Grocery Outlet-Inventory levels

[ClownLoach]

Have to consider the fact that all the manufacturers and retailers are back to normal operations too. Supply chains are running well. There is simply going to be less supply of surplus goods, short dated goods, canceled order goods etc.

This is also going to become a problem for what was the high flying TJX Companies... Their stores are still attracting a lot of customers, but the quality and quantity of new product is deteriorating and discounts are minimal. They're having to hold onto shelf-worn and aged inventory to keep the stores full instead of blowing it out. TJX was the first call for vendors who lost an order to cancelation, bankruptcy, rejection due to late delivery, etc. And there simply isn't as much of that happening now.

Everyone has their piece of the market and the fact is that when the economy tanks, areas break like supply chain, etc. that is when the bottom feeders like TJX, Ross, and yes Grocery Outlet thrive as they can get their hands on a nearly unlimited amount of product for pennies on the dollar then sell it cheap and watch it fly.

[veteran+]

Spot on!!

[Romr123]

Just compared two GO locations (Palm Springs and Cathedral City)--Palm Springs seems to be well merchandised, staffed and carefully culled/reduced before expiration date. The Rite Aid in the same building/parking closed last autumn but they were not particularly synergistic.

Cathedral City has some ingress/egress issues due to road construction, and the lowered store traffic makes it evident---much more aged inventory--they're clearly not selling out as quickly--found numerous things on the shelves expired within the last month but not marked down.

[HCal]

I've seen a similar thing at 99 Cents Only. Not a lot of closeout merchandise or one-off deals, it's mostly regular merchandise through regular supply chains sold at regular prices.

[BillyGr]

Have to consider the fact that all the manufacturers and retailers are back to normal operations too. Supply chains are running well. There is simply going to be less supply of surplus goods, short dated goods, canceled order goods etc.

This is also going to become a problem for what was the high flying TJX Companies... Their stores are still attracting a lot of customers, but the quality and quantity of new product is deteriorating and discounts are minimal. They're having to hold onto shelf-worn and aged inventory to keep the stores full instead of blowing it out. TJX was the first call for vendors who lost an order to cancelation, bankruptcy, rejection due to late delivery, etc. And there simply isn't as much of that happening now.

Everyone has their piece of the market and the fact is that when the economy tanks, areas break like supply chain, etc. that is when the bottom feeders like TJX, Ross, and yes Grocery Outlet thrive as they can get their hands on a nearly unlimited amount of product for pennies on the dollar then sell it cheap and watch it fly.

Makes sense, along with most of the chains that sell this type of merchandise have also been expanding over the last number of years, meaning that even a similar supply of items doesn't go as far when they have to be divided over more locations.

We've had a few interesting items in Ocean State (based in RI, mostly stores in the Northeast/NY/NJ) with short-dated items, including a couple weeks ago quite a bit of peanut butter dated for early March from, of all brands, Kroger (which of course the area Ocean State covers is one of a few that Kroger is not in at all).

[storewanderer]

Just compared two GO locations (Palm Springs and Cathedral City)--Palm Springs seems to be well merchandised, staffed and carefully culled/reduced before expiration date. The Rite Aid in the same building/parking closed last autumn but they were not particularly synergistic.

Cathedral City has some ingress/egress issues due to road construction, and the lowered store traffic makes it evident---much more aged inventory--they're clearly not selling out as quickly--found numerous things on the shelves expired within the last month but not marked down.

They are not supposed to be selling any expired items per Grocery Outlet Corporate. I am surprised this is still happening. There is a major supervision issue for that to still be occurring. I have not seen that in my area in years except at that Reno-Kietzke Store but lately it has so little inventory that isn't so much of an issue anymore (I wonder if they are "handling" that store's previous tendency to sell expired products by just not sending it much stuff anymore...).

The real turning point for me with Grocery Outlet was back in ~ 2016 when they communicated to the operator group that they were no longer to sell expired products... and allowed markdowns before expiration to make that happen... basically let the stores mark it to whatever it took to sell it... and communicated to the stores what items would need to be marked down since they were watching expiration dates at the distribution center...

[Romr123]

I am actually willing to cut a little slack in this case for that unit because the road conditions are so bad due to the construction (believe it's a sewer rebuild after the flooding last year)...it is a nightmare to access the store now which has doubtless negatively impacted traffic in the store and sell-thru on things.

I wanted to go there a couple weeks ago and turned around because of the traffic congestion.

[storewanderer]

I am actually willing to cut a little slack in this case for that unit because the road conditions are so bad due to the construction (believe it's a sewer rebuild after the flooding last year)...it is a nightmare to access the store now which has doubtless negatively impacted traffic in the store and sell-thru on things.

I wanted to go there a couple weeks ago and turned around because of the traffic congestion.

They will end up being sent less product (a lot less) and it will impact them even after the road work is finished.

I am just surprised Grocery Outlet corporate does not do something about it or at least force them to markdown. Grocery Outlet owns that inventory (not the operator) so they know how many units were sent and how many that store still has unsold. Maybe they are doing so little business they can't afford the markdown... but they will end up getting zero when they throw the outdated stuff out.

That is the building that was F&E, then Ace, now GO?

[Romr123]

Believe that's the history of the location. They have a really creative soft drink/chips display up for Super Bowl (much more creative displays than the Palm Springs store) which makes a certain amount of sense since DSD stuff is likely not running through their warehouse.

[storewanderer]

Believe that's the history of the location. They have a really creative soft drink/chips display up for Super Bowl (much more creative displays than the Palm Springs store) which makes a certain amount of sense since DSD stuff is likely not running through their warehouse.

The vendor can come pull stuff a couple weeks before it expires too. I notice Frito do a good bit of moving stuff near expiry around to stores running hot sales in a given week in my area.