Markets Getting Good at Clearing the Shelves

Grocery chains in Southern California had to yank suspect merchandise off their shelves in a hurry twice recently. And they’re getting good at it.

Following the watermelon scare, which came about three weeks after tainted Mexican-style cheese was recalled, grocers said they were pleased with the performance of their notification procedures.

The Vons supermarket chain calls it “fan out.” Safeway stores uses the term “line call.” In both cases, the practice boils down to a telephonic chain letter from management to the troops in the field.

When several employees at a Vons distribution center became ill on the Fourth of July after sharing a watermelon, warnings were spreading through the company hours before the state ordered all watermelons taken off the shelves, said Suzanne Dyer, communications coordinator for the grocery chain.

Each of four operations vice presidents first called the handful of district managers for which each was responsible. The district managers then called each store in his area, usually about 10, Dyer said.

All Stores Notified

Later in the afternoon, state health officials ordered watermelons pulled from the shelves. The “fan out” geared up again and Dyer said that by closing time--8 p.m.--all 179 Vons stores in Southern California and Las Vegas had been notified.

The last manager called in each district had instructions to call back the first called to verify the message, Dyer said.

Rita Chirco, a spokeswoman for Safeway, said all 264 stores in Southern California had their watermelons stashed in the back room within 24 hours.

The line-call system has each district manager call three or four predetermined stores in his or her area. Each of those store managers had the preassigned duty of calling another handful of stores.

Chirco said the system is like a chain letter “except you don’t have to worry about dropping the chain.

Written Follow-Ups

At both companies, written warnings were sent out to follow-up on the telephone calls.

Lucky stores waited until 10 minutes before opening time July 5 to begin notifying its 230 Southland stores, but still got the word out before the doors opened.

An electronic message was dispatched by the main office in Anaheim at 7:50 a.m. and moments later was typed out on printers in each store.