| ▲ | 0xWTF 4 days ago |
| In case you haven't contemplated this logistics challenge before: the key is you need to stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their shelf life, transfer them out to other stores for actual consumption and back fill the emergency stores with fresh lots of new shelf stable products. You're just buying more shelf-stable supply once and then managing the transit through the supply chain with speed bump before the last mile. |
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| ▲ | throwawayqqq11 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| > stock shelf-stable products in these stores and at some point in their shelf life, transfer them out to other stores for actual consumption Back in my days in retail, we were ordered to put resupply as FILO into the shelfs. It makes sense to sell the oldest products first. So why the transfer shuffle? |
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| ▲ | zrobotics 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It's still FILO, the shuffle is needed for multiple locations. The emergency store keeps (for example) 5x the stock of canned beans, and feeds an area with 4 regular stores. They have 5x more stock then they could regularly sell, so if stock wasn't transferred then the canned beans would expire before they were sold. They need to transfer their surplus inventory to the 4 regular stores they feed before that stock ages, since in regular use they won't sell them in time. Since I've had to deal with a similar issue professionally, maybe think of a retailer with 5 distribution warehouses and 50 stores. Normally you want to pick from the closest distribution warehouse to minimize transport costs. However, for food items that expire sometimes it might make sense to pick from the furthest warehouse if their stock is getting older, you need to optimize both for transport costs and the cost of having to throw food away. It's beyond a HN comment, and I'd have to review what isn't NDA, but the optimization math for such a scenario gets both really complicated and really interesting. Hope this clarifies why they would be moving stick though. | | |
| ▲ | estimator7292 3 days ago | parent [-] | | This is a pretty common mechanism in several markets. I worked in the big paint store chain in the US and the local setup was a lot like this. Every store had as much stock as they can physically hold, and no two have the same capacity. It was a daily occurrence to shuttle stock to and from nearby locations, and very common for a small store to have a nearby large store order and hold stock for a job too big for the origin store to handle. We also had commercial stores spread out which were in essence local warehouses. Those stores spent a large part of their time handling stock transfers. They held specialty products small stores rarely need and couldn't justify the minimum order quantity. It's a lot more efficient and much faster than having product shipped across the country. |
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| ▲ | willvarfar 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Isn't selling older products first first-in-first-out (FIFO) instead of first-in-last-out (FILO)? </hn programmer pedantry> | | |
| ▲ | riffraff 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Thanks for asking this, I'm also confused and I thought I must be misunderstanding what FILO means in this context. Perhaps fresh in, last out? | |
| ▲ | rekoil a day ago | parent | prev [-] | | I also reacted to this and came to the same conclusion as you. |
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| ▲ | netfortius 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > FILO Hard to address the consumers' tendency to "reach out in the back", to get longer expiration time products. | | |
| ▲ | Cthulhu_ 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | That's only a minority though (like me), most just pick whatever is convenient. I think it really depends on how fast they eat stuff. But a lot of stuff is only dated for two weeks here. | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Honestly it seems like I am the only one in my local Aldi who does this. I see people picking up fish that is three days older than the one at the back. | | |
| ▲ | jon-wood 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I can only speak for myself here but I don't bother rummaging around for longer expiries because generally I'm buying food that I'm going to eat within the next 2-3 days. It just doesn't make any difference to me. | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Even if you're eating it tonight surely you want the freshest item? Most foods deteriorate after harvest. | | |
| ▲ | HankStallone 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | It would feel socially rude of me to take the freshest item from the back, knowing I don't need it, leaving the older ones to someone who might not have time to cook as soon. Someone has to take take the one in front, or the store has to throw it out, creating waste and ultimately raising prices for everyone. Seems kinda like farting in a crowded room and then slipping out the door. | | |
| ▲ | ahartmetz 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I do that, too. Why take something that I don't need, but somebody else might? |
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| ▲ | jon-wood 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Meh, most things I’m never going to tell the difference in a few days freshness. We’re very good at preserving things with packaging now, and my cooking skill is going to have a much larger impact than the ingredients being marginally fresher. |
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| ▲ | clan 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Around here it is quite common to do with dairy products. I however choose not to do so quite deliberately. I want to avoid food waste. I just check the date is "good enough". My regular shop has a good enough flow that I usually pick from the front. Food waste is a trending concern around here. But I think you and I who cares about shelf life belongs to the same minority. The majority has enough other worries and does not spend bandwidth to care as it is usually good enough. I consider fish a "fresh" item and care more for looks and smell. Same as with vegetables. But I hate people who prod everything - that is detrimental to the product. | | |
