Before you read the rest of the post, read the title and try to figure out what I'm talking about.
Quilts and Jammies?
Quinces and Jams?
Queens and Jesters?
Quetzals and Jackalopes?
No, in fact, it was the letter Q and the letter J that were on sale. Once proud recurring sponsors of Sesame Street, these two letters have been reduced to the clearance shelves at Target:
What is cruelest of all is that the other letters are not also on sale. J and Q have been singled out for persecution:
I guess that Target has an algorithm that puts things on sale when they don't sell quickly enough, but how much sense does it make to apply that algorithm to individual decorative letters? Will this make Quentin or Jane more likely to adorn the walls with their names? Or worse, will it induce Kate or George to recast themselves as Qate and Jeorge in order to avail themselves of the bargain?
Quilts and Jammies?
Quinces and Jams?
Queens and Jesters?
Quetzals and Jackalopes?
No, in fact, it was the letter Q and the letter J that were on sale. Once proud recurring sponsors of Sesame Street, these two letters have been reduced to the clearance shelves at Target:
What is cruelest of all is that the other letters are not also on sale. J and Q have been singled out for persecution:
I guess that Target has an algorithm that puts things on sale when they don't sell quickly enough, but how much sense does it make to apply that algorithm to individual decorative letters? Will this make Quentin or Jane more likely to adorn the walls with their names? Or worse, will it induce Kate or George to recast themselves as Qate and Jeorge in order to avail themselves of the bargain?
I had no idea you have a blog. First Facebook and now this! So much for the internet being an isolating factor in the lives of contemporary humans--I feel I know you so well, and yet we've never met.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Ana
ps--good news at Target for all the Jorges of the world.
I actually know something about this in the global sense but not, necessarily in the specifics(having been a buyer and all at Target.)
ReplyDeleteThe reason the the letters Q and J are on clearance is that Target has too many of them compared to the other letters in the alphabet. They're sitting on excess Qs and excess Js and need to get rid of them. Why would this happen? There are three possible answers for this demand planning problem.
Usually when a vendor recommends a family of products in different flavors or sizes, they have a guess about the rate of sale for each size or flavor. Sometimes this is based on good data (other retailers already selling the product) and sometimes it's just a wild assed guess. Presumably the good people who make letters have some algorithm that tells them that if "S" sales = X than "Q" sales = Y% of X. Target likely ordered based on these little algorithms and discovered that their guests purchased the letters at a different rate. This could be explained because the vendors data was bad OR because Target guests behave differently than other stores' customers. (Anyone in need of a sociological PhD thesis can delve into why Target guests would be demographically less inclined to decorating with Js and Qs.)
A second potential explanation seems less likely, but would also explain the excess Js and Qs. If the manufacturer sells the products to Target in sets (each set = 5 As, 2Bs 4 Cs etc.) there would certainly be problems. This would create something called 'lumpy inventory' where you would find yourself having to order a complete new set of letters when you run out of popular letters. You would also be receiving more unpopular letters which don't sell. Any buyer worth their salt at Target would try to negotiate out of purchasing their products this way since this is a foreseeable inventory problem. However, it is conceivable that, due to better terms elsewhere in their agreement, the buyer allowed this to happen.
There is a third explanation and it is the most simple: Someone screwed up and ordered lots of Qs and Js by mistake.
Finally, it should be noted that Clearance at Target means gone . . . and no one is going to discontinue just two letters of the alphabet. I predict within a few weeks all the remaining letters all also have little red stickers.