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Nordstrom Research Paper

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St. Bonaventure University

Inventory Management

Nordstrom

Christian Artuso

Research Paper

November 17, 2017 Abstract

This paper looks to go in-depth looking at inventory management as a whole, how it works and how it can benefit a company. Due to their seemingly revolutionary change in recent years, Nordstrom will be the example used to examine the importance of proper inventory management. After probing the history and gaining an understanding of the company, this research paper will be able to compare and contrast Nordstrom to its competitors in the retail industry and discuss how the way that the company deals with inventory makes it able to compete and survive. Lastly, there will be an brief explanation of the history …show more content…

The company has stores solely in North America. However, Nordstrom’s online stores reaches out to nearly 100 countries across the globe. Starting in 1901, John W. Nordstrom started the company selling only shoes, which quickly expanded into a large list on inventory like purses, jewelry and more. John Nordstrom’s adventure started in Seattle, where the native swede started his shoe shop with Carl F. Wallin. The company expansion didn’t occur until well into the 1950’s with Nordstrom’s three sons opened 7 more stores. Continuing to expand, the Nordstrom company was passed onto the 3rd generation of Nordstroms in the late 1960’s. Currently, the 116-year-old company reports net earnings of $350 million, total assets of $8 Billion and nearly 80,000 …show more content…

Inventory management can be defined by how it “involves planning, coordinating, and controlling the acquisition, storage, handling, movement, distribution, and possible sale of raw materials, component parts and subassemblies, supplies and tools, replacement parts, and other assets that are needed to meet customer wants and needs,” (David Alan Collier, 2017). Inventory management used to be about taking notes on cards. Employees would write down the items on a piece of paper. This process obviously took a lot of time and it was easy for shop keepers to miss items. The idea of electric inventory records first came up during the 1930’s but didn’t really take off until 1948 when the first electronic scanner was built. This technology, which would read the ultraviolet-sensitive ink, was really developed in the 1970’s and was able to be made more efficient and cost effective. Soon enough, the barcode we know today appeared and computer systems were being made to go along with the barcoding. Now, computer software can link with barcode scanners directly, keeping track of the location of every item. Nordstrom employee’s scan inventory when it arrives through the warehouse, in store, on the racks and again when it is sold. This constant updating makes sure that inventory is always accounted for and can be found by any employee or customer at any

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