Inventory control

[Dave Grubb]

I noticed an article in one of my papers this morning about a looming shortage of cooking oil and asking people to limit their purchases---unfortunately I think that serves as a red flag to hoard for many. In my case, I could find myself unwittingly sitting on a gold mine

My wife traditionally did most of the shopping, I generally limited my involvement to fresh meat and seafood. Since my wife's condition has declined I have taken over all the shopping. I do it strictly based on a list which I maintain on my phone using an App called "Out of Milk". The use of an item does not mean it gets added to the list----our inventory was out of control. The lack of control was due to a couple of drivers:

1. Sales of items based on such draws as 10 items for X dollars. The length of time to use 10 items was not part of the equation. Ten would be added to an inventory already out of control.
2. BJs/Costco syndrome of packaging items in groups of two, three, or four as a single item. That brings me back to the cooking oil. I am currently trying to work through an inventory of 11 barrels of canola oil---and I might use a quart a year of canola oil. I'm thinking about putting it out by the road with a sign on it for about $3.75/gal.
3. Point of purchase displays at or near to the check out line---we had 743 AA batteries, many of which were long dead

The good news is that after months of this, I am seeing progress---on some shelves I can even see what we have----but there is a long way to go

I remind myself that each time I use something that doesn't need to be replaced (lead-time is 1 week) it is one less thing that we need to move

[UTAH]

Wifey and I have been using more olive oil in our cooking as a healthier option than cooking oil. Yeah, it's a bit tougher to fry with it, but that's more than made up for with the upgraded taste.

Hunter

[Blue74]

After working in Ford dealerships in parts for 17 years I would get made fun of while living at the Grand Canyon. I would build a list in Excel for each store I was going to and I could even remember how their isles were arranged so i could get the dry goods, then the refrigerated items and then the frozen items. I had a 5 cuft freezer in a small shed and shelfs for storage. I could throw a cookout on a moments notice.

I even went to Flagstaff once only to see movies and had made a list of which movie when so they did not over lap. You should have seen the face of the collage man in the ticket booth when I ordered 6 tickets for the different movies.

I would tell my employees that if they looked up anal-retentive they would see my picture.