3.3.1. Customers' Demand and Unusual Products

Products with uneven demand and unusual products often had high waste, and employees had to handle trade-offs between customers satisfaction and waste reduction. The stores had therefore chosen to remove some of the unusual products, such as various exotic fruits, from their regular product range and only order them for particular weekends and holidays. The demand for fresh herbs was uneven, they periodically had high waste and the sales margin was low. Despite that, the stores had chosen to offer these products to customers. The low profit margins were acceptable in light of the fact that customer service was paramount and these products were difficult to replace. The stores also sold organic products at a lower profit margin, vis-à-vis conventional products. The stores still wanted to retain a low selling price with the customers' interest in mind, and they argued that if there were no cheap organic products, the store might lose the customer completely. On a regular basis, the staff inspected what products had high waste and low sales volume and occasionally removed those products from the range. When new products were brought into the department, the staff expected it to take some time before customers would find them, and higher waste in the initial phase was then accepted.
