I work in a low volume store. Our revenue numbers have been consistent. No steep drops or spikes in the five years I have been here. I survived whatever culling other stores have experienced recently with Simple Store.
Are other stores seeing what I am seeing:
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Extreme thinning out of candy, dry grocery and pet supplies. No new planograms or resets so remaining product is stretched across. We have an entire aisle that has become one box of cereal faced six times on the shelf, repeated the entire side. Coolers are filled with gallons of spring water, liters of smart sense sparkling drinks, and Gatorade instead of dairy, cheese and lunchmeat. At registers, we don't have enough candy to fill slots so they remain empty. Management here has been told by the DM not to pull the candy racks out and replace with general merchandise AND not to reset areas that are missing product.
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Trucks are down to once a week and since last week of January, when patio came in on a full truck, there has not been a full truck.
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Spring apparel is being advertised in store circulars along with swimwear and we have none of it in the store. It's not in the backroom -- we have absolutely nothing back there, not even large pack furniture or patio sets.
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Winter apparel clearance is at 70 percent off but is not signed because "the store will look empty real fast" according to our DM. We are in retail to sell merchandise, not sit on it.