flow of products and the flow of customers, who prevent them from accomplishing their primary task. Nonetheless the employees exhibit a micro-resistance that allows them to get their work done despite interruptions, sometimes in a manner that does harm to the entire organization.

Keywords

• work
• flow
• store shelf employees
• big box stores
• customer relations
• resistances