Anil Found ₹18,000 of Expired Stock Behind His Own Counter

Expired stock is bought with cash you already spent and sold for nothing. Here is the FIFO discipline and the alert system that stops it.

Anil cleared the back of his shelves during a repaint. Behind the front rows — the stock customers actually reached for — he found sauces, health drinks, baby food and packaged snacks that had expired between four and fourteen months earlier. The total, at cost, was a little over ₹18,000.

He had not been careless. He had been restocking the way almost everyone does: new deliveries go at the front, because the front is where your hands reach when you are carrying a box.

Why Expired Stock Hurts Twice

It is worth being precise about the damage, because shopkeepers routinely underestimate it.

• You paid cash for it, and that cash is gone
• You earn nothing back, so the margin you would have made is gone too
• It occupied shelf space that a selling product could have used
• It occupied working capital that could have bought fast movers
• If a customer finds it before you do, it costs trust as well

A ₹18,000 loss at a 15% margin is not an ₹18,000 problem. To make that money back, Anil would need to sell roughly ₹1.2 lakh of additional goods.

FIFO: The Rule and Why It Fails

First In, First Out is simple: the oldest stock sells first. Every shopkeeper knows it. Most shops still violate it daily, for one entirely practical reason — restocking from the front is faster than restocking from the back, and speed wins during a delivery.

So the fix cannot be "remember FIFO". It has to be a routine that makes FIFO the path of least resistance.

• Pull existing stock forward first, then place new stock behind it — one extra motion per box
• Do this at delivery time, not later; later never arrives
• Mark the expiry month on the shelf edge, not just the packet
• Keep dated goods on shelves you can reach the back of without moving the front row
• Give short-dated items a dedicated visible spot rather than burying them

Act at 60 days from expiry with normal promotion, at 30 days with a visible discount, and at 10 days by bundling or accepting cost price. Waiting until the final week is what turns a small margin loss into a total loss — at ten days you are competing against the date itself.

What Alerts Change

Anil now records an expiry date when he receives dated goods. It takes a few seconds per line at delivery. What it buys him is a list, every morning, of what is approaching its date — before it becomes unsellable rather than after.

This is the difference between expiry management and expiry discovery. Discovery happens during a repaint, and costs ₹18,000. Management happens on a Tuesday morning and costs a small discount.

Fourteen months. Some of it had been sitting there through two Diwalis.

Which Products Actually Need Tracking

You do not need to date-track your whole shop, and trying to is how the habit dies. Focus where the risk concentrates.

• Dairy and short-life chilled goods — days to weeks
• Bread and bakery — days
• Health drinks, baby food and supplements — high value, slow movement, a costly combination
• Sauces, spreads and packaged foods — months, but slow enough to be forgotten
• Medicines and personal care, where selling expired goods carries legal risk as well

Fast-moving staples that clear in under two weeks rarely need it. The risk lives in the slow, high-value middle of your range.

Six Months Later

Anil's expiry write-offs for the following half-year came to about ₹2,100 — down from an annualised ₹18,000. He did not add staff and he did not change suppliers. He added one motion to his delivery routine and one glance to his morning.

Arali records expiry dates at goods-receipt and surfaces items entering their final 60, 30 and 10 days, so the list comes to you rather than waiting behind the front row. If you have not checked the back of your dated shelves recently, that is a worthwhile hour this week.

Frequently asked questions

How do I track expiry dates in a small shop without extra staff?

Record the expiry date only for dated categories — dairy, bakery, health drinks, baby food, sauces and medicines — at the moment goods are received, which adds a few seconds per line. Fast-moving staples that clear within two weeks do not need tracking, and trying to date everything is the main reason the habit fails.

What is FIFO and why does it fail in practice?

FIFO means First In, First Out: the oldest stock sells first. It fails because restocking from the front is faster than restocking from the back, so speed wins during deliveries. The fix is to pull existing stock forward and place new stock behind it at delivery time, making FIFO one extra motion rather than an act of memory.

When should I discount stock that is close to expiry?

A workable rule is 60-30-10: normal promotion at 60 days out, a visible discount at 30 days, and bundling or cost-price acceptance at 10 days. Waiting until the final week turns a recoverable margin loss into a total loss, because at that point you are competing against the date itself.

How much does expired stock actually cost a shop?

More than the cost price suggests. At a 15% margin, ₹18,000 of expired stock requires roughly ₹1.2 lakh of additional sales to recover, because you lose both the cash you spent and the margin you would have earned, plus the shelf space and working capital it occupied.