Afternoon Coffee: France delays Black Friday shopping to aid small business; PRO Recap: Veriscape’s Symphonia, Malbek and Beyond Spend Influence; Turkey supply chain issues, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Last week in France, supermarket chains and e-commerce platforms agreed to postpone this week's “Black Friday” promotions after the government raised concerns that shops shut down by the coronavirus-related lockdown are hemorrhaging business, according to the Associated Press.

Black Friday will now be pushed back a week to Dec. 4, with the understanding that lockdown-shuttered businesses will have been allowed to reopen by then. The economy ministry said support for the delay was unanimous among commerce, e-commerce and supermarket representatives who took part in two days of talks. The article said a “spirit of responsibility and solidarity” prevailed.

Spend Matters' analysts look at Veriscape’s Symphonia, Malbek and beyond spend influence

This week, Spend Matters PRO analysts assessed Veriscape’s Symphonia solution for e-procurement. Another analyst looked at Malbek, a contract lifecycle management solution. Our PRO series on how procurement can help the business beyond spend influence continued with Part 7: Blueprinting the digital transformation. Our PRO subscribers can read the full articles, but all readers can see the lengthy intros that frame the issues being discussed. This week:

·       Beyond Spend Influence: Enabling Procurement’s Emerging Roles in Business Transformation (Part 7) — Blueprinting the Transformation

·       Malbek: Vendor Analysis — Solution Overview for Contract Management, Roadmap, Customer Feedback, Competitors, Analyst Insights

·       Veriscape’s Symphonia: Vendor Analysis — Solution Overview, Roadmap, Customer Feedback, Symphonia Competitors, Analyst Insights 

Read more about a PRO membership.

Demand for frozen turkeys looks different, affecting price and supply chain for smaller turkeys

You may have noticed there aren’t as many deals floating around grocery store aisles for frozen turkeys this year. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, prices for frozen turkeys are up an average of more than 30% since the start of the year.

The price hikes are related to formerly very low prices, but also issues in the supply chain. Cargill, a large producer of whole turkeys, closed its facility before the COVID-19 pandemic. That plant processed an average of 27,000 turkeys a day, so the closure “limited some of the supply in the market,” the article said.

People are also looking for smaller birds this year. About 25% of consumers are looking for smaller turkeys, leading to grocers to stock up on smaller turkeys. This has placed a higher premium on smaller birds, the article said.

All in all, there’s still probably enough turkeys to go around, they just might offer fewer deals than in years past.

“Like every industry, we have been working to adjust to market disruptions and shifting consumer demands this year, but we have no concerns regarding Thanksgiving turkey supply,” Beth Breeding, the vice president of communications and marketing for the National Turkey Federation, told the Review-Journal. “There is plenty of turkey available for holiday tables.”

Speaking of turkeys, Afternoon Coffee will be on hiatus the next few days for the US Thanksgiving holiday. Commodities Roundup also will be taking off the next two Fridays. Afternoon Coffee will be back on Tuesday. Happy Thanksgiving!