Supermarket / Grocery Store Operations Improvement

Grocery Store Consultant View on Operations

Over the years the members of our consulting team have created and/or refined operating procedures for the majority of food retailers with annual sales over $500 million. That process was very successful, and very valuable, for the retailers who engaged us. In continuation of that tradition, we continue to offer Supermarket / Grocery chains superior customer service and our deep experience base.

Our approach to working with a client organization is focused on partnering. We see our role as one of a coach, guiding and teaching our client teams to function more effectively. We measure our success by their ability to function better after we have departed, having benefited greatly from our presence.

Our grocery consulting team is staffed by experts who have decades of deep operational consulting experience and industry leadership experience. We believe that the food segment of retail is sufficiently unique to warrant specialists who know food operations intimately. Our team has that specific knowledge.

Typical food (store operations) projects begin with a detailed Assessment for senior management. In this Assessment we identify and explain all of the opportunities we believe exist for a client. Our approach gives our clients all of the detail they would need to make positive change happen in their stores. Most of our clients are so impressed with our depth of understanding that they have asked us to also test and/or guide implementation of the agreed upon opportunities for them.

We can assist you to improve your food retail effectiveness with various types of consulting assistance including:

• Operational Best Practices Implementation
• Operational Benchmarking
• Operational Training Programs
• Management / Leadership Skills Training
• On-floor Associate Service Behaviors
• Customer Experience Assessment
• Customer Service Strategies
• Optimal Front-End Procedures
• Front-End Supervision
• Front-End Service Behaviors
• Price Integrity Improvement Programs
• Inventory Management / SKU Rationalization
• Backroom Inventory Reduction
• Backroom Layout and Utilization
• DSD Procedures / Vendor Negotiation
• Cycle Count Procedures               
• Production Planning Techniques              
• Optimal Night Crew Procedures               
• Efficient Re-Order Practices
• CRM / Loyalty Programs               
• Cash Office Procedures
• Pharmacy Productivity Improvement
• Labor Standards Development
• Scheduling System Implementation / Testing
• Operational Procedures Documentation
• Operational Analysis
• Operating Metrics
• Shrink Control Programs
• Category Management
• Vendor Labor Utilization
• Organizational Re-Alignment
• Store Systems Assessment

Our Operational Improvement Programs typically include:

• Operational Analysis
• Model Store selection
• Applicable Best Practices Recommendations
• Implemented Solutions for testing
• Performance Metrics and measurement
• Revised Procedures Manuals
• A Transfer Methodology for Chain-Wide Roll-Out
• Train-The Trainer transfer preparation

Our extensive food operations experience permits us to rapidly identify opportunity areas for our clients and recommend specific improvements that are both implementable with the skills we will teach your team and valuable in that they will reduce your operating expense and better permit your organization to optimize sales.

Sample deliverables that you could expect include:

• Revenue increase
• Store payroll improvement of 50 – 100 basis points
• Improved service environment
• Faster operational task completion
• Improved awareness of operational productivity
• Lower cost per unit to perform operational tasks
• Improved sales floor/stockroom in-stock condition
• Refined / updated operational procedures manual

We suggest that your senior operations management give our services serious thought. If you have an interest in learning more, please feel free to contact Pat Fitzpatrick at 770-754-5008.

Optimizing Existing Store Operational Procedures

Retail Stores Procedures

Over the years the members of our consulting team have created and/or refined operating procedures for the majority of retail firms with sales over $300 million. That process was very successful, and very valuable, for the retailers who engaged us. Over time, however, the performance lift gained will decline unless the retailer continually trains their operational staff. This decline typically occurs because of natural turnover, ineffective internal trainers, lack of understanding of how to manage productivity, other “operational fires”, and ineffective performance coaching.

Employee training performed by many retailers is typically insufficient and ineffective. 

With the elimination of most retail training departments, only limited training staff exist in many retail organizations, if any, and these people are tasked with the daunting challenge of training masses of employees - as best they can. The training approach typically employed today is self-directed E-Training with limited or no follow-up by management.

Given this scenario, Atlanta Retail Consulting has developed a unique approach to assist our retail clients to re-gain, or surpass, the performance levels once achieved by re-training your operational supervision to improve your operating procedures. The approach we are offering is based on the premise that you already have reasonably productive operational procedures and labor standards that approximate Best Practice. This approach is unique in that rather than suggesting a re-do of your procedures, we suggest a focus on re-training your operational team Supervisors and Managers to re-establish a deep understanding of productivity, task organization, and performance coaching utilizing your current procedures and labor standards.

The core functions we suggest for this re-training effort typically include:

• Receiving
• Processing
• Merchandising / stocking
• Recovery and
• Price / signage maintenance.

Other functions (e.g. P-O-G maintenance, cycle counts, RTV, special orders/rain checks, etc.) could be added at the retailer’s discretion.

The training flow would include process planning/organization, proper layout, best use of resources/equipment, employing Best Practice procedures, utilizing performance standards, and giving appropriate positive performance feedback.

Deliverables that you could expect from a properly organized re-training effort include:

· Renewed focus on operational excellence

· Faster operational task completion

· Improved awareness of operational productivity

· Lower cost per unit to perform operational tasks

· Improved sales floor/stockroom in-stock condition

· Improved sales floor condition (recovery/signage/fixture placement, etc.)

· Refined / updated operational procedures manual

We suggest that your senior operations management give this approach significant thought. Our team members who would assist you are individuals who have decades of retail training experience and have assisted retailers of all formats to improve their operational performance.

If you have an interest in this approach, please feel free to contact us for a more in-depth, no obligation, discussion at 770-754-5008.