Cheese Clerk (Deli) at La Montanita Food Cooperative, Inc – Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Cheese Clerk is first and foremost responsible for customer relations and satisfaction. The Cheese Clerk is also responsible for ensuring the department maintains its cleanliness, safety and appeal to customers (may also assist other departments in these areas on occasions). Duties include all cheese processing (cutting, packaging and merchandising), sanitation, safety, and stocking procedures on all products while removing expired products from displays. Most importantly, the Cheese Clerk will make all customers feel welcomed by acknowledging or greeting each customer and providing genuine, helpful, and respectful customer service.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Orders, receives, and merchandises cheese and olive products following proper guidelines for merchandising, rotation, sanitation, pricing, mechanizing, and quality standards.
• Consistently replenishes products to ensure freshness and visibility.
• Maintains a working knowledge of all cheese products as well as non-cheese items throughout the store to respond to customers to ensure they get the products they want and need.
• Adequately accepts, orders, receives, prepares, packages, labels, displays, stocks, replenishes floor stock and inventories merchandise.
• Follows department procedures for processing known loss, invoices discrepancies, special orders, and transfers.
• Maintains accurate and attractive signage within your department.
• Keeps the department orderly and clean.
• Helps customers make product selections by answering questions and providing information about all cheese items.
• Ensures accurate and sanitary product processing, packaging, labeling, dating, and pricing according to department procedures.
• Prioritizes time to ensure that prep work, stocking, cleaning, and customer service are handled efficiently.
• Creates and maintains an environment that enables customers to feel welcome, important, and appreciated by answering questions regarding products sold within the department and throughout the store by providing excellent customer service.
• Assists in inventory counts, storewide cleaning, and other projects as needed.
• Reinforces safety within the store by complying with safety procedures and identify unsafe conditions and notify store management or addressing the concern if appropriate.
• Practices preventive maintenance by properly inspecting equipment and notify appropriate department or store team leader of any items in need of repair.
• Notifies management of customer or employee accidents.
• Ensures federal, state, local and La Montañita Food Cooperative regulations and standards for product freshness, safety, refrigeration, sanitation and weights and measures are being adhered to and met.
• Maintains presentation and quality standards in the department.
• Follows proper procedures for opening and closing.
• Maintains and updates as needed ServSafe® certification.
• Other responsibilities and tasks as required and assigned.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• High School diploma or GED.
• Customer service skills (able to complete the full customer service cycle).
• Effective communication skills
• Capable of teaching others positively and constructively.
• Food safety certification. If not currently certified, able to obtain certification within 1 month.
• Knowledge of basic math (counting, addition and subtraction)
• Ability to adhere and follow safety, regulatory and wellness guidelines. Safety Conscious and adhering to required PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is required.

NEEDED ATTRIBUTES:

• Good interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
• Able to act with integrity, ethically, professionalism, and confidentiality.
• Able to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner.
• Able to deal and adapt to changes in the work environment, industry with a calm professional demeanor.
• Dependable, reliable and self-motivated.
• Able to work with a diverse group of people.
• Strong team player, friendly and patient.
• Excellent ability to prioritize and multi-task with attention to detail.
• Professional appearance and manner.