Embedded Files
Stage 2: Mixed-Bundles and Subscriptions Transition to New Beer
Stage 3: Ongoing Product Transfers
Stage 4: Re-Balancing of Components and Bundles
Stage 5: Suspend Sales of Cases
Stage 6: Suspend Sales of 4-Packs / Component Units
Stage 7: Walk-In Sales Only Until Sold Out
Bundles Rebalancing Guidelines (FAQ)
System Summary
System Summary
The goal will be to keep the inventory as balanced between the two locations so both locations run out of a product as close together as possible and no one shops on the site and then can’t get through checkout.
Every day, we’ll redistribute the remainder on shopify and physically based on our sales distribution.
When the site flips so that we know where people are before they shop, then we can change how we do this to allow for different inventory at different locations.
When inventory gets too low to keep at all locations, we’ll sell to walk-ins only.
The 4-packs are the source of truth for any product’s inventory. Cases are an input into 4-packs. When selling cases, we link the cases to the 4-packs in shopify inventory, so that when we sell a case it reduces the 4-pack inventory by 6.
Monitoring and removing from website
For now, beer will be available for every shipping method (pickup, delivery, and shipping) or no shipping methods and only walk-ins. We’ll leave an item completely live until it is at a level too low and becomes walk-in only.
Except for crowlers, which are no shipping and tagged No-Shipping in shopify, which prevents people from ordering for shipping.
We won’t have many crowlers going forward, and if we do, it will be walk-in only often, but if we have something special, we will post for delivery also.
If we wanted to limit shipping methods, then we could write in the product title and product description of each product description where it is available and we do have ways to manage website accessibility to different products.
Pickups availability: Monitor themselves with zapiet cart page based on inventory at that location.
Delivery availability: Manually removed from delivery product list by location.
Shipping availability: Can be pulled by tagging something No-Shipping.
Website visibility:
All products on our website are visible in the navigation by being part of a Collection. Beer is visible in the website navigation by being part of the BEER Collection. The BEER Collection includes all products that have the Product Type of BEER and have Inventory Stock of at least 6 units (4-packs in this case).
When inventory drops below 6 units, BEER will be automatically removed from that Collection and won't be visible in our website navigation, but will remain live on the internet, findable through Google, and live in all Sales Channels.
Shopify Flow Notifications
James will get an email whenever any product tagged Beer - Threes and Size: 4-Pack has an inventory below 120.
James will get an email whenever any product tagged Size: 750ml Bottle or Size: 500ml Bottle has an inventory below 90.
James will get an email whenever any product available in Online Store and tagged Beer - Third Party has an inventory below 7
Staggering / Release schedules
After Tuesday canning days, we will turn on beers on Tuesday nights.
If a canning day falls on a Wednesday, we will turn on Wednesday nights.
Bottle releases are more flexible. They'll typically be on Saturday nights to push for Sunday traffic, and on occasion will be on Sunday nights to push for Monday traffic.
For third party, we will be careful to rotate and stagger when things are available. Since transfers are largely on Wednesday and Friday/Saturday, we will turn on new products after completing these transfer.
System Management
System Management
Stage 1: New Beer
Stage 1: New Beer
New Threes Beer
Before we post it for sale:
James and Eli determine the final starting numbers for inventory. James enters the totals into the Canning Log // Starting Number Calculator tab of Eli and James shared document.
The total number of cases yielded after allocations and wholesale is entered into Column C
If we need to create 24-packs (Column H) is equal to 144 4-pack units (24 cases between both locations) at launch regardless of if a product is in mixed case bundles or not.
The only reason we wouldn’t need to allocate for 24-pack units is if we had recently canned the SKU and currently have sufficient 24-pack units in stock.
Each potential product scenario has its own section in the Beer Rules tab of the Canning Log to calculate how to set each up. The rules below explain the spreadsheet.
Under the section marked “Stage 1: New Threes Beer” determine which scenario applies to your new SKU.
The method to determine which scenario is best applied is by checking current inventory and see if any of the variants are needed to be restocked.
If what we’re adding to inventory isn’t already existing previously in inventory it is most likely Scenario 1, 3 or 4.
Copy the cells from “Starting Physical 4-pack Count” to “Off List Inventory at Gowanus” under the scenario that applies to the new SKU in the Canning Log // Starting Calculator. Paste the data starting at “Starting Shopify Inventory 4-pack Greenpoint”
Enter the yield in terms of cases under “Starting Inventory” and the product number of 4-packs will show under “Total 4-packs”.
The rules and formulas will designate and memorialize the starting number of 4-packs we used to set up the various items that the 4-packs work as components of.
This isn’t necessarily the starting numbers to input into Shopify, but serves as the inventory that populates those units.
Starting Physical 4-pack Count is a formula.
Starting Shopify Inventory 4-pack Greenpoint is the number of 4-packs to enter on Shopify as the starting FAK /Greenpoint inventory.
Starting Shopify Inventory 4-pack Gowanus is the number of 4-packs to enter on Shopify as the starting 333/ Gowanus inventory.
Amount of 4-packs for 24-packs is the starting number of 24-packs to enter on Shopify as the starting inventory.
