Retailers struggle to see fresh operations clearly

Logile has published research showing that 74% of grocery and multi-location retail decision-makers struggle to see clearly what is happening across their fresh departments, even though 89% rate their fresh operations as successful.

The findings point to a gap between retailers' confidence in their fresh departments and their view of day-to-day operations. Some 84% said fresh is challenging to manage, while 76% said consistency across locations is difficult to maintain.

Logile surveyed 200 senior decision-makers in the United States across store operations, fresh and perishable categories, inventory, supply chain, labour planning, and food safety and compliance. The study covered grocery and other multi-location retail organisations, examining how leaders manage fresh operations, where they are investing in technology, and where operational pressure is building.

Fresh departments include produce, meat, seafood, deli, bakery and prepared foods, which retailers see as central to store performance and customer perception. In the survey, 82% of respondents said fresh departments play a major role in how customers perceive their stores.

Pressure points

Although most respondents described their fresh operations as successful, every decision-maker surveyed said there was room for improvement. Just 2% called their fresh operations unsuccessful, but much larger shares reported operational strain behind that headline figure.

The survey suggests this strain is more pronounced in larger businesses. Retailers with 5,000 or more employees reported more difficulty than mid-sized peers on every measure tracked in the study, including the management of fresh operations.

Among the largest retailers, 41% said managing fresh was very challenging, compared with 21% at mid-sized organisations. That suggests scale can deepen visibility and coordination problems rather than ease them.

Shrink and waste also ranked high on the list of concerns. Some 82% of respondents said reducing shrink and waste is a growing business priority, rising to 90% among the largest retailers.

Technology demand

Investment in fresh operational technology remains high on retailers' agenda, with 91% of decision-makers saying it is important.

When asked what they wanted most, respondents ranked AI-driven decision support and improved labour planning joint top at 23% each. Shrink and waste reduction followed at 21%, while compliance and food safety management stood at 20%.

The figures reflect how fresh operations span several functions at once, including forecasting, production planning, labour scheduling, inventory control and waste management. When those functions sit in separate systems, retailers can struggle to understand the cost and performance of a specific item or see how one operational change affects another.

That issue was clearest in responses on visibility. Nearly three in four respondents said they could not clearly see what was happening across their own fresh departments, even while expressing confidence in the overall performance of those operations.

Consumer link

The research also aligns with separate consumer findings cited by Logile. In that study, 91% of shoppers said they judge a grocery store by its fresh departments.

Taken together, the two sets of findings suggest retailers see fresh departments as commercially important but still struggle to manage them consistently across stores. That challenge is likely to grow as organisations add locations and try to maintain standards across wider store networks.

For grocery groups, the issue is not simply the quality of produce, prepared foods or bakery displays. It is also their ability to connect demand, staffing, production and waste data in a way that gives managers a clearer picture of what is happening on the shop floor and in the back of house.

"Confidence in fresh operations doesn't mean visibility into it," said Purna Mishra, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Logile.

"Retailers are proud of what their teams accomplish every day, and they should be. But fresh is the result of dozens of connected decisions across demand, production, labor, inventory, waste and execution. When those decisions live in different places, even strong operators can struggle to see the complete picture. Connecting them around one view of demand is where the next opportunity lies," Mishra said.