Confessions of a Grocery stocker .

Mack12345 · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 02, 2008 Posts: 58

Hi guys ,
Some of you might remember me . I made a post a few weeks back regarding my observations in the grocery store in my area where I work as a stocker .
Well , since there was some intrest I felt I would update with a few new happenings that I feel might be peak oil / economic colapse related .
First of all , the normal forth of july sales spike never really happened this year . Sales did rise at my store but not by nearly as much as they did last year .
Even more interesting to me that the lackluster fourth of july sales were the sales distribution numbers . Normaly the sales distribution numbers show a large spike in sales for the following types of mercandise that we sell .
1. Fresh meats .. "Steaks, hamburgers, hotdogs" ect that are used typicaly at family BBQ's .. which are very popular in my part of the country . Astoundingly "to me anyway" sales in this area actualy dropped about 4% from last years numbers . This has never happened in my experience . Sales ALLWAYS trumkp the previous year at least slightly .
2. Fresh produce .. "Lettuce, onions, tomatoes, water melons" .. also trappings of the aformentioned family BBQ . While there was no real drop here .. the increase was so minimal that I would personaly consider the sales to have stagnated "failed to grow" in comparison to last year .
3. BBQ related novelty items.. "Grills , Aprons , tablecloths" These items suffered the most dramatic loss compared to last year .. an unprecidented "for my store" 23% drop off ... This has actualy let my management to start changeing Mods to remove these products and fill space with outher items with higher demand .
4 . Beer .. "Pretty sure yall know what that is" Beer sales faired the best ... gaining about 3% in sales over last year "Considered a very nice , if not earthshakeing gain .

Now the outher abnormality i have noted ... Some products that normal dont spike by a ton on the weekend of the fourth did indeed spike in sales .

These items "in adition to beer" .. are the following ..

1. Canned meats... "Spam, corned beef, potted meat"
2. Ramen noodles ... "Self explanitory"
3. icecream ... "Self explanitory"

While I do not have exact numbers .. these items all sold considerably well .. in my personal opinion PHENOMINALY well .. My store actualy ran completely out of ramen noodles on the saturday after the fourth .

I considered the facts interesting .. so I decided to share them with you guys/gals . Hope it dosent bore yall to much .

My location is south eastern tennessee .. if that is of intrest .

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As a sidenote ... Both Starkist and "Great value" Brand tunafish **Please note the great value brand is marketed at many different stores under a host of generic brand names**
Decresed there standard can size from 6oz to 5 oz in my store at least "as well as all near by grocerys ."
This was a "stelth price increse" as they downsized the amount while leaveing the price unchanged ... hopeing consumers will not notice .
Thought that might also be of some intrest to some of you ... seems more and more brands are doing this ,unknown to the average consumer .

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Now on a personal note ,
I would like to comment here on my own preperations for the impending colapse ... just on the off chance there might be advise or comments anyone wants to share .

Please remember I have only been peak oil aware for about 4 months .. so I have had to scramble to do what i can .

1 . My personal fitness has taken good strides .. after a lifetime as a 310lb couch potato I have dropped down to 260lbs ... My calistenics routine has advanced from my 5 pushup/sit up starting point to 25 of each .. everyday .
I also made a legit stab at quiting smokeing .. i failed .. I will try again soon .. this time im going to use the gum .
2 . Im happy to report I was able to trade out for a car thats much better on gas .
3. my food stockpile is still growing stedily ... id say with my current eating habits "WAY WAY lower than they were 6 months ago" I have a solid 2 month suply of food built up .
4 . i bought the first firearm I have owned in my life .. a shotgun ... I have ammo for it but i havent shot it yet . I am looking into getting a 9mm and joining a handgun club at the shooting range near my home .

To be honest thats about all I have acomplished so far .. but i feel I have at least done something .

Ok , well thank you all for your very informitive and helpfull posts here ... I hope my little contribution is of intrest to some of you .

Best regards ..

jlw61

Thanks! I wish we had more front line posters like you. The tuna thing caught me by surprise and I will be looking for that the next time I go shopping. I'm not greatly unhappy about it as 6 oz of tuna is more than my wife and I can eat at a meal after I've mixed it into some dish.

As for the other things, some of it just reflects my impression of what's happening at the grocery stores and helps explain why certain items (such as grilling accessories) are going away.

BTW, are strike-anywere matches readily available there? I found only one place so far that carries them here in central Virginia.

Also, recently there was a huge increase in soup prices, here... have you seen that, there?
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Heineken

Thanks for this interesting post, Mack, and for the time and effort you put into it.

Those "stealth" price increases are awfully disturbing. One wonders where they will eventually lead---to cans of tuna the size of bottle caps?

Do everything you can to achieve your goal of quitting smoking. It's a horribly difficult addiction to rid yourself of, but if other people have done it, so can you! They're no tougher than you are.

