Cheese Clerk (Deli)

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: Note: La Montañita Food Cooperative (LMFC) may change the requirements of the job description at any time. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• 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 (includes education, skills and experience): The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• 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.

WORKING CONDITIONS AND PHYSICAL EFFORTS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to lift and move up to 25 pounds. (On occasion weight could be up to 50 pounds).
• Repetitive hand and arm motions and prolonged periods of sitting and standing.
• Regularly required to stand, walk, talk, listen, and reach with hands and arms.
• Occasionally required to climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• Requires frequent manual dexterity in combination with eye/hand coordination such handling of equipment.
• Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.
• Frequent exposure to wet, humid and cold conditions (non-weather).
• Fumes or airborne particles ranging from natural to chemical.
• The noise level in the work environment ranges from low to moderate; yet can occasionally be loud.
• Must be able to work mornings, afternoon, evenings, nights and weekends as needed.