Re: Is Matel Stalinist?

Tim May wrote... "Not only does it not make sense, but clearly this would cause pileups at _some_ stores (too much Spam) and shortages at _other_ stores (still not enough Spam, even with the latest "send more Spam to all stores" order. The fact that neither shortages nor pileups (that I can see) are apparent at any of the stores I visit, and that all of them use UPC and POS methods for _all_ sales of ordered products, is consistent with the reorder method described earlier." Oh I have certainly experienced those back in my retail days during college. I was working in a Waldenbooks where the auto-inventory was sent based on sales (as a scaling factor). The store I worked at was basically quite small, but with Class A sales, so during some seasons we were DUMPED with books that we simply couldn't keep up with. They were eventually thrown out or listed as "shrinkage". (But all of that was behind the scenes...the customers couldn't SEE the pileup.) But, notice how Waldenbooks has gotten WACKED by these big Borders' and B&Ns. Maybe these are smarter (or, these "giant" bookstores don't really need to consider shelf space...). Continuing... "I repeat: the "despised by anti-capitalists" Borders store has a deeper and broader inventory of books than the "cherished by Greens and locals" locall-owned bookstore. And they also use UPC and POS and reorder books dynamically." Well, don't lump me in there. My point was not that such stores COULDN'T provide the level of service that an indpendent could. My point was that the "statist" culture that we are so used to prevents many big retail chains from taking advantage of their "human capital". If Borders learned, then great. (In fact, I helped quash a local bookstore during aforementioned stint...the guy was just a shitty, arrogant businessman and deserved to be run outta town. My only regret was that I made $3.35/hour to do it.) Food is different from music or books, however. Books are much less of a commodity in that a particular neighborhood may respond very strongly to certain types of books, and ignore other kinds. Inventory systems can't really get the ball rolling on that kind of thing...they don't tell you what the locals want (but you don't have), they only tell you what they've already bought. Thus, a well-run chain would hire smart local college kids and let them order (in additionto the "basics" that come from the inventory systems). What I've yet to see is where a low-level retail kid is actually given a piece of the action: "Here kid...if you increase the sales of this Sci-Fi section by 45% then you'll get 2% of each book sold after that." I'd like to see a chain try that kind of a thing, but that seems WAY too down-up for most corporate cultures. -TD

From: Tim May To: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: Re: Is Matel Stalinist? Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:36:03 -0800

On Dec 11, 2003, at 1:56 AM, ken wrote:

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Corporations have sales tracking software out the wazoo. If it sells, they buy more and sell them. Sounds like they're doing precisely what their owners want them to do.

Yes, but, it might be that a corporation makes more money for its owners by centralising and systematising and reducing the local autonomy of business units. It's a lot easier to manage a thousand identical stores than a hundred unique ones. So from "Tyler Durden's"'s POV there might be more responsiveness from an independent store than a chain.

Though like you said, that doesn't seem to apply to books. Might to food though.

I doubt it applies to food, either.

If my local grocery store runs low on "Spam," say, they will order more. This is why they track items with POS terminals and UPC labels (largely replacing the inventory people who used to be seen in the aisles counting items and entering them into a small computer or, earlier, onto an inventory log sheet).

It makes no sense to "lump" or "consolidate" all of the stores into one lump calculation and then issue order to "send more Spam in this amount to each store." Not only does it not make sense, but clearly this would cause pileups at _some_ stores (too much Spam) and shortages at _other_ stores (still not enough Spam, even with the latest "send more Spam to all stores" order. The fact that neither shortages nor pileups (that I can see) are apparent at any of the stores I visit, and that all of them use UPC and POS methods for _all_ sales of ordered products, is consistent with the reorder method described earlier.

I repeat: the "despised by anti-capitalists" Borders store has a deeper and broader inventory of books than the "cherished by Greens and locals" locall-owned bookstore. And they also use UPC and POS and reorder books dynamically.

(For another list I've been discussing lazy evaluation languages, like Miranda and Haskell, and like Scheme can be "forced" to do, and the similarities between demand-driven evaluation of partial results and the obviously demand-driven inventory practices of modern businesses is striking. There's an essay here for some political thinker, along the lines of Phil Salin's "Wealth of Kitchens" essay drawing parallels between free markets and object-oriented systems.)

--Tim May

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