Fresh Item Management: A Competitive Advantage

At ADC’s annual ReFresh FIM Conference in October of last year, Harold Lloyd, our keynote speaker, spoke on how every great retailer has ‘5 reasons for being’ – whether it’s lowest prices, best variety, etc.  Every retailer should have 5 pillars so that when a competitor enters the market, they make take a way one or two of your pillars, but you will still have three or four more reasons why your customers continue to shop at your stores.

One of the biggest competitive advantages a grocer can have is to have the best fresh departments.  This means having the freshest products available, the right amount of fresh product available for your customer’s when they want it and the best prices, among other things.  It’s all about keeping your customer’s happy and returning on a regular basis.

A grocer never wants to have the following happen to them: A hungry customer comes into their store after work to pick up ingredients for dinner that night – a rotisserie chicken with a loaf of fresh baked bread, prepared mashed potatoes and green beans.   The customer approaches the rotisserie chicken section and sees that the oven is empty and there are none in the warming bin in front of them.  Essentially, this ruins the shopper’s dinner plans and leaves a bad taste in their mouth about your store.  Next time they need a quick meal, they will be less likely to stop in your store and more inclined to try from a restaurant or competitor’s store.

How can you avoid this? Ensuring that the right variety and quantity of food is ready when your customer’s are most likely to demand it.  How can you do this? A fresh item management solution helps to forecast production based on historical demand. 

But, that’s not all.  An integrated FIM solution manages the many aspects of a fresh item’s lifecycle: including shelf life, recipes, ingredients, inventory control (physical and perpetual), and more.  A FIM solution increases your fresh profitability, reduces your perishable shrink and helps to streamline the many tedious tasks that are a part of managing fresh departments on a daily basis.

Interested in learning more? Give ADC a call today to learn more about InterStore.Net, our FIM solution, or fill out this form to have an ADC representative contact you.

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.