| ▲ | Cthulhu_ 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Some dairy products here - milk mainly - moves so fast there's only ever one expiration date available, lol. | | |
| ▲ | conorcleary 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Also can't rule out the 'OCD' types who don't want a gap left in the shelf where they've taken the product, so they remove one from the back |
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| ▲ | jonbiggums22 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | But the reason people do this is also food waste. If the food expires at my house it still goes in the garbage, the only difference is I'm also the one that got stuck paying for it. It isn't like there's a discount based on the expiration date. |
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| ▲ | ssl232 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | The greatest downside to online grocery delivery is that you can’t then do this. | | |
| ▲ | matsemann 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I work for an online grocer, and I really do think it's not really an issue due to two things for us: * the amount of stock going through one fulfillment center instead of landing on shelves in smaller stores, means we never have old products laying around. The cucumber you get from us came in a few hours ago. The one in your store has been laying there for days and touched by many. 10 stores each need their own buffer to handle variable demand and thus overstock and get deliveries for certain products rarely. We don't. Our spoilage is so so low compared to traditional stores.
* anyways, to alleviate the fears of ordering something that's about to expire, we guarantee x amount of days for perishable products. | | |
| ▲ | ssl232 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Some supermarkets in the UK (e.g. Waitrose) literally just pick items already out and on display in the local store to give to delivery customers. So you’re getting whatever is at the front of the shelf in your local store, which is the least fresh. | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I know for a fact that the orange supermarket encourages pickers to pick the least fresh item |
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| ▲ | Cthulhu_ 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | What I found (but this was during the panny-D) that only grocery stuff had an even longer shelf life than the store itself, that is, it was really fast moving stuff apparently. |
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| ▲ | HumanOstrich 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | That's a paddlin'. |
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| ▲ | 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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| ▲ | tshaddox 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is that so? I presumed they would always be open as normal stores, but prepared to stay open as “emergency stores” when necessary. |
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| ▲ | paranoidrobot 4 days ago | parent [-] | | They are normal stores. The OP is talking about how they handle keeping fresh stock of products with lower sales volume. (Or at least, that's the way I'm reading it) |
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| ▲ | cl0ckt0wer 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What is the difference between this and a slightly larger warehouse? |
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| ▲ | schainks 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | One of the design requirements is no one should be located more than 50km from a store, so I wouldn't be surprised if larger warehouses are part of the plan when that 50km radius includes densely populated areas. | | |
| ▲ | Cthulhu_ 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Yeah I was about to say, I think it makes some sense for warehouses to also have an open store where people can buy things in bulk. |
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| ▲ | vasco 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Marketing | |
| ▲ | autoexec 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Intent and the number of goods kept on hand. |
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| ▲ | Razengan 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What if people could have large residential storage units in their neighborhoods and apartment complexes, where everyone could stock up on their own personal supply as needed? |
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| ▲ | 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | lm28469 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | 90% of people won't do it | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 4 days ago | parent [-] | | They will in small countries with high trust and community, near to Russia and currently or formerly having national service. In fat, lazy, individualist countries like the UK and US? No way. | | |
| ▲ | dredmorbius 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45155471> <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...> | |
| ▲ | guappa 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Source for this obviously false statement? | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Did the guy above source their made-up number? For the positive, see Finland, which is working hard to be a very well-prepared nation. Heavy buy-in from all across the populace. Exactly the kind of nation I was talking about - their survival depends on it. Poland, Sweden, Denmark all doing similar. For the negative, see UK and US during COVID. The individualism that has underpinned society since Thatcher/Reagan as made us less likely be prepared, less likely to look out for our neighbour. Both are isolated by water, so we're naturally less bothered about invasion. | | |
