Food costs are up. Are our retailers doing all they can to keep costs down?
Today?s post is by Ron Southard, CEO at SafeSourcing Inc.
I was doing some morning reading today and noticed an article attributed to Paul Davidson of USA TODAY titled ?RISING FOOD PRICES PINCH CONSUMERS?. It?s unfortunate we cannot survive on the lowest cost foods because that is exactly what Lettuce was with a -16.9% change in price over the last twelve months?based on?the governments Consumer Price Index for March from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Any guess as to what was the highest? Have you tried to buy Limes lately? If so you might have guessed Citrus Fruits which are up +17%. I?m not sure one could survive on limes alone either, but I am sure this author might do a pretty good job on Key Lime Pie (Yum!).
Here are some of the other categories.
1. Eggs +9.9%
2. Uncooked Ground Beef +6.8%
3. Pork + 5.3%
4. Peanut Butter? – 3.6%
5. Apples -3.0%
The question this author always has is what retailers are doing in order to compress and contain pricing in order to pass the lowest possible cost on to their consumers.? SafeSourcing has tools that help companies accomplish this and 99.9% of all sourcing projects in the last 6 years have returned savings or cost avoidance. Ask your retailer how they are doing this and if they are getting a better than 10X ROI from their procurement solution provider?
If you?d like to learn more how SafeSourcing can help your company reduce product and service realted costs so they are measureable in the current quarter, please contact a SafeSourcing customer services account manager.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments. HAPPY EASTER.
