The sales plan is set by the Produce Buyer as a tool for the store produce department manager to use as a guideline to reach the target goals for the buyer. The sales plan supplies the necessary merchandising standards for the stores to help maximize sales. These include special product handling, ordering specifications, fruit layout and cross merchandising tips. The buyer"s performance is gauged by monitoring product movement on a daily basis, by weekly sales reports that recap the previous week"s retail sales and profit and comparison of these figures to the set budget. The other gauge used is the shipment report to evaluate actual movement versus projected movement of the week. The sales plan requires adjustment when projected sales and profit are not met for the week. To compensate for not achieving the week"s targets the following week"s sales plan must be modified in an effort to meet the goals.

             The Buyer uses a budget as a control tool to set goals for sales, expenditures, and profits. At Kroger, the Buyer strives to achieve both a sales dollar goal and a profit.

             percent goal. These goals are set up in four-week increments called periods. There are thirteen periods in a calendar year. The first step in the budgeting process is to develop a sales forecast and sales budget. In the Kroger organization, each of the ten Marketing.

             Areas" controllers are given a budget by the Cincinnati corporate office for their division.

             The controller in turn requires that the Merchandising Director of each department submit.

             a sales and rate for the entire year broken down by period. The directors need to consider.

             economic conditions, competitors" actions, and seasonal fluctuations to ensure an accurate forecast. Once the Directors have completed their departmental budgets, they return them to the controller for their review. The controller will apply these budgets to the planned budget for the Marketing area and if needed, the Directors may be requested to fine tune their projections in a effort to meet the needs of the entire company.