This is in total, 24 units, and we typically transfer 2 units up to FAK before we turn it on, the day after canning.
Amount of 4-packs for Gowanus One-Time Mixed Bundle is not the starting number to enter on Shopify for the new OTMB - it is this number divided by 2
For example, if the number in this cell is 52, we enter 26 units for 333/Gowanus on Shopify
Amount of 4-packs for Greenpoint One-Time Mixed Bundle is not the starting number to enter on Shopify for the new OTMB - it is this number divided by 2.
For example, if the number in this cell is 8, we enter 4 units for FAK/Greenpoint on Shopify
Amount of 4-packs for Subscription Mixed Bundle is the amount allocated for subscriptions. The starting number to set on Shopify for the preexisting product page is this number divided by 2.
For example if the number in this cell is 60, we set the starting inventory as 30 units on Shopify, with 29 units at Gowanus and 1 at Greenpoint.
All physical inventory will exist at Gowanus and the Greenpoint unit exists simply to facilitate any potential sale.
Off List Inventory at Gowanus is the amount we keep off of Shopify. This should be entered and memorialized in the Inventory Brain sheet.
Confirm the image, copy, tags, and settings are accurate with Cindy, before turning on - she generally has the pages ready to go before we have the numbers done.
Activate inventory by chitting all sales channels and adding the tags “Point of Sale - View” and “Beer on Website”
Reorganize the list of the products available on the website on the BEER collection page.
Third Party
See starting inventory rules in Canning Log sheet
When adding a new beer into Third Party inventory:
We add the actual inventory into inventory to start. (If we order 10 cases, we start with 60x 4-packs in inventory at Gowanus).
We typically order third-party beer in amounts of 15x, 10x and 5x cases. On occasion we will accept less than 5x cases.
If we order 15x cases (90 4-pack units):
13x cases stay in Gowanus
2x cases go to Greenpoint
After the transfer is complete, 9x 4pks are subtracted from the Gowanus Inventory.
The starting inventory for Gowanus will be 69x units
The starting inventory for Greenpoint will be 12x units
The number of off-list units is documented in the Inventory Brain
We can now turn the product on.
If we order 10x cases (60 4-pack units):
9x cases stay in Gowanus (54 units)
1x cases go to Greenpoint (6 units)
After the transfer is complete, 6x 4-packs are subtracted from the Gowanus Inventory.
The starting inventory for Gowanus will be 48x units
The starting inventory for Greenpoint will be 6x units
The number of off-list units is documented in the Inventory Brain
We can now turn the product on.
If we order 5x cases (30 units)
4x cases stay in Gowanus (24 units)
1x cases go to Greenpoint (6 units)
After the transfer is complete, 6x 4-packs are subtracted from the Gowanus Inventory.
The starting inventory for Gowanus will be 18x units
The starting inventory for Greenpoint will be 6x units
The number of off-list units is documented in the Inventory Brain
We can now turn the product on.
Stage 2: Mixed-Bundles and Subscriptions Transition to New Beer
Stage 2: Mixed-Bundles and Subscriptions Transition to New Beer
When we release a new beer, and want to replace one component of a mixed bundle, follow these steps.
First and foremost, make sure that the new bundle products you are substituting it with is ready to go live on the site. This is why we wait until canning is done and complete and all numbers are accurate from Stage 1 before moving to stage 2.
Part 1: Deallocate current inventory
Open the Reallocation Calculator tab within the Canning Log // Starting Number Calculator
Enter the date in Column A
Enter the name of both SKU’s that are not Vliet and Logical Conclusion from the bundle that you are retiring in their own respective rows.
Enter the style of beer, either “Lager” or “IPA” in the Column C
Even though you may be retiring only one of the SKUs we want to be deliberate about the associated 4-pack inventory on the back end and documenting any and all changes consistently.
When you are ready to stop selling the previous iterations and want to set up new ones, go to the Shopify Inventory Dashboard and go down to items that start with the letter M where the four mixed bundles will live.
Open each of the four:
Mixed Hoppy Subscription
Increase the inventory to 30, if necessary.
Mixed Lager Subscription
Increase the inventory to 30, if necessary.
Mixed Hoppy 24-pack (they have the names of particular SKUs and are referred to internally as One Time Purchase)
Note the inventory at 333/Gowanus and at FAK/Greenpoint.
Confirm that the Shopify inventory reconciles with physical with the manager at Greenpoint.
Set the inventory levels to 0 and 86 the product by doing the following
Setting the available sales channels as “Online Shop”, “Buy Button”, “Thress Admin”, “Pinterest”
Removing the tags “Point of Sale - View” and “Beer on Website”
adding above the copy “THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. VISIT OUR BEER PAGE TO SEE WHAT STYLES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.
Mixed Hoppy 24 Pack (they have the names of particular SKUs and are referred to internally as One Time Purchase Bundles or OTPB)
Note the inventory at 333/Gowanus and at FAK/Greenpoint.
Confirm that the Shopify inventory reconciles with physical with the manager at FAK/Greenpoint.
