How many of these acronyms and abbreviations from the past 50 years of SN can you identify? (Answers below.)
1 CFDA ___________________
2 CLC _____________________
3 COSMOS __________________
4 DPP _____________________
5 ECR _____________________
6 HOPE ____________________
7 LBO _____________________
8 NAFC ___________________
9 NARGUS __________________
10 NAWGA __________________
11 NCFM ___________________
12 NFBA ___________________
13 NROG ___________________
14 SMI ___________________
15 UFWOC __________________
16 WEO ____________________
How to score...
Get 14-16 right and congratulations, you're a longtime SN reader with a long memory; 10-14 right and you're only just beginning to show your age; 5-9 right and you must have been on vacation the weeks SN mentioned some of the acronyms; 1-4 right and you must have partied at too many conventions to remember what you read and heard; and if you missed them all, better luck over the next 50 years of SN.
Answers:
1. CFDA -- Cooperative Food Distributors of America, a trade association that represented cooperative food wholesalers. It merged with NARGUS in 1982 to form the National Grocers Association.
2. CLC -- Cost of Living Council, the government agency -- initially headed by George Schultz, assisted by Donald Rumsfeld -- that provided oversight for President Nixon's wage and price control program in the early 1970s.
3. COSMOS -- Computer Optimization and Simulation Modeling for Operating Supermarkets, a computer software system designed in 1968 to analyze, in terms of profit movement, such merchandising factors as space allocation, additions and deletions, store layouts, special promotions, advertising and pricing on a store-by-store basis.
4. DPP -- direct product profit, a method of calculating profits that subtracts the cost of delivering product from gross profits, then adding back any cash discounts.
5. ECR -- Efficient Consumer Response, a series of initiatives first developed in the early 1990s that sought to encourage partnerships among industry segments as part of an effort to streamline existing distribution and buying systems with the aid of new technology, including replacement of paper-driven transactions with electronic modes of communication.
6. HOPE -- Higher Operating Profits through Efficiency, a computer system tested by customers of Wetterau, Hazelwood, Mo., in 1970 that used individual store data as a guide to allocating shelf space.
7. LBO -- Leveraged buyouts, a method used by retailers, primarily in the 1980s, in which partnerships between managements and investors bought back a company's stock and took the company private, usually resulting in high debt service.
8. NAFC -- National Association of Food Chains, the trade association that represented large chains. It merged with Super Market Institute in 1977 to form Food Marketing Institute.
9. NARGUS -- National-American Grocers Association of the United States, the trade association that represented smaller chains and independent operators. It merged with the Cooperative Food Distributors of America in 1982 to form the National Grocers Association.
10. NAWGA -- National-American Wholesale Grocers' Association, the trade association that represented wholesalers. It changed its name in 1996 to Food Distributors International.
11. NCFM -- National Council on Food Marketing, a bipartisan government body established in 1964 to investigate the food industry from the farm to the consumer to make sure concentration did not occur.
12. NFBA -- National Food Brokers Association, predecessor trade group to the Association of Sales and Marketing Cos. The name was changed in 1996 to reflect the broadened scope of food brokers into retail merchandising, which was not a traditional broker activity.
13. NROG -- National Retailer-Owned Grocers, a trade association of 40 or so cooperatives that ultimately merged with CFDA in the 1950s.
14. SMI -- Super Market Institute, the trade association that oversaw educational programs for the food industry. It merged with NAFC in 1977 to form Food Marketing Institute.
15. UFWOC -- United Food Workers Organizing Committee, forerunner to the United Farm Workers Union, which sought to organize farm workers beginning in the late 1960s under the leadership of Cesar Chavez.
16. WEO -- Warehouse Economy Outlet, the named used by A&P in the 1970s on stores that cut prices to fight inflation.
