Grocery Store Inventory Control

What is the importance of inventory control in grocery stores?
by Barry Barcode

When you ask a grocery store how well their inventory is controlled, a common answer may be “our warehouse inventory is properly controlled.” The issue with this response is it doesn’t give the aura of control within your own store, despite the knowledge of your wholesale supply. To know the ins and outs of your own grocery store inventory is a sleeper key to success.

Barcode scanners are a great way to feel autonomous over your entire supermarket. Reality is there are many markets who can not confidently say they know what’s on their shelves without taking a physical inventory. What if you could keep a better inventory without going through your shelves one by one and marking inventory? With barcode technology it is actually possible to get a bunch of that data in one place with as quick as a scan. Eyeballing inventory can also lead to overstocking, if items are located in different areas of the store, or are held in the back for inventory as well.

Barcode scanning can help:

• Manage time through identifying products quickly
• Potentially help to automate the buying process
• Make the automation of purchases less risky (less sitting inventory)
• Puts you in control of your inventory

Many smaller, independent markets also use physical pen and paper ordering sheets when making their orders. With a little bit of investment, they could better compete with the likes of supermarket chains, like Walmart and Kroger, easily with the added technology of barcode scanning your inventory.

You might not understand why you end up overstocked and there can be many reasons for it. The real killer is when you have sitting inventory that isn’t moving through the store quickly enough, possibly for months at a time. A helpful thing about scanning your inventory with barcodes is it can help you to identify these patterns within your inventory. What’s flying off of the shelves, what’s sitting around? All of the information scanned can be easily viewed on the computer to help catch patterns and possibly catch a new trend that could have otherwise been overlooked.

Everything is important, from meat and produce that may have timely expiration dates, to boxed dry goods that can sit on the shelves for a little longer. From breakfast to dinner, barcode technology will help to put this data into plain languages for your inventory control. With any more questions you can always call MIDCOM at (800) 643-2664 or chat us up on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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