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Industry Insights

Fresh Files: The Case of the Missing Mangos

Resources
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Industry Insights

Fresh Files: The Case of the Missing Mangos

On the surface, grocery stores seem fairly simple. You can easily find multiple varieties of your favorite fruit and have your choice between organic and conventional. But keeping those shelves stocked with the foods we love? That’s a much more complex task. 

Fresh departments have to deal with a huge set of variables that make ordering nearly impossible to get right. But with today’s capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, grocery retailers finally have the opportunity to invest in tech that doesn’t fail in fresh.

To give folks a taste of what it’s like to run a fresh department, we’re opening up the Fresh Files to see what happens when Beth discovers she’s completely out of mangos…and tropical fruit enthusiast Marsha is on her way to the store!

Fresh Files: The Case of the Missing Mangos

Beth, the produce manager at the local supermarket, has a big problem on her hands. All the organic mangos are gone from the shelf and she knows Marsha is coming in for her weekly organic produce purchase soon!

Beth does a quick check with her scan gun to see how much inventory the system thinks she has. According to the data, there should be three cases of organic mangos in the store. Instead, the organic space is glaringly empty while the conventional mangos are filled to the brim.

Beth thinks back on her morning. Is there an organized mango heist happening right under her nose? Probably not. She's been on the floor arranging displays since 7 am. And she's pretty sure she would have noticed someone walking away with 35 mangos in hand!

Puzzled by the empty shelf, Beth sets out to investigate.

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Beth feels proud that she's solved the missing mango mystery—thanks in no way to the data in her system! But still, she's still worried about the stockout. Regardless of what happened to them, the missing fruit cut into store profits. Plus, Marsha’s most certainly going to be walking through those doors in a matter of minutes, expecting at least four of her favorite fruit. Sidenote: Beth is so good at her job that she always makes sure the shelves are stocked when Marsha comes in.

But today? Today there are zero organic mangos on the shelf. It might not seem like a big deal to the average customer, but Beth’s been working in fresh for 15 years and he knows what turns customers away: empty shelves and low-quality food. To top it off, Marsha only buys organic produce so it’s unlikely she’ll make an exception today. 

Marsha will probably spend her mango money elsewhere this time.

Fresh teams have a tough job. And the perpetual inventory systems they use make it even harder.

Every grocery retailer struggles with stockouts, but when your scan gun says there are -27 mangos in stock or that there should be 50 on the shelf but there are clearly zero, you know the solution you’re using is more of a problem than anything. 

Want to stop wasting time looking for missing mangos? Afresh’s Fresh Operating System drives accurate ordering for every item in every store, every day of the week. Request a demo!

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