2022, Chapter 14:
Hel Hath Frozen
So, for the first time in 12 and a half years, we’re doing a sale. Kinda.
This is partly because this year has been brutal in terms of inflation. Almost everything seems like it’s going up. You deserve a break from that. This is our counter, our give-back, our way of trying to make things a bit better at the end of a long crazy year.
If you’re interested, it’s at:
https://schiit.com/b-stocks
And that’s where most companies would stop talking.
Let us go on a bit.
Here’s the deal. Yeah, we are doing this because we love you. And we’re also doing it because we like tilting at windmills. And we’re also doing it because, to be totally frank, we gotta lotta schiit hanging around, and it needs to go.
“Aha, that’s the real reason,” someone says. “You somehow went from having nothing in stock to being overstocked. Idiots! How did you let that happen?”
And, you know, that’s a pretty decent insult. But why stop there? Why not take us to task for introducing a ton of new products (still a couple to go this year, maybe!), which is not exactly conducive to inventory control?
Here’s the reality: it’s tough planning in a normal year. And 2022 was, by far, the most bizarre year ever. We went from lockdown-stuck-free-money-buy-everything to, well, the inevitable hangover. We went from can’t-get-no-parts and can’t-get-no-line-time and how-much-extra-you-gonna-pay-for-that-run to can-get-most-parts and tons-of-line-time, and, probably soon, hey-you-got-work-for-us on the assembly side.
So planning for 2022? Oh yeah no nevermind.
- Instead of introducing everything at the planned time, we had tons of delays
- Instead of introducing everything we wanted to, we had the DSP debacle (and still do)
- Instead of being able to count on several products, they went on hiatus or into redesign
- Instead of a rational schedule of kitting and production, we got all stacked up
- Instead of a normal summer slowdown, things got really slow
So, kinda a perfect storm.
Is this a problem? No. It just means stuff gets pushed to next year and we readjust. We run very conservatively, we don’t report to a board, we’re not public, so it’s not a big deal.
Aside: this is a reality of business. If you aren’t ready for a few bumps in the road, stay far away. We’ve been very lucky. It was still a great year, by many metrics. We still showed significant growth over pre-pandemic years, for example.
But we do have a bunch of stuff.
So, I thought,
Maybe it’s time to move some of it out. Maybe it’s time to do a sale-ish kinda thing.
And that’s how you get what we’re calling “B-Stock Friday.” Except it’s not just B-stock, it’s also closeout and just some plain deals. And we’re cutting a lot harder than we normally do.
“But you said you’d never do sales!” someone cries.
Close. What I said is that you
should never do sales. Which still stands. Don’t expect this to be a once-a-year thing. Don’t even expect this to happen again. Planning has already realigned 2023 (which means, yeah, if it gets bonkers again, expect backorders.)
In the meantime, enjoy the kinda-sorta sale!
