Supermarkets and grocery chains

The trade

How this trade really works

From the factory to the customer, each person in the chain wants something different. Most of what goes wrong comes from the gaps between them.

The company and its distributor

Packaged goods reach you through the distributor for each company, with credit terms and schemes. He wants big orders at month end and wants you to take the new items his company is launching.

The wholesale market and the mandi

Loose dal, rice, sugar, dry fruits and spices often come from the wholesale market or a trader in bulk bags. Prices change week to week, and the buyer who knows the market buys well.

Your central godown, if you have one

Where bulk stock lands and where loose goods are cleaned and packed into store packs. From here, stock goes out to each branch.

Each branch

A store with its own manager, shelves, cashiers and helpers. The manager wants his shelves full and his queue short. He orders what he remembers running short of.

The family

Comes for the month's ration at the start of the month, and for small top-ups all month. She wants her usual atta and oil every time. If it is missing, she buys it at the kirana on the corner, and maybe the rest too.

Staples bring people in, not profit

Atta, oil, sugar and rice are sold at a very thin margin because every family compares their price. You cannot make much on them. But if they are missing, the family goes elsewhere for the whole list. They are the reason the customer comes. The margin is made on everything else she picks up on the way.

Most of your shelf space sells slowly

A large part of what sits on your shelves sells only now and then. Some of it was taken because a distributor offered a scheme. Some was bought for one customer who asked once. Each slow item holds a little money. Together, they hold a great deal, and many of them will be old and dusty before they sell.

The fast item runs out without anyone noticing

On a busy Sunday, the usual pack of atta or the brand of oil most families buy runs out by noon. The helper fills the gap on the shelf with another brand. Nobody tells the manager. The family that wanted its own brand buys it at the kirana on the way home, and some of them do not come back.

Loose goods leak a little every day

Loose dal, rice and sugar come in bulk bags and are packed in-store. Some spills. Some is given a little extra on the scale. Some bags carry less than their marked weight to begin with. The difference is small each day and large by the end of the year, and no one sees it as a loss.

Each neighbourhood buys differently

The branch in a new colony with young working couples sells oats, olive oil, brown bread and ready-to-cook packets. The branch near the old market sells loose dal by the bag, mustard oil in big tins and local brands of spices. Stock both the same way and each one is short of what its customers want and full of what they ignore.

Festivals and fasts change the list overnight

In the Navratri weeks, kuttu atta, sabudana, singhara atta and rock salt are suddenly needed in every branch. Before Diwali, dry fruits, gift packs and ghee fly. Before Eid, vermicelli and dates. Each branch needs different amounts, and the leftover after the festival sits until next year.

The distributor's scheme is his solution, not yours

At month end the distributor offers a scheme: take this much and get a bit extra free. It looks like margin. But if the item sells slowly in your branches, you have paid with shelf space and stuck money for a discount you could only earn by waiting months.

Where the money quietly goes

What you cannot see today, and what it costs you

You do not know what ran out yesterday

Your bills show what was sold. They do not show what the family came for and did not find. By the time a manager notices that a fast item ran out, it has been missing for days in one branch while the godown or another branch had plenty.

You cannot see dead stock by name

You know that the shelves are full and money is short. You do not have a list of which items have not sold in months, branch by branch, and how much money is sitting in them. So nobody acts on them.

You do not know which items lose money

Some items are sold below what they cost you, once the scheme ends or the buying price goes up and nobody changes the shelf price. You sell more and earn less. Without profit item by item, you cannot find them.

Branches are judged by sales, not by what they hold

A branch with big sales may also be holding a huge pile of slow stock. A branch with smaller sales may be running clean and earning more. When you only compare sales, you reward the wrong manager.

Stock moves between branches on a phone call

A manager runs short of oil and calls the next branch. A helper takes a few cartons across on a bike. Nobody records it. At the month's stock count, one branch is short and the other is over, and nobody can explain either.

A season, the way it usually goes

The story you already know

It is the first Sunday of the month at a grocery chain in Lucknow. The branch in Gomti Nagar has a queue at every counter. Well before noon, the usual brand of sunflower oil is finished. A helper fills the gap with a costlier brand. By afternoon, the usual atta is gone too. Families ask, hear that it will come tomorrow, and walk out with a smaller bill than they planned.

Across the city in the Aminabad branch, the same oil sits in cartons in the back room. That branch sells far more mustard oil and loose dal, and its sunflower oil has hardly moved. Nobody knows this in Gomti Nagar. The managers speak on the phone only when something goes wrong.

At the month's stock count, the owner finds that his money is short again though his shelves look full. The top shelves in every branch hold sauces, cereals and imported biscuits taken on schemes the year before. Some of them are close to their date. The loose dal count is short by a few bags in each branch, and nobody can say where it went. He orders more of everything for next month, to be safe.

