Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Frozen & Dairy Buyer magazine.
When vendors come calling, Weis Markets, based in Sunbury, PA, expects them to come armed with facts and insights, not just opinions.
"It is simply not possible for our category managers to get into every one of our stores on a regular basis," said Bruno Garisto, VP of center store at the 161-unit grocer. "That's why it's absolutely critical for sales reps, whether they live in our area or not, to visit our stores and give us feedback. We are always looking for ways to improve and one of the ways we do this is by being good listeners — we call it aggressive listening. We want to hear about what our industry partners are seeing at our competitors so that we can be better."
Mr. Garisto is also open to constructive criticism on his stores. He added, "You have to be able to accept that, and to really want insight from the trade. We really want to know how to grow our share and be tactically adept locally, and good trading partners help us do that."
Steve Davis, director of center store GM/HBC/grocery/non-foods and frozen, added that reps should provide the grocer with completed presentation forms.
"We do a lot with electronic marketing events — "buy two of this, and get that," he said. "Or we use the rewards program where shoppers get dollars off their next purchase for buying a certain dollar amount of complementary products from certain manufacturers. This has been very successful for us. We are asking reps to come to the party with these types of programs, or something unique."
Weis Markets is also looking for help in being first to market with new items. Said Mr. Davis, "So we need timely presentation forms way out ahead of time so we can get items into the queue and on the shelf so customers can find them. We need to know when manufacturers are dropping their FSIs (free-standing inserts) so we can have the product available in a timely fashion."