Wal-Mart Calls for “Bottom Up” Magazine Wholesaler Allotments
July 22, 2008 — Wal-Mart called for rigorous, “bottom up” distribution practices as a key means of achieving its 50-percent efficiency goal for the magazine category in a memorandum sent to single copy supply chain partners last Friday. The memo appears in its entirety below.
To: All National Distributors and Publishers
From Christy Jenkins
Subject: Magazine Bottom Up Distribution
As many of you are aware Wal-Mart has a major Sustainability project underway to eliminate waste by improved efficiency. One of the projects we have focused on to assist in achieving our 50 efficiency goal is bottom up distribution. This process utilizes individual store specific sales information based on consumer demand to determine inventory needs by store which then rolls up to allotment needs by wholesaler to the DC level.
This project can only be successful if all parties throughout the channel support the initiative. Wholesaler allotments need to be adjusted to reflect our true needs not the prorated portion of copies printed. In the true spirit of sustainability we hope these copies would be completely eliminated from your print order and distribution channel.
Please support us and the environment as we move forward in this initiative.
7/18/2008
Tags: bottom-up, Christy Jenkins, Environmental Sustainability, Wal-Mart