The Wall Street Journal reports that Target is increasing its in-stock position by as much as 50 percent in select, fast-moving categories, believing that over the next month or so the policy will bear fruit in terms of customer satisfaction.
The story notes that "Target is one of many major retailers that saw excess merchandise pile up in the third quarter, as sales slowed down across the board. Although some stockpiling is normal ahead of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, this year’s retail inventories reached particularly high levels at many companies. The ratio of inventories to sales has grown in recent months to the highest levels in five years."
The story notes that "Target is one of many major retailers that saw excess merchandise pile up in the third quarter, as sales slowed down across the board. Although some stockpiling is normal ahead of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, this year’s retail inventories reached particularly high levels at many companies. The ratio of inventories to sales has grown in recent months to the highest levels in five years."
- KC's View:
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Clearly, retailers believe that to compete in 2015 and beyond they have to play the long game ... and have to ignore traditional benchmarks that used to mean something in terms of assessing both efficiency and efficacy.
It is possible that we're moving from "just in time" to "just in case"...
