Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Frozen & Dairy Buyer magazine.
In the "Betty Buyer vs. Sammy Seller" battle each month on the pages of Frozen & Dairy Buyer, folks get a chance to sound off anonymously on their favorite gripes. In the August issue, several vendors threw down the gauntlet, complaining of things retailers do, but shouldn't.
During demo or promotion times the buyers don't purchase enough product to support the effort. On many occasions we have found that buyers have no idea how much product they need to satisfy the demand. For example we sell approximately 50 boxes during a demo. However, the buyer refused to order more than 30 boxes, thus cutting the demo and sales short. This has been a constant thorn with demos for us because it's expensive to make demos due to heating and serving the product. We always require two people to make it a success. -- Vinnie Vendor
One of the major problems that we have is for stores to reorder product when it's out of stock. On many occasions the buyer just scans the price label attached to the shelf to make reorders. However, we have found that on too many occasions the label disappears. This has resulted in many lost sales opportunities for us and the store. Another problem is continuity. For the same chain, our product ends up in different sections. Some will have it in breakfast or natural and organic or ethnic or appetizers. In one store we found it in seafood. -- Lost in the Shuffle
In many cases, promotions are not about selling product as much as they are about generating ad revenues. Many retailers actually want a higher margin to promote an item than what they get on everyday business. My idea of a promo is to reward our existing customers and entice them to buy more of my product than they normally would, and also to build new business by enticing new customers to try our products. If we execute a heavy promo calendar and at the end of the year haven't built any new business, what did we accomplish? A promo should be defined as an opportunity to draw attention to your product in order to gain above average sales and build new customers. Anything less than that is counterproductive to both the retailer and the manufacturer. If there is a real partnership between manufacturer and retailer, there should be consideration given to margin, and frequency of promos. -- Mind Your Margin
I'm amazed to still hear from some buyers in some pretty big chains that they aren't concerned with shrink since it isn't charged back to their department. Planograms don't usually take into account master case pack. From my perspective as a DSD operator, we can sell a few pieces of a SKU if that's all that is needed, so we control our own shrink, but if a competitor is selling a master case of 12 and only six fit on the shelf, then there is a problem of where to put the backstock. It usually ends up somewhere else on the shelf and infringes or takes over the space of another product. As a manufacturer, we have tried to make many of our master cases more user friendly and go from 12 down to eight units per case. -- The DSD Doc
Discussion Questions: In your experience, which issue cited in the article (i.e., demos, reorders, promotions, shrink) is the biggest headache for vendors? What advice or comments might you offer on any of these?