By using AI-powered recruiting technology, SASR onboarded and deployed teams in under 10 days — down from 45+ days a few years ago.
SASR delivered Direct Store Delivery (DSD) merchandising for a leading CPG company across 1,837 locations in 731 cities, logging 38,400+ hours with 460 W-2 associates while maintaining full planogram compliance.
Industry: Food & Beverage / Consumer Packaged Goods
What was the challenge?
For DSD companies, getting product to the shelf is only half the battle. The harder part is execution: every reset, display build, and category update has to match the retailer’s planogram exactly, hit tight compliance windows, and look right the moment the store opens. A single store out of compliance can jeopardize shelf placement — and at a national scale, those small misses compound fast.
Our client, a leading CPG company, faced exactly this. They needed to execute DSD merchandising across a sprawling national footprint, spanning hundreds of cities, with the kind of consistency that retailers reward and reward again. The risk wasn’t just labor coverage — it was whether a third-party workforce could deliver retailer-grade execution at that volume, store after store, city after city.
How did SASR solve it?
SASR is a national workforce solutions partner specializing in DSD merchandising, resets, and category updates for retailers and CPG brands. The client chose SASR for the same reason our partners consistently do: a stable, experienced W-2 workforce backed by centralized operations and real-time reporting.
Rather than stitching together gig labor with no accountability, we deployed associates who already know how to read a planogram, execute a reset to spec, and represent a brand correctly in-store. With more than 75% of our workforce having been with us for five years or more, our teams brought the kind of institutional knowledge that turns a complex national rollout into a repeatable, reliable program. And by leveraging the latest AI tools and technology, we now recruit, onboard, and deploy in as little as 10 days — a dramatic improvement over the 45+ days the same process took just a few years ago.
Centralized operations allowed us to coordinate deployments across 731 cities without losing visibility, while our reporting tools gave the client real-time confirmation of compliance at every location — turning “we hope it got done right” into
“We can show you it got done right.”
What were the results?
38,400+
Hours Worked
1,837
Locations Serviced
460
Associates Deployed
731
Cities Reached
More importantly, we delivered execution quality that strengthens CPGs’ retailer relationships, not risks them. Every location reflected the same standard, regardless of the market — exactly what’s required to protect and grow shelf space.
How does SASR address the DSD model’s toughest challenges?
The DSD model is under real pressure right now — chronic labor shortages, high turnover among third-party merchandisers, and retailers tightening compliance standards all at once. SASR’s answer is structural, not stopgap: a tenured, W-2 workforce that shows up, executes to spec, and scales without the quality drop-off that plagues gig-based labor. This partnership is proof that national scale and execution quality don’t have to be a trade-off.
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DSD Merchandising FAQs
What is DSD merchandising?
DSD (Direct Store Delivery) merchandising is the process of stocking, resetting, and maintaining product displays for goods delivered directly to stores by the supplier rather than through a retailer’s distribution center. It includes shelf resets, display builds, planogram compliance, and new product launches.
How quickly can SASR deploy a DSD merchandising team?
SASR can recruit, onboard, and deploy DSD merchandising teams in as little as 10 days, using AI-powered recruiting technology — a significant improvement over the 45+ days the same process required a few years ago.
Why use a W-2 workforce for DSD merchandising instead of gig labor?
A tenured W-2 workforce delivers higher reliability, planogram accuracy, and accountability than gig-based labor. At SASR, more than 75% of associates have five-plus years of tenure, which reduces execution errors and protects retailer compliance at scale.
What kind of results can a CPG company expect from SASR?
In one national program, SASR delivered 38,400+ hours across 1,837 locations in 731 cities with 460 associates, achieving a 97% show-up rate and full planogram compliance.
SASR Workforce Solutions, headquartered in Cary, NC, is a national workforce solutions and project management partner serving retail, grocery, convenience stores, and construction industries across all 50 states. We help the nation’s leading brands execute fixtures, remodels, resets, rollouts, and special projects with precision, speed, and scale. Backed by a nationwide W-2 workforce, centralized operations, and advanced technology, SASR delivers customized workforce solutions that drive executional excellence and operational efficiency from planning to completion.