Retail grocery stores typically have copious amounts of inventory in a wide range of goods. Managing inventory can take some time to complete and prevent the loss of items through employee or customer theft.
Most grocery stores use a distribution-style inventory management process. Distribution centers ship inventory items to the store. Grocery store managers place orders, receive inventory, remove damaged goods and rotate stock to improve inventory turnover.
Accounting for inventory is an important part of grocery store management. Because of the variety of goods and potentially fast-moving items, a periodic accounting inventory system is common. This system focuses on monthly dollar amount reviews for inventory rather than accounting for each item.
Grocery stores typically conduct an annual, physical inventory. This occurs because of the time consumed by the process and difficulty counting these items. Inventory audits may be necessary if the store experiences large dollar variances in their inventory calculations. This helps discover any improprieties in the inventory process.