5 ms·

In case you haven't contemplated this logistics challenge before: the key is you need to stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their

by 0xWTF 1y ago

In case you haven't contemplated this logistics challenge before: the key is you need to stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their shelf life, transfer them out to other stores for actual consumption and back fill the emergency stores with fresh lots of new shelf stable products. You're just buying more shelf-stable supply once and then managing the transit through the supply chain with speed bump before the last mile.

tshaddox 1y ago
Is that so? I presumed they would always be open as normal stores, but prepared to stay open as “emergency stores” when necessary.
- paranoidrobot 1y ago
  They are normal stores. The OP is talking about how they handle keeping fresh stock of products with lower sales volume. (Or at least, that's the way I'm reading it)
wallopinski 1y ago
[dead]
throwawayqqq11 1y ago
> stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their shelf life, transfer them out to other stores for actual consumption Back in my days in retail, we were ordered to put resupply as FILO into the shelfs. It makes sense to sell the oldest products first. So why the transfer shuffle?
- zrobotics 1y ago
  It's still FILO, the shuffle is needed for multiple locations. The emergency store keeps (for example) 5x the stock of canned beans, and feeds an area with 4 regular stores. They have 5x more stock then they could regularly sell, so if stock wasn't transferred then the canned beans would expire before they were sold. They need to transfer their surplus inventory to the 4 regular stores they feed before that stock ages, since in regular use they won't sell them in time. Since I've had to deal with a similar issue professionally, maybe think of a retailer with 5 distribution warehouses and 50 stores. Normally you want to pick from the closest distribution warehouse to minimize transport costs. However, for food items that expire sometimes it might make sense to pick from the furthest warehouse if their stock is getting older, you need to optimize both for transport costs and the cost of having to throw food away. It's beyond a HN comment, and I'd have to review what isn't NDA, but the optimization math for such a scenario gets both really complicated and really interesting. Hope this clarifies why they would be moving stick though.
  - estimator7292 1y ago
    This is a pretty common mechanism in several markets. I worked in the big paint store chain in the US and the local setup was a lot like this. Every store had as much stock as they can physically hold, and no two have the same capacity. It was a daily occurrence to shuttle stock to and from nearby locations, and very common for a small store to have a nearby large store order and hold stock for a job too big for the origin store to handle. We also had commercial stores spread out which were in essence local warehouses. Those stores spent a large part of their time handling stock transfers. They held specialty products small stores rarely need and couldn't justify the minimum order quantity. It's a lot more efficient and much faster than having product shipped across the country.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- netfortius 1y ago
  > FILO Hard to address the consumers' tendency to "reach out in the back", to get longer expiration time products.
  - HumanOstrich 1y ago
    That's a paddlin'.
  - walthamstow 1y ago
    Honestly it seems like I am the only one in my local Aldi who does this. I see people picking up fish that is three days older than the one at the back.
    - clan 1y ago
