Store Visits while at FMI Loss Prevention Conference

I also took the opportunity to do a couple of store visits with Pedro Ramos, our VP of Operations and a 23-year veteran of Pathmark.  Pedro was the VP of Loss Prevention at Pathmark prior to joining Agilence and he is well known in the space.

SIDE NOTE:  Agilence’s new website will launch on March 15 and Pedro will have his own blog! 

We visited Ralph’s, owned by Kroger, first.  I learned about Benefit Denial devices and stocking shelves and placement of high risk items.  It is a fascinating world that I have entered. 

We then moved on and visited a Fresh & Easy store owned by Tesco, a powerhouse in the UK.  For those of you unfamiliar with Fresh & Easy (like I was), it is what people in the business call a “community” or “limited assortment” store.  I had heard about them before, but had never been to one.  So, here is the deal.

First, they are small.  They are not supermarkets.  Therefore, they can pop up right in the middle of a community, which this one did.

Second, the are low cost, no frills stores.  So, they have their own private label and about 50% of the store is private label.  The store is very sterile.  Someone who shall remain nameless, said it looked like a prison.  And, that is not untrue.  The shelves are stocked with cut cases.  (They stock the items in their shipping boxes and cut off the front and top.) 

And, everything in the store is pre-packaged.  This includes the meat, the fruit, etc.  Why?  Well, they have very little labor in the store.  They do not have a butcher in the back or a deli department.  There is no pharmacy.  In fact, there are NO cashiers.  Everything is self check out. 

SIDE NOTE:  In the industry, they call self check out lanes “robots”.  I don’t know why.  But, its a poor name and they certainly aren’t robots.  Hmmmm….. maybe we are the robots.  The customers who do the job that the store used to do.  

Finally, they are low cost.  How low?

As an experiment, Pedro I bought the following:

• 1 16oz. Lipton tea
• 1 private label bag of macadamia nuts
• 1 private label bag of banana chips
• 1 private label bag of jalapeno cheddar potato chips
• 1 bottle of private label shiraz wine

total cost:  $9.91 and everything, even the wine, was delicious.

We bought the wine to check out their alcohol compliance policies.    Sure enough, the item beeped.  We were not able to complete the sale until a woman appeared (who was stocking shelves) and checked our ID.  She swiped her card, pressed a few buttons and we were off.

Fresh & Easy may not be the fanciest store.  Its actually very utilitarian.  But, it might just be the future with the current economic recession.  I just can’t see it flying at home.  Too many people drive miles out of their way to go to Wegman’s because it is a grocery destination if there ever was one!