The mission and vision statements of Kudler Fine Foods describe a business that aspires to be a premier gourmet foods store that provides only the very best foods and wines to its customers (University of Phoenix, 2003). However, it will be an impossible task for this business to continue to provide fine foods to its customers if the franchise does not make enough annual profits to support the basic infrastructure of the business. This is exactly the kind of scenario described in the Kudler Fine Foods 2003 Strategic Plan. Only one of the three stores in the Kudler Fine Foods franchise is performing well financially (University of Phoenix, 2003). Additionally, approximately 12% of the perishable merchandise is either thrown away or donated to homeless shelters two to three times per week (University of Phoenix, 2003).

While donating food to homeless shelters supports the community and provides a good basis for social responsibility, Kudler Fine Foods cannot continue to maintain a rate of donations that is detrimental to the bottom line of the business profits. Continual hits to the bottom line will ultimately lead to closing the business. Kudler Fine Foods needs to determine a method that reduces product waste and maximizes profits.

The Kudler Fine Foods 2003 Strategic Plan (University of Phoenix, 2003) reveals many issues that contribute to product waste and profit losses however this paper will only discuss two issues. The first issue is there are too many product types offered by the store. The second issue is there are too many varieties within these product types provided on an ongoing basis. When a store’s inventory is too large to permit selling the perishable items before these products degrade to an unacceptable quality level, waste is produced. The issue is that throwing away food is equivalent to throwing dollar bills in the trash. Note