Scout Shop Inventory

[fotoscout]

Is it just our Scout Shop or is it a nationwide problem that the shop never has enough inventory to support our council?

 

Case in point..... For the past two years the Scout Shop has not had enough Rank awards for our Blue and Gold. Most units in this area do their Rank awards at B&G. How difficult is it for them to order and appropriate amount of patches at each level?

 

In September people went looking for uniforms...guess what? No uniforms..all sold out. In the late spring I saw people looking to buy shorts for camp...guess what? No shorts.

 

Our shop is a National Supply Division store, not a council owned store. What's going on here?

 

 

[John-in-KC]

From what I am told by my friendly neighborhood Official Distributor...

 

BSA Supply Corporation Scout Shops are also area warehouses for Supply Division. They "must ship" product to Distributors before retaining it for themselves. Reason is: Distributors pay for their merchandise at wholesale rates up front. Distributors include "Acme Sales Company" who sell uniform parts, books and accessories (but not rank and MBs) as well as Council owned and operated Scout Shops who sell an inventory they select of BSA merchandise, but especially including rank/MBs etc. Money talks.

 

This is what I was told. Will be interesting to hear other versions of the story.

[Lisabob]

With few exceptions, our scout shop is extremely well stocked. The one time of year things are a little tight is in September, and then usually only for the very small clothing sizes. But I suspect this is a local issue because in the 5 years I've been buying unit awards and other stuff, I can count on one hand the times that they didn't have what I needed, when I needed it.

 

Lisa'bob

[EagleInKY]

I don't work for a scout shop, nor do I play anything like it on TV. But I do know some folks that have done so in the past. My understanding of it goes something like this. When the council scout shops have been taken over by national, usually the same folks have continued to run them. However, national seems to have a different POV around carrying inventory. In short, they don't like stores to do it. In the "old days", if you needed a blue-headed widget with gold embroidering, they would have it. Even if they weren't on the shelf, they'd have some in the back.

 

Now they've replaced all the management with folks they've brought in from other stores. In fact, most of the workforce has been replaced as well. No inventory in the back, everything is on the shelf. Your unit has a particular neckerchief you wear, you better plan on ordering it. Need more than a half-dozen anything, you better plan on a wait. Need anything out of the ordinary.... you get the picture.

 

That's my understanding. Not sure if it's all true, it did come to me with a certain bias attached.

[Oak Tree]

Our Scout store goes through a lot of product, so they're able to carry quite a bit of inventory. They usually have about 95% of the items I need in stock. They do sometimes run out of popular items, which is frustrating. But then they usually have them on back-order, and it seems like it's a national supply problem when they can't get something.

 

I've never gone there and have them not have advancement cards or patches. That would seem inexcusable.

 

At the same time, I'll try to buy things ahead of time, especially if our pack is working on some obscure award. The store understandably doesn't always stock 50 of every possible item.

 

Oak Tree

[Eamonn]

Our Council operates it's own Scout Shop. The Lady who takes care of it has been there for a very long time and if the volunteers were to vote on the most popular person in the "Office" I'm sure she would get the most votes.

The store doesn't carry a very large inventory, but nearly everyone is aware of that. What she doesn't have she orders and in most cases it's in stock in about ten days. I normally just phone and ask if it's in before I make the trip, if it isn't she orders it for me and calls me when it comes in.

We don't carry the big items, she can of course get them, but in most cases camping equipment and outdoor items are cheaper elsewhere.

If for some reason I need something she doesn't have urgently I make the trip to the nearest National Store, but thats about an hour drive. I never really minded to much as I would go and visit their FD and let him take me out to lunch, but he went and got himself promoted to SE of the Council on the other side of our Council - Maybe I'll have to go and check out their Scout Shop? Now that he is a SE he can afford to buy me a better lunch!!

Eamonn.

[fotoscout]

Oak tree called it inexcusable, I call it unconscionable.

 

The problem goes further than not having rank awards, although that is the most frustrating. The reason I went to the store yesterday was to pick up a new pair of uniform pants for my son. Guess what? No pants. On top of that, the counter guy needed to get beat up before he even offered to call the next closest scout shop to check inventory.

 

If I'm the advancement guy, I don't want to, nor do I have the time to go to the scout shop 2-3-or 4 times to fill an order. If I'm an parent looking for uniform, I am not going to make 3 trips to the scout shop for a uniform. What absolute absurdity!

 

Ok, I'm done venting.

[eagle90]

Our Scout Shop hs improved tremendously over the years, to where now very rarely do I not get what I need ont he first trip. Case in point, last month we updated our troop library for the first time in about 15 years, and needed to purchase 109 merit badge books. I faxed the shop the list and was called the next day saying they had 108 of them in stock. The only one they were out of (Aviation!) they ordered and I had in a week. Great service.

[firescout]

As a scout shop employee at a National Store, I find the comments about inventory troubling. The store I work at stocks about 90% of what is in the catalog. ( at least one each of the more expensive items) Rank advancement items are usually in stock unless they are back ordered from National Supply in North Carolina. We also have a network of 5 other stores in two states to find items that we don't have for our customers. Our turn around time if we don't have the item or enough stock is usually two days. As to the answer about ordering and keeping an appropriate amount of patches in stock, that is up to the store manager and territory manager to see that that happens.If you are having problems with items e-mail the National Suuply Group in North Carolina. There is major push is on cutomer service right now and are looking for imput from the volunteers and customers.

[EagleInKY]

Had our B&G tonight. Several Webelos Activity pins were not available at the Scout Shop yesterday. That's fairly typical, unfortunately.

 

On the other hand, I will complement the staff at truly being exceptionally courteous. They cannot help the policies of management. I can't say anything negative about the service they provide.

[BSAChaplain]

I give our Scout Shop in San Diego an A-. The usually only come up short for the September COH when we need 14 of some merit badge.

 

Then again, if we got to ordering earlier they'd be there. Otherwise they are outstanding.

[fotoscout]

OK I'll accept that they might not have some merit badges in Sept.

 

But I won't accept that they don't have uniforms in September, Cub Scout Handbooks in September, and Rank Badges through February and March.

 

As an update.. on monday the guy said he'd get more AOL's overnight and have them on Tuesday. I still do not have them.

 

I can tell you all one thing that will come of this...Our camp will go out of it's way this summer to stock items from sources other than the National Supply Division!!