How To Control Stock Damage in Retail Grocery Store?

Today we will give you full information about how to control stock damage in Retail Grocery Stores? If you are new to the grocery business read on. Whenever we open a grocery retail store major challenge is handling stock damage in the store.

Let’s discuss in detail how you can reduce the store damage in a retail grocery store. Below are will give you full details about how you can make your process easier. This will help you to reduce your stock damage in the grocery store.

Avoiding Stock Damages

Merchandise is what sells and creates revenues for the store and thus deserves utmost respect in the way we handle it.

Respect for Merchandise is a mantra that should be instilled and practiced by each and every person in the store team. The movement, storage, and display of merchandise should be done respectfully, keeping in mind that the ultimate sale of the same will bring in profits for the company. But many times, merchandise is disrespected and treated badly thereby causing damages, loss of sale, and dead stock. Also, excess merchandise storage at the warehouse or on the floor creates damages and should be avoided.

Sources of Damage in grocery store

Damages/Defects can be caused and identified at 3 stages

In transit from W/H to store
Instore Damages, Defectives or Expiry
After-Sale causing Customer Returns

Avoiding In-Store Stock Damages

Proper Warehouse Management

Once the merchandise is inward and stored at the store warehouse, the following precautions to be taken to eliminate chances of Damages. Once the merchandise is inward and stored at the store warehouse, the following precautions are to be taken to eliminate chances of Damages.

Securing of the Warehouse– Secure the warehouse by sealing off/securing all unnecessary outlets (e.g. open drains, vents, and damaged walls) to prevent access by rodents.
Timely Pest Control of the Warehouse- We must perform the pest control activity timely. As grocery stores stock a lot of food items, pets are expected to roam around. timely pest control activity is the solution for the same.
Adequate Racking Capacity and Bins in the warehouse- In the absence of racks, the merchandise gets stacked on top of each other. Proper bin & rack management to be followed to reduce the stock damage in the warehouse.

Storing of Merchandise to avoid stock damage in store

The basic principles to be followed whilst storing merchandise are:
1-The warehouse space available to be segregated into different areas for ease in storing and retrieving.
2-The goods are to be stored in a manner that ensures retrieval of the merchandise as per the First in First Out method of stocking.

The FIFO method of goods movement

is an important aspect of merchandise management which ensures that goods that arrive first are
brought to the store floor first. This is an especially true store where the merchandise has expiry dates and hence the old lot should be sold prior to selling new lots else they will reach their expiry date.

Date of reward to be noted on the carton with a marker pen to identify ‘when’ the carton was in-warded.
Whilst stacking merchandise a systematic order should be followed e.g. Left to right, bottom to top.
When moving merchandise to the floor, remove the merchandise placed first i.e. start from the bottom left, move to the right, then move upwards and again left to right. This ensures that we follow the FIFO method of goods movement and old material does not get stuck in the system.
The replenishing takes place where merchandise from the upper shelves moves to the bottom shelves which have just been emptied while moving stocks to the floor.
The new stock, therefore, will be stocked on the shelves which are empty above.
Goods are to be placed on top of each other only to the extent that the items do not get damaged in any way.
Fragile merchandise to be stored ensuring easy accessibility and no load on the merchandise.

Moving Stocks on the Floor

Moving stocks on the floor refers to an effective and cautious way of moving the merchandise from the Store Warehouse to the respective section where the merchandise has to be displayed and sold to the customers. Merchandise received from Central Warehouse or Vendors is taken to the floor after undergoing the Inwarding process. The excess or additional merchandise is stored at the warehouse till the time the merchandise is required to be displayed and stocked on the floor.

The Team Leader/Team Member to decide the stock to be moved to the floor,
considering the stock carrying capacity of the shelves & minimum base
quantities.
The merchandise would be moved to the floor by the respective housekeepers,
promoters or team members.
Merchandise would only be moved onto the floor ensuring there is no
disturbance to customer movement and convenience.
Merchandise to be moved only in the Stock movement trolleys. Customer
trolleys should not be used for the same.
Merchandise to be loaded and unloaded from the trolleys carefully preventing
any damages.
The stocks should not be dumped on the floor or aisles.
Empty cartons and plastic covers to be immediately cleared by the
housekeeping staff. No material to be stuffed behind shelves or in trial rooms.

