Checked out a local warehouse last week and noticed a total lack of inventory planning

I walked into this small distribution center near my store, and they had pallets of stuff stacked everywhere with no rhyme or reason. One corner had winter gloves right next to pool supplies from last summer. It took a guy 20 minutes to find a single box of packing tape. How do you even run a place like that without some basic system to know what you have and where it is? Has anyone else run into a place that just stores things by feel instead of using locations or bins?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_kim551mo ago

Walked into a place like that once and they had a whole pallet of light bulbs buried behind four pallets of dog beds. The guy running it just shrugged and said "we know where everything is, it's organized by vibe." I stood there for a solid minute trying to figure out if he was joking. Spoiler: he wasn't.

jason111mo ago

Came across a bookstore once where they sorted by "if the book felt sad or happy" instead of alphabetically.