LESSON 4: PRODUCT ROTATION

Rotating all the product is one of the most important tasks that occur regularly in any specialty cheese department.

• “First in, first out” – is the guiding principle for proper rotation maintenance.
  
  

Dated Product Rotation 

• If you plan to merchandise different lots of the same product in your display, be sure to keep the oldest date closest to the customer, with newer lots behind/underneath older ones.
• If possible, avoid keeping more than two different dated lots at the shelf at once. Keeping more than two may enable customers to throw off your rotation badly enough to create unnecessary shrink.
• Keep a calendar that lists sell-by dates, so you can push sales on short-coded product and reduce shrink.
  
  

Non-Dated Product Rotation

• For soft-ripened cheeses – Keep the ripest (softest) product closest to your customer.
• For soft-ripened cheeses – There may be instances when you receive a new lot riper than the one you still have. In this instance, you may decide to break from F.I.F.O. to sell the ripest cheese first to avoid selling or shrinking over-ripe cheese.
• For hard cheeses – If you find product with minor defects (small cracks in rind, broken cryovac seals, etc., you should opt to sell through this product first, see triage from Lesson 3).
  
  

Cut & Wrap Rotation

• Establish acceptable sell-by dates for cut & wrap selection and print the cut date and/or the sell-by date on the scale tag (i.e 5-7 days for soft cheeses, 10-14 days for hard cheeses).
• The guiding principle should be to cut less more often to reduce shrink.
• Establish pars for how much of each cheese should be cut at a time to balance supporting sales and keeping your display appear bountiful. Then cut to build displays up to that par, only cutting extra when you expect an imminent increase in business or reduction in labor.
• Be sure to rotate in fresh-cut and wrap behind and/or underneath the previously cut and wrap.