The *OFFICIAL* Asda thread

[all new Phil]

Seeing as we don't currently have an Asda thread, or if we do then I don't remember it, I thought I'd start one.

Anyway, I'm sure fellow Metro-Obsessives will be as excited as I was at this - I noticed tonight in my local Asda that they've started rolling out a new style shelf-edge price label thing (not sure what they are technically called). God they're awful. They use that bizarre handwriting font that they use on a lot of their current signage, which is pretty hard to read at such a small size (example of said font in the image below below...)



They're still black on white, look incredibly cheap, and aren't a patch on the far-superior Sainsbury's equivalent.

I've always wondered, however, just how these work. Are they printed by those little machines that the shelf-stackers seem to carry around with them or something? They seem to come off a roll, as the edges are perforated. Given that supermarkets stock thousands of products, with constantly changing prices, how easy is it to keep them correct? I'm guessing the machines are linked to a computer somewhere which stores exactly what each label says or something?

Please respond.

[Pete]

Usually it's a mix of performated card in a laser printer for the majority of things and then people going around with the handhelds for touching up.

[Alexia]

They are indeed called Shelf Edge Labels, or SELs. In Sainsburys we used to have pre-printed sheets with white and orange sections, which when fed into a printer, gave you several tickets per sheet. The plastic ones were nicer, but sharper.

Incidentally, the bigger ones in plastic holders are called barkers.

The little machines we used to carry round are actually mobile sticker printers, which link wirelessly to the handheld computer-cum-scanner devices. How they worked was quite remarkable - you scanned an item, typed the percentage you had to reduce it by, then scan a barcode stuck on the side of the printer. The printer would then be linked to that handset until you scanned a different one. Which was quite amusing when a useless manager "borrowed" (stole without asking) the one working handset in the building, and forgot to scan his printer. Upon returning to the handset complaining it's "buggered", I held up the million printed stickers that had been produced on my printer and asked "Yours?"

[Beep]

They are indeed called Shelf Edge Labels, or SELs. In Sainsburys we used to have pre-printed sheets with white and orange sections, which when fed into a printer, gave you several tickets per sheet. The plastic ones were nicer, but sharper.

Incidentally, the bigger ones in plastic holders are called barkers.

The little machines we used to carry round are actually mobile sticker printers, which link wirelessly to the handheld computer-cum-scanner devices. How they worked was quite remarkable - you scanned an item, typed the percentage you had to reduce it by, then scan a barcode stuck on the side of the printer. The printer would then be linked to that handset until you scanned a different one. Which was quite amusing when a useless manager "borrowed" (stole without asking) the one working handset in the building, and forgot to scan his printer. Upon returning to the handset complaining it's "buggered", I held up the million printed stickers that had been produced on my printer and asked "Yours?"

It's a similar system at TNT. You are given a wrist mounted scanner, and a printer that prints labels on a strap, you scan the printer to assign it to the Symbol scanner, and scan the incoming parcels/packets and label them up for them to be sent to their next location.

[Chie]

You mean like this?



The labels have been like that for years.

[WillPS]

They are indeed called Shelf Edge Labels, or SELs. In Sainsburys we used to have pre-printed sheets with white and orange sections, which when fed into a printer, gave you several tickets per sheet. The plastic ones were nicer, but sharper.

Incidentally, the bigger ones in plastic holders are called barkers.

The little machines we used to carry round are actually mobile sticker printers, which link wirelessly to the handheld computer-cum-scanner devices. How they worked was quite remarkable - you scanned an item, typed the percentage you had to reduce it by, then scan a barcode stuck on the side of the printer. The printer would then be linked to that handset until you scanned a different one. Which was quite amusing when a useless manager "borrowed" (stole without asking) the one working handset in the building, and forgot to scan his printer. Upon returning to the handset complaining it's "buggered", I held up the million printed stickers that had been produced on my printer and asked "Yours?"

There are similar printers for printing SELs, intended primarily for use during spot-checks shortly before the store opens and during the day (when legal). With the present system (titled RSS) reductions are not done by percentage, although the software will always suggest a price around 2/3 of the retail price.

[TG]

Also at Tesco, the labels are now printed off a roll of labels through a much smaller printer, two wide, as opposed to the old A4 sheet-at-a-time of labels which were a bugger to feed cleanly through the laser printer.

But now, it's all on shop floor anyway. Shoulder to Shoulder indeed....

[scottishtv]

Anyone know what the deal is with the "Sorry.. Temporarily out of stock" SELs?

My hunch is that they seem to be used where a product is known to be unavailable - ie. it didn't arrive on that morning's lorry but the system knows it's still needed in store.

Often you will see a gap during the day but no 'Sorry' label. Is that just slackness on the part of the shelf filling team? (ie there is stock in the stockroom but they haven't got round to plugging the gap?)

Is there any requirement for anyone to use 'Sorry' labels at all or do they do it just to be nice/stop customers asking staff to check for stock?

Finally, do Tesco still use the "I'll be back after Christmas" SELs. I'm sure I witnessed these when my local store was a Metro (couple of years ago now) and they had to get rid of some usual lines to make space for Christmas stock. They left the SEL there but added an "I'll be back" label adjacent and had a nice snowman graphic on it. I'm sure I'm not making this up. Honest.

[Andrew Wood]

In the mornings (before 9ish), all gaps are scanned by the stock control teams and 'Temporarily Out of Stock' (TOS) labels are put in front of the shelf edge labels.

After investigation, the grocery and non-food teams use reports that tell them when products will be in relevant depots to update the TOS labels - and where possible, they can turn them round and put a date on the 'Not Available Until' side. Fresh don't have this option as stock is not held in depot but delivered from suppliers daily, but occasionally we do get info and can use the labels as necessary.

As products go out of stock, labels aren't added (it isn't a company procedure to do so, though some stores and departments may do so they can 'fill across gaps').

At 9pm (mine's a trial store) all the fresh gaps are re-scanned. It all helps the system understand availability/replineshment/stock control issues.

[Andrew Wood]

USELESS TRIVIA: if you see an SEL with a thick black line...

Sorry, but that is useless now, as POS is only used on ends and not in fixture!

[WillPS]

At Sainsbury's yellow 'Sorry, this item is out of stock' labels are only used in produce and homeshop.