The Incredible Logistics of Grocery Stores

Sign up for a CuriosityStream subscription and also get a free Nebula subscription (the streaming platform built by creators) here: CuriosityStream.com/wendover
Watch the extended cut to this video here: nebula.app/videos/wendover-pr...
Listen to Extremities at ExtremitiesPodcast.com
Buy a Wendover Productions t-shirt: standard.tv/collections/wendo...
Subscribe to Half as Interesting (The other channel from Wendover Productions): / halfasinteresting
KZbin: / wendoverproductions
Instagram: / sam.from.wendover
Twitter: / wendoverpro
Sponsorship Enquiries: [e-mail]
Other emails: [e-mail]
Reddit: / wendoverproductions
Writing by Sam Denby
Research by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Select footage courtesy Nikko Williard
Select footage courtesy the AP Archive
References
[1] www.fmi.org/our-research/supe...
[2] www.statista.com/statistics/8...
[3] www.statista.com/statistics/2...
[4] www.statista.com/statistics/9...
[5] www.winsightgrocerybusiness.c...
[6] www.winsightgrocerybusiness.c...
[7] www.producebusiness.com/seaml...
[8] www.delanofarms.com/varieties/
[9] www.freshfruitportal.com/news...
[10] www.mmh.com/issue_archive/200...
Musicbed SyncID:
MB01BW6CVXB54C2

[@janmelantu7490]

The logistics of small-town grocery stores are even funnier, as one person can constitute the entire demand for a product. My brother is most of his small town’s demand for quarts of vanilla yogurt

[@Fridelain]

I wasn't able to afford the black rye bread from a local aldi for some time, next time I was able they had taken it off the shelves. So good with butter.

[@randomtinypotatocried]

@@Fridelain Same with the specific cinnamon raisin peanut I use to get. It was heartbreaking since so many brands are so stingy with the cinnamon in it

[@westrim]

Even in a large town, when every store has 30,000 items there's going to be quite a few that have only one person buying them (and some none at all, destined for (hopefully) food donation during the next layout adjustment).

[@jacobcamenzind6365]

This happened with my college dorm and a cheap local wine that everyone loved. Asked the nearby liquor store if they could stock some and once they did, we were basically buying their entire inventory every weekend haha

[@Fosos]

Cascadian Farms Vanilla Chip Chewy Gronola Bars. I can only find them in like two co-op markets in a metro area of 1 million. They're amazing though don't take my supply

[@ydid687]

Honestly variety is what i learn from this man, he goes from building an Airline to Vaccine Distribution Logistics to Grocery Stores

[@iafozzac]

It's mostly logistics

[@ConnerCobe]

@strndr his half as interesting channel is gold

[@ccitizenn]

@@ConnerCobe its not his channel. Sam from wendover ≠ sam from HAI 🙄

[@iafozzac]

@strndr dude, I know, I've been following HAI since it was "that Wikipedia list", but his more serious projects (those in this channel) are still mostly logistics

[@ydid687]

how the hell did i get 245 likes.. i thought this would get lost under the barrage of other comments P.S. thank you all i guess

[@tehGazzy]

As a Grocery store shelf stocker, I can confirm what everyone in the comments is saying about the pallets not being stacked in any organized fashion, but I can also speak on the slow moving items point. It seems every time we stop carrying an item because it doesn't sell well, a handful of people will start complaining to us (because we, as shelf stockers, control what the store sells) that it was their FAVORITE brand and they can't get it at the other stores in our area. There was this 1 brand of almond butter that wasn't even shelf stable so it had to be refrigerated, I was rotating it one day and realized that all of it had expired a few days prior. So I pulled them from the shelf and my boss looked up their sales in our system. WE HAD SOLD EXACTLY 1 JAR IN THE LAST YEAR! We discontinued it, and you know what, we still had SEVERAL people come in complaining to us that we stopped carrying it, FOR WEEKS! WE ONLY SOLD 1 JAR IN AN ENTIRE YEAR, and people, that didn't even buy the product, were mad at us!?

[@terig8974]

That was my favorite brand of almond butter to steal!

[@JustPlayerDE]

maybe they liked to steal it and they cant do it anymore thanks to you not carrying it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@traetrigon8816]

Y’all were getting robbed lmao

[@thomashajicek2747]

maybe they were shoplifting it

[@Larakinerd]

You see, customers view supermarkets like they view their homes. They want it set to their liking…

[@capmidnite]

4:47 "More than one way products can leave a store." At an ethnic grocery store, I once saw fertilized chicken eggs starting to hatch.

[@xxxBradTxxx]

It's not wrong to say Vietnamese or Filipino instead of ethnic. There are thousands of ethnicities, only a few are known to eat fertilized chicken eggs.

[@RyotaMitarai]

so the products literally grew legs and run away

[@da3musceteers]

That's racist

[@capmidnite]

@@da3musceteers Didn't realize ethnicity (such as Vietnamese) was a "race".

[@skyfeelan]

@@da3musceteers *ethnicist

[@IskaralPust]

As someone who works in retail, my only response to your description of how pallets are organised and built is this: I freaking wish.

[@grumpyhale821]

Absolutely.

[@rufusthomas3067]

The place I used to work at used to sort by aisle, which was nice until about halfway through by the time it seems that all logic was gone

[@Zippyser]

Haha yeah I agree.

[@shauntoochaos235]

No kidding most pallets are built by morons with hammers for hands.

[@johndoe5432]

Trader Joe's employee here, dude same.

[@paramm6194]

We need to know the logistics of creating a logistics video, like from getting the video idea to all the hardware to storing it and finally releasing it online

[@whobetterthanaj]

Lmfao then after hardware storage to KZbin and clearing the copyright

[@diedrino]

Yes! I want this!!

[@TenOfZero1]

I would 100% watch this on Nebula !

[@jamesmiller1137]

@@TenOfZero1 ayo we want this on youtube not nebula

[@TenOfZero1]

@@jamesmiller1137 haha yeah, just seems like the kind of extra that fits well with nebula :-)

[@jimmyhuesandthehouserocker1069]

You can barely imagine the old days before computers and bar codes, where the local grocer had to do inventory and logistics by hand. He had to either mentally or pencil and paper, keep track of every item in the whole store. What an unbelievable job that must have been. Everything had to be priced by hand, too. The checkout girls and women were masters of memory and logistical intelligence. They pretty much had to be.

[@simonterhaar4693]

You can still find small places that operate like this, resistant to the cost of buying into a system that tracks inventory. And it works in their favor, because they stock specialty items, or types of meats not easy to find other places, and they operate on a small enough scale.

[@solome6478]

Um and what about men?

[@ToastGreeting]

I bet it was a pain to do all that, but the population and demand was lower, probably less on the shelves

[@tabletalk33]

That was a pretty long time ago. As far back as I can remember, and I am 69 years old, grocery stores took inventory with some form of automation used by outside teams of people (not the store workers) hired for the purpose.

[@colonelcactus2462]

As a former Walmart shelf stocker I would like to point out that Walmart does not organize pallets based on a products location in the Aisle.

[@patrickdecelles9653]

Canadian grocery store worker here, ours don't either

[@k9charles24]

i work at a walmart and only some is organized correctly. its usually grocery remix and contains about 5-6 isles per pallet. everything that doesnt come on remix comes on a truck full of loose boxes we unload everyday and sort by isle ourselves

[@jonathantrue2812]

I deliver to grocery stores in Canada and I've never heard of it before this video. Made me laugh! 🤣🤣🤣

[@andrew20146]

It is easier to do this with automation. Pallets also needed to be stacked in a way that they won't fall over or crush the items on the bottom, so you can't put cases of water on top of cookies/chips.

