Eli5 How do grocery stores around the world afford to be fully/half stocked in a product 24/7 simultaneously even in small towns where not everything’s bought?

Question

Eli5 How do grocery stores around the world afford to be fully/half stocked in a product 24/7 simultaneously even in small towns where not everything’s bought?

In: 47

Answer 1

Bakery department manager here, most perishable departments are considered to be run at loss. But honestly once you are in a store for a bit you learn the buying habits of your customer base and you then account for your levels on the sales floor for that. Say a tub of brownies has a 10 day sell code and I know that on average that 15 will sell in that time I will keep that product level around 15 items on the sale floor, if a box of donuts only sells 4 in its 5 day code I only ever keep the 4 out there. Even with a hundredish products you get the gist of it and can have low losses