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the_original_Retro t1_ja7xqvf wrote

Reply to comment by SmackEh in ELI5: why do grocery stores in the US keep such a large inventory? Aside from being prepared for episodic panic buying like toilet paper or bottled water, is there an economic reason to do this? How much of the food ends up going bad? by DrEverythingBAlright

Adding Customer Appeal as a big factor as well.

A lot of "exotic" products on store shelves simply don't move. You can see some stuff there that has clearly not been getting much sales.

So why does the store even carry it then, if they could put something there in its place that would probably sell more?

The answer is because that weird item might be the ONE reason a customer goes to THAT store rather than A DIFFERENT store that doesn't carry it. And while inside, that customer thinks "Hey, I need milk and bread too... and oh, wow, an extra vegetable for tomorrow night's soup, and... and... and..."

By keeping slow-selling items in stock, stores can attract customers to them. So a percentage of their space is reserved for low-demand inventory.

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invalidmail2000 t1_ja837wm wrote

Yeah exactly. I worked in the produce department at a grocery store in high school, a pretty nice suburban one. We carried so many of the more exotic fruits because originally someone asked us to carry dragon fruit so we would order a handful of them every few weeks for essentially that one person who then would do all her shopping at our store.

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etoleb123 t1_ja82y2o wrote

And that’s just one of the “loss leaders”, where you lose $ on some products to get customers who will make you money elsewhere. Years ago (may not still be true) a buddy who was a VP at Walmart said they lose their shirts on bananas. They want theirs to be the greenest bananas out there so that people associate their food with freshness.

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