Hello All-

Click here for the September Sales per Product Report from Quick Shopping Cart- and again I've included my manually added column inserts for Product Type/Category to make for an easier read.  Also, I've carried over & added columns for previous month's sales, for comparisons.

For September, sales of paper "Literature" remain high compared to pre-Shopping Cart months; however, the trend for the month is all sales are down compared to previous months this year.  In looking back over our history since opening the Distribution Center almost four years ago, October 2011 was our overall low month for last year- and September has been our low month each other year.  And even posting low numbers for the year, we are still hovering around our pre-Shopping Cart high months from 2011.   

 

Worthy of note is our numbers for the first week of October were blistering- and if we maintain that pace, we will have another set of new sales records.

Other business:
> Inventory- We took a Full Physical on Monday October 1st for September close-of-business; results were sent to Patricia.
> UPS Worldship & T-Hub integration- We are currently on "Hold" with a UPS Launch, pending our Account Rep negotiating a more competitive pricing structure with the WorldShip business rep's.  She is working on a tiered pricing structure which allows for a much more aggressively competitive rate for our "Light" or "Paper Lit-only" orders; this approach is a new one geared to the specifics of our sales mix and we have been in a time-consuming approval & testing process.    

> UPS, cont- We've now all completed training on the UPS WorldShip system, which interfaces with THub & the Go Daddy Quick Shopping Cart 
> Labor:  Even with the impact of our unanticipated spike in labor hours the first week of the month as our main pc & hardwired internet connection went down- during a monthly close, physical inventory & 3-day holiday weekend week- I was still able to cut Labor Hours for the rest of the month, utilizing hours for vacation time & reduced hours with folks starting back in to classes/school etc

> Personnel- Taylor Drake (3.5 years on our Staff) will be departing in November for her Air Force Basic & Advanced Training;  Our newest Team Member, Kim Martin, has completing her training & Probationary period. I will be recommending that the Board approve her review & increase from Probationary status to Permanent Part Time status, replacing Taylor's position & hourly rate.  I will submit that request as soon as i have Taylor's specific end date.  
> Expenses:   Were high in September as we, 1) purchased new hardware & software, 2)  had to resort to paid technical troubleshooting & support for our outages & downtime; as the purchases were one-time expenses, October forward should see a great reduction in office expenses over September    
> Outstanding Product orders- Orders are outstanding for, 1)  the Commemorative Edition of the Yellow Workbook, & 2)  Service medallions 

 

Thank you, DiAnne - and Vivian, Danielle, Kristina, Taylor, Trudy, Kim & Gloria too!