With the supply chain continuing to be unpredictable, retailers including newsagents are finding themselves holding more stock for some product categories than would usually be the case.
Stationery is one category where holding more stock pays off – if your business is strong in stationery. It’s the everyday items like pens, paper, notepads, stickers, staples – you get what I mean – where holding extra stock enables you to smooth out in0-store the kinks in the supply chain behind the scenes.
We operate to an inventory on hand budget. A few months ago we increased this for stationery by 50% to enable us to be the local store where people could get the stationery they wanted. While it benefits our customers, it benefits us too as we don’t lose time chasing stock when a supplier is out.
I understand that not every retailer can do this. For us, it was about priorities. The increase in stationery spend was possible in part due to a trim elsewhere.
A couple of Tower Systems POS software customers were referenced in a report by the ABC last week looking at supply chain challenges.
Ronald Voukolos, the manager of Fishing and Outdoor World in Darwin, says he has taken a risk and resorted to ordering much more stock than needed, in some cases a year in advance.
“We’ve always been used to being able to buy it as we need it,” he said.
But with the Omicron variant causing crippling staff shortages and transport issues in Australia and the unpredictability of a broken supply chain, Mr Voukolos says the future has become too uncertain.
“Some of the footwear we sell, we placed orders last year in July to get them in 2022.”
But still, he said he is letting people know they could be waiting three or four months on some in-demand items like drinkware, and plastic shoes from Vietnam.
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In the bike world, Paul Clancy says customers at Bikes to Fit could be waiting up to two years to buy a particular brand amid a global shortage of parts.
“It’s not just bikes, it’s bike parts, even simple things like tubes and tyres where suppliers are starting to run very low,” he said.
He said that even though the popularity of bike riding skyrocketed during the pandemic, the scarcity of parts has even seen some shops close down.
It’s now “really hard for surviving bike stores”, which are now overloaded with repair jobs, he said.
“We’ve been flat out.”
While supply chain interruptions have been challenging, those stockpiling have ensured they maintained supply throughout.