Glossary

B

Banner

A banner is the name on the front of a grocery store, such DCANS Groceries.

Bill of lading (BOL)

A BOL is a paper record that must accompany any shipment from a food producer or manufacturer when they’re shipping to a warehouse or retail grocery store.

Black Label

Black label refers to a private label brand that is positioned at the high end of the price and quality spectrum. The quality may be represented as higher, but the focus may also be on exotic, unique or niche flavours.

Bunk End

This is another term for an end of aisle display.

C

Category

This is a grouping of goods. A corporate grocery chain will have a category manager for various categories of goods (example: meat, bakery, breakfast and condiments).

S

Safety Stock

A back-stock of products kept to replenish shelves.

Sales Analysis

An analysis of sales by week, month, period or year to project trends, identify problems and measure a retailer's performance.

Sales Area

An area designated in a retail store to display and merchandise products, provide customer service and check out. It does not include the back room, coolers, (stock area) or maintenance areas.

Sales Log

A sales record by store and department, which provides sales trends, competitive factors, staffing, weather, holidays, etc.

Sales Projection

A sales forecast based on sales for the same period last year.

Sales Representative

A marketing person employed by a manufacturer or wholesaler to represent certain product brands within a given sales area.

Sales Representative's Premium

A premium or prize given to a manufacturer's or wholesaler's marketing person for achieving benchmark sales.

Sanitize

The last part of the cleaning procedure of food equipment and surfaces to reduce microbial counts to a safe level within the department.

Satellite Stores

Retail stores that are serviced by the same distribution center; or outlying stores in a shopping center.

Scale

A machine used to weigh products.

Scaler

A special hand tool with ridged teeth for scaling fish.

Scaling

The pricing of merchandise on the basis of weight and retail price.

Scan and Bag

The system or technique whereby a cashier bags purchases while scanning.

Scan Bars

The standardized coding system (Universal Product Code) that encrypts individual product pricing and identification information within a series of vertical lines.

Scan Integrity

The quality of the inventory and pricing data that ensures that items have been added, deleted and correctly priced.

Scan Ratio

An inventory correction calculation to adjust for physical inventory differences based on the percentage of items scanned to the total items sold.

Scan-based trading

A new way of doing business between direct store delivery manufacturers and retailers. It incorporates daily point-of-sale data to pay for product, electronic communication technologies to eliminate discrepancies and inefficiencies, and various store-level operating improvements, such as open delivery windows and elimination of check-in, to speed product flow.

Scannable Coupons

Coupons with a scannable bar code used to identify the promotional programme and product and to deduct the correct value from a customer's receipt.

Scanner

An electronic register system that automatically records the product description and retail price for an item by reading a UPC code with a laser.

Seasonal Calendar / Planner

A seasonal, schedule created to simplify planning around holidays and specific selling periods, i.e., merchandising, display building, ordering, scheduling staff.

Seasonal Item

Products associated exclusively with a holiday or specific time of the year. Also known as Seasonal Merchandise.

Seasonal Promotions

A marketing plan of in-and-out promotions for seasonal events, such as Christmas, Back-to-School, Occasion Clean-up, Halloween, Valentine's Day.

Secondary Display

A promotional display of an item in a retail store in addition to a product's regular shelf location.

Secondary Packaging

A master package that contains several inner packs; which are normally the unit of sale.

Secondary Supplier

A vendor or wholesaler that supplies a retailer with a small volume of products.

Section

An area in a retail store that contains one category of products.

Security Deposit

A retailer's cash deposit with a wholesaler to secure credit.

Segregation

Locating general merchandise products (GM) in a well-defined area of a store rather than in aisles next to or across from food products.

Selective Discounting

Price reductions on fast-moving products to give a low- price image.

Selective Merchandising

The elimination or minimizing of duplicate brand products.

Selective Selling

A wholesaler's marketing practice of selling only to retailers who meet various criteria, e.g., sales volume, type of store, location and style of operation.

Self-facing Fixture

A rack or shelf that uses either gravity or mechanical means to replace an item when one item is removed by a customer.

Self-liquidating Premium

A manufacturer's premium in which the product's cost is recovered through a retail sale of the product.

Self-service

A retail store with few service employees to assist customers other than at the checkout.

Sell-down

The amount of time it takes to sell all products on the shelf.

Semi-liquidators

A customer's premium whose cost is only partially recovered by a manufacturer or retailer.

Service Label

The in-stock position of a warehouse expressed as the percentage of orders placed that can be filled. The opposite of service label is out-of-stocks.

Service Merchandiser

A vendor or wholesaler who specializes in a product category. Also known as a rack jobber.

Share of Market

A product's percent of sales within a category. A retailer's share of total retail sales within a specific trading area.