The trader who does not have fresh milk to sell when a union measure prevents the normal supply loses much more than the sale of that producthighlighted The Observer Daniel Fernandez, President of the Center for Retail Storekeepers, Baristas, Self-Service Workers and Allied Services of Uruguay (Cambadu).
After specifying that on Thursday the delivery of milk was “normal”, after the problems reported by merchants on Wednesday, he stated that “For local businesses, fresh milk is the icing on the cake, it’s what you can never miss”.
noted that if the profit from the sale of fresh milk is considered exclusively, the merchant even loses moneybecause “the margin is tinyreceives hundredths of profit and has related expenses”, such as the cost of the cold and the bag in which the milk is given, he cited as examples.
In any case, he added, “milk produces other sales, because people go to the store for fresh milk and bring butter, sugar, flour, potatoes… but If there is no fresh milk in that business, everything is going to be found elsewhere and that customer is lostat least for that day, capable forever.”
Fernández also highlighted another relevance of Cambadu’s partner local businesses: “They are entrenched in all neighborhoods, also in those areas where there are no other regular outlets in other neighborhoods.”
He added that the large percentage of sales of fresh milk from Conaprole and from other brands occurs, precisely, in this type of business, in the nearby ones, “where If there is a lack of fresh milk, the entire sale will be recent of trade”.
trucker’s mess
There is another problem that is generated, he said, when there are union measures that distort the output of fresh milk from industrial plants and its distribution in different areas: instead of leaving the truck with 10,000 liters, it is capable of carrying 5,000 or 6,000. liters and The truck driver cannot ration the delivery, he delivers what they are asking for and there are shops where he leaves less than what they need because it is what is left in the truck and in many cases he does not even deliver.
“The trucker cannot go delivering a few liters in each place, the one who needs 200 leaves him 200 and so until he finishes his work, he cannot fight with each merchant, dividing up the delivery,” he mentioned.
milk in box
When the shortage of fresh milk begins, in bags, many merchants solve customer order with boxed milkfor example from the Blancanube brand, a longer lasting product (long life) and despite this differential with an affordable price, but of this product in nearby shops, smaller than a large supermarket, there are no significant stocks and that, too, ends quickly.
Fernández pointed out another detail: after some union measure when distribution resumes there are priorities, delivered first to hospitals and prisonsfor example, therefore that the subject is regularized in the shops is not something immediate.
It also happens, when there are distortions in the supply, that sometimes the truck that delivers the milk arrives after the usual time, when many customers have already run out of buying fresh milk there and that is a problem for the merchant, who has already lost that daily sale.
Fernández admitted that “it is a very complex issue, the union will have its reasons, it is a very tough union, I see that you never live in peace, but without a doubt I understand that There are people who have nothing to do with it and find it difficult, such as the merchant, the tambero and the consumer”.
A “nothing minor” issue, he concluded, “is that when this happens, the Cambadu phones explode with complaints from the merchants who in turn are the ones who put their faces to the customer.”
