Assistant Meat Manager

Position Summary
The Assistant Meat Manager supports the Meat Manager in overseeing daily meat department operations, maintaining product quality and freshness, providing excellent customer service, and ensuring food safety and sanitation standards are consistently followed. This position assists with leading department associates, coordinating production, maintaining inventory, controlling shrink, merchandising products, and keeping the department clean, organized, and customer-ready.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist with overseeing daily meat department operations and workflow.
• Help coordinate production, cutting, wrapping, stocking, and merchandising activities based on department needs.
• Monitor product freshness, quality, appearance, temperature, and availability throughout the day.
• Ensure meat cases, displays, counters, and refrigerated areas are clean, organized, attractive, and properly stocked.
• Provide friendly, courteous, and professional customer service.
• Assist customers with product questions, special requests, cooking recommendations, and other meat department needs.
• Assist with cutting, trimming, preparing, wrapping, weighing, pricing, and labeling meat products as trained and authorized.
• Help coordinate associate assignments, breaks, production responsibilities, and department coverage.
• Monitor inventory levels and assist with ordering products, packaging, supplies, and other department materials.
• Receive, organize, rotate, and properly store meat products and department supplies.
• Follow proper product rotation, dating, labeling, storage, and temperature-control procedures.
• Help minimize shrink and product loss through proper ordering, production planning, handling, rotation, and inventory practices.
• Ensure products are accurately priced, labeled, signed, and displayed.
• Maintain required production, inventory, temperature, sanitation, and other department records.
• Assist with promotional displays, seasonal merchandising, and advertised items.
• Maintain clean and sanitary cutting, preparation, wrapping, storage, and sales areas.
• Assist with opening and closing department procedures as assigned.
• Identify equipment, product, staffing, inventory, or operational concerns and communicate them to the Meat Manager or store leadership.
• Follow and reinforce company policies regarding food safety, sanitation, workplace safety, and loss prevention.
• Perform additional department responsibilities as assigned based on business needs.

Leadership Responsibilities

• Provide daily direction and support to meat department associates.
• Assist with training new associates on department procedures, equipment operation, food safety, sanitation, merchandising, and customer service.
• Coach associates on productivity, product quality, freshness, accuracy, cleanliness, and department standards.
• Help organize daily production priorities and assign responsibilities based on department needs.
• Monitor completed work to ensure quality, accuracy, presentation, and sanitation expectations are met.
• Lead by example by demonstrating excellent customer service, teamwork, urgency, professionalism, and attention to detail.
• Help maintain a positive, respectful, and productive work environment.
• Communicate department priorities and expectations clearly to associates.
• Support the Meat Manager with department planning and daily operational decisions.
• Take an active leadership role in department operations when the Meat Manager is unavailable.

Production & Merchandising Responsibilities

• Review daily production needs based on inventory, promotions, sales trends, and anticipated customer demand.
• Help ensure sufficient product is prepared and available during peak business periods.
• Maintain consistent standards for cutting, preparation, packaging, labeling, and presentation.
• Monitor meat cases and displays throughout the day and replenish products as necessary.
• Ensure promotional and seasonal products are properly prepared, stocked, signed, and displayed.
• Maintain accurate pricing, shelf tags, signs, and product identification.
• Monitor production quantities to help reduce unnecessary waste while maintaining product availability.
• Maintain organized coolers, freezers, storage areas, and back-stock.
• Help create attractive, full, and customer-ready displays that support department sales.

Food Safety & Sanitation

• Follow established food-handling, sanitation, and temperature-control procedures.
• Monitor proper refrigeration and freezer temperatures.
• Ensure cutting surfaces, utensils, equipment, wrapping areas, cases, and workspaces are properly cleaned and sanitized.
• Follow proper procedures for product rotation, dating, labeling, storage, and disposal.
• Help prevent cross-contamination by following established department procedures.
• Maintain appropriate personal hygiene and safe food-handling practices.
• Ensure associates follow required cleaning and sanitation procedures.
• Immediately address or communicate food safety, sanitation, temperature, or equipment concerns to appropriate leadership.

Inventory & Shrink Control

• Assist with maintaining appropriate inventory levels based on sales and customer demand.
• Monitor product movement and identify low-stock or out-of-stock conditions.
• Assist with ordering and receiving department products and supplies.
• Rotate inventory properly to maintain freshness and minimize product loss.
• Monitor production quantities to reduce overproduction and unnecessary waste.
• Identify damaged, expired, or unsellable products and follow proper procedures for handling them.
• Assist with inventory counts and other product-control activities as required.
• Communicate unusual inventory discrepancies or shrink concerns to department leadership.

Qualifications

• Strong customer service and leadership skills.
• Effective communication, coaching, and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Ability to prioritize production and operational responsibilities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong attention to product quality, freshness, accuracy, sanitation, and presentation.
• Ability to work independently while providing direction and support to others.
• Ability to learn meat-cutting, preparation, packaging, ordering, inventory, and merchandising procedures.
• Ability to safely operate approved meat department equipment after proper training.
• Ability to follow established food safety and sanitation requirements.
• Dependable attendance and punctuality.
• Previous meat department, grocery, food service, retail, production, or leadership experience is preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to stand and walk for extended periods.
• Ability to bend, stoop, kneel, reach, lift, carry, push, pull, and perform repetitive movements throughout the shift.
• Ability to safely lift and move meat products, boxes, trays, supplies, and department inventory as required.
• Ability to perform repetitive cutting, wrapping, weighing, labeling, stocking, and cleaning activities.
• Ability to work in refrigerated areas, coolers, freezers, and varying temperatures.
• Ability to safely operate approved meat department equipment after proper training.

Work Environment

The Assistant Meat Manager works primarily within the meat department, including cutting and preparation areas, refrigerated display cases, coolers, freezers, storage areas, and the sales floor. The position requires balancing hands-on department responsibilities with customer service, associate leadership, production planning, inventory management, merchandising, sanitation, and daily operational needs.

· Access to up to 50% of your earned wages before payday, via our partnership with Stream