Christmas, retailing

Kiribati has in fact already begun to export fish from Christmas Island and the fish are flown to Honolulu for sale in retail fish markets. Most of the fish that are exported at the present time are milkfish (Chanos chanos) from the interior lagoon, and spiny lobster from the reef flat - neither of which are ciguatoxic but other reef species make up part of the export. 

Channel members themselves employ discounts in various ways. Wholesalers pass on discounts to retailers just as manufacturers pass along discounts to wholesalers. Retailers may offer promotioneil discounts to consumers in the form of sweepstakes, contests, and free samples. Some stores offer quantity and cash discounts to regular customers. Even seasonal discounts may be passed tilong— for example, to reduce inventory of Halloween candy or Christmas cards. 

Seasonality must be considered when applicable. For some products, sales volumes peak at certain times of the year (such as toy sales at Christmas) in other cases, raw materials, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, may only be available at specific times. Both cases require out of-season storage. Manufacturers must invest in warehouses, use third parties, or provide incentives to intermediaries so they perform the storage function. For example, manufacturers might offer a seasonal discount or consignment inventories to wholesalers or retailers who agree to take early delivery. 

Local Christmas Deliveries — The on-duty rule does not apply to a driver of a vehicle engaged solely in making local dehveries from retail stores and/or retail catalog businesses to the ultimate consumer when he/she is driving within the 100 air-mile radius of his/her work-reporting location during the period from December 10 through 25 each year. 

Candy-Cane, Christmas tree netting for retail lots. Tipper Tie-Net... 

Cross-Country, Christmas tree netting for growers/wholesaleers. Tipper Tie-Net Cross-Town, Christmas tree netting for retail lots. Tipper Tie-Net... 

In Example 18.7, a company plans to buy 500 pairs of jeans for Christmas Eve and wants them to retail at 80. The company has already placed an order for 200 pairs of jeans at 50 each. What maximum amount can they pay for the rest of the jeans if they plan to achieve a margin of 45% ... 

Industry and Business Sectors. Computer science has led to the creation of electronic retailing (e-tailing). Online sales rose 15.5 percent in 2009, while brick and mortar (traditional) sales were up 3.6 percent from the previous year. Online-only outlets such as Amazon.com have been carving out a significant part of the retail market. Traditional businesses, such as Macy s and Home Depot, are finding that they must have an online presence. Online sales for the 2009 Christmas season were estimated at 27 billion. 

Christmas Trees. Christmas trees are an important seasonal crop for both retail and wholesale economies. Silviculture is practiced by cultivating one species of tree, such as balsam fir. Single species are maintained through weeding of competitive species... 

If consumers only purchased their requirements in line with their use, then it would be relatively easy to reorganise the end-to-end supply chain from shelf to national warehouse using lean principles (see Chapter 6). A simple demand-pull system replenishing tomorrow that which has been sold today, direct to shelf, would streamline store operations and reduce inventories significantly. Retailers like Wal-Mart in the United States and Tesco in Britain have pursued an everyday low price policy in an attempt to maximise this steady state replenishment policy. However, in Europe, most retailers have found that customers enjoy promotions and that promotions boost sales. In any case, events like Christmas and back to school create huge surges in demand. 

Many retailers allocate their Christmas merchandise to individual stores on the basis of previous year s sales for the particular product category and hope for the best. A lean design supply chain is unable to cope with such spiky demand, which will be affected further by marketing efforts and the latest fad. Retailers therefore need to be particularly agile in their approach in order to satisfy unknown demand. 

Boots The Chemists (BTC) - the leading UK health and beauty retailer - has approached this problem by outsourcing specific Christmas merchandise deliveries. These deliveries are scheduled at different times of the day from normal deliveries. In this way, while not dealing with the issues created by unpredictable demand, store operations can apply appropriate resources to unload vehicles and put away directly to shelf or indirectly to stockroom. Historically, promotional events in BTC were a fairly hit and miss affair with hundreds of products being promoted within a four-week window. There was a high reliance on good luck for all the elements to come together prior to the start of the promotional period. Inevitably some products, display aids and show material arrived late. Store operations at the end of the supply chain then had to try and mount the promotions with what had been delivered. Consumers were dissatisfied with the result and sales were lost. 

Consider a buyer at Bloomingdale s who is responsible for purchasing dinnerware with Christmas patterns. The dinnerware sells only during the Christmas season, and the buyer places an order for delivery in early November. Each dinnerware set costs c = 100 and sells for a retail price of p = 250. Any sets unsold by Christmas are heavily discounted in the post-Christmas sales and are sold for a salvage value of i = 80. The buyer has estimated that demand is normally distributed, with a mean of p = 350. Historically, forecast errors have had a standard deviation of a- = 150. The buyer has decided to conduct additional market research to get a better forecast. Evaluate the impact of improved forecast accuracy on profitability and inventories as the buyer reduces o- from 150 to 0 in increments of 30. 

Consider an apparel supplier that is taking orders for dresses with a Christmas motif. The production capacity available from the supplier is 5,000 dresses, and it makes 10 for each dress sold. The supplier is currently taking orders from retailers and must decide on how many orders... 

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