National Co+op Grocers (NCG) is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 159 food co-ops operating over 230 stores in 39 states with combined annual sales of $2.5 billion and serving over 1.3 million consumer-owners.
Background
As part of our work, we provide store development consulting services for our member co-ops, assisting the design, financing, procurement and setup for both new and expanded locations. Our team has consulted on over 120 store investments since our inception in 2008. Our projects use third-party market analysts to provide store sales forecasts that guide decisions in location, sizing and financing, and we are frequently asked for recommendations. While we do have a good working history with several vendors, we want to be able to answer critical questions we are getting from our clients given changes in the types of projects, sales performance and available data sources that we have seen since before the pandemic. We are also interested in bringing new vendors into our network.
Purpose & Process
NCG’s Store Development team is looking to build a list of preferred market analysts for our member co-ops. This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) seeks to obtain information about interested market analysts on their experience and methodologies in forecasting grocery sales, noting any specific expertise in low-income, low-access areas (both urban and rural) and in communities of color.
We are issuing this RFQ to reach out to and understand a broader array of analysts. We plan to hold phone interviews to further discuss questions from the RFQ, with the hope of developing a short list of preferred vendors to recommend to our clients going forward.
Submittal Summary:
- Brief written description of your work, highlighting your methodology, experience and other information requested below.
- Expertise/experience of the person(s) involved in the analysis.
- List of comparable projects undertaken by your firm in the last five years
- Sample market forecast study (redlined as applicable) for our review.
Due Date: July 14, 2023
Send submittals electronically by July 14, 2023 to:
John Guerra
NCG Business, Real Estate & Store Development Director
john.guerra@ncg.coop
Please address all the following items in your submittal:
Methodology
- Describe the methodology used in forecasts (e.g., gravity, analog, other).
- Describe data sources used in forecasts (e.g., existing store/competitor sales, Unacast/Placer, demographic, primary customer survey data, etc.).
- Provide list of any information needed from co-op for a sales forecast.
Experience
- Describe your experience in forecasting grocery retail sales in both conventional and natural/organic and in smaller format boxes 5,000-15,000 sf.
- Describe your experience in forecasting in rural areas, highly dense urban areas, low-income/low-access areas, and in communities of color. Describe if and how you make modifications to your methodology to adjust for these community characteristics.
- Describe if/how you adjust sales based on the characteristics of the grocery merchandising (e.g., conventional, natural/organic, cultural relevancy).
- Note your experience working with small, independent or cooperative grocery.
Other
- Provide a sample fee schedule and typical timing for work.
- Describe specific markets or regions primarily served, if any.