      Around here it is quite common to do with dairy products. I however choose not to do so quite deliberately. I want to avoid food waste. I just check the date is "good enough". My regular shop has a good enough flow that I usually pick from the front. Food waste is a trending concern around here. But I think you and I who cares about shelf life belongs to the same minority. The majority has enough other worries and does not spend bandwidth to care as it is usually good enough. I consider fish a "fresh" item and care more for looks and smell. Same as with vegetables. But I hate people who prod everything - that is detrimental to the product.
      - Cthulhu_ 1y ago
        Some dairy products here - milk mainly - moves so fast there's only ever one expiration date available, lol.
        conorcleary 1y ago
        Also can't rule out the 'OCD' types who don't want a gap left in the shelf where they've taken the product, so they remove one from the back
      - 1y ago
- willvarfar 1y ago
  Isn't selling older products first first-in-first-out (FIFO) instead of first-in-last-out (FILO)? </hn programmer pedantry>
  - riffraff 1y ago
    Thanks for asking this, I'm also confused and I thought I must be misunderstanding what FILO means in this context. Perhaps fresh in, last out?
  - rekoil 1y ago
    I also reacted to this and came to the same conclusion as you.
Razengan 1y ago
What if people could have large residential storage units in their neighborhoods and apartment complexes, where everyone could stock up on their own personal supply as needed?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- bauruine 1y ago
  Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. /s All my shelf stable products have been in my pantry for a few months before I even open them. You can do FILO yourself and have always a nice emergency supply and it can even cheaper because you can buy the stuff on sale most of the time. The problem is that many people just buy day to day and already have a problem when the shops are closed for a holiday they haven't anticipated because they buy just in time.
  - Razengan 1y ago
    > Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. Hate having to annotate explanations to obvious things but I guess it wasn't obvious: Stock up for the next few months. (after paying for it) If they don't need/use it, it gets redistributed. (from the local shared storage unit)
    - bauruine 1y ago
      I'm sorry but it really wasn't obvious for me. So like an online shop for groceries but they don't deliver it to your home but at this shared storage location? Doesn't realy change the second part of my answer though. People could already keep some stock at home right now but most just don't. I don't see how such a shared storage would change that. Also stock up for a few months is what the government is for at least where I live. [0] Personel emergency supplies are only for the time till the government can start distributing their own stocks. [0]: https://www.bwl.admin.ch/en/we-advise-emergency-supplies https://www.bwl.admin.ch/en/we-advise-emergency-supplies
cl0ckt0wer 1y ago
What is the difference between this and a slightly larger warehouse?
- vasco 1y ago
  Marketing
- autoexec 1y ago
  Intent and the number of goods kept on hand.
- schainks 1y ago
  One of the design requirements is no one should be located more than 50km from a store, so I wouldn't be surprised if larger warehouses are part of the plan when that 50km radius includes densely populated areas.
  - Cthulhu_ 1y ago
    Yeah I was about to say, I think it makes some sense for warehouses to also have an open store where people can buy things in bulk.
masfuerte 1y ago
This is completely obvious, yet before covid the British government paid a private company to fill warehouses with face masks, etc. By the time covid started all of this PPE had gone past its use by date. The incompetence is breathtaking.

