Daffonce....with all due respect, you are wrong and this is how wrong information is spread into the market place. In Oct of last year, I turned my inventory over twice...some days we were shipping as much as 600 tons per day and at that rate you can move stuff out pretty fast. I currently have less than 5000 tons on the ground at Upton and what you are seeing in the previous post of the pictures at Upton is mostly my competitions product (notice the 75 bag pallets...we don't stack that high ...only 50's) and the oldest product I currently have there would only be about 2-3 months. We also use the first in first out (fifo) method of inventory control, so Okie product will normally not sit there for month after month at a time. I can't speak for others. There is a lot of pellets on the ground at Upton, but not even half of it is mine...others jumped in last year and used Upton only to find out this isn't as easy a business as it may look. I know you are trying to help Daffonce, but giving out wrong information isn't helping me or our industry... The product is well wrapped and some think maybe the best packaged product around...dm
I might guess instead of logic to the wind, instead, recouping anything they can get for excess product. Pellet pallets are too big to store til next year, too heavy to return to the manufacturer and I doubt there was a buy back on unsold product. Likely less $$ loss for selling pellets below cost than the two other alternatives. I cannot say for sure but have worked for larger retail chains year ago and that is my hunch. I wonder if bassJAM has any insight on this? If this is the right person I am thinking of, he might know some corporate retail strategies on dealing with unsold product, floor space, profit ( or lack of) etc.
That is an interesting statement. The 3 tons I got a couple of months ago were pretty much wrapped as any other ton that I have gotten of any brand. Also, doesn't matter how good the wrapping is if the forklift driver is not as careful, or maybe experienced, as one could wish for (which of course you can't control once it leaves your yard). Four bags ripped open from the forklift as he was unloading into my driveway - good thing I was putting them inside anyway
I thought the Okies I got (same guy as you) were wrapped better than average. But considering I buy mostly BBS stuff......
The okies I have seen are the same as most others. It's pretty standard nowadays. I got three different brands of pellets delivered from Lowe's. GS and Nature own were wrapped pretty much as good as anything out there. TheTimber Heat was done a little differently but still wrapped well.
Here is the google map view of mount upton. Oakies are the king of the hill (ha ha ha). This image was updated in the april-may timeframe (i know because there is mulch in my driveway nearby). The product up on top of the hill is and has been all Okies (you can see the blue red and yellow), well some minute mans too, but hey they are oakie golds arent they, so same chit. The area up on top of the hill is about 100,000 sq ft (2.5 acres) that is enough to put 6,250 pallets conservatively. Oh and they are double stacked so enough for 12,500 tons. How do u do fifo when thos piles are 25x25 deep. I can also tell you there is a lot more up there then in this image. The rest of the area isnt oakies, i will give you that. But whats on the hill is oakies, well and the bbs version of oakies.
Fifo with a block of pellets 25 rows deep is impossible. And you arent driving a fork lift between the brands. FAIL!
Not me. I do work for a retail company, but I'm just a little guy on the manufacturing/engineering side of the company.
Very true. Some of the pallets that are used are broken and the bags are forced down in between the pallet boards. Then the fork lift rips them. This happens more often at some places where they shift the product around. Those last 6 tons I got from Lowes were good. I don't recall my son talking about any punctured bags. I'm still on a high from the price I got. I think it pays to have a pellet piggy bank reserved for those special deals.
I was specifically referring to DM's particular brand - bought from a pellet guy, not a BBS (at way more than the fire sales, but at the price point I was willing to pay for much better pellets). I watched the guy just stab the bottom two rows of the last skid he was trying to take off his truck to put in my garage. He did realize his mistake and realign his forks to the proper place before lifting the pallet off the truck. Claimed it was the first time he had ever damaged any bags. Well, my luck is bad so could be - a little tape and they were good. I had to hand stack the pellets where they were going anyway, so used those broken bags as testers (I liked )
Although there was no harm done, you paid good money for this level of pellets and service. Those bags would have been replaced by a responsible dealer. Hopefully he offered, and you said it was OK.
Up to this delivery I had only gotten pallets of pellets from BBS (first delivery I got was last fall - I usually move my own by the bag). the PTL's from Lowes last fall were wrapped at least as good (and hey, with the bright yellow bags it looked like I had giant flowers in the yard ) and great pallets. The TG's from HD were admittedly on more worn pallets, but the underlayment and coverings were on the same level. The last deliveries of pellets from Lowes fire sale were wrapped the same, and good pallets - did have some bags damaged from storage/moving, but getting reimbursed for that. All pallets I've gotten have a barrier layer between the pallet and the bags of pellets, then have a nice heavy bag over it, then wrapped tightly with a fairly thick cling wrap type stuff that is well over-lapped on the edges. So, in my mind, unless someone is wrapping them up in Kevlar to keep those forklift drivers from inflicting damage, all wrappings I've seen are on the same level of goodness.
The dealer delivered from 70 miles away (for less than I could hope for from dealers more local), the price for the Oakies was great, and the bags were less "stabbed" than grazed with little loss (maybe a cup total). I was okay with it, just pointing out to DM that wrapping can only do so much to protect the product
correct that you can do only so much to protect the pallet....a careless delivery certainly can make a mess and these things can be handles several times as well...lots of forklift drivers and truckers involved! I think more whats alluded to here is the fact that plastic covers and wrap are resistant to breakdown by UV light for only a certain amount of time.....after which point the cover gets frail, and tears, allowing water to contact the bags, swell, pellets, etc. The longer they are out in the sun, the more likely the covers get frail. Now, if stacked 2 or 3 high, its pretty much the top layer that's the problem...the lower layers aren't exposed to the same degree. FWIW, it would be hard to replace 4 or 5 broken bags, as it would mean a(nother) 140 mile round trip. We generally credit the customer back for the damaged bags....its cheaper than digging though the unit, pulling out the bad bags, driving back, getting 4 good bags, dropping them off, and driving back again.
