Objective of inventory control

In a retail business (such as automotive sales) the objective of inventory control is to have a minumum of one of every item in stock at all times. The objective of good inventory control is to ensure that the minimum stock inventory required to meet customer demands is available at all times. Excess stock needs to be minimised as this stock is usually held under finance and must be stored.

Some staff will fail to keep food in the pie warmer arguing that they are unlikely to sell it and therefore seek no to waste any product. When you consider that in order to make a sale from any retail product it must be sold and therefore must be available then the retailer will actually lose more by not having the pie warmer stocked - especially when you consider that the costs of wages, stock holdings, light and power, rent, depreciation, opporunity cost of funds and so on will still be present whether or not there is a pie in the pie warmer or an automobile available to test drive.

I am a car enthusiast with money to spend. If the version of the car that I am considering buying is not available to test drive then I WILL NOT buy it regardless of the deal I am offered - even though I am prepared to wait for some time for the vehicle to be delivered. The retailer will unltimately not save money by having too little inventory