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| Blogs > rm_mazandbren > The Complaisant Husband |
Postponements
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Postponements By the time I had resigned from one of my former employers I had the system of going into a new store down cold. I divided my task into four stages; computer work, backroom organization, front of shop organization and staff retraining. I suppose, in hindsight, I could see where there was an objection to putting the actual selling area re-organization third. I would argue that in doing the computer work, which mostly took place before I actually started, ensured that I was concentrating on the right areas; organising the back area meant that we weren’t putting poor or out of code stock on show and not spending time looking for things that we needed. As for the staff retraining- sometimes I found that the staff knew what needed doing but didn’t have anybody encouraging them to do the right thing, plus it was helpful to know where they were at to see where they needed help. The standard<b> mantra </font></b>is that the customer comes first; but this system worked for me and I never had a problem with customer complaints about the changes I put in because it invariably delivered a better service that they could rely on. The one thing in particular that seemed to trouble most people was my reliance on computer information. At the time, the idea of running off a report that listed your top 10 or 20 selling items was revolutionary. But it was also informative. There was an impression that mushrooms were amongst the top5 best sellers in the state- but they actually came out a fair bit lower, sometimes not even in the top10. Where the disparity lay was in the despatch- in terms of value mushrooms were in the top5 lines being despatched because the sales area allotted to them was larger than it needed to be. It was an impression that fed itself and the markdown figures. The same was true of broccoli and tomatoes. Another example of how the computer information lay in category management. Whilst every store was different, if the state average for hard lines (potatoes, pumpkins, onions, etc) was 15% of sales and this store was only doing 5%, maybe there was an opportunity to make more money. Dig a little deeper into the subcategories and it might be that the sales of beans were significantly below the state average- why? What could be done to lift them? Even an analysis of daily sales patterns could prove useful. If you operate a supermarket in WA, one of the biggest advantages you can have is being in a major shopping centre. It adds drawing power- time poor people will try to get everything done at once. But if you can’t get into one it does not have to be the end of the world. Target the discerning shopper instead- or at least that is what I did. Rather than putting all the effort into the Thursday-Saturday block, which we were bound to lose anyway, I put more effort into Monday-Wednesday which meant that the early week shoppers from miles around came to shop with us- and in an area with three major shopping centres and us we often finished second and sometimes even first. And all because I noticed that our sales were a 45-55 split instead of the usual 35-65. There was also a theoretical component to it. There is an old adage in retail that says that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your lines. This never seemed to work out for me until I noticed an article that postulated food retailing to be something like 15-20-65. 15% of your lines produce 65% of your sales, the next 20% of lines produces 20% of your sales and the remaining 65% of lines produce 15% of sales. Now no store is going to be an exact split, but as a guide I have found it pretty accurate and terribly useful. Concentrating on that middle 20% was often half the battle won. In my last job my manager liked to have everything blocked; over time I managed to convince her to try cross promoting some of these ‘secondary’ lines on the sides of the main displays- and we picked up an easy 5% extra sales; more in profit because we were making full price on the lines. Another one was the 4% out of stock rule. Another writer postulated that more than 4% in out of stocks, regardless of the cause, regardless of the range, meant a 10% drop in sales. In fact I found that by fixing out of stock problems sales generally rise by 15%-20%. Adding the two together can be a mathematical nightmare but a rewarding one. The first time I used it sales rose by some 25%; unfortunately I have only had the chance to use it once so it would be hasty to say that it works that well every time. But perhaps my biggest asset was in being able to manage change. Going into a new store or changing the operations of your department is one of the hardest jobs in the world of retail. It’s not so much that people hate change; they hate needless change. When I was given a store, no matter how much of a shit tip it was, I never said so. I always told people that the store had done well enough that there was a perception that there were big opportunities to be had. If the change was in a department I was already running, then the change was something that would improve things for us. Even something as simple as changing cleaning supplies needed to be sold on its benefits, even if it did mean more work in the actual scrubbing the health benefits were worth it. And no matter how large or small the change was, it needed a plan. Changing from the old displays to the new black crates I had a five page plan covering everything I could think of and a page for people to put their questions on- I gave a copy to everyone involved a month before we were due to swap over and made sure that any questions were answered before the change took place. When we swapped cleaning suppliers the plan was a page long, the questions sheet was attached and everybody got a copy. The only real exception was going into a new store- then I would just do up a poster with my steps on it and a box beside it for ticking off each target- and a questions sheet for everybody. There are always those people who think that a change, especially a change of manager, is a personal rebuke. In my last job the department 2ic kept getting upset because I insisted on proper rotation- he thought that I was having a go at him because it wasn’t being done before I got there. No matter how or how many times I explained it he wouldn’t see it any other way. But that’s life. 99% of the time I had no problems. I will be the first to admit that my ways were unorthodox; my philosophy tended to be at odds with ‘common-sense’- which is probably why I don’t trust it. It was common-sense that said mushrooms were a top5 seller. It is probably why I don’t put a great deal of stock in people who harp on about their experience. 20years of doing something one way ignores the fact that retailing has changed a lot in 20years or that doing something the same way for 20years does not necessarily entail that it is the right way to do it. One trick that has probably been done for a lot longer than 20years is to wrap half cabbage, cauliflower and celery with the cut showing- so they can hide the fact that it should have been marked down or thrown out. Ultimately my methods were about making sure that I wasn’t wasting time concentrating on the wrong things- a sort of guarantee against hubris on the one hand and stupidity on the other. But they were also spectacularly successful- whether measured by customer complaints or sales increases or profit increases there was always a massive improvement. I have always known that there have been people jealous of my success and suspicious of my methods- I have been audited enough times to know that much. What has come as something of a shock is just how widespread those jealousies and doubts were held, and how vehemently they have been held. In spite of all the audits there is still a perception, three years after leaving one company, that I cheated. That I was, and still am, a smart-arse. To be told that it wasn’t my ideas that they didn’t like, but that they were MY ideas comes as a blow. In short, it is not a question of why I didn’t rise any higher in that company but how I rose at all.  In truth is there no beauty? I am not in love; but i am open to persuasion. |
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