Gift Basket Business Blog

How Often Do You Take Inventory?

May 21st, 2007 at 07:36am Lorie Obernauer

In a recent issue of Fancy Food News Bytes, this question was posed to readers: how often do you take inventory? For those of us in the specialty food industry, it’s an important question. Although many of the gourmet foods used by gift basket assemblers are shelf stable, this doesn’t mean that these foods will last forever.

Here’s a summary of suggestions that I got from some of Apex Gift Food’s customers plus some ideas of my own about taking inventory and turning inventory over.

1. When new gourmet products come in, keep track of the date they arrive. Mark the date right on the outside of the case where you store them.

2. Do an inventory of your gourmet foods stock on a monthly basis. Check to see what date the product arrived. If you haven’t sold much in the month’s time, think about using those items in a special promotion. It’s better to turn over inventory that’s not moving even if you lose some of your profit rather than letting the products go stale on your shelf at which point, you’ll make no profit at all.

3. Check to see if any items have expiration dates that have already passed. Although these products may still be edible, you don’t want to send any of these in your gift baskets. You can either discard these items, or donate them to a local bank. (Taste these yourself before donating.) Ask your financial advisor how you can take a tax deduction for these donations.

It’s worth your time to keep track of your inventory and make sure that your customers are receiving top quality, fresh products in the gift baskets that you design.

Entry Filed under: Business Tips, Gourmet Gift Foods