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Good suppliers

While retailers spend most of their time facing shoppers, they also need to think carefully about their suppliers. You cannot take for granted that you will always be able to get what your shoppers want at a price that the shopper wants to pay. There are five things you need to do:
- talk regularly to your key suppliers and build a relationship with them
- find out about their financial health and who owns them; and look for stability
- watch product quality and challenge changes immediately
- understand who is supplying your supplier and who else your supplier is supplying.
Talking to suppliers is obviously critical as this will build trust and help yout to get a good feel for what is going on.
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