Definitions

Shrink: missing inventory that cannot be explained by sales. Common causes are theft, damaged or expired product, warehouse errors and errors when checking goods out at the register.

Paper Shrink: inventory loss that exists “on paper” due to mistakes in tracking, counting, or recording (as opposed to actual damaged or lost product). 

Order: the list of products that has been ordered (for lack of a better word) by the department manager. 

Load: The product that has been delivered based on the DM’s order. 

Misspick: an item that was not ordered but is mistakenly sent by the warehouse in place of something else. This often produces paper shrink as the ordering system may believe the correct item was delivered.

Force outs/longs: items that were not ordered by the store but were intentionally sent by the warehouse (typically because it is close to expiration). This is especially common in retail stores that are supported by company-owned (versus 3rd party) warehouses, although it happened regardless. 

Shorts: items that are ordered but not received. 

Cull: the process of removing damaged or subpar goods from the sales floor. The removed product is either donated or disposed of, either way it becomes shrink.  

Set (noun): All products currently available for sale/to order in a given department. “This item is not in the set”.

Spot Check/Spot Count: A quick, unscheduled recount of a particular piece of merchandise done to ensure count accuracy. DM and Produce teams generally perform hundreds a day. 

Wet Rack: The refrigerated wall display with built in sprayers that holds all leafy greens, peppers and other highly perishable vegetables. 

Conventional: Within the grocery industry conventional refers to any non-organic merchandise. 

Drygoods: Product that is not kept in refrigeration. 

Dirt Items: Potatoes, onions and other root vegetables that do not require refrigeration.

Minimums: the minimum amount of product that it takes to fill its home location on the sales floor.

Grocery: Although in common vernacular “groceries” are any food item, in a supermarket or grocery store, the grocery department specifically refers to the section that handles shelf stable and packaged food items, as opposed to fresh departments like produce, meat, or deli. 

Non-perishable: In grocery retail, the non-perishable departments are those that sell merchandise with somewhat longer shelf-life. Most commonly, Grocery, Frozen, Bulk, Vitamins, Bodycare and often Dairy. 

Production departments: The departments within a grocery store that prepare, assemble or process food before they are sold. I.e. The Deli, Bakery and sometimes Meat or Produce departments. 

Batch on Hand: the quantity of a given item that is currently available for sale. Often abbreviated to BOH.

Picklist: a document or digital list that tells the staff exactly what items to gather, “pick”, from the backroom to restock shelves.

SCO: Self Checkout 

PLU: An acronym for price look-up code. They are generally a 4-5 digit code that represents a specific item. They are typically only used for produce and sometimes bulk items.

SKU: AKA Stock Keeping Unit. SKUs are more specific than PLUs. They are usually a longer alphanumeric code and are store-specific. They are used to track stock levels, sales history, and ordering. SKUs are unique per item, brand, size, or package type. Some retailers use PLUs at checkout and SKUs for ordering and inventory tracking. Most systems link SKUs to their corresponding PLU in the backend, which enables simpler and more unified inventory tracking.   

UPC: It stands for universal product code. It is a standardized code used globally to identify a specific product and brand. Typically, it is 12 digits and it is represented by a barcode that can be scanned by the POS system.