This thesis explores the management of in-store replenishment systems in retail companies. Making products available is at the core of the retail business. When a product is out-of-stock, consumers respond in different ways, eventually resulting in a potential loss for retailer and manufacturer. The awareness of potentially lost sales due to out-of-stocks led to industry and academic research about the occurrence and root causes of stockouts. As a consequence, the retail supply chain became highly optimised. Nevertheless, research focussed on product availability up to the retailer’s distribution centre; the last part of the retail supply chain –from arrival at the store to the shelf– was largely ignored. Notwithstanding, research into the root causes of out-of-stocks shows that availability drops during these last 50 metres and many stockouts are caused within the store. Despite its significant impact towards on-shelf availability, logistics processes at store level have so far received little attention. With store replenishment mainly conducted manually and store management being a main contributor to store performance, this thesis considers the question about how humans and replenishment systems interact in the last 50 metres of the retail supply chain. To answer this question, six grocery and non-grocery retailers from the UK, Germany and Austria were sampled. At each case, semi-structured interviews with store managers, shop floor employees and headquarter managers were conducted at their workplace. The transcribed interviews were analysed using a reconstructive method based on a social constructionist approach. The thesis identifies four types of replenishment interaction, which can be categorised in regards to the amount of interaction between employees and replenishment system, and the impact that store employees can have onto the system. Retail store replenishment interaction can be typed as store-based, customer care focus, operations focus, or outlet.
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