I am part of the book industry, and I hear all the time that this book or that book was removed from store shelves. The reason almost always comes back to the cost of shelf space, and this is a confusing phrase to new authors or vendors who aren’t familiar with how the retail world works. I thought it might be fun to take a look at how a store determines the cost of shelf space so we can all understand why stores sometimes choose to stop carrying our favorite products.
The question always comes up, “What do you mean, the cost of shelf space? Aren’t the shelves already paid for?” It’s not about paying for the shelves at all. Let me explain. The store knows how much money it needs to make in order to be profitable, and that cost is divided up in how many shelf spaces are in the store. Let’s say I have 1,000 shelf spaces, and I need to make $1,000 a day. I need each shelf space to profit me at least $1.00 in order to reach my goal. If I have a product that isn’t moving—let’s say, I only sell one a week—it’s costing me $6 of shelf space every day. That’s a really simplistic way of looking at it, and there are other variables that go into it (such as how much profit is really brought in by the various products), but that gives you an idea of how the concept of shelf space works.
A store brings in new products to try, and they keep track of how much those products sell. If they sell enough to pay for themselves, to pay the employees for stocking them and ringing them up, then those products are more likely to stay on the shelves. If they don’t pay their own way, they will get pulled from the shelf and replaced with something that will bring in a better profit.
So if you tried that new kind of ketchup and you really liked it, only to find that your store stopped carrying it, this is why. You can sometimes order some in, and you can sometimes find other stores that have had better luck with sales and so will keep it in stock longer.
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