Shoppers seek health guidance, personal service: study

Consumers are willing to shop at regional food chains and independents who offer significant points of competitive difference, according to a report conducted for the National Grocers Association by Phil Lempert, the Supermarket Guru and a contributing editor to SN.

“The more personalized the shopping experience at friendly, nimble regional supermarkets, the greater their edge over retailers less connected to communities and less empowered to please people as personal situations arise,” the study said.

According to the study, which was conducted late last year among the chief shopper in nearly 1,400 households, consumers want more nutritional support to help them eat healthier, with more professionals on the selling floor to help guide their buying decisions; time-saving checkouts; new products that help avoid meal tedium; a feeling of safety around the store; marketing and promotional programs tailored to their specific needs; and online ordering services.

“Regional mastery of these points helps overcome regionals’ lack of financial clout to strike deals as deeply as big-box, online and near-national competitors,” the study pointed out.

The survey’s findings included the following:
• The number of respondents rating “accurate shelf tags” as very important rose 5 points from last year’s survey, to 79.6%, “[which] shows how closely shoppers are watching their wallets.”

• Personal safety outside the store was considered very important by 64.5% of respondents, 3 points higher than a year ago, “[which] shows it’s not just what’s inside the store that counts.”

• The number of respondents rating “courteous, friendly employees” as very important rose 10 points to 59.2%, “[which] shows people want to be appreciated and respected for the business they give a retailer.”

• Those rating “convenient location” as very important rose nearly 17% to 53%, reflecting tight time constraints and high gas prices. “But location still provides no lock on consumers in a neighborhood [because] there is too much competition,” it noted.

• The number of respondents rating “fast checkout” as very important rose nearly 9 points to 48.9%. “People are tantalizingly close to the store exit and want to expedite this part of the shopping trip,” the report explained.

• “Easier store layouts” were cited by 51.2% of respondents, up almost 8 points from a year earlier, “[because] navigable aisles mean time saved for shoppers and fewer distractions from the purpose of their trip.”

• The number of respondents who said they spend more than half their fresh-food dollars in supermarkets rose to 85.9%, the highest total ever.

The survey said the strength of fresh foods dovetails with consumers’ desire to eat healthier and to seek advices from nutritionists and dietitians, who were rated behind the Internet as the most trusted resource for nutritional information, ahead of industry journals, magazines and physicians. However, it found 53.1% of respondents said the presence of dietitians was poor.

“If this reflects demand for a more visible dietitian presence on the selling floor, it suggests a way food stores could add to their wellness authority and help people eat smarter overall,” the report stated.

Among other findings:
• Asked about their preferred store size, 55.7% said they like stores of between 30,000 and 50,000 square feet.

• Asked what improvements they would like to see, 36.1% of respondents said price savings; 31.1% said more locally grown foods; and 25.2% said they wanted more variety.

• Asked whether they were more likely to shop in a supermarket that supports causes, 30.7% said no and 16.1% said yes, with others citing pricing and the specific cause as determining factors. However, 56% said they would not mind if prices rose to allow for donations “as long as the price difference was no more than 2%.”

The top causes consumers said they want supermarkets to support were relieving hunger; education; supporting people in disaster-stricken areas; environment; disease prevention; and veterans.

• Asked how to improve the checkout experience, 51.4% said they want more open lanes to reduce wait time; 21.8% said they wanted cashiers and baggers to be more careful handling merchandise; and 18% said they’d like more self-checkouts.

• Just over 20% of respondents said they spend more than $136 a week on food in all stores, with nearly one-third of consumers shopping twice a week and another third once a week.

• Asked what concerns them most about the foods they eat, 19.3% of respondents mentioned a desire to be healthy or to eat what’s good for them, while 16.1% cited chemical additives.

Reprinted from www.supermarketnews.com

Windows XP Support Ending in April 2014

With Microsoft’s recent announcement that they will continue support for anti-malware for Windows XP through 2015, many are confused.  To clarify the situation, Microsoft has not extended any support for Windows XP,
just their anti-malware that will run on it.

To be sure that you continue your PCI qualification you must upgrade or replace any Windows XP computers with an updated operating system like Windows 7 or newer at within 30 days of the April 8, 2014 deadline.  Without security patches you will not be able to comply with the following PCI rule.

PCI Rule - 6.2 Ensure that all system components and software are protected from known vulnerabilities by installing applicable vendor-supplied security patches. Install critical security patches within one month of release.

Note: Critical security patches should be identified according to the risk ranking process defined in Requirement 6.1.

Please contact your STCR, Inc. salesperson for further information about any upgrades you may need for your point of sale system at sales@stcr.com or 607-757-0181.

