Counting a wholesale-market unit with tight aisles and stacks

A unit in a wholesale market is not a normal warehouse. The aisle is barely wide enough for one person, cartons are stacked to the ceiling, the neighbour's goods sit against yours, and customers walk in from the first hour of the morning. Some of the stock may not even be yours. A barcode count can still be done in such a place, but it needs a different method from a racked warehouse with forklift lanes.

Photograph and zone before count day

Walk the unit with the owner a day or two before. Photograph every wall and stack, and divide the unit into zones that a person can finish in one sitting: the front display, the left wall, the right wall, the back, the tops of stacks, and any loft or mezzanine. Five to eight zones is usual. Name them Z1, Z2 and so on, draw a quick sketch, and label each zone on the wall or on a sheet of paper so that nobody has to guess where one ends and the next begins. Include shelf labels and stack heights in the photos. If some goods are out of reach, prepare a ladder or step and have someone hold it. Safety is not something to improvise.

Make working room, one zone at a time

The golden rule is to count one zone at a time and to keep counted and uncounted goods apart. Practical steps:

1. Clear the zone you are about to count. Bring cartons into the aisle or into a space already emptied, and restack them so that each label faces outwards.
2. Scan each carton label, or the product barcode where there is no carton label, and enter the quantity.
3. Put a tag on every counted stack with the zone, the date and the initials of the counter.
4. Return counted goods only to the tagged area. Never pile them back on top of anything uncounted.

If a team of three is available, split the work: one person moves, one scans and one keeps the written log of anything unusual.

Choose the hours that suit the market

Most of the trouble comes from daytime trade. Three options work in practice:

• Count before opening or after closing, when the aisle is free.
• Take a zone out of sale for the day and count it, while the rest of the unit trades.
• Keep one display zone open for sales and count it last, in a short closed window, with sales during that window noted on a paper sheet or by receipt copies.

Whichever you choose, write down the cut-off time and apply the same rules to documents as in any other warehouse. A small unit is often finished in a day by a small team if zones and hours are well planned. A larger one can be split over two days, as long as the zones already counted are sealed off in between.

Goods that are not yours

Market units often hold goods on commission, a neighbour's overflow, or customers' orders waiting for pickup. Count them, but tag them in a different colour and list them on a separate sheet. They must not enter your totals, and they must not disappear from view either. When the results are handed over, this sheet goes to the owner for confirmation, so there is no argument later about whose goods they were.

What a zone looks like in practice

Suppose zone Z3, the right wall with four shelves, holds about 180 cartons in 14 SKUs. The team moves the cartons into the aisle, scans them, and finds three cartons with torn labels. These are opened and given internal labels, and the contents are counted by hand. Once the zone is closed, its tag goes on and the cartons return to the shelves. The whole zone has one number, one date and one initials entry.

Plan around the trade

A market count succeeds when it fits the rhythm of the market, not when it fights it. Agree the hours with the owner, tell neighbours in advance so that nobody blocks the aisle, and keep the first count short, with a clear route.

InventoryHub plans scan counts around your shipping rhythm and trading hours, labels items and bins that have no code, recounts bins that do not tally, and works both in Tashkent and in the regions.