Whenever the produce and store manager used to duck out early on a rare slow day to “do a comp check,” as clerks it was natural for those of us left managing the store to take it with a grain of salt. Sure, we thought. They might duck into the competition down the street — for a minute.
Indeed, “going to do a comp check” for some was a euphemism for finding a nearby happy hour.
As the area produce supervisor I learned early on from Gary Prickett, one of our no-nonsense district managers, that a comp (or competition) check was nothing to kid around about. It is an integral part of understanding your business, seeing up close how your competitors are doing — good or otherwise.
Here's a few things Gary pointed out when we did this together:
- Exterior inspection — How full is the competitor's lot? Is the lot clean and carts collected or strewn about? Things such as access, lighting, tidiness and whether you see a few or many customers tells a lot about their business, and your own. Are those customers filing in slowly or in droves? Are they likewise departing the store at the same rate? How full are the carts? Depending on the day and time, these can give you a snapshot of how well they are doing.
- First impressions — How's the service level at your competitor? Is one checkstand open? Are half of all available, or maybe more? How long are the checkout lines? A busy store not only has multiple lines, but enough labor to manage the crowd. How are the other entrance signals, such as cart availability and sanitation levels? Any impressive displays? A thriving store will be clean and inviting and present a sense of shopping excitement, no matter the day or time.
- How's the produce department? — Since this was more my forte, I was able to walk the produce department with Gary and point out a few things of my own. The temptation is strong to point out any flaws, but Gary had already conditioned me that a good comp check also means looking at the things that the competition is doing right. I pointed out how to see if the store was high volume or not simply by looking at stock levels and quality. A high-volume store has ample fresh stock on display with good selection, a range of variety and several clerks maintaining everything, indicating frequent inventory turns. A slow store might have the opposite: few customers, no visible clerks and wider facings of lower perishable items, such as hard squash or packaged carrots, that eat up linear space. I showed Gary how to spot if a department is following a good sanitation and rotation regiment. We looked at quality, signing, merchandising, pricing and anything that may have stuck out in one way or another.
- What are they buying? — It's always telling to check out what's in your competitor's customers' shopping carts. Are they small or larger orders? Lots of ad items? Are they buying a lot of perishables? How are the internal service levels, such as the interaction between customers and the deli personnel, the butcher or in the produce aisle? Or is there any interaction at all? An exceptional grocer trains their people to greet and offer help in the way of product use or selection.
- There's more of course — But as we drove away from doing a comp check, Gary and I would exchange further thoughts about what we observed. Again, he wouldn't allow much criticism, focusing mostly on what we both considered to be positive things to retain. Sometimes we saw an item or brand that we didn't carry and thought we should be, which prompted an immediate call to our buyers. Sometimes we saw a clerk or manager that we thought showed exemplary customer service skills or a positive attitude. Gary sometimes casually complimented them and left his card to consider a job with our chain instead. Sometimes it worked. Usually, a good comp check took a better part of an hour or so, and it always gave us lots of merchandising ideas to build upon.
And no matter what anyone from our own chain may have suspected, it never included happy hour.
Related: More insight from Armand Lobato
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.