What you can now decide

Decisions you could not make before

Keep each branch full of what its families buy

When you see each branch's fast sellers and its stock of them, the manager in a busy colony keeps more sunflower oil and the old market branch keeps more mustard oil. Fewer families walk out with only part of their list.

Move stock across before you buy more

When one branch is short of an item and another has it lying, you send it across and it is recorded. Move it, do not make it. Same goods, no new purchase, and the money stays with you.

Clear dead stock while it can still sell

With dead stock named, item by item, with the money attached, you can put the old sauces and cereals on a front shelf, offer them at a small cut, or return what the distributor will take back. Old stock on a shelf is a discount you have not given yet. Give it while it still works.

Say no to a scheme that does not pay

When a distributor offers a month-end scheme, look at how that item really sells in each branch and how long the last lot took to go. If it sat for months, the free goods did not pay for the stuck money. Take the scheme only where the item moves.

Fix the prices that lose money

When profit is visible item by item, you find the pack whose buying price went up while the shelf price stayed. You correct it. On items sold in such numbers, a small fix adds up to real money.

Stock each branch differently for the festival

Look at what each branch sold in the last Navratri and the last Diwali, and what was left after. Send the fasting items in larger amounts where they sold out and smaller ones where they sat. Less is left on the shelf when the festival ends.

Judge managers on stock as well as sales

Compare branches on sales, on dead stock and on items that ran short. The manager who sells well and keeps his shelves clean deserves the credit, and you can now see who that is.

Where you get ahead

Where your competitor keeps losing

Families stop going to the corner shop

A family that always finds its usual atta and oil in your branch stops making the second stop at the kirana. Once she stops going there, the rest of her list comes to you as well.

You buy less and sell more

Big chains with their own systems keep their money moving. Most local chains do not. When you stop buying slow stock on schemes and move stock between branches before buying more, the same money turns over far faster. That money can go into a new branch instead of the top shelf.

Your counters keep running when the line goes down

On a busy Sunday, the internet in a market area can fail. Billing on Vyavora carries on without internet and catches up when the connection returns. Your queue keeps moving while the store across the road is writing slips by hand.

The same season, with Vyavora

The story, told again

A few months later, it is again the first Sunday of the month in Lucknow. The night before, the owner switched between his branches on one screen. He saw that Gomti Nagar was low on sunflower oil and its usual atta, while Aminabad had cartons of the same oil lying for weeks. A van took them across on Saturday evening, and the move was recorded in both branches.

Now Gomti Nagar's shelves hold through the morning rush. The families find their usual oil and atta. In Aminabad, the manager has more mustard oil and loose dal, because that is what his side of the city buys. Each branch looks a little different now, and each one is fuller of the right things.

At the month's stock count, the owner opens his list of dead stock. The old sauces and cereals are on it by name, branch by branch, with the money sitting in them. He puts them on the front shelves with a small cut before they get too old to sell at all. He turns down the next month-end scheme on a breakfast cereal that sat for months last time. For the first time in a long while, the shelves look full and the money is not short.

Why the others agree to it

Everyone in the chain is better off

For the branch manager

He sees his own branch's stock, his fast sellers and his slow items, without waiting for the head office. His staff are tied to his branch and see only it. When he asks for stock from another branch, the move is recorded, and he is not blamed for a shortage at the month's count.

For the owner's accountant

Every sale and purchase is stamped with its branch. GST is kept branch by branch and added up for filing. The stock movement between branches is recorded instead of being explained at the year end. Old records are read from the files you already keep, not typed in again.

For the cashier at the counter

Billing keeps going when the internet fails, and pack sizes can be picked at the counter quickly. The queue moves, and the cashier is not the one the customer shouts at.

What this does not do

Vyavora shows you what each branch has, what it sold and what has been lying. It does not track expiry dates or batches; it shows how long each item has been lying, which tells you early what will not sell in time. It does not count your loose dal for you: the difference between what came in and what was sold shows up only if your packing and stock counts are entered. It does not tell you what will sell next month. It does not order from the distributor on its own. It shows you clearly what is selling, what is sitting and where, and you decide.

Straight answers

Questions people in this trade ask

Can my branch staff see other branches?

No. Staff are tied to one branch and see only that branch. You, as owner, see each branch and all of them together.

What happens when the internet goes in the middle of a rush?

Billing carries on without internet. The bills catch up when the connection returns. Your counters do not stop.

Will it tell me when the atta is running low?

It shows each branch's stock of every item, and names your fast sellers. You or your manager can see at a glance which fast item is getting low in which branch. It does not place orders on its own.

We keep a huge number of items. Do we have to type them all in?

No. Vyavora reads the files you already keep, your item lists and old bills, instead of asking anyone to type them in again.

Can it show which items lose money?

Yes. It shows profit on each item, and names the ones you are selling for less than they cost you.

Does it track dates on packets?

No. It shows how long each item has been lying unsold in each branch. That tells you early which stock needs to go to the front shelf.

Your staples run out while your shelves are full. The money is on the wrong shelf.