where and when

[summerkamp]

was hoping to get some info on when and where i can get full body specks. been trying every where and no one has them. i need them by the first of oct. also having tough time finding full body snows. i finally got all my ffd elites but it took alot of efort. you guys have great products but it seems like it is a lot of work trying to get them by the season every year. also i hope all my six slot bags get here by the first of oct. would it make a difference if the decoys were american made and didnt have to be transported from china. it would also be nice to keep it american made.

[Rick Frisch]

If you are willing to pay about 30% more, we can get you all the American made decoys you want.

There are a lot of thing that you don't understand about this business. If all of our dealers order say 1,000 boxes of full body snow and blue geese, why would we want to go out on a limb and produce 3,000 hoping they will buy them later. We can't afford to sit on inventory like this hoping they will buy more. It costs money to store these, not to mention the dollars tied up in inventory. We produce what the dealers pre-order and add in some safety stock. If the safety stock sells out right away, it takes time to get the good produced and shipped here.

FYI - We had a dealer pre-order 75 boxes of full body mallards. Two weeks ago, they sent us a re-order for 1,000. How are we supposed to predict that?

All I can say is order early and you will be first on any back order list.

Thanks,

[SwampHunter]

If I know a product is coming to the market that I really want, I always get with my local dealer and have them order that product in the number that I want. This way I will have the product when it's released. I do this on any kind of product that I want not just decoys or hunting products.
The area that I live in is in the rice and timber belt so the main decoys stores carry here are mallard, wood duck and pintail decoys. Most stores here won't even carry any goose decoys. If you want diver decoys here you can forget about it since very few folks diver hunt. If I want diver decoys I must tell my local dealer that I want diver decoys or I will not be able to get any unless I order them from somewhere else. I have found that most of the time I have to hunt for the items I want if I do order from someone else. Reason being that nobody has ordered enough decoys or didn't order the ones I wanted to begin with.
If you want products to be on the shelves you have to let stores know that you want them. Otherwise they will not get ordered and then you will be stuck looking for them. All of the stores in my area will order things if I let them know before they place an order.

[summerkamp]

well i live in a small town in north idaho so i depend on macks, cabelas, woods and water, ect.there is a sportsmans warehouse a couple hours away that i go to but in our area we only get canadians so for our canada hunting trips we have to order our snow and speck decoys from elswhere. i think that starting to order my decoys on july 1st should be suffecent. like i said you make the best decoy out there right now.

[Dave in Mpls]

Rick - one would conclude from your explanation about re-orders, etc, that all dealers have received their initial orders of the FB specks and SOBs.

[JEDJR]

Originally posted by Dave in Mpls:
Rick - one would conclude from your explanation about re-orders, etc, that all dealers have received their initial orders of the FB specks and SOBs.I know the Specks were not finalized until around July 8th.
At last update, they will be at dealers by the middle of October.

[Dave in Mpls]

I hear ya on the Specks, JEDJR.

So, all dealers have received their initial orders of SOBs?

[Rick Frisch]

What do you mean by SOB's?

[summerkamp]

from what i was told at avery no one has recieved the specks yet this year and they cant give a date but they are in containers on there way from china they think. they are hoping for the last part of sept.

[Quikshot]

Originally posted by Rick Frisch:
What do you mean by SOB's?Could mean a lot of things really. But on the decoys aspect I think Dave meant Snows and Blues.

[Dave in Mpls]

Scott knows the lingo!

Snows Or Blues

[Rick Frisch]

We have not shipped them all, but it is really close. Most of the dealers that I have that ordered them sold what they ordered to one person and they were out of stock. It is an ugly situation, but we will not overstock ourselves on the hope that dealers under ordered decoys. We did it last year with the Hunter's Series of full body Canada decoys. This year, they are still sitting there. We have now carried them for about 10 months. We have paid storage on them. We have X amount of inventory dollars tied up in them. There is a fine line between under stocked and over stocked from our side and the dealer's side.

Most dealers base there orders off of history; either with us or other manufactures they have bought from in the past. I know that about 90% of the dealers in this area told me that, "Snow geese don't sell." They are basing their statement from sales on other decoys. We can't make them buy this stuff. They have to want it. If I just start shipping them what I think they will need, it won't be a very good phone call I get.

The hardest part for me to understand is, how is it our fault they didn't order any or enough?