by 0xWTF 1y ago

tshaddox 1y ago

Is that so? I presumed they would always be open as normal stores, but prepared to stay open as “emergency stores” when necessary.

paranoidrobot 1y ago
They are normal stores. The OP is talking about how they handle keeping fresh stock of products with lower sales volume. (Or at least, that's the way I'm reading it)

wallopinski 1y ago

[dead]

throwawayqqq11 1y ago

> stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their shelf life, transfer them out to other stores for actual consumption Back in my days in retail, we were ordered to put resupply as FILO into the shelfs. It makes sense to sell the oldest products first. So why the transfer shuffle?

zrobotics 1y ago
It's still FILO, the shuffle is needed for multiple locations. The emergency store keeps (for example) 5x the stock of canned beans, and feeds an area with 4 regular stores. They have 5x more stock then they could regularly sell, so if stock wasn't transferred then the canned beans would expire before they were sold. They need to transfer their surplus inventory to the 4 regular stores they feed before that stock ages, since in regular use they won't sell them in time. Since I've had to deal with a similar issue professionally, maybe think of a retailer with 5 distribution warehouses and 50 stores. Normally you want to pick from the closest distribution warehouse to minimize transport costs. However, for food items that expire sometimes it might make sense to pick from the furthest warehouse if their stock is getting older, you need to optimize both for transport costs and the cost of having to throw food away. It's beyond a HN comment, and I'd have to review what isn't NDA, but the optimization math for such a scenario gets both really complicated and really interesting. Hope this clarifies why they would be moving stick though.
- estimator7292 1y ago
  This is a pretty common mechanism in several markets. I worked in the big paint store chain in the US and the local setup was a lot like this. Every store had as much stock as they can physically hold, and no two have the same capacity. It was a daily occurrence to shuttle stock to and from nearby locations, and very common for a small store to have a nearby large store order and hold stock for a job too big for the origin store to handle. We also had commercial stores spread out which were in essence local warehouses. Those stores spent a large part of their time handling stock transfers. They held specialty products small stores rarely need and couldn't justify the minimum order quantity. It's a lot more efficient and much faster than having product shipped across the country.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
netfortius 1y ago
> FILO Hard to address the consumers' tendency to "reach out in the back", to get longer expiration time products.
- HumanOstrich 1y ago
  That's a paddlin'.
- walthamstow 1y ago
  Honestly it seems like I am the only one in my local Aldi who does this. I see people picking up fish that is three days older than the one at the back.
  - clan 1y ago
    Around here it is quite common to do with dairy products. I however choose not to do so quite deliberately. I want to avoid food waste. I just check the date is "good enough". My regular shop has a good enough flow that I usually pick from the front. Food waste is a trending concern around here. But I think you and I who cares about shelf life belongs to the same minority. The majority has enough other worries and does not spend bandwidth to care as it is usually good enough. I consider fish a "fresh" item and care more for looks and smell. Same as with vegetables. But I hate people who prod everything - that is detrimental to the product.
    - Cthulhu_ 1y ago
      Some dairy products here - milk mainly - moves so fast there's only ever one expiration date available, lol.
      - conorcleary 1y ago
        Also can't rule out the 'OCD' types who don't want a gap left in the shelf where they've taken the product, so they remove one from the back
    - 1y ago
willvarfar 1y ago
Isn't selling older products first first-in-first-out (FIFO) instead of first-in-last-out (FILO)? </hn programmer pedantry>
- riffraff 1y ago
  Thanks for asking this, I'm also confused and I thought I must be misunderstanding what FILO means in this context. Perhaps fresh in, last out?
- rekoil 1y ago
  I also reacted to this and came to the same conclusion as you.

Razengan 1y ago

What if people could have large residential storage units in their neighborhoods and apartment complexes, where everyone could stock up on their own personal supply as needed?

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bauruine 1y ago
Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. /s All my shelf stable products have been in my pantry for a few months before I even open them. You can do FILO yourself and have always a nice emergency supply and it can even cheaper because you can buy the stuff on sale most of the time. The problem is that many people just buy day to day and already have a problem when the shops are closed for a holiday they haven't anticipated because they buy just in time.
- Razengan 1y ago
  > Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. Hate having to annotate explanations to obvious things but I guess it wasn't obvious: Stock up for the next few months. (after paying for it) If they don't need/use it, it gets redistributed. (from the local shared storage unit)
  - bauruine 1y ago
    I'm sorry but it really wasn't obvious for me. So like an online shop for groceries but they don't deliver it to your home but at this shared storage location? Doesn't realy change the second part of my answer though. People could already keep some stock at home right now but most just don't. I don't see how such a shared storage would change that. Also stock up for a few months is what the government is for at least where I live. [0] Personel emergency supplies are only for the time till the government can start distributing their own stocks. [0]: https://www.bwl.admin.ch/en/we-advise-emergency-supplies https://www.bwl.admin.ch/en/we-advise-emergency-supplies

cl0ckt0wer 1y ago

What is the difference between this and a slightly larger warehouse?

vasco 1y ago
Marketing
autoexec 1y ago
Intent and the number of goods kept on hand.
schainks 1y ago
One of the design requirements is no one should be located more than 50km from a store, so I wouldn't be surprised if larger warehouses are part of the plan when that 50km radius includes densely populated areas.
- Cthulhu_ 1y ago
  Yeah I was about to say, I think it makes some sense for warehouses to also have an open store where people can buy things in bulk.

masfuerte 1y ago

This is completely obvious, yet before covid the British government paid a private company to fill warehouses with face masks, etc. By the time covid started all of this PPE had gone past its use by date. The incompetence is breathtaking.