a new chapter starts today ....

PLEASE CLICK HERE ..... to see the new home for this blog .....

Blogspot has been good - but we need an excuse to learn Wordpress ...

click here for a NEW BLOG on Internet issues with CARQUEST ...

click here for the NEW BLOG for General Store issues with CARQUEST

Why Wordpress ... we keep hearing how Wordpress is a good solution for building a web presence so content can be updated ( unlike our existing web pages that are way out of date ) ...stay tuned --more stuff coming .... in the meantime --thank you bloodspot ...

where do we go with B2C stuff

B2C is Business to Consumer ...   just like B2B is like weblink ( bus to business )

Have posted this ...  http://www.cqhanover.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4155#4155  on CARQUEST Jobber forum (registration required to prove you are a CARQUEST jobber)

Some Q&A ( questions and answers )  from Raleigh on B2C and impact for us ...

Have you tried out the B2C web site yet from CARQUEST .... info in above link

How do other CARQUEST stores handle shrinkage & IC counts

Wouldn't it be a nice world if CARQUEST jobbers had the chance to talk with one another on issues effecting their profitability ??

Example - haw do multi-store jobbers handle WRONG COUNTS and possible shrinkage yet not impressing stupid rules that inhibit motivation of staff ( like we see at JV stores?)

Our 3 stores are 10 months into a test where we are tracking wrong counts .... any store want to trade data and effectiveness - drop us a line at info (at ) dtauto.ca.

We set up store use accounts for counts that need to be changed ... to LIMIT the amount of on hand corrections done to the QTY ON HAND ( this shows up in Parts Ledger as 'NEW PART' ... we also set that invoices are e-mailed to store manager so they know what has been changed ,... very telling when you compare the 3 stores ...

Mind you --one basic problem --is that the average CARQUEST jobber doesn't like to talk to another ... but that is best left for another blog entry.

Most UNDERUSED screen in EXPLORIS ... is ....

I think the most underused screen in EXPLORIS ( eBay nee WHI's Nexpart ) is the Multi-Store Creator-Editor ... assuming you are a multi-store jobber

It SUCKS big time -- to add a part to your store ... trust me -- it misses key items that makes the part stand out like an orphan ... BUT ...what it is good at .... by default ...since we have nothing else like it  .... is in LOOKING to see how you stores order point ( stock level at which the system re-orders ) ... does you store have ENOUGH ... if you try to stock just one --and you sell it often -- and you are always running out .... hmm ... time to INCREASE the stock level ....

One small point -- when you change the ORDER PNT ( order point ) -- from say 1 to 2 .... HIT the RETURN BUTTON ....you will see the cell turns a slight different colour of green --and the system will update the change ... try it both ways ... only one way works ... got to love the programmers at EXPLORIS WHI head office ....

Case in point --does Petes and Auto Barn have enough of PLB 194B2 ?????  How many other parts are like this ??  For this example I have collapsed some fields so you can see Qty Available ... Order Point ... and a few of the SALES Hist ( Hist1 is last month ...Hist24 is 2 years ago ... only months with data shows ... so no store sold 2 months ago -as there is no Hist2 showing )

A sign of a KEY STAFF MEMBER would ( and should be ) the ability top look at this screen and make a decision ,....

This is being cross posted to our Staff blog ...

DFIU -- what a pain in the ass

DFIU is the jobber program to load X lines -- and I have to tell you that DFIU is a pain in the ass .. for one big reason -- they programmed it to IGNORE decimals ....  so when we see 1.23 it IGNORES the decimal .... the real problem comes when you have a price like 10.00 and  you forget to format correctly and have the data as 10.  ...well DFIU sees this as ten cents ....

example ... this is properly formatted in EXCEL on the Mac --but when Excel on a PC gets this - it obviously looses the trailing ZERO  ...as in excel a training zero is no big deal.

BUT -- boy - does this make a HIGE problem in your prices ....

this is how one prices looks in POS Invoice -- using the PRICE LOOK UP -- and the ALL FIELDS button ... something we are finding our staff and mgmt rarely use ...

Imagine selling a part for one tenth the price you need to ... so how is your day going ??

