Sunday, September 14, 2008

Warehouse Sales

Malaysians love warehouse sales.

On a Saturday, there was a warehouse sale near my university. Shoppers parked their cars illegally along the road outside the warehouse, causing traffic jam.

I was inching along the two-lane road, which then narrowed down to one lane. A car suddenly cut in the line, nearly hitting mine. The car eventually stopped outside the warehouse. Apparently the driver would rather be caught in an accident than missing the sale.

Out of curiosity, I went to the warehouse for a look. What were being sold?

Dolls, baking powder, baby powder, toothpaste/toothbrush, canned food, plastic containers, A&W rootbeer, shoes, gas stoves, Casio digital cameras, condoms…

In the end, I walked out of the warehouse empty-handed.

If you are a shareholder of premium shopping complexes, such as 1 Utama, KLCC and Pavilion, I suggest that you quickly sell your shares off. Warehouse sales are more profitable!

P/S

I learned about Just-in-time (JIT) production in my MBA study. Many Japanese manufacturers, including auto giant Toyota, operate on the concept of JIT. One key idea of JIT is: Do not keep stocks unnecessarily!

11 comments:

  1. O.o Casio digital cameras?!

    Where was the warehouse sale? I thought it'd be somewhere near PD...

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  2. I love warehouse sales too.. Near my house seksyen 14 always got warehouse sales one le... I like to go Loreal warehouse sales..

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  3. day-dreamer
    At Jln Universiti, very near to Jaya One.

    But then... you buy digital camera because you need one, not because it is cheap.

    keeyit
    I can understand why you like Loreal warehouse sales, but how about baking powder, condom and the like?

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  4. hmm... it is becoming a trend over here d ~

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  5. DKSH warehouse sales?
    i have been to any warehouse sales, fearing that the crowd might stomp me to death

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  6. xin
    Yes, DKSH. The crowd was big...

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  7. The company I am at does JIT too.

    JIT have their fair share of problems too sometimes. Orders get cancelled when they are not met in time, resulting in loss of potential revenue.

    So we ended up back to stocking up. Haha.

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  8. shingo
    I totally agree that we need to keep some stocks. But you don't buy a gas stove and keep it in the store room, do you?

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  9. Learned about JIT in uni also. Keeping money in inventory is not really a good idea as the cost of materials depreciate due to wear and tear. JIT saves overhead expenses in the long run. :)

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  10. luckily i didn't go...i tot of buying 3 packets of Lays for RM10...but then tinking again, was it worth it? hahaha

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  11. 宝茹
    I learned about JIT in MBA :-)

    nux
    Go to warehouse to spend RM10??? Not worth it, unless you happen to be there just like me.

    ReplyDelete