Wegmans Grocery Shopping and Items Per Minute

Whenever we come home from a short trip to Lynchburg we usually stop at Wegmans to pick up something for dinner. It’s located right before the turn off from 129 to 66 and is about an hour from DC. What is most remarkable about the place is that it is always packed - but probably because it is usually on a weekend day. But what catches our eye is the fresh fruit and vegetables. We decided to do our weekly grocery shopping on Sunday that included picking up a ready made dish for supper. The fruit was so inviting we went a bit overboard - cherries, nectarines, oranges, watermelon, grapes, blueberries. On the way out there were so many registers available it was hardly a wait to get everything processed. What I did notice hanging on the wall was a big chart that showed “items per minute” - the number of items scanned at the register at check out. It was a performance measure that had a goal or target of 14. And for some of the days of the week and for the week were individuals named who met that goal. I used to track performance measures in a large heath care organization in the Midwest and then for the infrastructure support services at the Library of Congress. Maybe that’s why Wegmans does so well - everyone knows what is getting measured and the target that defines their success. I’m sure not everyone agrees with that approach, but I found it very interesting. Especially since it was so visible to not only management, but the employees and customers as well. Now all they need is a big graph to show results over time. I always found that most telling.