Here are some youtube links on a pretty crude video on how to use DFIU to load parts .... maybe as I try more I can get better ... or maybe it wil be like my golf game ... damm ....

part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEpaId9mQNA
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZQN_OyQWqA

things Biz School told me -that are wrong ?

powered by Splicd.com
Nassim Nicholas Taleb - who wrote the Black Swan ...chats about his next issue - Fragility ....   downplays Synergy and the benefit of being BIG ( there goes another point held as true- 'Economies of Scale' ... and really likes to smack the IT dept when they get too big ...as ERRORS  outpace the Benefits on ever larger projects ... the embedded clip is approx 2 minutes from this 19 minute clip --worth watching ...click here for full clip

Can you say 'EXPLORIS ??

The future of SECOND LINES ?

So - what will happen to the second line in many areas ...looking at RIG ( second line to ECC for Ignition & emission ) ... in Canada we find the price difference just too SMALL to justify the line -and of course many parts are dropping off .... caps & rotors - that just means you are an old guy ....

BUT --wait ...maybe there is more to this storey ... a few years ago we grabbed USA Jobber cost and were surprised that Canada 'played' with the cost price  ... setting it as a percentage of the main line ( back then it was EC Blue Streak ) .... while the USA seems to left he price float in a natural  state ... got to love how Canada loved to PLAY ...

So ...I have a price file from Jan 2012 ..I took a look  and sure enough - an 'average' of 25% less in USA ...the currency exchange and some loose pocket change for Toronto DV that likes to skim a few extra dollars ( remember - our dollar is close to same as USA dollar on average ) .... but wait --some are LESS in Canada !! and some are MORE .... ... and the highest on the wrong way ... RIG 31240 ...at $79.33 --- compared that is USA jobber cost of $10.19 .... ( see image - CQ  sells retail for $18 on internet ) ...and I can't find the replaced ECC # 71-2613 anywhere  in USA ??????  a bogus  number ???

  This image shows ECC 71-2613 is NOT a good part # in USA

this image shows the USA sell RIG for $20 ... of one quarter of the Cdn Jobber cost

Canada -- PLEASE --stop playing games .....   in this internet age -- the days of 'games' are over ...

what you learn after you know it all--that counts

the title is a phrase we had used a while back -- reminding us to not get smug on what we think we know .... lately we have no visions of excessive knowledge ... so many things to keep up to date with ... anyways here is a twist we had not seen ... updating our Marine line of X Line parts and had a hard time figuring out what the simple 'REPLACE' would not work -- CC Marine adds commas's in their description -- a sure death for the data ...since we use CSV format and the system will think it is time to move to the next column  ... well ..answer --replace the ASTERISK  first ... google replacing wildcards ( which is what Excel thinks an * is )

New Marine prices - now ready to go --- all 22 thousand ....  and ps -it didn't take the 24 minutes the image says .... but was a few minutes ... and I started typing this to pass the time.

Ps - have more time to type -- forgot to flag the bottom question --to UPDATE all descriptions ( not just the new parts ) ...why do we do this ... EXPLORIS ( Nexpart by eBay ) doesn't have any mechanism to flag parts that DID NOT UPDATE .... ( search this blog -- we have written about this glaring hole ) ... so you need to somehow identify parts that the supplier had dropped from their price list --but we still have in our system .... JCon did a pretty good job ...we think we have found a work around --as the YEAR as part of the description ...and the next time you dump the data --sort on the description to see what parts don't start with a '12-' ..then you need to MOVE these to a 999 PN CODE ( we use 999 as a trash bin for junk data in any ( and every !! )_ line .... as we await that wonderful day we can delete parts.

Missing X Line e-cat data

Most CARQUEST stores don't know you can add X line e-cat data .... it comes with a price ... but the options  ( e.g.:setting hundreds of ALTERNATES ... without the ability to get an Alternate report ...doh !)

We have a handful of X lines - mostly on there secondary page ( the page that staff refuse to look at ? )  --what we are finding is the X lines are disappearing ...  we have started to keep a LOG on this problem - and will start calling the help desk - so we can track all occurrences ....

We need to call the X files team to figure out who is fu&king with this data .... hmmm .....