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Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy

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On Tuesday, July 28, 2015 at 1:34:03 PM UTC-4, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

> Groceries (and clothing, see other post) do not benefit as much from
> that because they're perishable; if the unwanted goods don't sell
> quickly, you have to either throw them away or sell them at a steep
> discount, often for less than what you paid for them.  This translates
> to higher prices (and being less competitive) on the items that do sell,
> so there _should_ be an enormous pressure to get stocking right.

Every business wants its inventory to turn over quickly; goods that sit on the shelf represent paid out costs with no return.  Also, most goods 'age' to some extent, such as seasonal merchandise.  (Easter eggs after Easter are dirt cheap*).

In a grocery store, I believe "perishables" referred to items with an extremely short shelf life, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, milk, etc that go bad very quickly.  I don't know the dividing line to non-pershiables, but lots of food items are good for say a month or two, e.g. deli or frozen foods items.  Canned goods are good for several years.

Clothing needs to be sold within its season, obviously, but that is a few months.

Women's clothing is more sensitive to fashion.  Manufacturers and stores have to guess and gamble on what customers will want, and sometimes they get it wrong and get burned.  Sometimes a lot can be salvaged:  Maxi skirts for women came out a few years ago, but never caught on until now.

All fashions can be funky.  For years, boys were buying cargo pants, then suddenly fashion switched to skinny jeans, yet, cargo shorts remained in style.


> One of the reasons Wal-Mart is so successful is excellent control of
> their supply chain, which _does_ account for store-specific buying
> patterns.  For instance, if you buy a case of Diet Coke, within minutes
> the distribution center is loading a replacement case onto the next
> truck heading to that store, and that truck leaves as soon as it's
> full--and they start loading the next one.  Restocking distribution
> centers by vendors is similar, just on a larger scale.
> They also do extensive analysis of how much profit they make per item vs
> how much shelf space it consumes.  Yes, vendors can pay them to get more
> shelf space than sales merit (e.g. for new, unproven products), but no
> fee can make up for not selling _any_ of something when the next item is
> turning over several times per day.

There was an article about WalMart slipping--it was great on its supply chain, but missed some basic signs of certain product lines not selling.

I've heard many complaints about Wal Mart of late, cutting back on service.


> Also, there's a tendency to carry too many variations of something; for
> instance, does one store really need twenty brands of light bulbs?  They
> would get better bulk discounts (which can mean either lower prices in
> the store or higher profits) if they concentrated on just a few.  That
> means more space available for low-volume specialty items that could be
> marked up more--or smaller, easier to navigate stores.

Most stores seem to carry only one brand of light bulb, whatever brand that is (e.g. General Electric, Sylvania, Phillips, generic.  

I can't help but suspect if stores stocking is based--in part--on great deals the store can get with a vendor.  For instance, if for whatever reason GE gives them a great wholesale price on 50W bulbs, they'll stock them in quantity despite limited demand for them.  It doesn't make sense to me, but I've read this--buyers are constantly seeking out good deals.  It seems that, for whatever reason, a factory might be geared up to make a particular type of item very cheaply in quantity, so it becomes attractive.

Sometimes this is successful and the item sells, sometimes it is a flop.

* There may be a racket with holiday candy.  They wrap a second layer of cellophane over the box for a given holiday.  Once the holiday passes, they peel off that cellophane, and the candy becomes a regular item.  I've seen this for both Christmas and Valentine's Day.  (Of course, a heart shaped box or an egg shaped chocolate is more holiday-dependent.)

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OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-21 08:08 -0700
  Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy Howard S Shubs <howard@shubs.net> - 2015-07-22 01:00 +0000
  Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Kerr Mudd-John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2015-07-24 13:42 +0100
  Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy Mike Albanese <allegrippus@gmail.com> - 2015-07-26 13:42 -0700
    Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-26 20:15 -0700
      Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy jmreno <none@nowhere.com> - 2015-07-27 00:22 -0700
      Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2015-07-27 14:08 +0000
        Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-27 10:00 -0500
        Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2015-07-27 15:08 +0000
          Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2015-07-27 17:41 +0000
            Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2015-07-28 00:21 +0000
              Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-27 21:42 -0600
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-27 23:17 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2015-07-28 03:30 -0300
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-28 08:19 -0600
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-28 09:40 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-28 12:09 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-28 10:43 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-29 10:45 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-30 12:29 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-08-01 23:05 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-29 10:56 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy lawrence@cluon.com - 2015-07-29 02:35 +0200
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-28 20:17 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-28 12:34 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-28 13:35 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-07-29 11:18 -0400
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-29 11:01 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2015-07-28 14:24 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2015-07-28 19:47 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-07-28 13:16 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-07-28 15:57 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-07-30 11:58 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-30 14:36 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-07-30 19:42 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-30 22:06 -0600
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-07-31 12:14 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> - 2015-07-31 07:10 -0600
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-08-01 12:36 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-08-02 05:55 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Tom Dadey <tomdzip1@gmail.com> - 2015-08-02 13:10 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-08-03 09:24 +1000
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2015-08-03 00:42 +0000
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-08-03 14:54 +1000
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-08-03 19:43 -0700
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2015-08-04 13:38 +0000
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-08-04 08:10 -0700
                Re: OT: franchises, was A&P supermarket bankruptcy JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-08-04 18:45 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-08-01 15:22 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "JHY" <JHY5566@nospam.com> - 2015-08-02 09:14 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-08-01 14:24 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-08-03 13:36 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "JHY" <JHY5566@nospam.com> - 2015-08-02 07:59 +1000
                toilet paper, was: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> - 2015-07-30 20:23 +0000
                Re: toilet paper, was: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-31 09:14 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-30 14:56 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-07-30 23:18 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "JHY" <JHY5566@nospam.com> - 2015-07-31 14:05 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-07-31 09:48 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-07-31 18:00 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2015-07-31 17:47 -0700
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "JHY" <JHY5566@nospam.com> - 2015-07-30 16:20 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-07-30 16:31 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-07-30 11:50 +0000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-07-31 06:40 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2015-07-30 16:57 -0500
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-07-31 13:56 +1000
                Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2015-07-31 12:13 +0000
          Re: OT: A&P supermarket bankruptcy Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2015-07-27 23:01 -0400
    Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy sidd@situ.com (sidd) - 2015-07-28 02:27 -0400
  Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-07-27 07:40 -0700
    Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-07-27 07:45 -0700
      Re: OT:  A&P supermarket bankruptcy Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-07-27 07:54 -0700

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