I find it surprising that almost eighteen months since I left the store, that I still learn details of the counter clerk’s job that I didn’t know existed. Considering how much covering I was doing for coworkers who didn’t feel like coming in, management that didn’t know their ass from their head even after finding the Wikipedia page that showed the difference, and customers that leave you wondering when the next major evolutionary step for human beings will occur, it didn’t occur to me that I might have missed something other than the carpenter bee that tormented me in the back room.
It all started with a need to borrow a code reader. I still have a good working relationship with the store, even though only two people I worked with are still there. It’s cheaper than buying a code reader and for what I needed it for, it suits me well to stop in and kill a few minutes of my time. Besides, lately I haven’t stopped in to talk with the guys and learn what kind of fun customers I’ve missed, like the tiny little pimp in the 1980s Eldorado and the very angry (and very, very drunk) woman in the V6 Mustang that had to be hauled away in handcuffs. Some things just never change. But Store Manager II had something special for me this round. As I was putting the code reader up, he motioned me into the back…you know, the secret-squirrell “Come here, I got something to tell you” deal.
As soon as we are out of earshot of the front of the store, he gets a strange expression on his face and says, “Go check the dumpster.” Only because I thought they had got a new guy and had managed to cocoon him with shipping wrap did I haul myself back outside into the really cool air, armed only with a pocketknife and the flashlight of my phone. Preparing for anything from a hungry raccoon to a drunk college kid, I flipped open the top of the lid and peered inside. I’m not kidding in the least: from floor to the absolutely filled line, the dumpster was filled with oil filters, air filters, cabin filters and fuel filters, all of a brand that the store does not carry. The idea of just how much in merchandise was sitting here made me dizzy.
The story is simple: in a poaching move, my former store gained a garage’s business in town from another store. Since that store did not carry the same product that my store did, we had to re-stock the entire garage’s catalog. To do so required two things: an inventory of stock on-hand, and the removal of excess stock from the former supplier. So far, makes sense, right? Now, here’s where it gets tricky: our supplier of filter products demands that they are the only product on the shelf if a garage is kitted up. No competitors. And what happened is, when the inventory was completed, an order form for an en masse order (think several thousand dollars’ worth of filters) was sent to the company with a “RUSH” order placed. Meanwhile, the verboten stock was jammed into the dumpster out back, because it would be cheaper to start from scratch than to go through a return process of some type. For the time being, the store will support the garage on a case-by-case basis, but soon several large trucks will appear at the garage, the shelves will be fully stocked and order will be restored.
By the time that this story is published, the dumpster out back will have been emptied, and a net loss four figures deep will have been written off of a ledger somewhere. This isn’t completely a parts store deal either. Where do you think things like all of those unsold Beanie Babies toys go to when a store’s stocking situation is changed? That’s right: in the great big filing cabinet out back, never to be seen again…or sold to the highest bidder. Speaking of “never to be seen again”, has anybody seen Ricky? We thought he would have freed himself by now…
Let me get this straight. All these brand new filters ended up in a landfill? Why?
This reminds me of all the expensive shit I’ve seen or had to throw overboard when I was in the US Navy.
I once had a idiot chief when I was stationed onboard the USS Nimitz insisted on throwing overboard a $10,000 valve, everybody told him we needed to hoard it for a reason ( we were currently deployed at the time).
It got thrown overboard upon the idiot chiefs insistence only to be needed later during the deployment, it had to be ordered asap and flown to the carrier, costing us taxpayers $10,000 +.
I might of had to go get a truck and make a few bucks selling off some of it….waste not want not….
I don’t understand, Bryan.
What’s a pic of a dissected oil filter got to do with thrown-away stock?
Mostly because showing a brand on a filter might cause legal issues I have no desire to deal with.
I used to love it when sales reps would load our dumpster up with “off brand” or obsolete inventory. It used to be a major source of income in my swap meet days.
Just wanted to add…. when a mom and pop parts store where I worked was sold to some new owners that were turning the building into a tire store and service center, when it came time to empty out the building, mom and pop decided that everything that hadn’t been sold (at very deep discounts I might add), was going in the dumpster. Since I was there on the fateful day to pick up all the cases of oil I had bought at 1/2 of wholesale cost, I looked in the dumpster. Good thing I had brought a BIG trailer.
We’ve had the “hungry raccoon” one happen to our dumpster several times here at work. We usually drop in a piece of wood as a ramp, and RUN!
I worked at a parts store that changed there exhaust brand. They threw the other brand all in the dumpster. Which led to my house by the end of the day.
It was everything from mufflers, tailpipes, to exhaust clamps.
Came for angry, got angry AND insanity. I don’t care who you are, that’s a bargain – someday I’ll have to tell you about the need to throw 2 40′ semi-trailers full of diet coke away… whoops… oh yeah, and the new manager that had to take the hit.
Fairly common occurence in the parts world. In my seven years at the store I’ve seen this several times. The shops filter stock doesn’t go into our dumpster, but instead gets shipped back to the warehouse, where I am sure it in turn is tossed in to their much bigger dumpster. The same goes for any line of parts and not just filters. Belts, hoses, wiper blades even go the same route. The most expensive one we see is a hydraulic hose supplier changeover. That’s some bucks, especially if the crimping equipment is a part of the changeover.
I’ve only seen filter companies pull this. All the other times inventories get pulled they end up selling them back to the original manufacturer.
Well where I work if we throw stuff out like that we have to damage it so it can’t be resold but the same goes for belts and hoses all ends up in the trash when we do a changeover!