ALCO back-fed racks solve RTA space problem - Duckwall-ALCO discount stores, ready-to-assemble furniture

Discount Store News, March 14, 1988 by Mary Ellen Kelly

ALCO Back-Fed Racks Solve RTA Space Problem

Duckwall-ALCO has found a way to tame the discount store industry's hungriest space-eater: ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture.

The solution was simply a $500 hole in the wall.

The hole was cut in the wall that separated the furniture department from the stockroom, benefiting the store in two ways:

Gondolas now set within that hole let employees in the stockroom lift boxed furniture onto a shelf and push the merchandise through to the display area. This, in effect, now reduces the added time spent moving heavy merchandise through store aisles.

As little as one-third of the total box length needs to protrude onto the gondola, thereby reducing the amount of space required to merchandise the category. The other two-thirds of the box extends into the stockroom.

Furniture display pieces, which had previously been at floor level, are now elevated several feet higher onto two display shelves. Damage to floor models is expected to be reduced by placing half of the display goods--the higher of the two shelves--out of reach of the consumer. The lower shelf still allows the shopper to feel the wood and test doors and drawers.

The new RTA display/stock system was tested in the C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Adjusters) store in Mineral Wells, Texas--ALCO's everyday low price test store--and has since been incorporated into a handful of traditional ALCO stores.

"The number of stores that can be fitted with this system is dependent upon where the stockroom is located in relation to the store as a whole. We will probably be able to work it into 50 percent of our stores, or about 60 locations," said Keith Albrecht, ALCO regional manager and hands-on C.O.L.A. director.

Albrecht estimated that the new furniture stock/display setup in the stores has cut in half RTA space requirements and stocking time.

"Now we stock 20 RTA sku's in 24 linear feet instead of 48 linear feet. We are able to serve 50 percent more customers without hiring additional store associations by making the merchandise more self-serve," said Albrecht.

"The time needed to stock the category has been cut in half because we no longer have to take the boxed furniture any further than the stockroom, and because as many as four additional boxes can be accommodated within the higher display area," Albrecht explained.

Richard Green, ALCO RTA buyer, noted that the new system provides answers to industrywide problems. "Display and stock is wrapped up with all the decisions made for the furniture category. The C.O.L.A. store is designed to increase sales without additional staff hours. To do that we needed to decrease the amount of handling time," Green said.

Product numbering, while not new to discounters, is also being tested in the C.O.L.A. store. Positioning a display piece No. 1 directly above boxed stock of the same piece No. 1 should make finding the right item easier for the shopper.

The new system, developed by vice president of operations Leonard Johnsen, is also being used for bicycles in the toy department, and motor oil in automotives. For motor oil, the shelving has the added feature of having gravity-fed rollers; boxed motor oil is placed on the shelf in the stockroom and rolls forward to floor display shelves.

Photo: An adaptation of the furniture display /stock system is also being used in the C.O.L.A. automotives department, resulting in higher sales of motor oil by the case.

Photo: ALCO's C.O.L.A. store, Mineral Wells, Texas, employs a back-fed display system that lets the same amount of furniture be merchandised in half the space.