Little is new under the sun, except how we call it today

By Bob Amster, The Retail Technology Group

When I was growing up in this business (and dinosaurs roamed the earth), there were two kinds of merchandise replenishment. One kind was called: ‘pull’ wherein the stores would literally ‘pull’ available merchandise from warehouses (they were not yet called ‘distribution centers’); and the other was called ‘push’ wherein a bunch of seasoned merchants, aided by their assistants, would somehow determine how much of an item to send to every store in a chain.

There is little doubt in my mind (and there probably was less in theirs, may they rest in peace) that we were all in this together trying to satisfy what we perceived as ‘customer demand.’ So, when I hear terminology like ‘demand-driven…” I either, sit and wonder if got left behind in the dinosaur age, or I cringe at the chutzpah of some of my esteemed industry colleagues who coined the term, as if to make it sound as though ‘demand-driven’ were a new discovery, like finding a new spice route to the West Indies. My years of experience tell me that if the retailer is not reacting to some kind of demand, the retailer does not stay in business for long.

o why, then, coin the term ‘demand-driven?’ Because it sounds sexy? It’s like BPR. My old colleagues and I were re-engineering business processes about 15 years before the term BPR was coined. There are only two alternatives to ‘demand-driven’: one would be ‘supply-driven’ and we’ve already determined that dog won’t hunt. The other option is ‘not-driven at all’ in which the sailing ship has lost its rudder but is enjoying great winds and no one knows where it’s going. What is new in retail merchandising and supply chain is that we continue to find ways to improve upon the execution of age-old precepts (like customer demand).