Automatic Merchandiser - 32

top-quality offerings. The commissary averages 35 freshly made items,
rotated regularly, and supplemented
by a wide array of packaged frozen
and cold foods.
" We can make it fresh today and
sell it tomorrow and are unique in
variety and value for the end user, "
said Foong.

" Even as their commissions shrank
because of lower sales, we found different opportunities for them to buffer
up their take-home pay, " added Les
Ward, general manager of Pee Dee
Food Service of Pepsi of Florence. " We
went above and beyond to help our
drivers make extra money. "
Several five-day routes went down
to four, and on the fifth
day, drivers helped
in other parts of the
business by refreshing
markets, remerchandisWe can make it fresh today and
ing machines, and helpsell it tomorrow and are unique in
ing Pepsi of Florence
reps with merchandisvariety and value for the end user. "
ing at convenience and
Nick Foong, Pee Dee Food Service
director of foodservice
grocery stores.
" Our first priority is to take care of
employees, because
Pee Dee Catering hired a classiwithout them, we can't take care of
cally trained executive chef in 2017
our customers, " Ward remarked. " This
and recently launched peedeecatering.
challenge was put right in front of us
com to market its capabilities beyond
with the pandemic. It is easy when
its core corporate and communitytimes are good. With business down
based business to pursue private funcso suddenly and significantly, we
tions for 20 to 1,000 guests, including
found ways to go above and beyond.
weddings, birthdays, anniversaries
If we do right by our employees and
and holiday parties. The sky is the
customers, the bottom line will take
limit, from local regional favorites like
care of itself. We're still betting it will
sausage or chicken biscuits, pancakes,
come back. "
waffles and barbecue, to prime rib and
Foong instanced Pee Dee's responlobster white-tablecloth affairs.
siveness during the early days of the
" The pandemic dealt a blow across
pandemic, when a large customer
our business and corporate meetings
with three micro markets and mul- and catering, especially - with
tiple vending machines had its first
so few employees in buildings. We've
COVID case.
done some weddings, but most are
" They sent all their employees
rebooked for next year, " Foong said.
home and cleaned and sanitized
" We're streamlining and still evolving
and wanted us to clear out all the
across our operation in response to the items from our markets, " he recalled.
pandemic and trying to make up for
" With one day's notice, we sent a
its negative effects. "
team of 10 and emptied all the micro
markets. The customer sanitized
KEEP ON TRUCKING
everything over the weekend, and
He added that during the height of
we returned on Monday morning to
the pandemic, Pee Dee Foods took
refill all the markets. We leveraged
measures not to close a single route or
our resources and infrastructure that
furlough any of its drivers.
let us turn on a dime. "
32

Automatic Merchandiser * December 2020

REFRESH AND REMERCHANDISE

He also pointed out that Pee Dee has
not closed for a single day since the
pandemic began. The company used
the time to go through every location
that allowed its drivers access to rotate
and add new products, refresh and
clean equipment and markets.
" We set things up so even with
business lower, when employees come
back, we have fresher product and
variety and increased some prices so
we could rebound as quickly as possible, " Foong noted.
As part of that process, the company upsized many of its snack SKUs
to large single serve (LSS) and cans
to 20-oz. bottles in closed-front and
glass-front machines that accommodate a broader mix of beverages
including energy drinks, juices, iced
tea and coffee. This move also provided another way to assign different
jobs to route drivers to fill the void of
one less day on their routes.
Herman Powers, Chris Moebus, Carrie
Oddo, Dianne Brown, Meritha Avant, and
Clara Mae Washington keep the the Pee
Dee commissary sandwich line moving.
Automatic Merchandiser

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