In order to attempt to improve daily store stocking and ordering, we want to concentrate on the following.
- At the beginning of your shift, as quick as the register and the money are ready for visitors, all attention should be focused on the store room–as soon as practical. Everything should be gone through in the store room to see what you will fit on the shelf out in the store.
- Nothing should be on the shelf in the store room if it will neatly fit on the store shelves and look nice. The store shelves may look full to overflowing–almost–that’s okay.
- Things that you notice are low in numbers–or missing completely–should be written down and added to the list that you will e-mail to the warehouse. Ask yourself, “Is there enough here to get us through today and tomorrow?” Order for the day-after-tomorrow…not today.
- Related items should be noted also–e.g. Night sky shirts should prompt you to look at star charts and night sky books.
- The “Top 100” list should be gone through at least daily. It is listed in order by sales rank–those items that sell the best are at the beginning of the list. Those are the things that we want to try to always have in stock. The Allosaurus Claw is right at the top–we can’t wait until there are only three claws in the store before we notify someone that we’re nearly out.
- Please don’t re-type the list and send it to us every day. Just communicate to us the holes and gaps that are sneaking up on us. If you don’t tell us that we are out of something, we may not figure it out until we’re out and it takes weeks to try to catch up. On the other hand, unless someone has told you otherwise today, don’t assume that someone else has let us know of a shortage–communicate with each other, also, about what is being ordered.
Don’t get caught slowing down more than the visitation… we have thousands of dollars worth of inventory on hand… but it won’t sell in the back room or in the warehouse. There are some things that we never want to run out of, but we don’t know to order more if you don’t tell us that it’s getting low.