[@StratosTitan]

Doesn't happen in Belgium here either. Pallets usually just have a "theme", which are all displayed together in the store. Like "beverages", "sauces & condiments", "cleaning product",...

[@MikeyAtalla]

Once I see “the logistics” I come running 🏃‍♂️

[@AxxLAfriku]

I am the funniest KZbinr of all time I watched my latest video and laughed for 69 minutes straight I am extremely funny I am dangerously funny and I have two girlfriends who think I am extremely dangerously funny and they watch all of my videos thanks for listening dear nikey

[@3User]

there are a million different logistical chains that I'd love to learn more about

[@lukadoncic1772]

Lmao yes

[@lukadoncic1772]

#metoo

[@masterofpureawesome]

Same but “grocery stores”

[@BMWROYAL]

I use to work at Walmart and people would always complain about the shelf’s being empty and one thing people don’t realize is how much stuff is actually being bought. We could over stock the whole meat section Saturday morning and by 4pm it’s all gone and there’s only so much we could actually fit in the store. Same for milk and water and eggs. It’s not that we are doing a terrible job keep the selves stocked. It’s that there’s only so much we could fit in the store each day

[@grouch314]

My store will go through about 8 cages of milk per day. Usually we'll stock 8 full cages overnight, then a refill mid afternoon. Customers still ask me which cage is the freshest then are surprised when i tell that that none of it has been on the shop floor for more than 12 hours

[@tabletalk33]

Interesting. High velocity items are very difficult to keep stocked. I guess stores could increase the frequency of their deliveries to the stores. But their suppliers also have practical limitations.

[@EqualsThreeable]

As a gas station owner this logistics system becomes more and more in depth as we have the ability to micromanage products. I know the names of many of my customers so it’s fun making sure I have each of their products. Tammy, Joe, Tom, Erica, they all have products that I carry just for them. Unfortunately it’s easier for us to be out of stock of items because we don’t carry a large amount of any one item in stock. Deliveries from each vendor are traditionally once a week. Sometimes a customer is going on vacation or something they inform us they need extra of an item we can get it in for them so they have enough to last them. The one thing we have trouble with are not the slow sellers but the “no sellers” items that do not move, cannot be returned or even discounted to be sold. These items clog up precious shelf space and can make our store get cluttered quickly. We carry everything at our gas station a small neighborhood could need; gas, diesel, e85, cigarettes, cigars, CBD, lottery, medicine, health & beauty products, chargers and phone accessories, propane, automative fluids/oils/accessories, firewood, pool chlorine, clothing items, ice cream, fishing bait, ice, coffee & tea, hundreds of snacks & beverages, candy, beer, wine and liquor, grocery items like condiments, toiletries, canned goods, pet food, the list goes on and on. It’s like a mini grocery store and it’s amazing how much stuff fits into a small space, we have roughly $150k-$200k in retail inventory.

[@tabletalk33]

Pretty complicated! Who does your inventory analysis for you? How is it done?

[@EqualsThreeable]

@@tabletalk33 we have a small footprint, so items are physically looked at and recollected memories of it selling are figured out. With such a small family/friend staff we sorta just know if an item sell or doesn’t sell and how to rank them visually in our heads. Not extremely accurate by any measure but we can identify an attempt to remove items we view as a waste of space.

[@MS-ic3rd]

Anyone that’s ever unpacked a grocery pallet KNOWS that they are NOT organize in anyway that’s helpful 🤣

[@EatMyShortsAU]

I use to pack the pallets we use to simply throw half the stuff and wrap with the cling wrap. Sometimes the smaller items would be in boxes.

[@thegaminglottle]

It's the worst trying to sort out a flat top and everything is just random

[@Dayvit78]

Equally as bad as totes.

[@thndr_5468]

Walmart is the same in that regard

[@JLAvey]

Tell me about it and it's not just grocery pallets. Any time freight comes in there is a fair chance that what's on the packing list is completely mixed. When building pallets, I try my hardest to keep everything in order but sometimes you have to use your Tetris skill in packing everything into the smallest load possible.

[@dekaredfire]

Sam is kind of person who take "Amateurs study tactics, while professionals study logistics" to a whole new level.

[@harshadagorey]

Yep that's right

[@Marinealver]

Any recruit can tell you what has an advantage. It is strategy that often doesn't have a clear answer.

[@BrezelCeviche]

Ah, yeah. The real-life version of "noobs in Starcraft try micro while pros focus on macro." It's true in both places.

[@GameFuMaster]

@@BrezelCeviche well hard to macro when 4 marines took out all your workers

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I really feel like a professional every time I watch Wendover videos.

[@jaysmith1408]

I am proudly glad to say, I just started driving for a grocery store. The distribution system is astonishing, we are warehouse (well, our one warehouse is actually six) based, and we’re sent out to stores in a three state area, and may go to manufacturers, Kraft and Quaker are our usuals, to pick up. I say proud because in addition to working (well, dedicated contracted) for a company that I already patronized and respected, I get to deliver the most important resource up there with air (well I deliver some of that too 😁) to random people….and me….I shop there too.

[@da3musceteers]

That's great to hear! We need people who like their jobs

[@iwanttwoscoops]

@@da3musceteers👏👏👏 that backhanded compliment was so nuanced, nice

[@IOUaUsername]

In Australian ALDI stores they don't keep any niche brands. They just keep highly profitable staples at great prices and position all their stores adjacent to one of the big two grocery brands. So as a consumer you can save money on the basics, while still getting the niche things next door, and ALDI can be hyper-efficient by only stocking highly profitable fast-moving items. This leaves the big grocery stores "holding the bag" as the saying goes, selling more unprofitable niche products relative to the efficient staple items.

[@tabletalk33]

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[@PrimeEpoch]

I work in a distribution centre. There are 2 things to understand about how pallets are organised, because it's not by their location on the shelves at the store. 1. They're organised by weight. The heavy stuff goes on the bottom, the light stuff goes on the top. This makes the pallet more stable. Putting the heavy things on top may also crush some of the lighter things, for example you would not put lots of pasta sauce on top of crisps (chips for you Americans). The heavier things will therefore be located at the front of the picking aisle, and it's a 1 way system. 2. By shape/size. There are certain patterns to how products will fit together. It makes your job much harder and slower if you try to play a game of tetris, much easier and faster if you already know where everything is going. Typically, you will spilt the pallet into zones (⅓, ⅛, etc) and after enough time you'll be familiar with all the products enough to know in which of these zones they fit. This is the part that takes longest for a picker to learn, so many of the newer pickers mess this up and create weird looking pallets. I also used to work in a supermarket, and we used to change the location of our stock fairly frequently, probably more than you'd expect. On night shift, we would change product locations (mostly either end of aisle or season products), do stock counts and make sure the store is in a clean and acceptable state in addition to our main responsibility of stocking products. The spots for the products change enough to where the distribution centre can't really be expected to update to product placement on the pallets to that degree. I can't speak for the automated distribution centres, since I don't have experience there. It's possible that optimising the placement is a feature of automation, but it's definitely not a feature of manual distribution centres. It would create way too much chaos for us.

[@smashexentertainment676]

The most annoying thing about supermarkets: Supermarket management meeting: - Lets build a huge supermarket! With lots of food and stuff. And 15 checkout counters. - Yes! And lets keep only 2 of them open.

[@nerobernardino88]

Specially when the damned place is full

[@MrBigR928]

Right🤣

[@StratosTitan]

@Conor Malone In my supermarket there's more checkouts open than before 2020. It's done like this to spread out people more.

