Dairy

VP

Mike, you will start the Dairy round. What’s your best statistic?

Mike

Despite my dairy being the smallest dairy in the district, it had a sales efficiency of $13,110 per square meter.

Jack

What about spoilage, Mike? How much dairy product did you have to throw away because of poor product turnover?

Mike

We lost about $14,000 last year in spoilage. But having a little spoilage is not a bad thing; it shows product is always on the shelf.

Jack

I guess your spoilage figures are OK.

Andrea

What was your overall profit?

Mike

We more or less stayed even for the year.

Andrea

Well my profit was $122,000. Is your profit this high?

Mike

No, it is not.

VP

Jack. You are next.

Jack

I reduced my dairy E&S by 30%.

Andrea

Did this reduction have an equivalent drop in sales?

Jack

Well, sales did drop by 19.3%, which is 10.7 percentage points less than the E&S drop. This shows a good part of the E&S reduction was due to good management.

Andrea

Just so that everyone knows, my dairy had an 11.9% rise in E&S costs, but my sales went up 19.6%. This is even better management than what Jack is claiming.

Mike

Jack, what was your total cost of E&S?

Jack

$9,000

Mike

I was a thousand dollars less.

Jack

But that difference is nothing!

Mike

Remember the very competitive business we are in. We make profits by doing many things just a little bit better than our competition, not by doing one thing very well.

Jack

But if you reduce your costs because sales drop, that should not count.

Mike

Well, my sales actually grew this year!

VP

Stop right there. All three of you had your chance to prove your dairy is the best. No more questions . . . . . . . . I say Andrea has the made the best case. This puts Andrea ahead with two points. Jack has one, and Mike still has not scored.

Andrea

Dairy and Produce! I’m the best!

Jack

Start looking over your shoulder. I’m not that far behind.

Mike

And my store’s stronger departments have not yet been analyzed in this interview.

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