The announcement from Microsoft can be reviewed here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/mmpc/archive/2014/01/15/microsoft-antimalware-support-for-windows-xp.aspx

Common Receipt Printer Issues: Prevention and Solutions

One of the most critical components on your front end is the customer receipt printer. A properly functioning printer gives your customer a clear record of what they have purchased, where they have

purchased from, as well as any promotional messages you want them to receive. The IBM/Toshiba 4610 printer is designed to handle the demands of your business, giving years of reliable service.

You can ensure the print quality on your machines by following some of the easy cleaning recommendations from IBM/Toshiba. Clean the printer cover with a soft cloth and warm soapy water. Apply the soap to the cloth, not directly to the printer.  Do not use abrasive materials or harsh chemicals such as ammonia or chlorine. The thermal and check printing heads can be cleaned by gently wiping them with cotton swabs soaked in isopropyl alcohol. Check the paper loading area for build up of dust and miscellaneous debris.
If you do have a situation where the printer will not function correctly, here is a list of common conditions and resolutions:

1)      Printer has no power:  Check the printer cable and verify it is plugged into the printer and the register. Power off the register before restoring any connections.
2)      Paper advances but receipt is blank: Check to see that the paper roll is inserted right-side up.
3)      Document Insert Station is not printing: Verify that there are no obstructions where the check is inserted. Verify the ribbon is not in need of replacement.
4)      The printer-ready light is flashing: Ensure that the paper and ribbon doors are closed. Re-insert the paper roll, and advance a small length of paper.

When the printer does require service make sure to note the serial number on the unit. This can be found either on the front or just inside the check flipper area.

Remember to check your printer supply levels periodically. Using the best quality paper and ribbons will ensure premium print quality. Call STCR 800-776-6576 for your supply order today!

LaneHawk LH4000 Solution

LaneHawk™ LH4000 is a loss prevention solution that turns the bottom-of-the-basket (BOB) into profits in real-time.  The LaneHawk LH4000 unit detects and recognizes items as part of the
transaction, making sure stores get paid for their BOB items.  The LaneHawk LH4000 unit reduces shrink, increases revenue and is designed to pay for itself in less than 12 months.

A smart camera is flush-mounted in the checkout lane at foot level, continuously watching for items on the bottom of shopping carts.  Using Visual Pattern Recognition (ViPR™) software, the camera is able to detect and recognize items that pass by the camera and then send the UPC information directly to the POS.  At tender time, the cashier verifies the items that were found under the basket, scans those items and then finalizes the transaction.

ViPR™ Software

A database of high resolution images (called a modelset) is created containing the product packaging of common BOB items. ViPR extracts key points (feature points) from these images that create a unique identifying pattern for each UPC, similar to a fingerprint.

When a product passes the LaneHawk LH4000 unit, an image is captured of the product and the ViPR software is used to extract feature points from that image.  The ViPR software is then able to identify the product by matching the pattern of feature points in the image to the patterns of feature points stored in the modelset.  These computations are streamlined to produce results in a fraction of a second, which allows the recognition to happen in real-time.

 

Advantages

Reduced Shrink and Rapid ROI: Helps boost profits per lane (per day) by up to 10%, leading to a quick return on investment (ROI) of less than 12 months.

Integration with Your POS System in Real-time:  No other BOB solution is able to recognize a BOB item and then automatically send the item description and UPC information directly to the POS.

Flexible, Cost-effective Scalability:  The LaneHawk LH4000 loss prevention unit leverages open, industry-standard technologies to allow you to easily incorporate next-generation retail technologies into your store infrastructure.

 

Training of Cashiers

 

LaneHawk LH4000 unit requires minimal cashier training and operates within the transaction workflow.  The cashier is not interrupted until he/she is ready to process the BOB items. Productivity is enhanced and BOB items cannot be ignored.

Copied from the Datalogic ADC Web

Finding and Keeping Hardworking Employees

In today’s world, it is difficult to find loyal, hard-working associates who will stay with the company for the long haul.  Here are some tips for finding and keeping the kind of employee you are looking for.

 

A well-matched employee is going to be more loyal, and therefore will take less effort to retain.  If you take your time and invest your efforts in hiring the right person the first time, it will also help in cutting costs of having to keep hiring people when one doesn’t work out. The perfect fit in a new hire should balance out your staff, and blend right in.

Practicing fairness is very important across all levels of employees within a company. Any person will react when they feel like they are a victim of unfairness.  It is important to have a feel for how employees are reacting to they way they are treated.

Recognition is also an important key to keeping a stellar employee.  Incentives for a job well done are always a great idea to motivate staff to be more productive.  Although sometimes just telling an associate that they have done a great job on something as simple as making a customer smile goes a long way.  People like to feel noticed in a positive aspect.

Managing Your Customer Service Department

Customer service is often the trickiest department to manage.  The positions rarely produce any direct income, and at many companies, those in customer service positions are often some of the lowest-paid, least-trained staff on hand.

