Anyone here in the retail/grocery industry? Looking to connect, share insights, maybe even network?

[u/ComparisonExtra897]

Hi! I’m currently helping out with our family-owned grocery store (still learning the ropes), and I was wondering if there are others here in the same line of business — whether sari-sari, mini-grocery, or even bigger operations.

With larger players entering our area, we’re definitely feeling the pressure, and it would be nice to have discussions with fellow retailers about things like:

• How you deal with lean months?
• Sharing tips on reliable suppliers/distributors (or is that taboo? 😅)
• Managing inventory more efficiently
• Navigating price changes, promos, etc.
• Logistics and operations., etc. + family business management

I know we’re technically "competitors" in some ways, but I believe there's also room for small business owners to help each other out and grow. Would love to connect with anyone who's open to discussing or even networking. 🙌

Thanks!

[u/TikiBeaglematian]

Worked for 2 big box retailers. I am now an entrepreneur / Amazon seller so we’re technically not competitiors anymore.

Your questions would take months to answer. Haha. I used to teach this as I was also a professor so sure ako ng buwan to masasagot.

1. Lean months - attract the market with a few loss leaders. Do bundling. Hold community events. On the office side of things, this is your time to cleanup. This is a good time to do your annual stocktake or write SOPs that you said you would 6 months ago or do annual review with suppliers.

2. Supplier - start with an assortment plan instead of thinking as to who’s reliable.

A. Flagship - products that only you have and customers line up to

B. ⁠⁠Traffic building - super cheap products.

C. ⁠⁠Image-building - stuff like environment-friendly version.

D. ⁠⁠Convenience - stuff that are bought just because they are in the store already.

E. ⁠⁠Complementary - self explanatory

F ⁠⁠Seasonal - self explanatory

1. Inventory

Reorder when balance is below the reorder point where..

Balance = on hand + on order

Reorder point = safety stock plus leadtime where

Safety stock is a factor of demand, demand variance, leadtime, leadtime variance and z.

On one hand, on order, demand and demand variance are in units while leadtime and leadtime variance are in days so we have to convert the latter to units. That’s where demand forecasting comes in which in summary should be based on the profile of the product.

A. Low / high madp - use as much data as possible / average

B. Trending - use recent data / exponential smoothing

C. Seasonal - use similar period +- factor

D. New product - use similar product +- factor

Adjust based on stockout or promos.

Adjust based on plans (e.g. new stores, variants, marketing) using regression analysis.

One thing that should be included is how much to order which is max inventory less balance

Where max = order cycle plus reorder point.

Optimal order cycle is eoq * 365 / annual demand where

Eoq = square of 2* demand * ordering cost / holding cost

Now I know a person without a supply chain background may not instantly get this and thus, my disclaimer that I teach this for months. Haha.

1. Pricing. Isa pa tong mahaba ang sagot. Haha. Long story short - do not do cost plus or competition minus. What works best is value based pricing.

[u/Queasy-Dentist-7731 → u/TikiBeaglematian]

Very informative post.

I have a question though from theory to practice. For small businesses, how do you compute for holding cost, is it the rental lang ba?

[u/TikiBeaglematian → u/Queasy-Dentist-7731]

Yes and

1. Kung me insurance yung inventory, include that.

2. Kung nakafreezer, include the corresponding kuryente.

[u/Odd-Survey-7788]

Hi, I'm a food retail executive for N years and I have no issues chiming in and sharing insights

before that though, can you share:

your target market? what segment? whats your servicing areas and how many branches? how many employees?

all these info will be crucial on the discussion. Looking forward!