[@MrBCJACK]

The extra checkout lanes are more there for scaling up when the REALLY BIG rushes come, like the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

[@anaconda2371]

They do it to force shoppers to use the self checkout which is cheaper for the store to maintain rather than paying a worker wages plus benefits

[@Jade93972]

As someone who works in retail, I wish that my distribution center would stack things in the 'most efficient manner' on palettes. Usually its just completely random, if not dangerous. Frequently they'll put light stuff on the bottom and heavy stuff on top so that it falls and almost hits someone. Also there are frequently falls while on the truck so the delivery driver will have to go back and try to figure out what stuff was ours vs stuff for another store. We damage out a least one item, usually way more, every single week (we have weekly deliveries) because it was stacked poorly.

[@kadenthefoxbat1450]

Yeah, I've been there. Seeing iced vegetables stocked on top of onions or having the fresh fruit stored on the truck touching the neighboring ice cream pallet isn't uncommon. As for dry goods, they're often broken up and sorted at store level. Carts and dollys are filled from all of the pallets with items relevant for a given aisle (or area of the store) before being stocked. I feel what the video describes is a best case scenario executed by a particularly efficient company. Who knows, at some point they'll likely find a way to have items robotically stocked at store level eliminating the need for many employees. Self checkouts are only the start. Automation is a blessing and a curse. In unrelated news, I remember when this channel used to mostly be about planes and trains. =p

[@fonzi981]

Today, a palette came in with boxes of the raw rotisserie chickens on top of some flowers and yogourt. Had to submit damage claims for 110 dollars worth of organic yogourt that was squished in between lmao. I honestly dont even know if your allowed to stack poultry on top of dairy like that.

[@roboto204]

As a driver who does retail....oof, I feel this.

[@jeremywerner9489]

Seriously, upon watching that section of the video my response was 'holy shit, that's amazing'. I've never seen a pallet stacked like that. My workplace always has to tear apart the pallet and organize it as needed, and even then it's not necessarily stacked in order like that.

[@jeremywerner9489]

@@kadenthefoxbat1450 "Who knows, at some point they'll likely find a way to have items robotically stocked at store level eliminating the need for many employees." They would basically either have to invent a humanoid robot that moves the same way a human does, or completely redesign the store AND the way customers acquire products by automating the system to where it delivers products up to the front, where it is bagged/packaged and handed to the customer. For a store that does ONLY order pickups/deliveries, it would work, but most stores don't work that way.

[@andrewfox368]

One of the nicest things about shopping in NYC is that grocers aren’t competing with Walmarts or (many) enormous supermarkets, so it’s normal for things to go out of stock. Which means a lot less waste. And nobody dies if blueberries are out one day.

[@erinorshal399]

I'm relatively young but I remember when the produce section was seasonal-- March would roll around and it was such a treat to smell & see the fresh strawberries; Peaches, nectarines & apricots were only available for a few months and arrived at the store ripe, or a few days before; apples were always in stock, but just a couple varieties year-round (one red, one green)- only Fall brought a wide variety. I think of this most every time I'm at the store, but most people seem both oblivious to and completely expecting of it. It boggles the mind to try and comprehend the logistics- not to mentionmany hours, fuel, etc., just so we can have an ear of corn in Nevada in January.

[@capmidnite]

The local farmer's markets in my state still follow this seasonal pattern. Strawberries one month, peaches another, etc.

[@steeveletur1983]

It might be a rural thing. I've almost always lived in a city, and never saw such a supermarket with all year round produces, ultra wide aisles and wide variety of choices. They were the only option when I was living in a rural area though. I live in France, I don't know if that's relevant.

[@elizabethfrohn-hengst296]

All the grocery stores I go to in wisconsin more or less follow it with certain items (mostly stone fruits,melons,sweet corn, some types of apples,rhubarb,and certain types of berries (like pineberries or giant blueberries). Or if you only want local-ish that includes potatoes,onions,squash,all berries,local apple varieties, and all tomatoes.

[@SouthCountyDreaming]

It’s only when i speak with old relatives who immigrated to America that I realized how strange it was that I expected fruit from 10x different countries to be readily supplied, sweet, organic and cheap regardless of the season, year round and open 24/7. Truly a modern marvel.

[@Julianna.Domina]

"...Open 24/7..." I want my 24/hr walmart back :(

[@jackreid2664]

It's borderline utopian.

[@Carewolf]

Well, as long as they have the local produce when in season. I almost find it dystopian at times, because they have the product year round, but is always imported too early picked store rippened crap year round, even when local products would be available (but would have different subtypes and brands).

[@john3_14-17]

For where I live, since Covid happened, that supply chain has been disrupted to where it no longer works well for produce. Most produces on shelves are moldy, dried out, massively bruised, or split open. The potatoes, before we stopped buying them, were often moldy or bitter. The only things largely unaffected were bananas. This isn’t a domestic vs. international, or organic vs. conventional issue. Everything has been hit.

[@juzoli]

Russians back in the 50s thought it is just a propaganda tool, and supermarkets are not even real, because it is impossible to stack so much food.

[@jenaw5527]

When he talked about people expecting things to always be there all year round, I felt that. As a produce stocker, you have no idea how often people are shocked if I say we are out of something. And then they ask when we will get it next and I try to explain to them how not everything is always in season and if it is, it might take a while to travel or that I do not control orders and that we get freight everyday, we just don't know what it will be until we unwrap the pallets. They always just looked surprised and I just want to facepalm.

[@Manbarrican]

I am honestly glad that people have woken up to understand how fragile the system is during the shortages last year. Many products (like Alfredo Sauce) are scarce still and people aren't bitching about it as much.

[@Jonasbullins]

as a produce manager it’s frustrating ordering something every truck and never receiving it, people get frustrated often but i always pull out the invoices to show them i’m ordering it every time so they know i’m trying. in my store it’s frustrating because if the meat dept is out of something people are usually understanding but if i’m out people throw a fit every time

[@colemanfaucheaux7358]

@@Jonasbullins or when you order, forsay, 10 boxes of corn and the warehouse says “oh we have a bunch extra, let’s ship 20 to this store and charge them” and end up with loads of shrink

[@JohnDlugosz]

@@Manbarrican Well, Alfredo Sauce is not something that should be coming in a jar, anyway. It emerges from putting the cheese and cream on the noodles.

[@kiduzi9507]

I mean why would anyone know that unless they've worked at a grocery store

[@Puhdull]

More like the ILLUSION of choice. A large percentage of items in grocery stores are all owned by the same 10 companies, regardless of what "brand" is on the box, bag, or bottle

[@neutronpixie6106]

The last store I worked at had a $10,000 loss (wholesale cost) for the quarter on the bulk nut isle alone. People will get $15-30 bags of things, walk around snacking on them, decide they don't want them after they've filled up on them and throw the bag on the shelf somewhere. That bag and whatever is inside is now garbage. Honestly, I think if people think it's ok to do that, then stores should think it's ok to put the content of the bags back into the bins they originally came from. It kills me that some things are grown for months, shipped half way around the world, just for greedy a-holes to think it's ok to get a free snack and then are absolutely wasteful about it. If you think only a couple people a day do it, guess again. Night crews can find dozens of bags hidden around stores when they're working. $10,000 a quarter. $40,000 a year. The store lost more than I made yearly because of self entitled twats stuffing their fat fucking faces. And again, that was wholesale loss. The loss for from the profits could've went into keeping the stores in good condition, paying employees better, and overall, just doing more for their communities. Besides... Didn't your momma ever tell you to pay for something before eating it?

