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.

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Who is the 'Owner' of Your FIM Project?

Like many IT projects or investments, Fresh Item Management (FIM) must be embraced by all stakeholders to ensure success and maximum return on investment.  One way to be sure that all of the stakeholders involved communicate and work together is by designating a FIM Coordinator. 

You may be asking yourself: What is a FIM Coordinator?  Well, there’s no one answer for that question.  A simple answer is that a FIM coordinator is the person within your organization that ‘owns’ all aspects of the FIM project.  He or she is the one that bridges the gap between your FIM provider, in-store personnel, the IT staff at your headquarters, executives, and everyone in between.

FIM helps to manage all areas in your fresh departments, so it’s logical to assume that FIM will have an effect on many aspects of your daily business operations.  The FIM Coordinator is the dedicated person to ensure that all stakeholders are communicating effectively and that FIM is executed as planned by your organization.

Your FIM Coordinator can assess the entire FIM project and help to guide the overall implementation so that the biggest results and ROI’s are seen during your initial implementation phases.  Additionally, FIM requires a culture change in your business and your FIM coordinator can effectively lead the culture change so every stakeholder feels that their needs and concerns are being addressed.

Interested in learning more about the FIM Coordinator role? Contact ADC today so we can help fill in some of the blanks.

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.

Happy New Year!

From all of us at ADC, we'd like to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  We're looking forward to the start of a new year and the excitement that comes with the beginning of a new trade show season. 

We currently are exhibiting at 8 trade shows in 2012 and will be adding more shows to our schedule.  We will keep you posted on the dates, locations and booth numbers of all of the shows!

As we continue to grow our blog, please send your thoughts and ideas. We will see you in 2012!

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.

Get into the Grind: Meat Grind Traceability

ADC’s Meat Grind Traceability Manager software module provides a record for all meat that is ground in a meat department. By scanning and recording the different suppliers of ground meat, accurate labels are generated to provide easy traceability and reporting to stores if and when a contamination occurs. 

The Meat Grind Management Traceability software allows companies to quickly and accurately respond to recalls when they happen. Centrally logging records of every lug of meat that is ground allows for reports to be pulled with ease and can ensure grocery stores are in compliance with USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) Directives.

Current meat logging records are typically kept by hand on a clipboard and have to be filed away at the end of each day.  The opportunity for human error is high and if a recall occurs, response time is slow and costly because if no record is available, all meat in a meat case must be disposed of.

With the software, meat cutters scan the barcodes on primals to record the name of the supplying establishment(s), supplier lot number(s), production date and name of supplied material(s).  This information is embedded into the GS1-128 bar-code that is on each label. Therefore, when a contamination occurs, grocery stores can quickly pull the P-Cubed Grinding Log Report to assess what portion of their meat is part of the recall.

Want to learn more? Contact ADC today or fill out the following form to have an ADC representative contact you: http://ad-c.com/collateral-request.php.

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.

P-Cubed Shrink Management Software

Did you know that ADC’s P-Cubed Shrink Management software creates IRS compliant food donation reports that help grocery/supermarket retailers receive increased tax deductions? 

During the holiday seasons, grocery stores and supermarket chains prepare for increased volumes of customers.  This can lead to a significant amount of leftover food on the shelves that is close to it's sell by date.  Grocer’s and food service retailers that donate unsold product to charitable organizations are now able to receive increased tax deductions for their donations with ADC’s P-Cubed Shrink Management module.  

The Shrink Management module generates accurate food donation reports, which allows client’s to view reports of food donated by stores, including a complete history of each item donated, the amount and cost.  


The report meets the specifications set by the IRS for reporting food donations, which helps grocers to receive the maximum tax deductions based on a percentage of their stores food donations.  As a module within ADC’s P-Cubed, Shrink Management helps to set a foundation for ADC’s Production Planning module.  The Shrink Management module tracks products being donated at the item level and can identify items that are over produced.  


The Shrink Management module helps clients yield a significant return on investment, in a short amount of time due to the increased tax deductions they receive.  The P-Cubed suite is modular in design, to allow clients to install the modules that address their FIM needs.  Over time, more modules can be activated as their FIM needs evolve, which can result in further savings.

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.

ADC's 2012 Industry Trade Shows

ADC is gearing up for the quickly approaching 2012 trade show season and wanted to give you an update on where to find ADC in Q1 of 2012. 

Our first show of the year is Retail’s Big Show, NRF Convention and Expo, January 15-18 (Expo January 16-17) at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.  You can find ADC in the ARTS Pavilion, Booth #1951, and with Zebra Technologies, Booth #2205.  In both locations, you will be able to see demonstrations of InterStore.Net, our integrated Fresh Item Management software suite. 

We will also be exhibiting at the 2012 Meat Conference in Orlando, FL from February 19-21.  We are participating in the Innovative Technology Solutions Exhibit in Booth #517.  We will be showing or P-Cubed, Production Management system, which assists in meat department operations by:

•         Standardizing primal cuts through cutting templates
•         Identifying the true cost of saleable cuts from meat cutting tests
•         Meeting traceability mandates for grind management
•         Capturing and reporting perishable item shrink
•         Generating production plans based on historical demand
•         …and more!

If you’d like to set up time to meet with an ADC representative at the NRF Expo or the Meat Conference, please contact us at +1.813.849.1818.

Check our Coming Events page to see what other shows we will be out throughout 2012.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2012 trade shows!

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.

'2012 Food Trends to Watch'

With 2011 coming to a quick end, people have started to make predictions for what to expect in 2012.  This is no different in the grocery/supermarket industry. 

Supermarket News just released an article, written by Phil Lempert, that highlighted what some are predicting as the ‘2012 Food Trends to Watch,’ including higher food prices, increased interest among shoppers for knowing where their food came from, a growing number of male shoppers taking over grocery shopping and consumers still opting to eat at home instead of dining out. 

To read the complete article, visit http://supermarketnews.com/Grocery_Center_Store_Brands/2012_food_trends_1205/index2.html.

Do you predict any additional trends that didn’t make the list? 

At ADC, we expect to see an increase in technology solutions providing new ways to streamline efficiencies for grocery store/supermarket chain.  You can be ahead of the curve by contacting ADC today to see how our Fresh Item Management software can help to increase your fresh department profitability. 

Want more information? Click here to contact ADC today.