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FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

VOU CAN'T sell whar you don'r I have. Obvious, isn't it? To you maybe, but not to those buyers with a compulsion to gamble with time.

I have watched buyers pray that an ad costing tens of thousands of dollars would not pull because the merchandise had not arrived.

The hard-and-fast rule in most multi-market retail chains states: If the merchandise is not on board (in the stores or in the warehouse) or somewhere in sight, that merchandise office is not to gamble that the item will be available at the time the ad breaks in the newspaper.

Almost every advertising department maintains a system to allow a buyer to make last-minute substitution for items that are rolling but have not reached the store level. And yet, time and time again, merchandisers will release ads for final approval based on a supplier's "definite" commitment that "it will arrive by 4 P.M. today."

It usually doesn't. Then panic sets in. First they choose from this list of excuses:

O "Definitely promised."

O "The truck was spotted at San Jose at 5:30."

O "I just found out that delivery was attempted yesterday but our warehouse refused it because my paperwork hadn't arrived."

O "The truck arrived but it only contained the deluxe model 402, the promotional model M-l won't be shipped until next month."

Excuses are followed by an act entitled, "The Great Substitutions."

O Substitute the inferior brand from a local jobber with the hope that the public doesn't notice that the picture in the paper is different . . or

O Substitute the step-up model and take the markdown . . or

O Take names and addresses and bear the cost of delivering the item to the customer's home.

The next panic scene takes on the atmosphere of the Normandy invasion:

O Drive 138 miles to pickup the airlifted shipment at the metropolitan airport then

O Pile the merchandise into the borrowed station wagon and drop at three stores tonight, two stores in the morning, and the other seven stores by 5 P.M. tomorrow. After all, if timed correctly each store should have inventory just about the time the customer comes in with tabloid in his hand.

I believe in capital punishment when it comes to violating company policies and the stopgap measures that prevent misrepresentation advertising. Too often the buyer places one of the lowest paid employees in the chain, the salesclerk, in the position of attorney for the defense of the company.

When a chain allows this type of seatof-the-pants merchandising to occur, it creates a domino effect at all levels. Warehousing, receiving, and store personnel start referring to those "jerks in the white tower." Salesmen within the department face the abuse from customers now complaining to have traveled 60 miles to pickup that specific advertisied item. The ill will that is created is long lasting.

What truly hurts is the fact that top management is usually the last to furd out how inept these gambling merchandisers are. They are uncovered at store level immediately by the salespeople because they are constantly being jeopardized by his acts. But it's human nature not to "fink." ,And so, the ineffici€ncies go on uncovered for a long time.

Amazingly, once the compulsive time gambler is eliminated, the effect on the bottom line is immediate. You can see it in the register readings, in the productivity within the department, and in the reduction in complaint letters.