Ownership Incentive Under Four Square Training

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31502, 17 October 1967, Page 13

Ownership Incentive Under Four Square Training

Young grocery shop assistants are given every encouragement and assistance to become established in their own stores under the Four Square organisation’s staff training scheme. Since the introduction of an award incentive in 1949 more than 100 young grocers have been awarded ownership of Four Square stores.

The staff training scheme was started in 1948, and during the second year of its operation the award scheme was introduced. The top prize can lead to young assistants becoming established in their own shops. The primary aim of the training is to improve the standard of the Four Square assistants, which results in a more efficient store and the best service to the customer. With the prize of a store of their own as the goal, the candidates are more than willing to learn all they can about the trade, and their employers give them every encouragement.

Employers see that not only is it possible for the assistants to attend the monthly lectures and demonstrations, but they also allow them the maximum of practical experience in the store itself. TEST PAPERS All the courses and test papers received monthly by the assistants are complied by an education committee, a group of experienced grocers and recognised experts in grocery merchandising. Each month, the assistants (grouped as juniors, seniors, and advanced seniors) receive a bulletin on subjects relating to the grocery trade with a test paper to be completed and returned to the education committee in their area. At monthly meetings and demonstrations they learn further fundamentals of the grocery business, and mix with many other Four Square employees, all of whom are working towards the same goal. The culmination of the training is the annual convention. At the convention the young assist-, ants are tested on a wide range of practical knowledge in addition to sitting a three-hour examination in arithmetic and general knowledge.

How the candidates measure up in these tests as well as the standard they have attained in their correspondence during the year is considered by the judges, who set about deciding on the young men who will become store owners that year. OWNERSHIP KEY There are several prizes to be won, but it is the scholarship award for which each really strives. This award gains for the winners the key to store ownership. Finance is provided and the men are placed in chosen stores for a probationary period. Scholarship winners are usually capable of paying-off the full amount of the finance advanced within a few years, and so achieve complete independence as an owner-operator. In the tests there are no tricks or traps to overcome. Each problem stems from simple everyday shop procedure. The tests incorporate

everything Four Square expects and demands from ‘its grocers, and customers can be sure that the successful candidate really knows his job inside and out. There are many different tests. For instance from a tape-recorded conversation between a grocer and a shopper, the assistants compile an order form for the shopper. Accuracy and neatness are the essentials in this test Eighteen to twenty items are taken down, and the assistants have to catch them the first time they are offered, no chance to ask the shopper to repeat an item. DISPLAY APPEAL The main aim in display is selling appeal; the display must have immediate impact and eye appeal With at least half a dozen items, a

stand and a metal bin, the assistants are given 20 minutes to create an eye-catching display. The judges also take into account the method used, the stock selection,

and the initiative displayed. All are given the same commodities, but every candidate produces a totally different display.

Computation is a test of accuracy combined with speed. The assistants have a number of blocks marked with the respective prices per pound, and they must weigh them and note the price of each block to the nearest cent. A good memory is a "must” for a capable grocer and one of the tests checks his powers of identification. Twenty items are viewed by the assistants and then covered. They must write down the names of the articles along with the weight and brand. Another test involves identifying 10 trays of powders and seeds. The candidates are required to make up a lodgment and explain what is wrong with a list of cheques. FILLING TEST In yet another test the candidates are given five minutes to fill as many bags of split peas as possible and then close the top with a tuck or fold. In a further test an “order from Foodstuffs Ltd,” has been delivered to the candidate’s store and he is asked to unpack it and check the order to ensure it is correct.