[@vikrantkulkarni1241]

Thanks for sharing

[@gabinobarrera6048]

You're nuts about nuts

[@adrih8694]

I had an ass just the pther day walk around my store snacking on a bag of chips, only to come up to me and complain she didn't want to pay for them because they were stale. I wish I could fight customers.

[@SHADOW17018]

oh no a multi-million dollar company just lost money!!!!! I should feel so bad...

[@Neon-ws8er]

@@SHADOW17018no. each store is run by a different person. that person loses money that goes to supporting the store and paying wages. the franchise barely lost anything.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Watching stuff like this reignites that child-like wonder of experiencing it for the first time all over again. Imagine the feeling of the people who walked into the first super store and realized they had almost anything you could want and it would almost always be in stock. That's the feeling I get when you really break down just how much is available and how stable availability is. We live in the future and most people don't even think about it.

[@UserName-ts3sp]

it’s always cool to see someone from a communist country seeing an american grocery store for the first time

[@seaque.]

@@UserName-ts3sp how does it happen on a communist country?

[@UserName-ts3sp]

@@seaque. they dont have as much variety from what ive heard

[@seeker296]

And then you realize nuclear missiles exist bc of similar technologies

[@Jazzisa311]

For me, that was the first time I entered a Wallmart. I was 9. I live in the Netherlands, and I went to the US the first time. I was intimidated by the scale of it. You could get lost there! Also, at that (that was more than 20 years ago), we only had 4 types of potato chips in our stores. You just had so many options, it's insane! While the choices have increased greatly here, our stores are still a lot smaller. Grocery stores are places to buy, well, groceries. You can't usually buy stuff like electronics and clothing in the same store where you buy apples.

[@SkylxrVODs]

I used to help run the backroom at a Kroger in Houston. This video is extremely accurate and actually taught me a few things about the way warehouses are run. One thing not mentioned (unless I just missed it) is the understaffing of not only warehouses but the overnight crews at the physical stores as well. Companies cut corners when they can to save money, and that's to be expected, but it increases the strain felt by the actual workers. So try and treat your store employees well, there's a lot of work we have to do behind the scenes that customers don't normally see and it can be incredibly strenuous.

[@BK-ks2sf]

Heb>Kroger

[@thejmc4074]

@@BK-ks2sf man, this could not be more incorrect.

[@spejic1]

Not staffing the night crew means palettes pile up and shelves aren't stocked and the separate departments can't get their stuff out and then the division managers that set the wage levels yells at you for the upset customers and the backroom that looks like the end scene of Indiana Jones after an earthquake. Oh yeah, and then they send you palettes of holiday stuff four months early so it sits there clogging things up.

[@stonealdridge6724]

I had to leave Kroger because of their staffing issues... Between cutting hours and switching primarily from managers to MODs it really seemed like things were falling apart

[@Vid_Master]

The way it works: If there is a problem, management takes steps to fix it. If the wheel doesn't squeak, it won't get oil. If every employee at your company is unhappy, but they come in and work each day, management will not change their behavior at all

[@inglesd90]

Slow moving inventory is definitely important to customer retention. A grocer on the other side of town was the only place I could find my favorite muffins, so I shopped there quite often. Since they stopped stocking those muffins, I haven't stepped inside their store since. I just go to a competitor that is closer to my house.

[@JohnDlugosz]

I was a little surprised when your introduction claimed that such supermarkets were everywhere world-wide. My wife is from China, and one of the essays she wrote for a pre-college English Writing class (a "compare and contrast" essay) was the Western Supermarket vs the Asian Wet Market. She was completely unfamiliar with the supermarket and marveled at the huge number of products, and showed an outsider's perspective of how novel some of its features are. When I visited China in 2007, the only "grocery store" I saw was a small boutique-style store, much smaller than a supermarket. I asked her about it just now, and she said that supermarkets only started to appear in China around the year 2000. So I guess they are everywhere _now_ , but it's very recent. Even so, they still co-exist with traditional street markets. Most of the population there _is_ familiar with shopping in traditional markets. Note that they are different from the neighborhood grocery store you described: They were _huge_ expansive sprawling districts where you would walk for miles and miles seeing nothing but small stalls and tiny storefronts. They have become a lot smaller, but still go on for many blocks.

[@horse-4598]

Pretty sure he said developed

[@FebiMaster]

i think most asian countries still have these traditional wet markets

[@Fulano5321]

Brazil was still littered with medium and small stores every few blocks when I was down there in 2005, the bigger towns I passed through had a few big stores, but it was interesting the stores knew each other's inventory well enough you could ask the owner which store carried something they didn't and they could usually name the store that did. It made me wonder if they actively avoided overlaps in products with stores in the immediate area to bring specific customers to their store.

[@FebiMaster]

@@Fulano5321 I think thats common for stores located close to one another, petshops around my house also do the same thing, each of them have something the others don’t and will point to which stores has the specific items

[@capmidnite]

@@FebiMaster There's also a strategy to this retail clustering, where competing businesses selling similar products are found concentrated in one part of town (car dealerships, the "Diamond District" in NYC for jewelers, etc). The assumption is that the volume of customer traffic such clustering will draw because the area is known for a specific product offsets having competition right next door.

[@vaultofarms]

As a former employee of kings soopers I can confirm that this is all true. The only part you’re missing is the utterly chaotic mood during rush hour

[@vaultofarms]

@yuitr loing They own you now. In a month you'll be branded. Good luck

[@Se0ultrain]

This reminds me of the Calvin & Hobbes comic about Calvin's dad freaking out about all the different choices of peanut butter

[@counterfit5]

He’s going to ruin it either way

[@prettypic444]

@@counterfit5 Bill Watterson is clearly the artistic voice of our era

[@evantee]

Oddly enough, the grocery store @1:58 is in the same small town where Bill Watterson grew up.

[@seanmcdonald5859]

And then theres Almond butter, hazelnut, cashew and all can be chunky, smooth, fat free, low cal, organic . . . . .AAAAUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHH . . .

[@Pwn3dbyth3n00b]

"Extended cut" on Nebula. I bought Nebula and it was only an 18 minute video vs this already 17 minute video.

[@hitmanRazo]

So it was only one minute longer?

[@aespa690]

LOL was the extended part the part where he advertises for Curiosity Stream?

[@EvanAviator]

Doesn’t have sponsorship ad in it

[@dennis8196]

@@EvanAviator I don't have nebula but strongly suspected that the ad's took up a lot of possible content time.

[@ameykulkarni7491]

@@dennis8196 ad took up just 1½ min or so, that means the extended cut was just 2-3 mins bigger lol

[@wgrandbois]

With so many KZbinrs based in New York, LA or abroad, it's both refreshing and disconcerting to consistently have content customized to the Roaring Fork Valley.

[@2Pish]

As a truck driver that used to deliver meat/produce and frozen/dairy for a carrier that worked for Walmart, I'm super stoked that a video like this came out. Thank you WP

[@EinkOLED]

I used to work the night shift working at a large supermarket. The most stressful and physically demanding job I ever had. 4 deliveries every night, and they expect all the products neatly on the shelf before store opening.

[@andrescabezas180]

You, sir, are an unsung hero! But as a society (maybe starting with companies), we should probably structure things differently so such work isn't so demanding on people.

[@bobby8012]

@@andrescabezas180 yeah automation will fix that, and it will do it sooner the more regulations you put it since its making it more and more unprofitable for employers to hire people.

[@TheFourthWinchester]

@@andrescabezas180 Say goodbye to few more employees since the job is easier then.

