> 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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walthamstow 3 days ago | parent [-]

Even if you're eating it tonight surely you want the freshest item? Most foods deteriorate after harvest.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 [-]

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