Fashion seasons

[msmemory_archive]

I'm perfectly delighted when I score a skirt on clearance at the mall After Christmas Sale but not nearly so delighted when I discover it's too late in the year already to buy more flannel shirts from Bean's for jducoeur.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

You could order them from the website; they're still there.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Himself won't wear plaid, so I want the Rangely Herringbone, sz. Large, maybe Medium.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&categoryId=34967&sc1=Search&feat=sr

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Looks like they still have Medium in Indigo (even if no other Medium or Large alternatives).

Thanks

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

It was a long time ago, but I *have* had luck in the past with calling both LL Bean and Lands End, and asking for things from older versions of catalogs. Sometimes they still have them, but too few to list on web sites or place in new catalogs.

It may be that the web interface allows them to scrape the bottom of the barrel, but if you are very motivated, a call might be in order anyway.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Yes, do call. Not only is not everything on the website, but really only a very small percentage of things are on the website.

Also, FYI, if you are in one of the retail stores and they don't have what you want, ask to use the "courtesy order phone" in the store. Items that you cannot find at the store will be shipped to you from Freeport Catalog stock with no shipping charge if you order from one of the phones (ask the CS rep at the store to introduce the call).

There is a bunch more about "seasonality of merchandise" that I could go into here, but I won't unless you're desperate for my geeky catalog inventory cycle knowledge....

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

MsMemory might or might not be interested, but I would be. You can borrow any post of mine to inform me.

The more I know, the happier I am.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I have to split this up because apparently LJ has a 4300 character limit on comments. Who knew?

----------- Part I -----------

Hmmm. In a nutshell & at a very high level.

A "sku" is one color/size of an item. So one flannel shirt, for example, might have at least 16 SKUs (four colors x four sizes). Each SKU needs its own "pick location" (think, a cardboard box) in the warehouse. The warehouse only has a finite number of pick locations, so there are only a finite number of SKUs that a company can keep instock at any one time.

From a financial standpoint, it is not good business practice for a company to keep items in its warehouse that are not being picked daily. Add to that the fact that a company will normally need to buy a minimum order (a large number, usually - say 1000 units) of each SKU from the vendor. For that reason, items that have specific seasonal appeal (say, flannel shirts, shorts, down parkas, hawaiian shirts, etc) are "scheduled" to be seasonally "outed" - that is, the buyers estimate how many of Flannel Shirt X they will need for the entire season, and order that many (thus meeting their minimum order) about a year in advance, often scheduling delivery of that item in four or five smaller shippments because the pick location can only handle so many garments at one time.

With me so far?

So it gets to be the end of December, and the buyer for Flannel Shirt X realizes that they are soon going to sell out of Flannel Shirt X. The buyer has two choices: order [the large minimum] more, or let the item go out of stock and lose sales. The following pressures factor into the buyer's calculation: how many more do I expect to sell? In what time-frame? (because the shorts buyer REALLY needs ten pick locations to be freed up in the next eleven days to make room for the early-season shorts orders that are begining to come in) If the buyer guesses wrong, and large amounts of unsold inventory end up sitting over the summer in the warehouse, there will be hell to pay, because a) other buyers were expecting those pick locations to be free and b) the company paid up-front for inventory that is now sitting in the warehouse, that won't sell (and thus recoup its purchase cost) for many months yet - perhaps not even until the next fiscal year.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I watch this stuff going on, from my armchair. It's kind of a fun sport.

I did just get the Spring LLB catalog in Saturday's mail. Today's order for flannel-lined jeans will soon be followed by one for LL Polos, I'm sure :)

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Part II

----------------------

Add to that the fact that virtually the entire apparel retail industry will be converting to spring lines in early to mid February. Any company that chooses, for whatever reason, to keep cold-weather stuff in stock beyond the first of March is going to lose money, as shoppers simply go elsewhere for their spring / warm weather / vacation wardrobes. The company is then going to have to choose between liquidating the stock at a sale price, or having the SKUs sit in the warehouse over the summer uselessly taking up space. So normally, winter merchandise buyers will aim to have stock available through the Christmas buying season, and then only keep selected items with know sales patterns instock later (for instance, a company that sells lots of down parkas might opt to keep parkas in stock through the end of February because mid-February is a known high-sales time for that item).

Different companies approach this problem in different ways. Some companies choose to make huge orders even late in the season, knowing that they are going to liquidate some percentage of that stock later. Many brick-and-mortar stores do this, hoping that significant sales on off-season merchandise will drive foot traffic into the stores, thereby encouraging customers to also buy the new on-season merchandice that they had to walk through to get to the sale stuff in the back. For catalog retailers, though, or for retailers who calculate price as part of the value of their brand, end of season sales are not good policy, because customers come to count on those sales and then tend to wait and buy things at a discount rather than paying full price earlier in the season.

Incedentally, SKU pressure, combined with sales, is the number one reason that items disappear from the catalog entirely. If a line manager has a Great New Product they want to sell, they need to axe somethinge else to make room for it. Often the thing that gets axed is some one-season only "dog" that had low sales and a high return rate, but sometimes the SKU pressure gets to intense, due to the desire to add SKUs to a known best-selling item (say, adding more colors or an extended size range to a new item that went Top 10 in its first season) that "classic" items go on the chopping block. Sometimes even a whole size (say, size Medium Tall in men's shirt) goes away, in the hope that offering ten new shirts in the "core" sizes will produce more sales/profit than selling the shirts we used to sell in that size did.

I'm not sure if that helps. Does that answer the question?

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

It answers many. Thanks!

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Feel free to expound :)

And I'll probably drop by the store (right here IN TOWN, less than 3 miles!) on your suggestion to save my shipping fees - I've already been over there and ascertained they had no Rangeleys left in the shop for weeks.

[lucianus.livejournal.com]

(trying this again)

I don't suppose you could try anything so daring as ordering from someplace else? We have good luck at Sierra Trading Post www.sierratradingpost.com Its an "outlet" but they have a good variety of clothing and footwear from good brands like Smartwool and Merrel often for very deep discounts.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Oooh, cool! I notice they have Shetland sweaters on closeout from Orvis.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

B and I need to go to the 'flagship store' sometime in the next couple of weeks, we could pick up anything you need that they have there.