How Hershey Direct manages seasonal order peaks to avoid a Christmastime meltdown

By Alicia Orr , Editor In Chief and Catalog Success

volume from then on. Instead of ‘Black Friday,’ we call the Friday after Thanksgiving ‘Gold Friday’ because we usually receive a flood of orders on that day.”

In all, about 20 percent of the company’s holiday orders get staged in advance.

According to DeWees, his greatest challenge each holiday season is managing the employees working a multi-shift operation. “The operation grows to support the season from essentially a one-shift operation to a multi-shift and weekend schedule. We stage orders every night during that period, working two shifts. So it’s pretty intense during the five weeks leading up to Christmas,” DeWees says.