Stacking of Merchandise on the Store Floor

If we Properely do stacking of merchandise on the store floor plays an important role in reducing stock damages. Merchandise should be stacked on the floor in a manner such that;

Goods are not dumped on each other thereby damaging them.
Goods are easily accessible by the customer thereby preventing dropping,
breakage of the item.
Items removed by customers from shelves must be rearranged regularly.
Unless this is done, the entire shelf become messy and chances of damages
becoming high.

Apart from the above below are more details when it comes to an Apparel or General merchandise retail store.

Controlling stock damage in a fashion apparel store

Items that are fragile in nature e.g. crockery, toys, electronic items,
glassware, home décor, etc, should always be stored one by one on a rack. They should never be all dumped together in a bin.
Apparels should be displayed carefully to avoid over-stuffing shelves which might cause the merchandise to drop onto the floor thereby soiling the same.
Light-colored apparel to be stacked in polythene covers to avoid staining and soiling.
Apparel stored on the lowest shelves of the rack to be rotated regularly thereby ensuring that it does not get damaged due to negligence.
Display on the rack should also be such that each type of SKU i.e. each style should be clubbed together with similar pieces being placed behind one another. Thus from the frontage of the section, one can make out and access each SKU.
The height of the shelf should also be such that it does not necessitate the need to place items one on top of the other. For fragile goods, the shelf space should be enough for just one row of items.
There should also be adequate space between items to enable one to remove a piece from the rack.
When some items are stacked on top of each other e.g. plates it is advisable there are multiple shorter lots rather than a few high stacked lots.
Shelf talkers and signages are to be placed in front of the stacked merchandise, as it serves as a barrier and prevents customers from stumbling onto the goods.
Luggage placed on the floor, to be handled with care while the display to customers ensuring that the wheels and handles are not damaged.
Merchandise or other luggage not to be stuffed into bigger bags which causes usage and unnecessary load on the new bags.
When stacking is done on the floor, it should be done so as to be conducive to trolley and customer movement.
Furniture displays to be non-intrusive to movement.
Furniture sections are not be used at seating areas by staff or customers as this might cause damage to the displayed pierces.
Wardrobe displays to be free of merchandise stuffing.
Furniture to be cleaned regularly by dusting/damp cloth to ensure no soiling takes place because of constant touch-feel by customers.
Bean bags, in particular, to be carefully displayed thereby eliminating chances of tears.

How to control damaged Food Grocery store?

As you knew that, the grocery store has various products which are fragile or perishable in nature which need to be stacked properly to avoid damage. Most of the grocery stores are it Big Bazaar, Easy Day or D’mart face this issue on a daily routine.

Stacking of Snacky items e.g. Wafers, Indian snacks – These items need to be stacked on shelves where each packet is placed one behind the other. It is advisable not to stack them one on top of the other as the content can get crushed.
Stacking of biscuits, chocolates – Items such as biscuits, etc. are stacked in the form of a pyramid on the rack. Chocolates in a lot of cases come in cardboard boxes that can be placed on top of each other.
Stacking of Grains which are in sacks, large-sized detergent powder packets – These items are generally stacked on top of each other. Caution is to be taken to ensure the stacks are not too high as the lower bags can get damaged due to the weight. Also if varying sizes are being stacked the heavier packets are to be at the bottom.
Stacking of tetra packs, liquid bottles (soft drinks, water, etc.) – Generally, these are stacked one on top of the other. However, this can damage the lower bottles. To prevent these, items are to be retained in their carton with the cartons placed on top of each other. This part of the weight gets distributed onto the cartons. Also, bins can be used to store the lower rung items.
Storing of Perishable items – Perishable items have to be paid special attention to because they have very short expiry dates and if not stored properly, get spoiled very easily. Thus this class of items is very susceptible to getting spoiled.

If you follow the above details, so you can control the stock damage in a retail store. Damage is a loss which a store can’t recover. It’s very challenging in today’s scenario where margins are very nominal.

Conclusion:-

How To Control Stock Damage is discussed in today’s post. If you have any queries or concerns comment below. We will provide you with more information about related to your comment.