Publisher's Forum

By Joe Tatulli

Complex world of futons

In the world of home furnishings there is no other issue that gets more press than the symbiotic relationship between the manufacturer and the retailer. The issue always seems to revolve around finger pointing by one side as to the total inability of the other side to understand the finger pointer's point of view. Obviously each side has a set of issues that relate directly to the day-to-day operation of their business. Issues, I might add, the other side never has to deal with.

The retailer can't possibly understand how a manufacturer's parts mill screwed up and over sold a million board feet of oak parts orders to another factory they have been doing business with for thirty years. The mill, therefore, has to short our manufacturer's June order by 100,000 feet, and lets them know about it on May 26. They only realized their mistake the day before when Herb, their yard foreman (who had been out for three weeks), realized his replacement had miscalculated when he reported the current inventory in the yard and Kilns.

All the retailer knows is that the order they placed, after carefully planning for the busy season, is delayed or back ordered. The manufacturer must now scramble to replace the hundred thousand feet they were shorted from another local mill, who knows the first mill screwed up, and who charges the manufacturer a premium for lumber they realize the manufacturer is desperate for.

Unfortunately, since the prices have been shaved to bone because of futon price wars, the manufacturer looks at his margins and decides to not buy the extra wood now because after its all said and done he would loose money on the deal.

Then (lo and behold) a major, national, mega-retailer calls, with a letter of credit, and orders a quarter of a million dollars worth of  futon frames. The manufacturer calls the mill, buys the wood, makes the frames, sells the frames and the retailer who got shorted sees the frames they should have gotten at the local mega-retailer and justifiably (they believe) cries "wolf."

Wow, it sure is a complex world, and I only made this up. Imagine what actually happens out there in the real world.