ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Get 80 convenience-store foodservice professionals in a room and the discussion will eventually lead to spoilage—the right amount of product you can expect will end up in the trash.
It fell to industry veteran Jerry Weiner, former vice president of foodservice at Rutter’s Farm Stores, to answer this sticky question (retirement didn’t last long for Weiner) during the recent C-Store Foodservice Forum hosted by CSP and Winsight.
Ready for his definitive response? Here goes.
There are two hurdles for spoilage. The first is realizing that it’s inevitable: If you want to get shoppers to trust you, you’re going to have to keep your coolers, warmers and roller grills brimming with a bounty of fresh, appetizing product. Some of that will go bad before it’s bought. Accept it.
Second: There’s no golden number for managing waste, no single metric to live and die by. Nor should you chase one.
Nonetheless, it took about 10 minutes for someone to ask Weiner for a number—or even a range.
It’s not that easy, Weiner argued. Spoilage depends on the type of program you have, as well as how new or mature it is. And anyway, you shouldn’t be driven by a spoilage goal; you should be driven by sales.
“Spoilage is not the enemy—it is, in fact, necessary. You just have to treat it as an expense,” said Weiner. “Drive the top line, manage the rest of the lines and you’ll find the bottom line.”
Fellow attendee John Bratta, vice president of marketing for South San Francisco, Calif.-based Core-Mark International, backed Weiner up: “Set a sales target, hit the sales target, and your spoils will fall in line—unless you’re doing something really bad.”
Weiner recommended retailers pull out spoilage and give it its own line in the P&L. (Wait, let’s back up: Yes, your foodservice program should have its own P&L.) This gives operations a line to manage, while also helping the executive office better understand what’s going on.
What about the practice of tying bonuses to spoils and sales? Weiner says it’s fine, but it should be weighted toward sales. A store with ridiculously low spoilage will likely have lower sales because of it, which will negatively affect the bonus potential.
“Saving the spoils of 47 cents on one [old sausage] is going to cost you hundreds of dollars [in sales],” he said.
When it comes to new rollouts, Weiner is even more adamant about the necessity of spoils: For the first three months, he’ll settle for any amount: “I don’t even want to hear the ‘S word’ in the first three months.”
Eventually, Weiner did acquiesce to a number—sort of: single digits, but that could differ for hot foods. He reminded attendees to not focus on it.
“If you drive controls, you drive yourself out of business,” he said. “If that’s the message you give to people out in the field, you’ll drive yourself out of business.”
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