how do supermarkets decide which products they sell?

Question

I don’t mean, whether they sell bread or milk. But rather which company do they choose and how?
Does the company send a salesman to the supermarket and they say “hey we have this great new product!”?
Or do the supermarkets actively search for new products?
And how do they decide, yes we take X in our store but not Z?

In: 0

Answer 1

Since I got roasted not long ago about chickens in supermarkets, I will preface my response by pointing out that I work in a smaller chain of supermarkets in Australia.

We get told what main brands to sell and how much shelf space to give them by head office. They are usually brands like Coke, Pepsi, Cadburys, pet food, big dairy or cleaning products who come in and shift things around and we can’t really intervene, especially when they are giving discounts to us to push an item and make it more prominent which means more sales for us. Our store can purchase from smaller brands, but their space is also negotiated with head office and try to do the same thing, but can’t overrule the big product producers when it comes to product placement.

Our shop does daily ordering depending on what has sold and how much is needed to fill the shelves. When we get specials, we don’t get much warning, but we are sent extra based on what head office expects us to sell. If that doesn’t sell, it becomes a special for the following week to move the stock.

But basically, we do a daily quick count (look at what is on the shelf) and a bit of knowledge of what sells on what day in what season – sandwich meats do well on Sundays because people are buying to make lunches for the week as an example, so we know when to buy for that. Salads and bbq meats do better in summer, that sort of thing. We also have some computer system that takes into account our sales history and that also advises on what to buy when, but it doesn’t work better than having someone go out and look at the shelves. Having a look to see what needs to be ordered for the day after tomorrow is faster than waiting for head office to get back to us with sales results.