Purchasing

Richard G. Weissman

Unanticipated Demand
April 23, 2008

It is an unusually warm (almost 80 degrees) afternoon on Boston's North Shore, so when I made my customary stop at Dunkin' Donut this noon for coffee today, I decided on an iced coffee….medium. The clerk told me apologetically that she'd have to prepare it in a large cup because they were out of medium cups. I told her to make it a large, thinking it would be awkward to make the mixture right. Perhaps I should have been offered a large at a medium price but that is a subject for a marketing blog.

As she was making the coffee (and as the manager walked behind her carrying two empty milk crates and banged off the wall…but that is a subject for an operations management blog) I hesitated to ask why they were out of medium cups. None of my business, I decided. But I quickly changed my mind and asked why they were out of cups.

She said that the warm weather brought out the iced coffee drinkers. They had gone through five vats of iced coffee and the most popular sized cup was medium. They were out of cups, but she said the truck was due momentarily and they would have the cups they needed. In fact, as I was leaving I noticed that the crates that the manager was stumbling around with were to block off a spot at the curb (a logistics blog perhaps?).

So, a quick and somewhat unexpected warm up had made demand outstrip supply. Call it unanticipated demand leading to a stock out and a back order, but with a workaround for the customer. And….a blog entry, and large coffee, for me. Happy spring.

Posted by Richard G. Weissman on April 23, 2008 | Comments (0)