H-E-B Stores Accountable for Unsaleables

ORLANDO, Fla. — H.E. Butt Grocery Co., San Antonio, has made its stores accountable for the products that become unsaleable at the store level as part of a program to reduce the chain’s total level of unsaleables, said Ted Lechner, reverse logistics manager.

Stores are instructed that “if a product is shipped to you damage-free and if you damage it within your four walls, don’t rotate it or it goes out of date, there’s some accountability,” said Lechner this week during a session called “Reducing Damage, Unsaleables and Returns” at the Supply Chain Conference here, sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Under the program, stores are given a certain allowance for unsaleables, but if they exceed that, ‘it financially impacts the store,” Lechner said. “So they’re incentivized to do a better job and reduce damage.”

Lechner is participating in an industry effort to address unsaleables called the Reverse Supply Chain Improvement Project. Last July, the project issued its initial report, which is available on the GMA and FMI websites, and it plans to release a follow-up report “fairly soon,” said Dan Raftery, president, Raftery Resource Network, Antioch, Ill., who moderated the Supply Chain Conference session.