[@pedroSilesia]

True but entering in the morning a fully stocked supermarket with all products neatly displayed is a completely surreal and amazing experience.

[@betootaadvocate1966]

If you worked in Australian you can expect to make 1200 dollars a week before tax for 35 hrs of work

[@gabeshaw3721]

Wendover is from the Midwest. He said “Kroger’s” instead of “Kroger.”

[@tylerturnpaugh7021]

I caught that too

[@DZ477]

I'm sorry, is this some sort of Yankee joke that I'm too Canadian to understand?

[@gabeshaw3721]

@@DZ477Yep. It’s like how you can tell someone is from Quebec by the accent.

[@mollielacey7428]

He's gotta be, since he knows another Colorado town besides Denver or Aspen. 😂

[@gabeshaw3721]

@@mollielacey7428 Midwest is like Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Wisconsin

[@jackroyaltea5034]

This is just a more in depth and more interesting “How it’s Made”... and I love it.

[@yarharyar]

Where the hell does one find "Footage of frustrated man throws laptop in bath filled with flower petals"? Top notch content!

[@auxencefromont1989]

when there is demand... there is supply

[@BobStein]

Right! It is surprising there would be a use for that because the world has so few spoiled whiners.

[@Jazzisa311]

I'm more surprised of the creativity of stock footage makers who thought.... ok, so obviously there will be a demand for a frustrated man throwing his laptop away.... but what if we put him in a bath filled with flower petals???!!!

[@keoganlarademusic918]

timestamp?

[@lucasdarianschwendlervieir3714]

They probably got a broken laptop for cheap.

[@myleslea5483]

This is such an interesting topic that we just never even give a second thought

[@matman7691]

And that's why most retail workers hate people. Let the empathy flloooooowwwww Respect your grocers.

[@dahorn100011]

Although it has now come to this expectation. Its hard for society to step backwards. Food miles are a real thing, so buying locally grown in season produce is much more ecological than the current system. Us as consumers can change this but will require mass adoption and origin labelling. If people only buy products grown in their country or neighbours we will get back to seasonal produce buying.

[@catfan__]

what a useless comment to farm likes

[@ydid687]

i remember Ted-Ed's video years ago saying we take comforts and accessibility of modern life and amenities for GRANTED we even expect it to be there just so we're not even mildly inconvenienced

[@stuartblittley3531]

that’s the thing about this channel, Wendover knows how to make you interested immediately.

[@remmikey]

I just started to read "The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket" by Benjamin Lorr which goes in depth on this topic and complements this video well. However, the book shows more of the dark side of these logistics to workers, truckers, and product makers that are trying to break-in to the industry.

[@Asbestoslover666]

i worked at a book store and that book always piqued my interest when organizing the shelves! such a niche thing to write about- i love it

[@connoriovinelli]

WHOA 14:41 I worked at that Trader Joe’s!! Caught me off guard haha. Westport CT!

[@malfaroangel3896]

This is somehow a nostalgia trip. It like when we were younger we didn’t have the internet. So we had questions about how things operate. But it like we forgot to research this when the internet came around and Wendover Productions is reminding us

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

To me, it feels like nostalgia from right now.

[@SofaKingShit]

Four years ago l moved to rural Morocco where the nearest supermarket is a few hours drive away and it took quite a while to get used to going from tiny store to tiny store to get everything like them ol' timers. Pathetically it felt a little like I'd lost control over something important. Jesus christ.

[@SuckMyJohnson]

So thankful for the remainder

[@devonjamesj]

I used to be an assistant manager at…. One of Kroger’s competitors that used to operate in Canada. Listening to you go through something that has become so natural to me, Thank you. I’ve been having a crisis of confidence on my skills and having you recognize how truly complex retail is restored my faith in myself.

[@matthewharris-levesque5809]

Well, Having worked for two of Canada's biggest grocery companies, I can tell you our country certainly hasn't (or hadn't as of a few yeas ago) got this sorted out quite so neatly. Every palette ever received at the stores where I worked was a hobjumble of product from any which aisle of the store. Never any organization I could determine.

[@Andreas4696]

I work in a supermarket in Norway and pallets are sorted by a general product theme, such as one pallet for coffee, one for candy, cereals, toilet paper, and so on.

[@digbug3359]

As a store associate of a large retailer, this video was extremely well made. I have to planograms every 2 weeks, while we get truck drop-offs every week. We have to deal with unexpected recalls for name-brand products, as well as even store brand, which could take hours to get through. I find it quite interesting to think that our store brand packaging was made by another company or one that is owned by my company and the contents inside were from another company. Our pallets (or totes) are usually curated on a store-by-store basis, as our company individually decides what the store layout is. Everything in the totes are grouped together by aisle, making it easier to unload products onto shelves and such.

[@infinitejinpachi]

"they organize pallets..." L M A O no

[@Julianna.Domina]

they definitely do not lmao

[@Julianna.Domina]

it's so bad that sometimes, part of my job is just breaking down and re-stacking pallets that come in so they're at least organized by department

[@tobeywilson1327]

hahahah fr no one organizes that, at least Kroger doesn't lol

[@hatsoff4524]

We wish anyone organize stuff on pallets lol.

[@stevencrouch6036]

I work in retail here in the UK & they also don't always get the cages organised, some areas are for example the Homebaking & sandwich spread aisle usually comes with oral care stuff for our Health & Beauty section on top or below it.

[@safye4]

All throughout this video, I kept thinking of the damn pallets. A lot of us probably overlooked the supermarket industry, but we're all overlooking the wooden pallet industry. I'm not sure if it's worth a video to you, but I definitely think you should check it out.

[@brandonking1737]

I've wondered that too. I've worked as a merchandiser for Pepsi, so I stock our shelves in the stores. Our stuff comes on pallets, and when I empty one it goes on a stack with the other empty pallets. Where does Pepsi get their pallets? Where does the store send the empties? How do those pallets make their way to a new customer?

[@Inbal_Feuchtwanger]

@@brandonking1737 pallots are reused for years. Empty ones are likely stacked up by your company and then taken away by a different company for redistribution.

[@lcmortensen]

​@@brandonking1737 The pallets come from an equipment pool (e.g. CHEP in Australia and New Zealand), who hires them out for a rental fee and a deposit; once the pallet is returned to the equipment pool, the deposit is refunded. When a supplier delivers a pallet to a customer, they either charge the customer the pallet deposit or pick up an empty pallet in exchange.

[@rufusthomas3067]

The car factory in my town had to slow production bc they were running out of pallets when the EverGiven got stuck

[@WellBattle6]

@@Inbal_Feuchtwanger As someone with family in warehousing, I can confirm this. Every so often we call in a trucker to collect empty pallets at the end of day or when we need to make space.

[@Psilocybin77]

As someone who worked in retail as a youngster I always loved how people think the "back" is some magic portal where that single item you want (amongst millions) is hiding in the "back". Yeah lady we're keeping the gooshu blended yogurt with teatree oil hiding, lemme grab it. Not how this works lol.

[@tabletalk33]

Yes, it seems hilariously naive that any people would actually think this way. But looked at another way, not so much. A modern economy is, for all intents and purposes, infinitely complex, building on the age-old foundation of the "division of labor," each industry and profession has to deal with constantly increasing scale, supply chains, just-in-time delivery, new technologies coming in all the time, shifting standards and policies, and all the rest. That makes it a practical impossibility for the average person to know anything in depth about other people's work or industries, or the logistics involved with them (unless they make it a point to study some of them). But nobody can be an expert at everything. But that's the beauty of the "division of labor" in a modern economy; we don't NEED to know about all that.

