Avoiding Out of stocks

Brrr, it’s cold outside. I live in south Florida and we have been experiencing record low temps for well over ten days now. Last night it got down to 28 degrees at my house! I know-28 degrees would be a welcome heat wave for many places in the US right now, but down here this is a record cold. The cold temps have resulted in stock outs of space heaters at Home Depot stores in central Florida. "The majority, if not all, Home Depot stores in Florida are out of stock of space heaters," said Craig Fishel, a spokesman for the company. The company continues to sell them online. We blog all the time about how to use POS and EDI 852 data to avoid stock outs. It’s not very complex, simply look at the current on hand inventory and the current rate of sales, and weeks of supply can be easily calculated. This stock out was pretty easy to predict; weather forecasters have been predicting the abnormally cold temps for 10+ days. More than enough time for buyers to work with their suppliers to bring in sufficient inventory to handle the upcoming demand. I wonder how many lost dollars have resulted?

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