Went to the irrigation store the other day to get a new sand strainer for the house water system. "Oh, sorry, we are out of those, we'll have a shipment in Monday or Tuesday, we should have some then."
Then, today, we went to a national sporting goods chain store to get some arch-support insoles or a specific brand for our son who is on deployment, in training to go to A-stan. "Oh, sorry, we are out of those in that size, we will be getting a shipment Tuesday or Wednesday, we should have some then."
So, I brushed the filter I had with a stainless steel fine tooth brush, then soaked it in vinegar. It is working fine. Net result: 2 lost sales (I was going to purchase two of them) due to inadequate stock.
DW went online, found the special insoles, and had them shipped direct to Fort Bliss. For less money, by the way. Net result: Lost sale due to lack of adequate stock.
Then local retailers cry about losing sales to internet stores.
If you don't have it on the shelf, you can't sell it!
It isn't difficult to see why they lose sales to other stores or to the internet!
CM1, USN (RET)
2002 Fleetwood Southwind 32V, Ford V10
Toad: 2006 Jeep Rubicon LJ
Other toad: '06 PT Cruiser, Kar Kaddy dolly
Toy: 1977 Dodge W100 CC SWB, 3/4 ton axles & springs
"When seconds count, help is only minutes away!"
Inventory is one of the highest costs a retailer has and the hardest to handle. There are many businesses in this economy that have reduced inventory to cut cost. Some have done so too much, some not enough. Smaller businesses are more likely to have problems here than the larger big box stores but even Amazon has a number of items that are "out of stock." This will be a continuing problem until the economy gets back to normal.
John & Doris Doris and Robbies Blogs 2007 Tiffin Phaeton QDH 40 w/Cat 7 350
2004 Liberty Renegade 4x4 Toad
Roadmaster Falcon 2 tow bar
Air Force One toad braking system
FMCA F380583, PA, Good Sams
Also, when I was getting out of the retail business, all restocking of inventory was being done by computer. Sales were logged by the computer at the time of sale, reordering was done by computer, shelf stock was determined by average sales of items, shipping from distribution centers was done by computer, hence sometimes items sold out before restocking was completed. Used to, a store may stock 12 widgets on the shelf, based on average sales in a given time period, shelf stock was adjusted up or down to reduce inventory stock. Now the store only stocks 4 widgets on the shelf per week and 6 people decide to change thir widget this week, result empty shelf til the truck comes in. Basic Supply and demand......
Dave & Pat
1999 Wanderer 230FB
2004 F250, XLT Crew Cab, V10, finally, enough power!
"No kids, no pets, trying to make it to retirement"
Also stores will go by the square foot.
J.C. Penny has a humungous warehouse in Reno where they will receive goods from other states near the end of the year that would be taxed due to an inventory tax at the end of the year.
They ship it back after the first. Also Nevada has no corporate income tax which help many companies, like amazon.
I remember a hardware store in Philadelphia back in the 40's and 50's that had floor after floor of what ever a person might want, but eventually they closed because it was just to expensive to hold onto everything.
I notice they every time I go to wally World there are fewer and fewer varieties of various products. If it doesn't sell in a given period of time it's out of there.
Eventually they'll have to tax the internet sales to make up for the loses in the retail stores I guess.
Lack of inventory could simply mean the economy is doing better and people are buying more.
I worked at a retail store in the mid 90s that had some real issues with managing inventory. The store had a policy of not ordering merchandise in the weeks before quarterly inventory. They wanted to show as little inventory as possible on the books each quarter. No idea why as Minnesota has no inventory tax that I know of. They lost a lot of sales because of that policy.
Sales or use tax still applies to Internet sales. States just can't force Internet sellers to collect sales tax if the seller is out of state. Use tax is supposed to be paid by the consumer directly to the state. It is technically tax evasion not to pay use tax, but hardly anyone pays their use tax. The state of Minnesota only requires payment of use tax if you bought more than $700 worth of stuff that wasn't taxed. One pays sales tax on any amount so why is use tax different?
