INVENTORY

Here's a statement I came across that I found most interesting and slightly depressing.  What do you think?

Retailers in the U.S. lose about $300 billion per year in lost inventory because of poor inventory control.  

I used to be involved in inventory control and I'm aware that some inventory always gets lost.  It's damaged, expired, stolen, misnamed, shipped without proper paperwork or paperwork is lost, or lost by computer error.  It's sad but true.  

Now, think to yourselves that the money that loss represents must be made up by adding to the cost of the things you buy.  $300 billion is a lot of money (unless it's our government's money of course).  Taxes that businesses pay to the government are dependent, in part, upon the value of the inventory they own.  IRS auditors pay close attention to inventories and their value.

You know the population of the U.S. (every man, woman, child) is about 300 million.  So, retailers are losing about $1,000.00 each for every one of us, every year.   On some retail businesses, I would guess the bulk of these losses is through stolen products.  Disgraceful.

I'm sure this was a subject most everyone could not care less about.  The next time you're in a store and find something you want to look at locked behind glass doors, maybe you will be reminded about all this. Support businesses trying to reduce waste.