Grocery Outlet-Inventory levels

[storewanderer]

Anyone else noticing really thin inventory levels at Grocery Outlet?

The Reno-Kietzke unit has been poorly stocked for months with empty spaces, various items "extremely spread out" and really limited variety. I didn't think much of it, this is a miserable store in a miserably shopping center and it is run laughably poorly.

But in the past few weeks the other area locations which still have much better variety, are starting to thin out. I am starting to see empty bottom shelves, less on top shelves, and overall less variety than before which was excellent. It also seems staffing levels in the stores have been cut back significantly. When in the evenings a couple locations had 4-5+ employees out on the sales floor stocking/arranging items, plus 1-2 cashiers and baggers now there are like 3 employees total in the entire building and there is no bagger, no dedicated cashier, and a service bell present on the checkstand at two different locations as early as 7 PM due to lack of traffic and the need for the few employees to be out maintaining the aisles if there are no customer paying.

Also I am seeing fewer and fewer blow out deals on "expiring in the next few days" products- I assume this is since they have less inventory stuff is selling more quickly so it does not reach that point.

I hope they haven't over-expanded to the point that they can't "find" enough inventory to fully stock all of these stores to keep them interesting to the customer...

[pseudo3d]

Bad sign. Though if there are financial issues under the hood it would be another mark against the Albertsons/Kroger merger.

[marketreportblog]

As of about three weeks ago, the one in center city Allentown, PA was very much fully stocked. It’s likely there’s a different supply chain on the east coast, though.

[Alpha8472]

Each Grocery Outlet is individually owned. If the owner of that particular store wants to order less inventory to save money, then it is up to that owner. Cutting staff, reducing inventory, etc. is something a corporate office would be pushing.

Perhaps Grocery Outlet is now putting pressure on individual store owners to cut costs or lose their franchise.

I know of one Grocery Outlet in a very affluent area of the San Francisco Bay Area that closed. It was the Dublin location and it has been empty for years. However, a new Grocery Outlet will open just down the street in a former Big Lots which was originally a Marina Safeway.

[ClownLoach]

Each Grocery Outlet is individually owned. If the owner of that particular store wants to order less inventory to save money, then it is up to that owner. Cutting staff, reducing inventory, etc. is something a corporate office would be pushing.

Perhaps Grocery Outlet is now putting pressure on individual store owners to cut costs or lose their franchise.

I know of one Grocery Outlet in a very affluent area of the San Francisco Bay Area that closed. It was the Dublin location and it has been empty for years. However, a new Grocery Outlet will open just down the street in a former Big Lots which was originally a Marina Safeway.

All the stores I've seen in Riverside County are overflowing with merchandise. They should cut back to improve inventory turns and rotations.

[storewanderer]

Each Grocery Outlet is individually owned. If the owner of that particular store wants to order less inventory to save money, then it is up to that owner. Cutting staff, reducing inventory, etc. is something a corporate office would be pushing.

Perhaps Grocery Outlet is now putting pressure on individual store owners to cut costs or lose their franchise.

I know of one Grocery Outlet in a very affluent area of the San Francisco Bay Area that closed. It was the Dublin location and it has been empty for years. However, a new Grocery Outlet will open just down the street in a former Big Lots which was originally a Marina Safeway.

All the stores I've seen in Riverside County are overflowing with merchandise. They should cut back to improve inventory turns and rotations.

I wonder what is going on here exactly. I hope it changes soon as my purchases there the past few weeks have been almost nothing. Usually I'd go in and end up with a handfull of items every time but lately even getting to 1-2 items is difficult.

[Romr123]

Is the Grocery Outlet model similar to Canadian Tire in Canada? (franchise model, "must carry" merchandise and optional merchandise and ability to buy local things?)

[storewanderer]

Is the Grocery Outlet model similar to Canadian Tire in Canada? (franchise model, "must carry" merchandise and optional merchandise and ability to buy local things?)

No, they just sort of get pushed stuff by the warehouse. The inventory is on consignment from the corporation. The store operators do not own most of the inventory. I think they own DSD inventory, but not sure on that.

They can bring in their own products but it is frowned upon, requires approval from corporate, and most operators don't do it. For instance, 2 stores here worked with a pet food warehouse to take close to expiration pet food and clear it out but that got to be a problem for a variety of reasons and I don't think they do that anymore.

Another thing those 2 stores were doing here was working with the Coke vendor to get about to expire soda and blow it out. 5 20oz bottles for $1 etc. Haven't seen that in a while either.

Return policy is also a thing. If you're not satisfied you can return items within 30 days. The store operator loses their commission for the sale but the product cost is a corporate expense since the inventory belongs to corporate. But on things like the pet food I bring up above, that came from elsewhere, if someone returned that, the store operator ate the entire loss for the product.

[storewanderer]

Found the recently emptier looking store last week, underwent a reset this week. They moved from rack shelving to conventional store style shelving (this operator already did that in their other store last year). There are still holes but they are receiving items to fill the shelves up. This shelving model fits a lot more inventory than the previous model, they also take most inventory out of boxes before putting it onto the shelves. They also had to pool staffing from both of their stores to do this starting last Monday.

As far as the Reno Kietzke goes still a total joke there. Not that I expect anything to change there anytime soon.

[mbz321]

I have stopped in a few different Grocery Outlet stores (All locations here are run by different operators) over the past few months in Southeastern PA and they have all just been underwhelming. There have been fewer and fewer closeout items and more and more everyday merchandise with so-so pricing. Honestly the stores have felt off ever since Covid when manufacturers definitely took a closer look at their production and made cut backs. I have noticed that the cookie/cracker/cereal aisles in a few locations were a bit sparse.

Some operators have been offering occasional coupons like $10 off $40 and such, but it is honestly pretty difficult to spend that much there.

They are still opening new locations, including one in a week or two in a relatively well-off Philly suburb that just seems very out of place for the concept...I'm interested to see if this one is able to draw in a steady business.