Store Grouping

What is this?

Store grouping lets a multi-store business treat several stores as one for pricing. Stores in a group share one zone, so they receive the same vendor zone prices, and the Summary can be read By Group instead of store by store. It is an advanced feature: most stores never need it, and single-store databases cannot use it.

Turn it on only when you deliberately price a set of stores together - the same market, the same competition, the same price list on the shelf.

Turning it on

1. Open the Store Manager.
2. On its Options menu, tick Use Store Grouping.
3. A Store Group column appears in the grid, and the Zone Override column becomes Group Zone # - zones are now managed per group, not per store.

Assigning stores to groups

In the Store Group column of a store's row, pick an existing group or choose New to create one by name. Every store in the same group shares the group's zone. Save with the Save button or by closing the window.

After changing groups

Group membership changes what rows are built, so rebuild afterwards:

• Data > Rebuild Store Groups (shown only when grouping is on) rebuilds the group tables;
• then Data > Rebuild Data if the grid still shows the old layout.

What changes elsewhere

Mi9 stores

Mi9 always prices by group (its team tables, for example Core and NonCore), and those groups are managed here too. The first time an updated Margin Master opens an Mi9 database, the team assignment that used to live in the MI9 branch list is converted into Store Manager once: one group per team, each branch placed in its team, and the branch list's exclusions carried over. From then on the Store Group and Excluded columns in Store Manager are the authority - change a branch's group or switch a branch off here, then run Data > Rebuild Store Groups. A branch that appears in the POS data but was never in the branch list shows up as an unmatched row with no group; give it a group here and it is priced with that team on the next rebuild.

Tips

A store can belong to only one group. A store with no group is priced on its own zone as before.

Keep group names short and meaningful - they appear in the Summary and in selection boxes. A group cannot be given the number of one of your stores (the Create button stays disabled): with the single main table a group's rows carry the group name in the Store Number column, so a group called "500" and store 500 would be the same rows.

Common Questions

Q: Can I use groups without changing zones? A: Grouping is about sharing a zone and reading results together. If you only want to select a set of stores, use the Store Number selection box or a saved selection instead.

Q: I turned grouping off and my zones changed. A: With grouping off each store returns to its own zone (or Zone Override). Check the Store Manager rows and run Data > Rebuild Data.