[@getgot7461]

this isn't unreasonable. much of the time when i ask for something that is typically there (say, carrots at a grocery store), the employee see it's not in stock and say "oh, let me check in the back." often it's there. same with if you want a size of shirt, the employee will come up with the idea to go to the back. so if there's something you really needed, and it's typically there, and you're not seeing it on the shelves (maybe that gooshu blended yogurt with teatree oil is typically in stock in your store, and it's in a recipe that i've already spent $75 on the other ingredients, and came to your store specifically for it), i may politely ask if there may be more in the back. if someone's being rude about it or demanding you check the back for something you've never carried that's different, but a polite request isn't unfair.

[@kinggrass689]

This was a very interesting video. It’d be cool to see a video regarding the psychology behind the layout of super markets

[@Potencyfunction]

Yes you could see that in real time or else your layout supermarkets are having problems with delivery of synapses log5istisics and communicatiuon

[@vertdragoon]

Sam, these “logistics” videos are your best work! They combine interesting complexity for niche content which no one else has. They are your “slow moving inventory!”

[@james2042]

12:00 its like the one meme where a local store asked a family to tell them when the oldest son went away to college so they could adjust their chocolate milk orders because he consumed more than half of it sold

[@FuckMargaretThatchher]

What always amazes me is that if you look around everything is produced by some company. Not that shocking, but remember that ugly lamp, that weird flower pot my grandma has, the offbrand tape I use all gets produced in a factory somewhere and has 100s of people involved in it's processing from raw resource to storefront.

[@jamesgaston2745]

I used to work in beverage sales and one of the biggest things that mess up automatic stock is cashier laziness. A lot of brands have multiple same priced flavors and they will just scan one for all flavors and you end up with big variances in the system and now most major grocery stores use an automatic reorder that they just hand us when we arrive

[@tabletalk33]

Interesting. I wonder how they will solve that problem.

[@davidmacbeth5760]

"Avocados from Mexico" I like what you did there hehe

[@bransen1235]

I sang it in my head

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

What if this is actually sponsored and that was subliminal messaging?

[@imblack011]

Sam: The only person that could make me watch a video about grocery stores

[@SE45CX]

He has a great presentation style. That grapes harvest example is so tangible that he doesn't even have to say that similar patterns apply to other fruits.

[@naprimjer6593]

It's funny when he said that we don't remember a world without supermarkets. But we do, I am 23, and there weren't really supermarkets where I am from at first.

[@AlexVoxel]

Let's study the enemy huh

[@JusNoBS420]

@@naprimjer6593 where do you live? I’m almost twice your age and grew up going to supermarkets

[@JusNoBS420]

Funny how your YT name is Lenin and are interested in Democracy at it’s finest

[@Certago]

Fascinating stuff, thank you for putting this together - and at such high quality as well! Much appreciated.

[@BrucifyMe]

Really changed my perspective on something as "everyday" as grocery stores. There's an amazement and appreciation in the back of my mind every time I go to one now.

[@ericmasterson4183]

As a trucker that works out of a kroger DC. I appreciate the video that gives a glimpse into how product gets on the shelf. Few people have a true grasp of how much goes into them being able to buy what they want at the grocery store. I do have to say though grocery supply chains are some of the most unorganized, chaotic messes that exist in logistics. Grocery stores especially larger ones like kroger operate heavily in a just in time delivery system. Part of that is due to the perishable nature of alot of the products but also because very few stores have the space to store alot of backstock. The DC I work out of isn't heavily automated like the king sooper DC. Pallet building is done by order selectors and products are organized by how easy the cases fit together to build steady pallets not by if the products are in the same aisle. For example you will see a pallet with cases of Hawaiian punch and laundry detergent on the same pallet because of the weight and shape of the cases fit best together even though those products would be on opposite sides of the store.

[@winiar123]

Laundry detergent is considered caustic and should never be stacked with food. Kroger has separate aisles for caustic items and and orders are constructed so only non food items are stacked with caustic items.

[@ericmasterson4183]

@@winiar123 Hate to tell you but it doesn't end up working that way. I see them stacked together with food items pretty much on every load I run.

[@austingonzalez1148]

"Shrink" is what we call lost items. (Stolen, broken, etc.) Because your inventory shrinks roughly 10-15%

[@JohnDobak]

Most businesses allow for 1-1.5% shrink, after that outside auditors are called in to figure it out. Any place losing 10-15% has a massive mismanagement problem.

[@jeffjones3145]

It’s called “breakage”. Shit breaks like K-mart

[@Marinealver]

Working in loss prevention there was a saying that "shoplifters are customers too, just not 'valued' customers".

[@TheWardylan]

If you have double digit shrink at the total store level, you're not doing it right. Gotta get those numbers down.

[@JohnDobak]

@@TheWardylan Those are... rookie numbers?

[@thepilotman5378]

I will say, the hardware compartment of the Lowe's I worked in (my department as well) literally lost 12 dollars every two weeks (people steal the one bolt they need) at the most. We knew where everything was, how many we had, and when we got new ones. Good thing about hardware, is that the parts don't expire, and are available year-round unlike citrus fruits.

[@LapisPebble]

I honestly think about this often and I'm so happy you're talking about it

[@picklecookies]

Shelf stocker for a large grocery store chain in Canada here. My store does not sort products by aisle, in fact it doesn't even sort products by department but instead just sends pallets with products from all over the store which we then have to sort through to grab our products that we are suppose to stock.

[@rufusthomas3067]

The amount of times I've unloaded products that aren't even stocked in my specific store

[@RicoBanani]

ugh

[@piter4595]

same

[@lomiification]

Maybe there's a patent issue? Otherwise that's a major inefficiency

[@timothystulken]

You make a relatively major error that, as someone relatively familiar with grocery store logistics, bothers me quite a bit. You excluded direct store delivery (DSD) from the logistics model you laid out. This is a critical mistake as it’s how a ton of products are delivered and shelved in stores nationwide. Major manufacturers like Pepsi, coke, nabisco, etc. have teams of salesmen and delivery drivers that ensure stores are supplied with products. The fact that you used nabisco as an example when discussing how products are delivered from manufacturers to distribution centers and then to stores is what made me decide to comment. Nabisco is a DSD vendor which means that the manufacturer delivers merchandise directly to the store, bypassing the grocer’s distribution center. I’ll explain the way this works (in most cases) using nabisco (mondelez) as an example: 1. Products are manufactured at Mondelez factories. 2. Products are shipped to regional Mondelez distribution centers. 3. Product is delivered to stores by Mondelez drivers and is then checked into store inventory management systems. 4. Mondelez sales and merchandising employees arrive at stores and stock product on store shelves. 5. Those same sales and merchandising employees use Mondelez inventory management software and sales projection software to order the next delivery. Depending on the product, companies who participate in store DSD programs will deliver and merchandise product anywhere from 2-5 times a week. Mission tortilla vendors, for instance, service most stores 2 times a week, while coke services most stores 5 times a week. Additionally, some companies employ sales, merchandising, and drivers as all separate positions, some combine them into just one position and some combine the sales and merchandising jobs into one position. Mission has one sales/driver/merchandiser do the whole job for each store while coke has a separate employee for each aspect of the job.

[@mjc0961]

Yeah, there's a Dollar General next to my workplace, we go there on breaks for stuff a lot and there's almost always a Pepsi or Lays or milk delivery being brought in and stocked by people in Pepsi/Lays/milk uniforms driving Pepsi/Lays/milk branded trucks.

