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Every company I've ever worked at that had drinks and/or snacks followed this antipattern. At my current job it's spearmint Orbit gum vs peppermint. Last job, b

by raldi 7y ago

Every company I've ever worked at that had drinks and/or snacks followed this antipattern. At my current job it's spearmint Orbit gum vs peppermint. Last job, blackberry Hint vs .. I think pomegranate? They'd stock identical amounts of two or three varieties of thing, never noticing (or deliberately ignoring feedback about) how one was the clear favorite and disappeared immediately, and another was kinda gross and nobody took any until it was all that's left. Not that I'm complaining about "free" food; it just baffles me that this is so pervasive when the solution is so obvious. Why don't companies select flavors proportional to demand? It costs the same as buying identical amounts of each flavor.

JimboOmega 7y ago
One could argue that unmet demand saves money; assuming they only pay for what gets stocked.
Terretta 7y ago
Who is “they” and how would they know one was done before the other? At restock time having both used up in the dispenser looks like both are popular and both need to be replaced. There would have to be a rate of sale number available to the stockist. From the deliveries I’ve observed they don’t seem to have an algo more complex than refill what’s empty.
fossuser 7y ago
Where I work you end up in a funny situation since the contractor that stocks the snacks seems mostly to just stock whatever they see on the shelf. Popular stuff gets entirely taken and unpopular stuff remains, slowly you reach a state where the only things on the shelf are unpopular. You can try seeding an item which may get it stocked, but it doesn’t always work.
minitoar 7y ago
It's probably because those items come in a "variety pack" with e.g. 6 of each flavor to make an 18 pack of 3 different flavors. We have this problem with the green tea flavored Honest Teas. If you're ordering from Costco, in my experience many such items only come in a variety pack.
drewg123 7y ago
Popularity based stocking is probably best, but makes you scrounge when you like the unpopular flavor. When I was at Google, I loved Apple Hint. Sadly, it was an unpopular flavor, and never stocked in the MK in my building. I had to scour surrounding buildings to get my fix. I finally hit the jackpot in an MK a few buildings over, where they stocked Apple, AND Hint Fizz which one of my teammates loved (and which was also not stocked in our MK). So I'd bring back 2 Apples for me, and 2 Fizzes for him. I'd probably drink 4-6 Hint's per day when I was at Google. I remember emailing a friend after I left Google, joking that I could hardly believe I was paying for my own Hint now!
mattmaroon 7y ago
Sometimes it's because of multipacks. We used to stock La Croix, back when there weren't dozens of flavors and knock off brands. We'd get a 24 pack of them at Sam's that had three flavors, six lemon, six orange, twelve lime. Over time the limes would accumulate until one day we had a stack of them from the floor to the ceiling of the supply closet. We made a joke out of it, sneaking lime ones into people's fridges, replacing their lemon or orange with them mid-drink, etc. Our company was small enough that it never got hostile.

by raldi 7y ago

JimboOmega 7y ago

One could argue that unmet demand saves money; assuming they only pay for what gets stocked.

Terretta 7y ago

Who is “they” and how would they know one was done before the other? At restock time having both used up in the dispenser looks like both are popular and both need to be replaced. There would have to be a rate of sale number available to the stockist. From the deliveries I’ve observed they don’t seem to have an algo more complex than refill what’s empty.

fossuser 7y ago

Where I work you end up in a funny situation since the contractor that stocks the snacks seems mostly to just stock whatever they see on the shelf. Popular stuff gets entirely taken and unpopular stuff remains, slowly you reach a state where the only things on the shelf are unpopular. You can try seeding an item which may get it stocked, but it doesn’t always work.

minitoar 7y ago

It's probably because those items come in a "variety pack" with e.g. 6 of each flavor to make an 18 pack of 3 different flavors. We have this problem with the green tea flavored Honest Teas. If you're ordering from Costco, in my experience many such items only come in a variety pack.

drewg123 7y ago

Popularity based stocking is probably best, but makes you scrounge when you like the unpopular flavor. When I was at Google, I loved Apple Hint. Sadly, it was an unpopular flavor, and never stocked in the MK in my building. I had to scour surrounding buildings to get my fix. I finally hit the jackpot in an MK a few buildings over, where they stocked Apple, AND Hint Fizz which one of my teammates loved (and which was also not stocked in our MK). So I'd bring back 2 Apples for me, and 2 Fizzes for him. I'd probably drink 4-6 Hint's per day when I was at Google. I remember emailing a friend after I left Google, joking that I could hardly believe I was paying for my own Hint now!

mattmaroon 7y ago

Sometimes it's because of multipacks. We used to stock La Croix, back when there weren't dozens of flavors and knock off brands. We'd get a 24 pack of them at Sam's that had three flavors, six lemon, six orange, twelve lime. Over time the limes would accumulate until one day we had a stack of them from the floor to the ceiling of the supply closet. We made a joke out of it, sneaking lime ones into people's fridges, replacing their lemon or orange with them mid-drink, etc. Our company was small enough that it never got hostile.