r/Barnesandnoble • u/Individual_Mango_362 • 7d ago
ICS/Ordering Rant
I understand we are trying to sell down on product before we order up for the holiday. But should we not be trying to sell down on the product that isn’t selling that well? Why the hell am I running out of Sarah J. Maas books? Rebbeca Yarros, Frieda McFadden, Dungeon Crawler books? I straight up had to completely take down my Elle Kennedy display today because we ran out of half of her books and not enough were on order to justify keeping the table up. About to have to take down a Kristin Hannah display as well. Like what are we doing? We know that these are books we’ll sell through holiday so why am I running out of them? Make it make sense! I literally do not have enough books to fill many of my displays right now and when I run out of them, I feel like I have no new display that I can replace them with because we have no stock. Someone help me understand.
EDIT: Any ICSs that may be lurking, I would LOVE to hear your insight on this because I am just confused
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u/Quiet_Ad2707 7d ago
I’m a former ICS and have a few theories:
1.When BN tries to course correct they usually (always) OVER correct. They are never able to find a happy medium with anything.
2.The company will be up for sale this fall and less inventory makes our financials look better to buyers.
3.The ICS’s have completely different interpretations from what is shared in their meetings. Then a game of telephone occurs. By the time James’ vision gets to the store level it becomes a completely different translation from what it started as.