Two-Month Replenishment Drumbeat

“We call the standing warehouse items “pull items”; the stores continually pull them into their facilities to offer their customers. The seasonals and onetimers, on the other hand, we call “push items”; we in the home office in Oklahoma City make the decision to push them into the stores for a given period. Every week, a store manager fills out his or her “pull” order. A computer printout lists all 46,000 items and tells how many of each should be on hand in that store to constitute a two-month supply. If the store’s stock is below that number, it should reorder. Within twenty-four hours (or forty-eight at the most), a truck will show up with that merchandise, so the store doesn’t even come close to running out.”

“During the course of a year at Hobby Lobby, you will see approximately 50,000 new items. That is because of two practices: 1. About a fifth of the year-round items (more than 9,000) are retired and replaced every year. We’re constantly purging the warehouse of items whose sales pattern is slowing. Meanwhile, new items, as well as new colors, new styles, and new sizes, are always coming online. 2. About four-fifths of the seasonal and onetime items (some 40,000 of them)won’t be repeated next time around. Put the two groups together, and you have nearly 50,000 items you didn’t see a year ago.”