Typically this time of year the last of my wholesale orders are winding down. In fact, if I remember correctly my last wholesale order went out about Nov 20th last year and I think I had one or two reorders the first week of December. As such, I don't have a ton of inventory on hand other then what I anticipate needing for retail orders.
This year is definitely different. I got 7 wholesale orders today. Four of them came in before 11am. My head is spinning with all these new orders that literally came out of the blue. Granted, some of these orders were folks I'd met at previous shows or folks who had seen an ad, but still, to be ordering the Monday before Thanksgiving is really really really late for retailers. The fact that they want the orders to arrive to them by Thanksgiving in time for 'Black Friday' is wishful thinking and I told them such (in my most polite sales voice) unless they are willing to pay several hundred for overnight shipping.
On the one hand I knew that retailers would be ordering later then normal this year but I honestly never expected it to run this late. I've been telling myself for a few weeks now "Just One More Week" in anticipation of what will be the last crazy week and yet every week I get more unexpected orders which pushes the busy period one week further.
I'm not complaining - just really really surprised by how late these orders are coming in. Plus, I checked my books yesterday and realized that the business is $2K behind this time last year. These orders today just pushed me a heck of a lot closer to last year's revenue number. And given the state of economy that's nothing to sneeze at. And when you figure in that the true bulk of this Fall's business won't really be accounted for until 2010 because I have them on Net 45+ terms, that's setting things up for a good first quarter cashflow-wise next year.
I'm even more glad then normal that I outsourced the cooking of the Thanksgiving turkey to a BBQ joint in town! Between the number of orders that have to go out this week (remember - I have little inventory so I have to make all the stuff first, get it packaged, and then get it boxed up) and then preparing for a big retail show next weekend there's just too much going on for me to try and squeeze in manhandling a turkey. I am excited for a little homemade pumpkin cheesecake though! Mmmm!
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Guess they're pushing the burden of just-in-time inventory onto the manufacturers, which doesn't work so well when the manufacture is all by hand. ;-) Glad you have the orders, but sorry they're so late!
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