Thanks,

[Travis Mueller]

I know that one of my dealers sold every snow and blue the day they were unloaded off of the truck. He wasn't anticipating that, but now has a reorder in for a "few" more!!

[JEDJR]

Originally posted by Rick Frisch:
We have not shipped them all, but it is really close. Most of the dealers that I have that ordered them sold what they ordered to one person and they were out of stock. It is an ugly situation, but we will not overstock ourselves on the hope that dealers under ordered decoys. We did it last year with the Hunter's Series of full body Canada decoys. This year, they are still sitting there. We have now carried them for about 10 months. We have paid storage on them. We have X amount of inventory dollars tied up in them. There is a fine line between under stocked and over stocked from our side and the dealer's side.

Most dealers base there orders off of history; either with us or other manufactures they have bought from in the past. I know that about 90% of the dealers in this area told me that, "Snow geese don't sell." They are basing their statement from sales on other decoys. We can't make them buy this stuff. They have to want it. If I just start shipping them what I think they will need, it won't be a very good phone call I get.

The hardest part for me to understand is, how is it our fault they didn't order any or enough?

Thanks,Rick, this is what I was trying to explain to you in my email.
I understand their frustrations, But I dont know what more we can say.

[Rick Frisch]

Jed,

There is no reasoning with those people you are talking about. They have no idea what it takes to manufacture and ship any of these items. They think we have an endless supply of plastic and that these decoys can just be pull out of our you know what. Typical lead times for these huge re-orders we are getting are 90 to 120 days. It can be done, but it isn't going to happen overnight like they think it should.

Thanks,

[AltaGoose]

Rick, I understand what you are saying and how carrying inventory is very expensive. I also work for a distribution company and know that if you run out of inventory how crippling it can be. If your distributors are not going to order enough inventory why don't you sell direct over the internet? It seems like your ditributors continuously under order and you pay the price with unhappy customers. You must be getting tired of the same complaints every year!!

[Rick Frisch]

We have a company policy that we will not compete directly with our dealers.

What do you distribute?

[AltaGoose]

We distribute oil and gas valves and instrumentation. Our industry is very different from yours, no quetsion. We run out and the customer goes to the competition. You may or may not hear back from them. I'll tell you what though, if they call you a couple times and you still don't have what they need you will not get the third call! In our industry if you are a distributor you are expected to know your customers and sales. If we continuously ran out of inventory and our customers called the manufacturer to complain, our a**es would be on the line. I understand why Avery sells through distribution, it only makes sense, but if your distribution channels are falling short of their committments then you should address it. They will continue to underestimate because it costs them less and there is no risk to them. If Avery is happy with that relationship then I guess guys like me will have to decide whether to put up with this yearly occurence or buy other products. It's really too bad this keeps happening because the research and development you guys have done has been great. No one else in the industry has put this much into developing decoys.

[Rick Frisch]

I guess I would say our companies are really different. Do you even do any manufacturing?

Imagine trying to do 95% of your business in three months. The dealers have told you what they will need. We figure in some safety stock using previous years histories. Add in about 20 new items that you don't have any history on. Try and do your forecasts with these numbers.

Now, tell me how easy it is to do this business.

We can't tell you how to run your business (nor would we even try), so please don't tell us how to run ours.

Thanks,

[summerkamp]

well rick it looks like this is a very sour spot for you. i havent read anywhere that we are trying tell you how to run your bus. i see alot of loyol cust. looking for answers and suggestions. it is very frustrating on the consumer end also. i think altagoose had some good points.

[AltaGoose]

I have been in the manufacturing business for many years, before my current job, so I appreciate where you are coming from. You may be misunderstanding what I'm trying to say. I'm not blaming you for the shortfall in product, my point is that as a manufacturer your obligation is to produce to the demand. I also appreciate that there are new products being developed and you can't know how they will be received. That's where in my opinion the distributor comes into play. That's why they get a great deal from you...its a win/win. They're your eyes and ears, that's why you have them. Don't get me wrong I'm not telling you how to do business, I'm a customer who sees a problem and offering an idea/suggestion. That's what open dialogue is about. If you only want to hear good things then maybe let people know that.

[Shoot-n-Release]

To all---The business highway is littered with wrecks from manufacturing to perceived demand!!!!! That includes new and well established companies!!!!Bruce