Meat Associate

About the Role

Assists in the daily operations of meat and seafood departments, promoting and executing consistent and compliant operating conditions to increase customer confidence and loyalty. Provides fresh and appealing products, courteous, knowledgeable, and prompt service. Values diversity and supports an inclusive environment by embracing the backgrounds and experiences of the team.

Responsibilities

• Service (60% of time):
  • Creates an environment that enables customers to feel welcome, important, and appreciated.
  • Prepares and packages meat, seafood, random weight, lunchmeat, frozen food, and salted meats to production standards.
  • Operates department equipment and tools.
  • Ensures customer requests and special orders are fulfilled.
• Leadership (20% of time):
  • Promotes trust and respect among associates by collaborating, promoting teamwork, and communicating company, department, and job-specific information.
  • Adheres to all local, state, and federal laws, and company guidelines.
• Financial (10% of time):
  • Stocks and rotates department products to ensure freshness and date control; restocks and uses supply items efficiently to eliminate waste and maintain the lowest supply cost.
  • Receives and breaks down meat deliveries.
  • Keeps work area clean, orderly, and free from safety hazards.
  • Maintains awareness of inventory/stocking conditions and reports discrepancies.
  • Reviews/inspects products for quality and freshness and takes appropriate action.
  • Ensures product is held at the proper temperature per food safety guidelines and retains documentation of temperature logs per policy.
• Compliance/Safety (10% of time):
  • Ensures company standards for safety, proper food handling practices, sanitation, and productivity are maintained.
  • Adheres to regulatory compliance requirements pertaining to food safety, USDA, Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), and Department of Agriculture (DOA).
  • Executes all product recalls and withdrawals in a timely manner while ensuring items are secured and removed from customer access.
  • Reinforces safety programs by complying with safety procedures and inspecting and identifying unsafe conditions to report to store management.
  • Notifies management of customer or employee accidents.
  • Reports all safety risks, issues, and illegal activity, including robbery, theft, or fraud.
  • Ensures adherence to wage and hour policies and regulations.
  • Cultivates a culture of safety within the store.
  • Ensures self and all associates are working safely and have received necessary safety training.
  • Ensures Hazardous Assessments are posted for associate reference and that Personal Protective Equipment is available and utilized.
  • Ensures equipment is in good repair; reports and assists with remediation of safety hazards within the department.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Must be 18 years of age or older.
• Authorization to work in the United States or the ability to obtain the same.
• Successful completion of pre-employment drug testing and background check.
• Strong customer service skills.
• Exceptional interpersonal, motivational, and communication skills.
• Knowledge of cutting, traying, wrapping, and labeling.

Qualifications

• Education: High School diploma or GED preferred.
• Language: English required; Spanish preferred.
• Experience: 0–3 years of relevant or supervisory experience.

Physical Demands & Working Conditions

While performing the essential functions of this position, the employee is regularly required to:

• Stand or walk on various types of flooring.
• Utilize manual dexterity, talk, see, hear, smell, and perform repetitive movements with both hands and/or feet.
• Frequently reach at waist level or overhead, carry, push, or lift loads up to 70 lbs.
• Occasionally sit, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, and climb up to 10 ft.
• Work in indoor, outdoor, cold, freezing, heated, and wet/humid conditions.
• Be exposed to loud noise, skin irritants, nuisance dust, fumes, sprays, hazardous cleaning solutions, and other toxins.
• Twist back and/or neck, walk on slippery or cluttered floors, work with hazardous equipment, and be exposed to sharp objects.

Equipment Used:

• Cleaning supplies and equipment, general office equipment, register, pricing gun, scales, scanner, material handling equipment (racks, carts, pallet jacks, shopping carts).
• Department-specific equipment: baler/compactor, general hardware tools (ladder, pliers, wire cutters), ice machine, shovel, powered cutting equipment (slicers, saws, grinders), various knives, wrapping equipment, automatic meat wrapper, lobster tanks, box cutter.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Goggles, gloves (including cutting, fryer, and oven gloves), back brace.

Physical Requirements: Pulling up to 250 lbs; lifting up to 70 lbs.

Schedule

Varied shifts.