Merchant Offset Guide: Descriptions & Typical Amounts

Merchant Offset Guide: Descriptions & Typical Amounts

At Belleville Market, we strive to maintain a consistent, fair, and guest-ready environment for all merchants. From time to time, Belleville may incur additional labor, administrative work, or other costs due to certain merchant-related issues.

This guide provides a reference of common expense offsets, including:
  1. Types of issues that may trigger an offset
  2. Short descriptions of each issue
  3. Typical offset amounts
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. Additional situations may arise that require expense offsets to recover costs, maintain store standards, or ensure smooth operations. Offsets are intended to support accountability and operational efficiency, while remaining fair and transparent for all merchants.

For details on when and how offsets are applied, please refer to the Merchant Offsets & Audit Policy.

A. POS & Inventory Compliance Issues

Issues
Description
Typical Offset
Item not in POS at time of sale
Product sold manually due to missing entry
$5 per occurrence
Item not in POS, unable to locate pricing
Product not able to be sold (lost sale) due to missing entry, pricing information
$25 per occurence
Incorrect, missing or poor quality barcode/tag
Requires manual lookup or verification
$5 per occurence

Requires Belleville operations to retag
$5 Admin (plus) $0.75 per item tagged
Incorrect pricing in POS
Causes refund, price override, or guest confusion
$5 per item
Inventory discrepancy between POS/ConsignCloud and what's represented in selling area. 
Misrepresents availability and disrupts sales reports
$10 per occurrence or $5
Prop and not for sale items not marked with NSF tags.
Causes guest confusion.
$5 per occurence

Requires Belleville operations to tag items with NSF tags.
$5 Admin (plus) $0.75 per item tagged
Removal of non-compliant inventory
Requires Belleville to remove non-compliant inventory to avoid guest confusion, further issues.$10 per occurrence

B. Merchandising & Presentation Issues

Issues
Description
Typical Offset
Unapproved fixtures, signage or displays
Requires removal or re-merchandising
$25 per incident
Improper or unsafe display setup
Requires immediate correction for guest safety
$25 per correction
Product, props, or displays extending beyond assigned space
Disruption to other merchants or visual plan
$25 per correction
Failure to maintain space cleanliness/appearance
Requires staff intervention or cleanup
$10-$50/hr depending on scope

C. Operational Issues

Issues
Description
Typical Offset
No notification of substitute or third-party product pickup
items removed from selling area by unapproved contact without prior approval
$25 per occurrence
Failure to remove expired items /or signage
Store team must remove/handle items
$5 per item or $25 per display
Failure to acknowledge repeated notices
Escalation or additional follow-up required
$15 per follow-up
Failure to retrieve hangers 
Not retrieving hangers within 30 days of item sale
$25 per occurrence
Unauthorized use of storage areas
Safety and loss prevention concern
$50 per occurrence
Unauthorized Parking
Parking in the building's lot behind the store is not permitted for merchants. Only designated Belleville staff spaces are allowed. Violating this guideline may result in fines from the landlord and risks for the store. Towing enforced.  
$50 per occurrence

D. Damage or Cleanup

Issue
Description
Typical Offset
Damage to fixture or store property
Repair or replacement required
Cost of repair + 10% Admin
Packaging waste or debris left behind
Removal and cleanup by store team
$10-$50/hr depending on scope


E. Finance & Reporting

Issues
Description
Typical Offset
Check Printing Fee & Reprint
When a printed check is required or the printing a replacement check
$5 per check
Resending previously delivered reports
Additional admin time required to resend reports already provided or available via the Merchant Portal. 
$5 per occurrence
ACH bounce / returned payment
Payment failed due to invalid or outdated bank account information provided by the merchant. 
$5 per occurrence 
Multiple failed ACH attempts
Additional administrative and processing time required after repeated failed payments.
$15 per additional attempt
Delayed merchant action on ACH issues
Administrative follow-up required when merchants do not promptly update ACH/payment details. 
$20 per occurrence
Returned check payment, when approved
Check return for NSF
$50 per occurrence


























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