Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Hobby Lobby

After reading another blog from time to time, I am convinced that the management of Hobby Lobby is stupid.
They are stuck in the middle of the 20th century.
While most everyone else is using laser scanners, and computerized inventory methods to keep track of their inventory, Hobby Lobby is still doing manual counts and restock lists by hand.
Machine-based inventory tracking eliminates human typographical errors, column entry errors, and time-consuming physical movement and hand writing.
Bar code printers and readers have been around for 20 years or more.
It is time to catch up with the rest of the world.

The other thing they waste time and money on is restocking inventory.
As the blog notes, customers have a bad habit of moving stuff around the store.
It is the job of the clerks to put this stuff back where it belongs.
But someone at HL needs to do some more careful accounting.

If the company is paying its staff $10 per hour (which I think they do now) that equals 16 cents per minute (16.66666 to be exact).[after you add health insurance, overhead, other state and federal taxes, they are paying about 20 cents per minute or more.]
If a misplaced item costs less than 16 cents, it would be more cost effective to just throw the item away than to waste clerk wage dollars chasing around the store to put it back on its proper peg/shelf/slot.

Obviously, some inventory is worth more than 16 cents and it is worth the wage cost to put the stuff back where it belongs.
But that is definitely not true of much of the inventory in Hobby Lobby (or any craft store).
The middle ground on this issue is to collect all the misplaced stock and restock it when the clerk has free time.
But still, some stuff is not worth the cost of putting it back in its proper place.

"If I ran the zoo, said young Gerald McGroo
I'd make a few changes, that's what I'd do"

In God we trust.
.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

enjoyed visiting your site, great job

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