Basket size — that’s a term I learned early in my career. Dennis Reagan, one of the assistant store managers I worked with then, mentioned this during a walk around our store.
Dennis was a long-time grocery veteran, and especially helpful as I started out. He explained that basket size is a rough estimate of how a grocer is doing, based on visuals of how full a shopping cart is at any given point. We quickly toured the front end of the store as shoppers lined up to check out early one evening, when most of the checkstands were open and cashiers worked hard to keep up, as each of the checkout lines were several shoppers deep.
Dennis pointed this out as we walked: “See how most every cart is at least halfway full?” And we had good-sized shopping carts (or buggies, as we called them). “That’s a good sign. Some are even quite full. I’ll take that any day.”
An interesting, low-tech business measure: having good basket-size shoppers.
To contrast, Dennis and I would slip away on an occasional Friday afternoon to do a competition check. (Something employees used to raise an eyebrow over. “They’re leaving on a busy Friday? Going where? This close to Happy Hour at the local pub?”) Alas, no. We zipped through a couple of nearby competitors, where Dennis pointed to, among other aspects, the basket sizes we saw.
“Everything I see is one- or two-day shopping levels,” Dennis observed. “That means they don’t necessarily do their heavy shopping here; good to know and report to big Mike (our district manager).”
Dennis was also a huge fresh produce department supporter. He was encouraging with my weekly ad merchandising and passed along ideas to push extra produce sales. He supported me when I lobbied for extra labor hours, and he rarely pulled any of my produce crew to bail out the front end when they got busy.
We both reasoned that if the front end is busy, that means the produce department is busy too. In fact, the whole store is busy, for that matter. Everyone was accountable for their department.
We were both on the same page on this and other areas too. “You know what really helps build basket size?” Dennis said one day. “Fresh produce.”
He was so right. I remember helping a customer, a busy working mother who was struggling for a fast, yet wholesome dinner idea for her family. I suggested stir-fry — one of my favorites. I helped her select some napa cabbage, some bok choy, followed by myriad other vegetables such as peppers, onions, celery, mushrooms. Before we knew it, she was on her way with about a half-buggy of fresh, wholesome produce.
It was a nice basket size as she left, especially as she was likely to also pick up some protein, some peanut oil, soy sauce and other related goods.
Of course, basket size can grow with a little suggestive selling. Having the produce department in stellar stock condition, neat and clean, well-signed, freshly stocked and rotated, plus being staffed with trained, friendly and knowledgeable clerks, all goes a long way to help ensure shopping carts are going to be filled accordingly.
The retail business doesn’t always go to plan. It’s an inexact science. Basket size builds only when stores are run well, from the CEO level to the bagger. How we manage this business takes years to perfect. (If it doesn’t turn us into basket-cases, that is!) However, little by little, business grows and shopper confidence builds.
Along with that humble, on-floor, low-tech business metric: the basket size.
Armand Lobato’s more than 50 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. He has written a weekly retail column for two decades.