"Isn't that pretty much the norm in Billings........"We can order it for you""
Now, there is a man who understands! Yes, sadly enough, it is (and has been) all too common!
For those who want to blame "THE ECONOMY", what excuse did the stores have 5, 10, 15, etc. years ago? It also isn't just Billings, I remember hearing the same thing in other towns I have lived in around here, and some I did not live in!
Sales tax or "use tax" is irrelevant in this discussion. Montana does NOT have any such tax.
"It's the computer"?? Who sets the reorder level? The computer does what it is told. If it allows the store to run out of something before reordering, change the program so it reorders at 1 or 2 (taking lead time into account) instead of ZERO!
As one who was once responsible for about 13 million dollars worth of warehouse stock of industrial equipment parts along with a couple million of parts room stock plus nuts, bolts, electrical and hydraulic fittings, etc., I have a little knowledge of stocking and reorder levels. Having a necessary piece of rolling stock sitting idle because a part was not on hand was NOT acceptable!
Having to wait 3 days to a week for a part from a retailer is NOT acceptable, either!
I guess I belong to the "ME generation" after all. I don't CARE about the retailer's problems, I have something that needs fixed, and I need the part NOW, not next week!
lwmuddy wrote: ..I notice they every time I go to wally World there are fewer and fewer varieties of various products. If it doesn't sell in a given period of time it's out of there...
That's one reason I don't shop much at Wally World. Retailers have lost sight of the fact that people are more likely to shop where they can buy as much as possible in one stop. The items that don't move quickly are often the ones that get people into the stores in tyhe first place, often resulting in them buying more products while they are there.
lwmuddy wrote: ...Eventually they'll have to tax the internet sales to make up for the loses in the retail stores I guess.
It's already happened in many States. AZ has been trying to get a law passed that will let it tax internet transactions.
It isn't always as simple as telling the computer to order the part sooner. Lead times are not always consistent. Some manufacturers make items in batches and it can be weeks or months before they make that item again. The manufacturer will warehouse items, but they don't always judge demand correctly. I'm not saying stores aren't at fault here. They run inventory lean and don't have enough stock for a minor surge in demand.
Running a parts depot is different than a retail store. A missing part could cause losses of thousands or even millions an hour. It is cheaper for the company to keep extra parts than to suffer downtime due to a missing part. A retail store generally saves more money by trimming inventory than they lose in sales.
An example: I recently ordered some LED light bulbs from Homedepot.com. It appears they mispriced them so they sold out and my order was backordered. They shipped last Friday after several weeks. Obviously, Home Depot couldn't have foreseen the spike in demand. Presumably they would have ordered extra stock for a planned special price.
accsys wrote: Inventory is one of the highest costs a retailer has and the hardest to handle. There are many businesses in this economy that have reduced inventory to cut cost. Some have done so too much, some not enough. Smaller businesses are more likely to have problems here than the larger big box stores but even Amazon has a number of items that are "out of stock." This will be a continuing problem until the economy gets back to normal.
Too often, retailers base orderpoints and order quantities on past performance from too far back with no accounting for seasonal or regional differences (Wally World at least attempts to account for regional differencs but usually goes too far). The problem with that is too often, stockouts aren't accounted for resulting in artificially low sales figures, causing the stockouts to continue. Besides the loss of the sales due to products no being available, when the stockouts continue, customers will go somewhere else, causing lost sales on other items as well.
Overhead is anathema to retailers since the money it ties up isn't making making (thus losing money)and can cause excessive spoilage of perishables. Still, some overhead is unavoidable since deliveries have to be at intervals. Despite that, store managers are encouraged (more like browbeaten, threatened, and punished) to keep inventories low. While the resulting figures look good on paper, they don't reflect sales loss due to stockouts (too many retailers just can't grasp the concept that each stock out can represent anywhere from one lost sale to God only knows how many). And stockouts are easily disguised (ever wonder why many retailers will fill the holes created by stockouts with adjacent merchandise?).
Offline
