To what can we attribute the past months and current sales declines in Europe? Reference comments above. Has the, and if so, how much has the stronger dollar impacted overall sales? On the handouts you have received for show sales, customer counts and average transaction amounts. We can indirectly attribute the stronger dollar to both a reduction in sales and customer count. These spreadsheets use the periods October 2013 to June 2014, dollar conversion rate on the last day of June 2014 was 1 Euro costing $1.40. The second period was from October 2014 to June 2015, dollar conversion rate on the last day of June 2015 was 1 Euro costing $1.14. The stronger exchange rates coupled with the price of fuel dropping has seen customers going into different stores their item selections and the “exploring” quality of their perishable selections. There is still a barrier” to “language overcome however, we are finding due to the favorable exchange rates some of our customers are visiting stores outside the military installations. The stronger exchange rate has also allowed more discretionary spending for families as we believe more people are going out to dinner at local restaurants more often. Where are the customer count/transaction levels versus prior year? Reference handout. Store level issues: Vendor Stockers are being told to retrieve pallets from the warehouse location, bring to the sales floor, break them down and return to the warehouse after completion. Could a memo be sent to the stores reminding them of what the vendor stocker’s duties are? This is the time we have heard this is an issue. We are going to need to know what stores are requiring these actions. Store personnel should be doing all they can to sort and separate vendor stocked items from the store stocked items making it easier for the vendors to retrieve their items. Of course, these sorting actions are predicated on availability of personnel. Please let us know where this is happening and we will work the issue through the respective Zone Manager. Note: As discussed during the meeting, the stores in question are Lakenheath and Ramstein.
To what can we attribute the past months and current sales declines in Europe? Reference comments above. Has the, and if so, how much has the stronger dollar impacted overall sales? On the handouts you have received for show sales, customer counts and average transaction amounts. We can indirectly attribute the stronger dollar to both a reduction in sales and customer count. These spreadsheets use the periods October 2013 to June 2014, dollar conversion rate on the last day of June 2014 was 1 Euro costing $1.40. The second period was from October 2014 to June 2015, dollar conversion rate on the last day of June 2015 was 1 Euro costing $1.14. The stronger exchange rates coupled with the price of fuel dropping has seen customers going into different stores “exploring” their item selections and the quality of their perishable selections. There is still a “language barrier” to overcome however, we are finding due to the favorable exchange rates some of our customers are visiting stores outside the military installations. The stronger exchange rate has also allowed more discretionary spending for families as we believe more people are going out to dinner at local restaurants more often. Where are the customer count/transaction levels versus prior year? Reference handout. Store level issues: Vendor Stockers are being told to retrieve pallets from the warehouse location, bring to the sales floor, break them down and return to the warehouse after completion. Could a memo be sent to the stores reminding them of what the vendor stocker’s duties are? This is the time we have heard this is an issue. We are going to need to know what stores are requiring these actions. Store personnel should be doing all they can to sort and separate vendor stocked items from the store stocked items making it easier for the vendors to retrieve their items. Of course, these sorting actions are predicated on availability of personnel. Please let us know where this is happening and we will work the issue through the respective Zone Manager. Note: As discussed during the meeting, the stores in question are Lakenheath and Ramstein.
ALA_Europe_Chapter_and_DeCA_Industry_Meeting_15_Sep_15.docx