Shelf gaps

Open it from Stores (Shelf gaps). It covers Coles, where we read every store, every day.

Leaving the range#

A product is listed here when it lost a fifth or more of its stores, and at least 20 stores, in the last 7 days. Products of one brand are grouped, yours first, then the rivals and store-brand products you watch.

Each product shows its store count step by step, such as 820 → 398 → 102 stores. A delisting usually arrives like this, in waves of stores over several days, so the first step is your early warning: time to call the buyer, or to plan the stock run-down. See the N stores opens the Stores list at exactly those N stores.

We count a store that we last read as ranging the product before the product's first drop this week, and read as not ranging it now. A store that dropped it and added it back isn't counted. A store whose range we couldn't read now never counts, so a reading gap is never shown as a delisting.

Home's This week, the weekly Shelf Brief email and an agency's All clients say a product of yours was dropped from stores only when it's listed here, with the same count. A range swap (stores dropping it and as many adding it back) isn't a drop anywhere.

Listed but empty#

Your products that Coles ranges but that have been out of stock for two days or more, the most store-days empty first. Each one shows:

• how many of the stores that range it are empty, and how many of those for 7 days or more;
• its longest run, or "empty since at least" the day our Coles data starts when it has been empty all along;
• the states with the most empty stores, and By state for every state's numbers.

See the N stores opens the Stores list for that product on Out of stock 2+ days, with exactly those stores, longest out first. Two days, because a store at zero for one day is often a normal day before a delivery. See Out of stock 2+ days.

Below your products, Rivals' empty shelves shows the same for the rivals and store-brand products you watch.

Use it to#

1. Each Monday, check Leaving the range. A product of yours there is a range review in progress: take the step-by-step counts to your key account manager or the buyer.
2. A rival there is room on the shelf. Check where you're ranged with Stores.
3. In Listed but empty, start at the top: those products have lost the most store-days. A product empty at most of its stores for a week or more is a supply problem, or a silent delisting to raise with Coles.
4. Export the stores for your reps: See the N stores, then Export on the Stores list.

Export#

Export gives two CSV files: Listed but empty (CSV), one row per product and state, and Leaving the range (CSV), one row per product leaving. See Export.

What it can't tell you#

• It covers Coles only for now. Other chains join once we read their stock and ranging the same way at every store.
• Our Coles data starts on a fixed day, so a shelf empty since before then shows as empty "since at least" that day.
• It says where a product is missing, not why: Coles' own reasons (a range review, a supply issue, a store's choice) aren't published.