[@DaWolf805]

Yep, and then there's also the discussion about smaller chains, which still do exist, and which might contract out parts of their inventory delivery, while managing the stocking of their 'unique' products for themselves. So a smaller chain might have DSD products, then a range of 'common' items that are delivered by a third party (distinct from the DSD items which are delivered by the manufacturer), then also their 'unique' or 'low-traffic' items which they manage themselves from their own distribution centers.

[@tcser11111111]

This is exactly how millions of mom n pop general convenience stores across India are loaded every day. Vendors on motor cycles or a small pickup trucks visit these stores daily and equip them as per their needs. Larger supermarkets though not in the scale of Walmart or Kroger too rely on this system. This ends up providing employment to millions more rather than the shining efficient North American market wherein the major goal is to cut labor force as much as possible.

[@versatile3373]

This is the case for most soda beer water chips bread and milk

[@tabletalk33]

Amazing how the supply chain works in a modern economy.

[@ImErin.]

I work as an order selector as a distribution center and I can say that we dont (or cant) build the pallets in a way that makes sense usually. We get told what to grab through our headset and we go up and down isles in order of where they are on the shelf at the distribution center. That means we build pallets in the fastest way possible to us and not really in a way thats best for the store. Its really just heavier things on the bottom and lighter things on top. On top of that, we need to build them fast because we are timed with very small leeway so the pallets often end up messy because we are running from slot to slot and jumping on and off our pallet jack while its moving. This is probably not the case for everyone but it should at least explain some of the issues people are having in the comments here.

[@tabletalk33]

Very interesting. I guess it goes without saying that the efficiency experts will have a real challenge trying to find a way to improve that process.

[@adelehare8495]

When I worked as a shelf stocker at Giant Food, we had to manually update the inventory counts for each product as we put it on the shelf. I’d scan each product in the shipment and count how many units are physically on the shelf plus how many I’m adding, then update the count in the fancy scanner. That way everything eventually gets updated over time and the store can calculate what’s getting lost or stolen.

[@samesamebutdifferent563]

Wendover Productions in 2040: Years ago, we used to go to the supermarket, push a real shopping cart made of steel..........

[@SuperSMT]

Food and clothes are the two things that are just better in person than online

[@galaxyproductions2076]

As someone who grew up in Glenwood CO, I got very excited when our neighborhood store was showcased!! Even just seeing that picture brought me back. Mom would still go to the nearest Costco though

[@sandcastle1128]

Nice

[@1ChristopherRobin]

I'm literally sitting in this store's parking lot right now! I work for Instacart and this is the store I shop at the most. Super crazy to see that picture pop up and hear him say "Glenwood Springs, Colorado"!

[@bryanwoods4192]

I've noticed a trend of Western Slope features. As someone who lives a few minutes from that Costco, we also go to Glenwood to go shopping. #SmallTownLife

[@wyattseim]

Same here, I worked at city market in Craig for a few months during the pandemic and its cool to see a fellow store in the video

[@bcyr-CO]

I go to school right across the street from that store so my friends and I get food from there almost every day.

[@vlbonnie]

The niche product thing reminded me about this couple that comes to the store I work at once...every two-ish months and just buys a shitload of seltzer water. I'm talking over a hundred bottles. They never get anything else, but they only get it from our store because we're the only one that has it in the flavors they like. I don't even blame them it's pretty good

[@jacobsebastian865]

Thank you@Wendover Productions for this informative video. Much appreciated.

[@bluudlust4181]

I can never get enough of this stuff. How you can find anything interesting in so many “boring” subjects is astounding. Keep up the outstanding work.

[@RealityMixer]

I want to see a video on the logistics of Lidl’s middle aisle. You can find all kinds of random products there.

[@alexspata]

The logistic is good, the pallets are well organized, with 3-4 weekly themes, that repeat at least 2 times per year, but their "rotating staff through all jobs available in the store" mentality is the worse at least in smaller european countries, it is an exhausting mess.

[@henrythomas7112]

Thank you so much for this video. Super helpful and well-presented. Your time and effort is most appreciated!

[@neils5539]

I have a friend who was the refrigerated section manager at a local high volume Walmart. He said on a busy weekend they would sell 1,000 gallons of milk. Expand that across the country and think of the volume of milk that's required every week in the US. Just staggering! And that's just one product.

[@mitcheljanuszka]

10:50 I work at a Grocery Store and I wish they did that, however most of the pallets are organized in different categories (etc. canned goods, paper products, condiments, household goods, pet product). It is really annoying because sometimes one pallet will have products that belong on multiple aisles sometimes on the other side of the store.

[@grumpyhale821]

Even that was wishful thinking.

[@anonimus370]

Did you work at a big network or a more local Grocery store, I imagine what he was talking about is only possible for big corporations.

[@mitcheljanuszka]

@@anonimus370 I work at a large chain of southern grocery stores they definitely could organize them better

[@stevencrouch6036]

Same here in the UK for example, stuff for our home baking aisle/sandwich spread aisle usually comes on a cage with stuff for oral care which is on the other end of the store, also crisps & toilet/kitchen roll.

[@hatsoff4524]

@@anonimus370 I work at the biggest supermarket, even we don't organize it by aisle, we organize it by department instead.

[@Wolf-hd1hr]

I've always been fascinated about the idea of supermarkets, getting things of everytime from every corner of the world under one roof, and your video just exemplifies that brilliance of logistical and supply chain management.

[@mangos2888]

Totally cutting over to Nebula to see the extended version. I finally got a subscription for Nebula/Curiosity stream bundle! Seriously amazing content!

[@rowrowgabro5333]

Thank you for making this video, I appreciate the good in depth content!

[@comfortablynumber]

Wendover: Grocery stores logistics Me: planes are involved for sure, let's see how he made it this time

[@MidnightSt]

you don't even need to check, it's obvious how are they involved

[@davidrubio.24]

I don't know why people assume that Wendover is into planes. They are clearly about logistics. It just happens that the airline industry have very sophisticated logistics.

[@comfortablynumber]

@@davidrubio.24 I know, it is just a meme and every once in a while people come up with it

[@ydid687]

@@comfortablynumber also he's been hinting at starting an airline in the future too lol

[@yesitsmojo24]

Wendover: "The Logistics of-" Me: **clicks faster than the speed of light**

[@bazsnell3178]

Nothing is faster than the speed of light.

[@utuberme1]

@@bazsnell3178 It's called a 'hyperbole'

[@yesitsmojo24]

@@bazsnell3178 My finger when Wendover uploads is

[@Ranulfdatank]

**mouse collapses into a singularity**

[@walterbrunswick]

@@bazsnell3178 grapes are faster

[@stevencrouch6036]

As someone who works in retail here in the UK I can say that organising cages/pallets based on where it is in the aisle is a pipe dream in any business the closest you get is the stuff for the same aisle or two aisle being on the same pallet or cage.

[@balance4141]

Just happened to be curious about logistics in general so I searched it up and found this video. Super duper informative! Thank you for making this vid, great quality and presentation, very helpful and really appreciate it.

[@chrishall2594]

"Inventory" is done once a year at big stores. Counting on hands, as walmart says, is done regularly.

[@lcmortensen]

Fresh foods such as fruit/vegetables and meat are stocktaked more regularly due to their high perishability. I have to stocktake the entire fruit/vegetable section every Sunday (except over the Xmas/New Year busy period)! It usually takes 2.5 hours.

[@magical_catgirl]

We do SOH checks daily on everything that is low on shelf. Fresh departments get a monthly stocktake (used to be weekly for meat and produce) and the entire store gets a full stocktake yearly. The big yearly one is done by a dedicated stocktake team that just goes around stores (of every brand the company owns) and just counts stock.

