All 30 of them sold. They sell a lot better than that stupid artisan bread they keep trying to cram down everybody's throat. I'm still not convinced that someone isn't being paid under the table for us to carry that bread. We're not allowed to mark it down and we probably throw away half of it or more, and that's after slicing it the following day and giving it another day's shelf life.
Speaking of markdowns, they made us move the markdown racks over to the dairy department. Their thinking is when people come to the bakery and see the markdowns they'll buy stuff at reduced price rather than full price. It doesn't work that way. If someone really wants or needs an item, they'll buy it regardless of the price. However, there are many people who either buy stuff at reduced price or don't buy it at all. This morning both markdown racks were still full. I even scanned out sweet goods, and that's never happened before.
I recently found the bakery standards booklet, "standards" states the markdown rack to be placed with the Grocery "clearance" area. Moving it to dairy I believes does 2 things, It raises Bakery Sales because people that are inclined to purchase will by a non-markdown item and moving markdown into a high traffic area gets non-baker shopper to see the items without a larger variety.
I recently found the bakery standards booklet, "standards" states the markdown rack to be placed with the Grocery "clearance" area. Moving it to dairy I believes does 2 things, It raises Bakery Sales because people that are inclined to purchase will by a non-markdown item and moving markdown into a high traffic area gets non-baker shopper to see the items without a larger variety.
Nope, it has the opposite efffect. Keeping the markdown rack in bakery increases sales. When the markdown rack is in the bakery, someone might come along and grab an item from it and then see another item in the bakery and decide to buy it too at full price. The markdown rack draws people to the bakery that normally wouldn't bother to ship that area. When you mark down milk, you don't move it over to the produce department. It's the same way with meat. You don't mark it down and then move it across the store to another department. You keep it in the same department to draw people in and possibly buy more than just the marked down items. I don't care what theories you have about high traffic areas. I know facts and I have 30 years experience to back them up.
I can confirm that since we are putting the markdown rack in the dairy department, we are scanning out more markdowns for donations every day than before... then they get on us about markdown % effectiveness....
""Nope, it has the opposite effect. Keeping the markdown rack in bakery increases sales. When the markdown rack is in the bakery, someone might come along and grab an item from it and then see another item in the bakery and decide to buy it too at full price. The markdown rack draws people to the bakery that normally wouldn't bother to ship that area. When you mark down milk, you don't move it over to the produce department. It's the same way with meat. You don't mark it down and then move it across the store to another department. You keep it in the same department to draw people in and possibly buy more than just the marked down items. I don't care what theories you have about high traffic areas. I know facts and I have 30 years experience to back them up.""
Amen to that! One of the biggest "pet peeves" mentioned by customers is their confusion caused by items not placed in the area where 'common sense' says they should be, or being moved around too much. College graduates sitting in the Kroger corporate office might think of these dumb ideas (like they are amateur psychologists) but it doesn't always work in the 'real world". Customers get SICK of all the moving around of products.... reminds me of Musical Chairs.... being foisted on them.
-- Edited by Kroger-Employee on Tuesday 27th of March 2018 08:57:18 AM
I have been in the bakery department for over a year now. We always had our mark down rack in the dairy department. There is hardly anything to scan out the next day.
If your mark down rack was recently moved then maybe customers don't know where it is yet.
Grocerys mark downs are in dairy as well. And then nonfoods is on an end cap by aisle 4.
The Walmart and Albertsons stores in my area do the exact same thing; the reduced bakery products can be found in the dairy department. Whatever the actual reason may be, Walmart, Albertsons and Kroger all put the reduced bakery items over there.
I think you are not selling as many markdowns as you used to because as you say, it was just recently moved to new location. Give people some time to find it or let them know as they walk by.
But I also agree, that markdown racks should be in the department. If it's at some other place, I find plastic bags with brand new produce abandoned on our produce markdown rack. Left there by people who chose to buy marked down item instead of fresh produce they already had in their shopping cart. So I don't really believe that moving markdown rack out of your department increases sales of fresh product. It can actually cause shrink when we find produce too late to return it to the shelf undamaged.
Give people option. Some will not buy if it's not marked down. Some will buy no matter what. Keep it all in one place to reduce shrink.
