Food Merchandising 101 [General]
2010 Apr 18
It's possible that they either have vendor lock-in (corporate purchasers decide what to buy) or that it's a variable thing. If they have a run of whole wheat during the nice weather and they sell three times that amount of white when the weather is bad for instance, they might not shift the purchasing.
Smaller grocers do this though, if it's any consolation.
Smaller grocers do this though, if it's any consolation.
zymurgist
Rant time.
I don't know how many times I've seen a supermarket do this.
Today's example - white buns vs whole wheat buns. There were shelves and shelves and shelves of white buns, but the whole wheat ones were all sold out. And it is not just a one-time thing - it happens all the bloody time!
If I owned a store and I saw that Product X sold out on the first day, and Product Y sat on the shelf for a week, I'd learn pretty quickly to make/source a lot more of X, and and a lot less of Y. It is pretty simple, really. But why do so many stores have such a difficult time with this simple concept? I've seen it over, and over, and over again for over a decade now that I clearly recall noting it.
Yeeesh!