Grocery Co-ops are community-owned grocery stores that focus on sustainable sourcing and supporting the people around them. There are 200+ grocery co-ops in the US, who prioritize local and regional sourcing.
Freshspire provides order management, vendor management, and data software solutions to 4 Weaver Street Market Stores in North Carolina. Freshspire is making ordering from local suppliers 80% more efficient, supplier relationships longer lasting, and store operations smoother, and employee transitions less complicated.
“We had a challenge of managing orders and communicating logistics to our staff on a weekly basis. Freshspire makes that process easier by streamlining our orders.”
Weaver Street Market’s local sourcing program was robust, but was also proving to be overwhelming to store buyers to manage. With one head produce merchandiser, and 4 buyers at each location.
Various communication streams with multiple buyers: One buyer at each store managed all communication with suppliers on via email, phone calls, and texts. He/She would receive price lists from 4-20 suppliers through a variety of communication streams.
Supplier and delivery knowledge was contained to one person: The buyer was the only person in the store who had a relationship with the suppliers, and complete knowledge of when the suppliers were coming in, and what they need delivered. If he/she left the job or was absent, it was difficult for anyone to fill in.
No organized record of communications and orders: Notes and order history were often recorded on papers or spreadsheets, that were difficult to keep track of. Any records were sloppy and disorganized. Therefore, planning for the next year was often difficult.
Time-consuming & error prone ordering mechanisms: Depending on the season, it took 5+ hours simply to place orders with suppliers (sending individual emails, texts, and calls) on top of regular duties. This often led to miscommunication, missed orders, etc.
Challenges
Freshspire worked with Weaver Street Market to implement software to solve many of their challenges.
Supplier & Order Management: Freshspire compiled all of their price lists in one place, removing the challenge of managing multiple price lists in different locations.
Organizational Efficiency: Freshspire provided order tracking, online messaging, and notes that could be viewed by any authorized store employee. Any authorized employee could view Freshspire to understand the days orders, or step in to communicate with suppliers.
Order History & Trends: Freshspire provided interactive data and order reports that compiled products, prices, and suppliers to easily plan for the next year.
Solution
After implementing Freshspire, Weaver Street Market has a seen game-changing results. Weaver Street Market has conducted >$1,000,000 worth of transactions on the platform.
Order times dropped by 80%! Buyers spent ~10min/day placing and managing orders on Freshspire.
Confusion within the stores reduced, as employees were informed about what products and suppliers were coming in on which day.
A buyer transition occurred at a store & native knowledge was easily transferred due to online message, past orders, and note taking.
Planning data (products, prices, and times) saved WSM time and effort as all of it was pre-compiled for them. When working with suppliers, they were able to easily access information from the past year.