Liquor officials test inventory system
Ohio’sDivisionof COLUMBUS— LiquorControl is giving some thought to how it sells alcohol. At six stores across the state, the division is rearrangingthemerchandiseandmoving inventory to better group items, help consumers find interesting brands and possibly trynewdrinks or spirits.
The effort is also aimed at ridding the system of slow-moving inventory in favor of more popular items.
The test programwill last three months and, if successful, it will be used in all 465 state liquor stores.
“I heard a lot of constructivecriticismthattherewasn’t muchthoughtfulnessputinto astore’spresentationofproducts,” said liquor superintendent Jim Canepa. “A wine shop is very organized, but if you look at the liquor store, it looks like a warehouse.”
Canepa, whotookover the division this year, reached out to agency owners, suppliers and distributors to find outwhatworks in other states and at stores that perform well within the industry. He found out that Ohio had a lot of work to do.
“It is more than putting stuff on shelves,” he said. “They told us the state has anopportunity, andwehope to increase revenues.”
The agency has never approached retail locations with an eye to making them more appealing to consumer. After all, the stores bring in morethan$1billioninrevenue a year without much effort.
A more conducive layout — with Irish whiskeys together and Scotch sorted by region along with more identification of local products such as bottles ofWatershed and Middle West — is just common sense, in one local observer’s view.
″(It’s) a lot like Retail 101,” said Chris Boring, a local retail expert.
“It is about time,” he said of the liquor store test. “They need to apply tosomefundamental merchandising techniques and I think sales will increase.... There is no reason that liquor stores need to be so boring.”
Workers spent hours at the Giant Eagle in Lewis Center on Monday taking down and regrouping the store’s 1,800 individual items for sale. The actualinventoryismanytimes that, asthereareusuallyseveral bottles of each item in stock.
Part of the retail “reset” comesthanks toanewliquor managementsoftwaresystem andsupplychain thatCanepa said better tracks sales and inventory and gives the division heaps of data that can be used to tailor selections to a store’s customer base.
Stores in different geographies or neighborhoods should carry what their clientele wants, he said.
“The idea that we put the sameproductsineachstoreis anantiquatedandstale idea,” Canepa said. “We can tell you what is selling — what sizes and price points — andmove out the stuff gathering dust.”
“They are finally stepping into the 21st century in terms of merchandising,” Boring said of the division’s efforts.
The stores testing the new format are theGiant Eagle in Lewis Center and the Kroger in CanalWinchester. Other stores elsewhere in the state that are involved in the test are smaller, mid-size and independent stores to see how the new system works in various agency formats, Canepa said.