What to do About Kroger’s 90-Day Payment Terms?

Kroger recently announced a shift to 90-day payment terms, effective August 1, and many manufacturers are unhappy. What does this mean for you? Here’s my advice:

Target began making the same “request” one year ago. Here is the issue: once the supplier caves-in to Target, or Kroger, then it’s only a matter of time until the manufacturer will be under pressure to do the same for most other accounts, and eventually, your business model will need to adjust to 90 days for almost every retailer nationwide. That’s not a good situation.

I am advising my clients to hang tough. I am requesting a face to face meeting with the powers-to-be, so that I can explain why this does not work for the client’s business-model, and the impact it will have on the brand’s ability to advertise, and to support the retailer’s promotions. In any case, without a personal face to face meeting with the true decision-makers, we will hang tough.

What do you think? Leave a comment below, and here’s a link to the original story from RetailWire.net.