| ▲ | guappa 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I live in sweden and I can tell you that over here it's all idle talk, nothing and nobody is prepared for anything at all. And the only ones who do buy-in are gun lovers and preppers, which are not a major demographic. | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | But if the time came, would you trust your neighbour to do the right thing? Sweden is a high-trust society based on friends in London and from visits there, especially outside Stockholm. The UK and US are definitely not. I thought I had read that Sweden had made some changes to military service recently, is that not true? | | |
| ▲ | victorbjorklund 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | I'm from Sweden, I 100% would not trust my neighbors. Sure, maybe if you live in a tiny tiny village in the countryside, but if that's the case you probably have the same thing if you're living in a tiny tiny village in a in the US too. Like that's more of an effect of living in a very small village, not anything about the country. And regarding the changes to the military, that is still a very small amount of people who are doing the basic conscription service. | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Interesting, thanks. Doesn't Swedish have a word for community responsibility, are you saying that sense is breaking down in modern Sweden, that people no longer feel that responsibility? Friends in London seem to talk about it as if we don't have it in the UK (I know that's true) but that Sweden does. | | |
| ▲ | guappa 3 days ago | parent [-] | | You have to understand that sweden does a lot of marketing but at the end of the day it's just marketing. Things here aren't nearly as great as everyone abroad imagines them to be. Not claiming it's a bad place to live in or that there aren't worse places, but the high trust society thing is a myth. I've had my wallet disappear while I fell asleep on the shore of a lake, in one of those tiny villages where everybody knows each other for example :) |
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| ▲ | guappa 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | > But if the time came, would you trust your neighbour to do the right thing? You don't know anything about sweden, clearly. The only people I speak to in the neighborhood are immigrants and homeless people who live in the nearby shelter. > I thought I had read that Sweden had made some changes to military service recently, is that not true? Yeah they are wasting time and money with conscription. Very useful. | | |
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| ▲ | lm28469 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Have you been to these countries lol ? It's not like they're all preppers who could be fully self sufficient in case of an alert, not even for 3 days. The people in Warsaw, Stockholm and Copenhagen aren't more prepared than the people in Madrid or NYC, most people in medium/large cities give 0 shit about these scenarios, they're the same as everywhere else. Having studied in Denmark I can tell you that if anything the Danish youth is even more oblivious to risks in general given that they live in such an utopia. The state and older generations might be more aware of their perilous position but that's about it. | | |
| ▲ | walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-] | | I've been to most of them, though since COVID only to Denmark. I have friends in London from all of them too, and my cousin from London lives in Stockholm. In my opinion, and that's all I have here, they are much, much more likely to do the right thing for their neighbour in an emergency than a Briton or American. All of my friends from Baltic nations are concerned about Russia. All of them. Maybe its an age thing, we're early 30s and some have children. |
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| ▲ | victorbjorklund 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah, this is not true. |
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| ▲ | bauruine 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. /s All my shelf stable products have been in my pantry for a few months before I even open them. You can do FILO yourself and have always a nice emergency supply and it can even cheaper because you can buy the stuff on sale most of the time. The problem is that many people just buy day to day and already have a problem when the shops are closed for a holiday they haven't anticipated because they buy just in time. | | |
| ▲ | Razengan 4 days ago | parent [-] | | > Or even better we could build cupboards in the aparments and people just keep their personal supply. Hate having to annotate explanations to obvious things but I guess it wasn't obvious: Stock up for the next few months. (after paying for it) If they don't need/use it, it gets redistributed. (from the local shared storage unit) | | |
| ▲ | bauruine 4 days ago | parent [-] | | I'm sorry but it really wasn't obvious for me. So like an online shop for groceries but they don't deliver it to your home but at this shared storage location? Doesn't realy change the second part of my answer though. People could already keep some stock at home right now but most just don't. I don't see how such a shared storage would change that. Also stock up for a few months is what the government is for at least where I live. [0] Personel emergency supplies are only for the time till the government can start distributing their own stocks. [0]: https://www.bwl.admin.ch/en/we-advise-emergency-supplies |
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| ▲ | masfuerte 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| This is completely obvious, yet before covid the British government paid a private company to fill warehouses with face masks, etc. By the time covid started all of this PPE had gone past its use by date. The incompetence is breathtaking. |
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| ▲ | wallopinski 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
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