Stores Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 60) NUTS AND BOLTS / STORE OPERATIONS natural and conventional products. They have their own classrooms, and store aisles are stocked with health and wellness books. Information cards created by the company’s staff of editors cover topics from how to use vitamin C to choosing a cough medicine, and stores offer more than 80 free classes each month. Environmental responsibility The company integrates practices of environmental and social responsibility into the fabric of the stores, providing ongoing environmental programs such as recycling of consumer and company electronic waste, composting classes and instruction on green interior design and green cleaning. In June, Elephant Pharm announced that its stores in Berkeley, San Rafael and Los Altos were certified as “green businesses” by the Bay Area Green Business Program. The Aldata system allows Elephant Pharm merchandisers and managers to track just about everything that affects sales performance, according to Millen, from inventory to pharmacy services and yoga classes. “We can say sales are this much through this one-hour afternoon class,” Millen says. “We can see the variances of how free classes might drive sales. We want to know what that one particular item is [that is] driving sales because that can be an indicator of other things that 60 STORES / OCTOBER 2007 we may need to do.” Previously, Elephant Pharm used what Millen describes as a mom-and-pop store IT system, largely limited to ringing up sales and writing purchase orders. Aldata is a management system designed for retailers with more than 50 retail locations, but Millen says it was vital for Elephant Pharm to ready its infrastructure for the expected growth. “We kind of jumped that middle step, knowing that we are preparing ourselves” for the time when there are hundreds of Elephant Pharm locations, he says. Like a traditional retailer, Elephant Pharm has a buying department that creates purchase orders, procures product and ships to a warehouse or directly to stores. But it also carries consignment-type goods – such as grab-and-go sushi sandwiches — which vendors stock and maintain on the shelf. Developing merchandise mix Aldata’s merchandising and logistics system and software allows Elephant Pharm to understand the specific needs of the customers of each one of its stores in order to deliver the right mix of products and services to them, Elephant Pharcoordinated seamlessly macy acts as a with vendors. bridge between Aldata’s Rapid Imtraditional drug plementation Toolkit stores and for inventory manageretailers selling ment and store replenalternative ishment utilizes autoproducts. configuring questionnaires, data conversion techniques and project management to report critical merchandising information to stores and vendors. Arnaud Morvan, Aldata project manager on the Elephant Pharm launch, says the key to getting the system configured was taking the time to understand Elephant Pharm’s business requirements and ensuring that its best practices were retained. When Aldata released an enhanced version of its management system with a mobility module using hand-held computers to track merchandise, Elephant Pharm saw a further opportunity to keep ahead of inventory cycle counts. “The mobility product was a very important strategic part for us,” Millen says. “We wanted to keep our people on the floor so they are not in the backroom fishing out stock. They can work the stock from the main floor so that they are available to the customers to answer questions. This is one of the things that separate us a lot from our StORES competitors.” M.V. Greene is an independent writer and editor based in Owings Mills, Md., who covers business, technology and retail. WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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