The Numbers Game

Jennifer Polanz

It’s May and right now the vast majority of you are far more worried about getting plants off the trucks and onto the bench than checking your P&L. I get it. You don’t need a reminder that this is the time to make as much money as you can.

But (c’mon, it’d be an awfully short column if there wasn’t a but) I’d like to take a quick minute to talk about that bottom line and the impact that buying and selling has on it. We’re almost half way through a year-long series on inventory control where we’re dissecting every aspect of this process, including related topics like controlling employee and customer theft, and tackling out-of-stock items.

What I’m finding as we go through the series is that none of this happens in a vacuum. Or, at least, none of it should happen in a vacuum. Like roots that twist through the soil in a symbiotic relationship, inventory control is intertwined with all parts of the business.

For example, Corey Bordine did a great piece in the April issue on open to buy and how to figure out just how much money you actually have to buy new product so you can make a profit (hint, it may not be as much as you think you have). And this month, Katie Elzer-Peters talks to retail experts about how they plan for merchandising while they’re making their purchases at the markets and through vendors. Buyers need to have a bigger picture view of the business, including the financials and the end plan for the product, so they understand what their purchases mean for the store.

Once the product arrives, it’s up to the employees to sell it, right? Sales goals help to bring them on board, especially in high-traffic times, to be able to make the most (profit) out of the product on the floor. I talked with industry consultant Sid Raisch about this for last May’s money issue and his advice was to push the products that sell well. It may sound counterintuitive, but if you can sell a product well, chances are with a little more effort you can sell it even better. But the point is the goals drive employees to be successful.

Keep watching Green Profit for more inventory control stories each month, but in the meantime, check out the money-making articles in this issue. I talked with several retailers, consultants and vendors. Meanwhile, columnist Bill McCurry has suggestions for saving money and adding to the bottom line based on his retail experience of owning several Hallmark locations. And finally, there’s no better investment than in the future of our industry, so don’t miss the details on Ebert’s Greenhouse Village’s kids gardening initiatives.