Those same underpaid, under-trained team members are responsible for the majority of your company's interactions with customers.  You can maintain high customer service standards by looking for these signs of serious trouble.

No Contact With Marketing:  A smart company understands that its customer service department is the top marketing investment for the company.  Keeping existing customers costs less, and brings in more, than finding new ones.  Your customer service representatives should understand your company's key marketing message and how to incorporate it into a call.

A Wide Open Back Door:  If your ratio of sales leads to actual sales is low, that means your sales force needs improvement.  If your ratio of new sales to repeat sales is low—or you have a high cancellation rate in a subscription-based business—it's time to take a hard look at what's wrong in your customer service department.

Temptation to Forbid Social Media:  If you're tempted to enact a policy like this, first ask yourself why your customer service representatives would be tempted to badmouth the job, the product or your company.  If your customer service people don't believe in what they're doing, your problems run deeper than what they might say online about your business.

Too Few Complaints:  Every company receives complaints.  If you aren't hearing about many opportunities to improve, that doesn't mean everything's going great.  It means that either your staff isn't telling you about them or your customers aren't bothering to contact you.

Too Many Escalations:  Some situations are too delicate or complex for your front-line customer service people to handle.  If they have to go to a higher tier of service that means your customer service people are either under-trained or under-empowered.  Find a way to give them the knowledge and authority to fix the problems customers are bringing to them.

High Daily Absenteeism:  If your unplanned absenteeism numbers are high, with a lot of people calling in sick frequently, that could mean your employees aren't happy at work.  Unhappy customer service representatives quickly translate into unhappy customers.

Shrink the Shrink: Waging the Battle Against Loss

Inventory "shrink" is the retail jargon for ceaseless loss of purchased inventory for sale.  Interestingly, the Food Marketing Institute in 2011 found only 36% was due to theft, while the other 64% was discovered to be the result of deficiencies in store operations and procedures.  There are both simple ideas and sophisticated solutions to address this challenge.

 

Overripe produce is something that needs to be monitored closely.  Inspect stock routinely taking quick resourceful action sending select items to the deli or prepared foods to be used as ingredients.  Find creative ways to display items at or near the checkout to lure last minute impulse purchases.

 

Theft deterrence is sometimes easily achieved by well placed employees stocking in high theft aisles at various times or floating around the store approaching customers asking if they need any assistance.  This technique both discourages shoplifters while also improving your customer service image with your clientele.

 

Ongoing cashier training can go a long way to help reduce shrink at the POS.  Simply not being able to differentiate cheaper mass-produced lettuce and higher-priced artisan lettuce negatively impacts the grocery store's profits, also impacting accurate inventory management.  Some cashiers may find it easier to hand-key merchandise and coupons instead of following best practices of reporting and addressing scanning issues immediately to ensure accuracy.

 

Your POS exception reporting is a commonly underutilized tool in the fight against shrink.  Personalizing the various data capture settings to your environment provides management with timely, accurate, relevant, and most importantly actionable information to audit and control the POS operations.  It allows for management to standardize and evaluate performance expectations.  If requirements are not being met, a report can be reviewed with the employee to decide on appropriate action to re-train, re-assign, or terminate as needed.  They can also be used to identify top performers and goal achievements to promote quality and productivity.

 

Those are some simple techniques to combat the menace of shrink; however, today's world also provides a number of technological advances designed to assist merchants with controlling and reducing shrink.  These innovations deliver a much more substantial and measurable return on their investment, making their purchase a no-brainer for savvy retailers.  Take for instance Datalogic's LaneHawk solution that helps eliminate the bottom-of-the-basic loss all grocers abhor thinking about.  Another cutting-edge solution called Hawkeye 20/20 Advanced Video Auditing and Reporting by Agilence is a real game changer.  It offers an advanced managed service combining video, pricing, and transaction data analysis, moving far beyond current exception reporting capabilities; allowing retailers to not only identify more instances of fraud, but also to identify other sources of shrink, such as packaging, pricing, promotional, and operational problems, that are not written to the transaction log (Tlog).  These common instances can only be discovered by integrating each line-item scan with a corresponding frame of video and having a powerful query tool to root out the causes of these losses.  It's truly the dawn of a new era in loss prevention.

 

Let's face it, every Grocer must apply all the best practices in their arsenal to fight shrink in their business.  New weapons are available.  In today's hyper-competitive landscape these technologies are enabling the progressive grocers to leverage the advantages offered and win the war.  You should always ask yourself what more can I do and look to realize these same competitive advantages to grow your business.  Consult with STCR's knowledgeable representatives.  They can help you get the solutions and the services needed to integrate these proven methods into your business and you can be the winner!