{"id":5123,"date":"2015-12-09T17:21:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T22:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/"},"modified":"2015-12-09T17:25:33","modified_gmt":"2015-12-09T22:25:33","slug":"grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery Outlet: Christmas cereal in July"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grocery Outlet: if you’re a grocery store, you probably want to be a specialty retailer<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

Grocery Outlet is a privately held \u2018extreme-value\u2019 grocery chain serving price conscious consumers with 210+ stores across California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Pennsylvania (Company Website<\/em>).\u00a0 By offering its customers the lowest available pricing on non-perishable items through a unique sourcing partnership with CPG suppliers, Grocery Outlet has created a profitable and winning grocery business. With a long track record of strong same-store-sales growth and a unit base that has almost doubled in the past 5 years, Grocery Outlet is a good example of a company with a highly effective union between operating and business models.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/DK0z9WNqfs0<\/a><\/p>\n

Business Model: More like a\u00a0model business<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Grocery Outlet plays a unique role in the grocery supply chain connecting price conscious consumers with overstock, damaged or rapidly aging inventory that consumer packaged goods companies are not able to place (or do not want to place) in their traditional distribution channels.\u00a0 Grocery Outlet opportunistically buys inventory from over 3,000 suppliers at prices far below wholesale value (https:\/\/groceryoutlet.com\/news\/grocery-outlet-announces-partnership-hellman-friedman<\/em>).\u00a0 It then works to move these items off its shelves with rapid stocking into their stores and bargain pricing.<\/p>\n

As a result of its unique sourcing capabilities, Grocery Outlet offers the lowest prices on an eclectic mix of dry and packaged goods groceries, a price that can be up to 60% lower than competitors and a selection that covers less than 1\/10 of what a traditional store offers (Company Website<\/em>; http:\/\/business.time.com\/2010\/06\/21\/big-expansion-for-grocery-outlet-a-favorite-among-frugal-foodies-in-the-west\/<\/em>).\u00a0 The Company embraces the ever-changing nature of its inventory and markets the \u2018treasure hunt\u2019 nature of the shopping experience to a value-conscious consumer base that is willing to sacrifice choice for superior pricing. \u00a0By combining extraordinarily low prices with a family atmosphere created by Grocery Outlet\u2019s franchisees, Grocery Outlet has capitalized on the weak economy and increasingly fragmented consumer buying behavior to build lasting loyalty amongst its customers.<\/p>\n

Operating Model: Move product, make money<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Grocery Outlet\u2019s business model is enabled by opportunistic sourcing capabilities. Grocery Outlet has a large team of expert buyers with established relationships and a deep understanding of CPG production timing.\u00a0 Buyers proactively reach out to CPG companies to purchase excess\/aging product that CPGs are willing to sell at deep discount as an alternative to disposal. \u00a0The scale of Grocery Outlet\u2019s store network enables Grocery Outlet to act as the sole buyer of excess product, if necessary, and simplifies the acquisition of product.<\/p>\n

A meaningful fraction of the product that Grocery Outlet sources is approaching expiration. Once a batch of product has been contracted for sale, Grocery Outlet is able to move the product to market in highly efficient fashion. Grocery Outlet has centrally located distribution centers to aggregate product that is delivered either by CPG or Grocery Outlet trucks.\u00a0 From these warehouses, the product is expeditiously pushed out to individual stores which have flexible and no-frills shelving displays to handle various amounts of product and packaging sizes.\u00a0 \u00a0The geographic concentration of the store base further allows the Company to get product on the shelf with haste.<\/p>\n

To drive in store efficiency, independent franchisees are compensated on store performance and given an extraordinary degree of operational control.\u00a0 Store operators have control over all aspects of store operations from layout to pricing and are empowered to customize the presentation of product to drive high inventory turnover and maintain margins. \u00a0The Company also invests heavily in technologies to improve its supply chain transparency and information sharing between corporate warehouses and individual operators. Grocery Outlet\u2019s information systems provide insight into product availability in the warehouses and allow operators to communicate demand for particularly product categories.<\/p>\n

Why you can’t be Grocery Outlet<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Grocery Outlet\u2019s low-cost value proposition and \u2018treasure hunt\u2019 shopping experience for customers is built around the Company\u2019s ability to buy and move product at deep discount to wholesale pricing.\u00a0 Grocery Outlet\u2019s ability to source, place and sell a large amount of overstock and expiring product consistently is a differentiating capability.\u00a0 Grocery Outlet\u2019s team of buyers have deep industry knowledge and the Company\u2019s concentrated and scale store network, carefully picked and incentivized franchisee base and logistics capabilities facilitate the Company\u2019s ability to efficiently move the random, expiring assortment of product from its shelves into the hands of consumers. \u00a0The importance of geography and franchisees to GO’s success require the Company to be thoughtful about expansion, making sure to\u00a0target\u00a0contiguous states and maintain\u00a0retail density.<\/p>\n

With alignment between operations and business strategy, Grocery Outlet delights both suppliers and customers. Thanks to Grocery Outlet\u2019s role as a credible buyer of scale, CPGs can lower the costs of mismatched supply and demand and moderate the bullwhip effect in the supply chain while young Roberts in Califonia get to eat Santa-branded Frosted Flakes in late spring. \u00a0The savings are GREAT!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smell the milk before you drink it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":608,"featured_media":5124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[56],"class_list":["post-5123","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grocery"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/the-tom-challenge-tom-winners-and-losers-assignment\/","yoast_head":"\nGrocery Outlet: Christmas cereal in July - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grocery Outlet: Christmas cereal in July - Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Smell the milk before you drink it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Technology and Operations Management\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-09T22:25:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/12\/grocery-outlet-picture.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"348\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"123\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/grocery-outlet-christmas-cereal-in-july\/\",\"name\":\"Grocery Outlet: Christmas cereal in July - 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