Grocery retail runs on tight margins and tight schedules—especially in the back-of-house and on the sales floor. With high employee turnover and growing concerns about workplace safety, retailers are looking for ways to improve labor efficiency, reduce necessary training, and prevent workplace injuries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, food & beverage store workers experience over 78,000 injuries in 2023, many tied to repetitive motion, lifting and navigating cold storage.
In such an injury-prone environment, details matter. See how the right merchandising systems can play a key role in protecting employees while saving costs and relieving their workloads.
1. Ergonomic Merchandising System Reduces Strain and Injuries
Conditioning displays and stocking freezers are two common, physically taxing tasks in grocery. Cold temperatures, limited space, and the need to reach deep into freezer shelves make it especially tough on employees. The necessary reaching, bending, lifting and repetitive movements that accompany these tasks can increase the risk of strain and injury.
Merchandising systems with ergonomic features—like pull-out trays can reduce that risk significantly. Reducing these mundane, repetitive tasks can not only prevent workplace injuries, but it can also improve employee satisfaction allowing stores to retain talent.
ShelfHero on-shelf freezer merchandising solution, a recent innovation from Retail Space Solutions®, helps reduce how often employees need to open and reach deep into freezer doors. The system not only reduces the physical demands of cold storage work but also the time freezer doors are left open, saving energy and reducing frost buildup.
2. Intuitive Systems Lead to Faster Training and Smoother Workflows
With turnover remaining high in retail, fast onboarding is critical. Merchandising systems that are intuitive to use and easy to reset can significantly shorten training time for new hires. Clear product-facing orientation, tool-free adjustments and built-in guides simplify setup and stocking, allowing new employees to spend more time focusing on store customers.
The right merchandising system can reduce stocking errors like improper stock rotation leading to unnecessary shrink, which can be a common error made by less experienced employees. By simplifying stocking, supervisors can trust employees to handle these tasks faster and with less supervision.
3. Time Savings in a Grocery Store Add Up
In a grocery environment, small time savings quickly compound. Systems that reduce the number of touches per product or make it easier to identify stock positions can free up hours each week. That translates to better labor allocation, improved in-stock rates and more time spent with customers.
Smarter merchandising doesn’t just elevate products. It supports the employees who make the store operate. From injury prevention to faster workflows and energy conservation, the right display systems from Retail Space Solutions can play an unseen but vital role in the day-to-day operations of modern grocery retail.