Consider getting a stationary bicycle or Nordic Track or just taking up a walking program. (I know, you may not feel like climbing on a bicycle after a shift stocking shelves!) Frequent aerobic exercise seems to work in opposition to the smoking habit.
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---Me and my brother

Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1448

Mack - I like you. Good job. Keep it up.
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Massive Human Dieoff must occur as a result of Peak Oil. Many more than half will die. It will occur everywhere, including where you live. If you fail to recognize this, then your odds of living move toward the "going to die" group.

emersonbiggins

6-oz Star-Kist tuna can was 95 cents at my grocery store yesterday. Ugh. Sad

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"It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."

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cbxer55

Very interesting topic! About the stealth price increase, my wife and I noticed it some time ago, starting with things like toilet paper and paper towels. Reduced number of sheets per roll, same price.
Just kind of figures everyone else will copy that M.O.

Good for you to get fit. I have been a regular exerciser since I graduated from high school in 1979. Absolutely there are days I don't feel like doing them. But I make an effort to do some anyways, that is called willpower.

About the guns. If you can in your state, look into getting a concealed weapon permit. This way you can have it on you stealthily all the time. Never know when you might need it, and chances are you will not be home when you do! Go to the range and shoot as often as you can, practice makes perfect. Gotta learn that fine trigger control, so when you pull that trigger, the gun does not flinch.

Keep up the great posts!
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"Better give me a lotta lumps, a whole lotta lumps!" Pete Puma, circa 1952

Kingcoal

Keep up the informative posts, Mack, it's good info. Sounds like people are cutting out the luxuries; Barbecues, steak a couple times a week, etc. Ramon noddles should do very well in the coming years!
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kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1100

Nice post, your input is an excellent addition to the site.

I have a few areas of interest in the supermarket industry that you may be able to shed some light on.

Out of stock items
Discontinued items
Delivery schedules
Sales volume per customer
Large volume packaging

Out of stock items. When an item is found to be out of stock for a brief period of time, do shoppers tend to skip that item or use a substitute brand? If substitution is the response, is there a tendency toward higher grade or lower grade products?

Discontinued items. I've projected in other posts that companies will discontinue product lines in order to streamline their operations. This would result in those items being discontinued at the store level without fanfare. Has this been occurring? To what extent? Does the store find a replacement product or simply frill the shelves with more of what they still carry?

Delivery schedules. Has the recent increase in fuel prices altered delivery times, frequency of trucks, capacity of trucks or any other trucking procedures?

Sales volume per customer. Has the number of items sold changed in any way. This may indicate that people are stocking up or altering their shopping frequency with extra purchases or cutting expenses with fewer purchases.

Large volume packaging. Is there a noticable trend in the bulk items, i.e. big sacks of sugar or flour vs the 5 pound sacks, family pack meats vs individual steaks, the big pack of toilet paper vs 4 rolls at a time.

Finally, I am interested in the ability of the store to respond quickly to a sharp increase in sales volume as a result of some external event. An example would be batteries and bottled water when a hurricane approaches. What would be the criteria for a store to receive a delivery out of its regular cycle.

Any information you can provide would help paint a picture of the trends as food and fuel prices rise.

Thank you.
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984

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Accept the Facts.

JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 290

thanks for posting, I work in a grocery store also. And keep trying to quit smoking. I did twelve years ago and wish I had never smoked a cigarette. Our local paper printed a list of stealth price increases, for example the sixteen ounce flat of bacon is now 12 ounces but the same price. Yesterday I was looking for something to eat for lunch, looking at the sardines, and i noticed 2/1.00, so I picked one up. It seems about the size of a quarter. I didn't look at the weight, but the can was like 2/3 the size of the old can, but in the SAME box (rattles around).
I work in produce, potatoes went from 2.99 to 7.99 a bag for an eight pound bag, everything else is falling in line. The last two weeks, my boss has come in gloating with record sales ceritificates saying we have set alltime store records for AWESOME UNPRECEDENTED SALES. He's really excited (he gets a percentage of sales, as did all employees until last year). I told him you will set record, unprecedented sales from here on out, as you are not selling any more, rather the prices are higher. He just stared at me.
He has been listening to myself and my co-worker talk about peak oil for two years now; he absolutely doesn't believe it. We were talking about the Fortis/6000 bank collapse thing last week when he left on vacation. When he came back this morning, my co-worker told him about Indymac and Fannie Mae/Freddy Mac. My co-worker said he looked like the gates of hell had just closed on him....

edit:
did you notice the size of the loaves of bread changed? four inches longer but an inch narrower all the way around...

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2361 Location: ^NNE^

Why the hell can't you get lemon juice anymore?

It seems always to be OS.
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"By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price

JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 290

Jack · Dark Lord Joined: Aug 11, 2004 Posts: 4957

Great post, Mack12345!

Thank you for your informative posts.

Cool

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burtonridr · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 536

I didnt even notice the change in the size of cans and things!!!

I did notice the can of mandarin oranges was just below 3/4 full from the can I just bought......

Ridiculous! Evil or Very Mad

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JJ · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 07, 2007 Posts: 290

Hogan · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 25, 2004 Posts: 1298

Thanks for that informative post, Mack12345. We need more people like you with inside information posting their personal observations. Please keep us updated regularly. Smile