Last week, I was in a supermarket and there was an item on sale, and they were out of stock on the particular flavor I buy. As I do, I checked the cooler (it was a dairy item) and would have taken a case out and filled the shelf – there were none in the cooler.
So, I went to the front, and told the person working. They immediately went and got the flavor in another brand (both quality) and charged me the sale price. Being from the industry, I had to ask how it would be handled – yep, they will bill the OOS vendor for the charge.
Before anyone reacts, here’s an interesting prequel. Years ago, I was working for Minute Maid – 2 large retailers in the NE ran half-price sales a week apart. We had forecasted them being 3 weeks apart. As a result, we were totally out in our warehouse for an extended period in the second sale. The retailer did the exact same thing – substituted Tropicana and billed us. This was truckloads of product, not a unit or a few cases.
And, they were right – their focus is to have a satisfied consumer. It’s the brand’s job to forecast, and to do what is needed to ensure stores are in-stock.
The event last week, will show up on this brand’s deduction for all of these OOS’s, probably in May or June. Hopefully, the brand will think about this the right way and 1) Analyze why it happened, 2) Develop an action plan to improve in-store execution and 3) Improve their overall forecasting.
At the end of the day, it’s the consumer that’s the key to a brand’s success.