[@timothystulken]

Yup, stores will only regularly correct inventory numbers for perishables (meat, produce, and deli items), but will correct on hands for items that are low on the shelf to ensure reorder occurs. Most stores refer to this as “ones and nones.”

[@Clay3613]

Harbor Freight did it like 3 times a year.

[@crazyoncoffee]

Yearly inventory is next Tuesday at my store and the back room is still jammed with pallets from months ago that need to be broken down. God help me

[@MostlyCivil]

Now I am really wishing there was a "Grocery Store Tycoon" game.

[@midgetwthahacksaw]

As someone who works in a grocery store this is such a jarring idea. I guess I can see an outsider's position on why it would be fun, but then I would argue to go work for a store and then see how much fun it is. The real deal is more difficult that you think and it's because of one simple thing that is removed in transition to Real World to Game: Psychology. The pressure to succeed in Game is greatly reduced from Real Life. You don't have a manager screaming at you because your count is wrong for the week. Nor are you dragged into the office because your quarterly inventory has more surplus then needed. Then, there's the system itself. It can go down very easily and when it does, you can miss your deadline for truck orders or you are unable to scan out the expired inventory and have no other choice but to throw it away without logging it (but hope you can remember later when the system comes back online). Our database still operates on a system created in the 90's. It hasn't been updated because that would require a overhaul of every single terminal in the entire franchise. So, it stays outdated and with severe deficiencies and flaws. So your Game would operate as if all of this wouldn't exist and therefore would be Perfect. A nice comfy idea but unrealistic in the long-run. But it would be nice if things actually ran the way they should. Would make my job easier.

[@manuelroger1035]

@@midgetwthahacksaw show me one game that is realistic in the long run. Games are supposed to drag you into another world and distract you from the stress of the reality.

[@midgetwthahacksaw]

@@manuelroger1035 Fair enough. Like I said, I wouldn't find this one very entertaining since I do it IRL and I would just nitpick it to death. It's like having a MD watch House or whatever new hit Medical Drama is on these days. It's not really enjoyable to people who work in the system. Edit: Games that aren't about my job are fun and distracting. Games that are, however, are just stress inducing and DON'T distract me from that stress.

[@davidreichert9392]

Interesting to watch the modern distribution centre process. I worked at a grocery distribution centre back in the early 1990s for a time when it was all manual (and very exhausting!)

[@how2banana25]

This was a really cool video. One thing to note is that inventory management systems aren’t, and can’t be, relied on extremely heavily. I’ve been a vendor for years now and depending on the company and division, you get vendors that represent certain brands. We basically act as a manual inventory specialist for our specific brand we represent. Normally we know in advance what products of ours will be on sale or what seasonal products will be coming out and how they will sale and we let the department manager know to up the order count so their shelves stay filled. We also have resources that managers sometimes don’t with knowing /why/ a product is out of stock and when it would be back in stock, as well as manually changing the re order count based on demand because department managers are usually too busy to be able to handle the small things like that. It’s a crazy and well oiled machine

[@granslam175]

Huh, never thought I’d see the City Market I get lunch from everyday on a KZbin video. Much less a Wendover productions video.

[@connorquinn9792]

We live in a small world!!!

[@goofyahhslimjackson1942]

How odd I went to that exact location last year. I remember I was camping nearby and had trouble with the water machine

[@granslam175]

@@goofyahhslimjackson1942 The water machine works flawlessly, idk what you're talking about

[@afriendlessperson3464]

Holy shit 2:39 that's my hometown's city market. I grew up in Glenwood Springs Colorado

[@jchow5966]

I grew up in the USA - taking grocery stores for granted. After traveling to different countries & watching videos like this - i am amazing by American grocery stores and will not ever take them for granted!!! Thank you for this episode!!!!!!!

[@FebiMaster]

The first time i went to a supermarket in my childhood was one of the best moments i’ve had, being able to run down many aisles with toys lining up on all of them filled me with wonders and joy, my thought back then was “What if i could have all of these toys and snacks?” Thats why every weekends my family used to go to supermarkets so while they shop and look for everyday stuff, me and my brother would go to snacks & toys aisle and look at all the things on sale, often times there were showcases displaying a complete set of toy models, from lego sets, to a miniature running train sets

[@meshception8131]

The animation quality in this episode is so high, fabulous job!

[@glen1555]

Fascinating. I work in grocery retail in England and this was really interesting and accurate. A late harvest of something in Europe and vegetables are flown in from USA, Australia or Uganda. I started in a grocery store in the 1960s, customers would give you a written list of what they wanted and you went into the stockroom to find everything. Now, even in a small corner store, very little is in the stockroom, everything has to be out on the shopfloor

[@mlight6845]

This video explains so much. Thank you.

[@maximiliantomasoski4032]

Well run distribution centers and stores that communicate with them have pallets that correspond with where items are in the store. But I can tell you for my store in a small Wisconsin town. That is no longer the case. Usually things were grouped by 2/3 isles per pallet. Now it can be upwards of like 6-8 isles per pallet. It takes so much longer to break them down then it used to.

[@calebweldon8102]

I would love a logistics of packaging, I used to work on a. Cardboard box factory and the supply change was fascinating because everyone buys boxes with a huge variety of standards

[@adrielsebastian5216]

Honestly logistic videos always float my boat

[@sayantansantra2332]

I've experienced almost all of the stages of grocery stores that you mentioned. As someone from a rural part of India, I was truly awestruck when I moved to a big city for college. You don't have to go to 10 different stores to get all the stuff you need (unless you want to, some specialty places have the best shit). Before that, whenever I needed something "too fancy" for my small village, Amazon and Flipkart were my only friends (fortunately they were there by the time I was a teenager). Having moved to US now (again for studies), it's good to see that even small towns enjoy at least some of the facilities.

[@Erth]

Nice work thanks 🙏🏼! I appreciate your videos!

[@jcnbw01]

That part about keeping niche slow moving products to keep shoppers, I never realized it until now but that is absolutely true. I keep a mental note of which supermarkets I can get certain items and that determines where I end up shopping for the most part.

[@RichWellner]

I live in Mexico and, while I understood his point (of course), I did have to laugh at peanut butter as an example of global logistics. The grocery stores I go to only have one brand and frequently only crema de cacahuate cremosa (creamy peanut butter). No brand competition. No organic. No different sized of chunks. No hay nada! 😂

[@lohaye3260]

In my country at least in my state is rare to see even peanut butter, I not kidding you 😂😂😂.

[@RichWellner]

@@lohaye3260 I totally believe you. In Mexico I've been in plenty of tiendas and even some supermercados that don't have it at all. And the aladino brand that I usually see has more sugar than I prefer. I've actually considered just buying a machine and making it myself!

[@lohaye3260]

@@RichWellner I'm from Brazil, northeast and here I think there's no significant demand for this product, this can explain why is lacking. The only similar that seemed to took off was jelly that I consider so sugary to my taste.

[@RichWellner]

@@lohaye3260 Do you have amendocrem in your area? Also: I just read that americans eat a billion pounds of peanut butter per year. That's like 1.5kg per person!

[@Dangic23]

I lived in Puerto Rico for a few years.... Peanut butter is not used for anything there. Only time I saw something with Peanut butter was in a "limber". Limber is a frozen flavored liquid in a cup. Top sellers are coconut and Crema......but the PB was very tasty.

[@JustFluffyQuiltingYarnCrafts]

Love to browse grocery stores and this one is right up my alley. Thank you. ❤

[@PeterAJB]

This is a fantastic video, well done Wendover.