Set the inventory levels to 0 and 86 the product by doing the following
Setting the available sales channels as “Online Shop”, “Buy Button”, “Thress Admin”, “Pinterest”
Removing the tags “Point of Sale - View” and “Beer on Website”
adding above the copy “THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. VISIT OUR BEER PAGE TO SEE WHAT STYLES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.
Return to the Reallocation Calculator tab and enter the inventory for each of the items.
First in Column D, chit that you have 86d and adjusted in the inventory as described above, so you don’t lose track of your order of operations.
In Column E, enter the number of associated One Time Purchase bundle units we had left at at 333/Gowanus for the respective bundle.
For example, if we had 10 Hoppy OTPB available, enter 10 for both of the hoppy SKUs we are deallocating.
In Column F, enter the number of associated OTPB units we had left at FAK/Greenpoint for the respective bundle, after confirming with the contact at FAK/Greenpoint.
In Column G, enter the number of associated Subscription Bundles for the respective bundle associated with that SKU.
Since we don’t physically stock inventory for these at Greenpoint, all of the inventory is associated with Gowanus.
In Column H and Column J you have the total number of 4pks to reintroduce back into inventory supply for the associated SKUs by location.
After you’ve adjusted the inventory for each of these SKUs on their 4-pack product pages, chit the boxes in columns I and K so you do not lose track of your order of operations.
Repeat the adjustment process for each SKU you are deallocating.
Part 2: Reallocate existing inventory.
Go to the Reallocation Calculator
You do not need to adjust inventory on the back end for the new SKU that we added in step 1, as the inventory has already been divided in Step 1. You are only adjusting inventory on the back end for the SKU that is being reallocated from the previous iteration.
For example, if we are changing from I Hate Myself // The View From Nowhere as the Hoppy bundle to Dare To Know // The View From Nowhere, you are only subtracting inventory from The View From Nowhere 4 packs, as the inventory for Dare To Know that goes into the bundles has already been factored in in the starting number calculator.
Enter the date in Column A.
Enter the name of the SKUs that you are reallocating to the new bundles in Column B.
Enter the style of beer, either “Lager” or “IPA” in the Column C.
Go into the respective One Time Purchase Mixed Bundle pages for the new releases and set the inventory.
For Hoppy One Time Purchase Mixed Bundles bundles:
333/Gowanus, the starting inventory is 41 units.
FAK/Greenpoint the starting inventory is 4 units.
For Lager One Time Purchase Mixed Bundles bundles:
333/Gowanus, the starting inventory is 26 units.
FAK/Greenpoint the starting inventory is 4 units.
After the inventory is set, chit the box in Column D associated with the SKU.
In Column O, P & Q, enter the associated starting numbers outlined above and in the starting number calculations:
For IPA reallocations:
Column E is 41.
Column F is 4.
Confirm that nobody has bought an IPA Bundle Subscription while you have been adjusting inventories.
If no one has, Column G is 30.
If someone has bought any and the inventory is lower than 30, adjust the starting number by adding the difference.
IE, if the inventory is now 28, make Column G 32.
For Lager reallocations:
Column E is 26.
Column F is 4.
Confirm that nobody has bought a Lager Bundle Subscription while you have been adjusting inventories.
If no one has, Column G is 30.
If someone has bought any and the inventory is lower than 30, adjust the starting number by adding the difference.
IE, if the inventory is now 28, make Column G 32.
Columns H & J indicate the number of 4 packs we need to subtract from the base 4-pack product pages by location. Subtract the inventory by location for each unit listed in these columns.
Chit the boxes in Columns I & K after the inventory is adjusted, to not lose track of your order of operations.
Confirm the image, copy and tags and settings are accurate with Cindy, before turning on - she generally has the pages ready to go before we have the numbers done.
James creates the product pages for each of the new bundles on Tuesday morning before this process.
James placing link to these SOPs on 7/3
The image is a consistent single one that is used for each of the respective bundles, respective of inventory.
Activate inventory by chitting all sales channels and adding the tags “Point of Sale - View” and “Beer on Website”
Reorganize the list of the products available on the website on the BEER collection page, following these order of operations
Stage 3: Ongoing Product Transfers
Stage 3: Ongoing Product Transfers
Every morning, James checks the inventory at FAK/Greenpoint to see their general inventory levels.
After gauging the inventory, he’ll check the FAK almanac email to see if there’s any items that they think they are low on that he may have missed.
FAK should always have >6 cases of new release and >5 cases of any product that’s been out for over a week.
FAK should always have >8 cases of Logical and Vliet 4-packs in stock at any one time.
When it’s time to retire the 24-pack unit, that can suffice for a transfer as that will often add 2-3 cases worth of 4-packs into inventory at FAK and then they’ll end up overstocked.
In general, we like to have a ratio of 4:1 in terms of products available at Greenpoint and Gowanus. However, this really only holds true when there’s over 20 units of inventory in stock for 4-packs.
We will insure by transferring beer back to Gowanus from Greenpoint when a Threes SKU gets low enough that Greenpoint will run out before Gowanus does, so the site can continue to make sales. The target number of 4-packs is >20 4pks.
In the scenario that Greenpoint has inventory of a Threes beer and Gowanus does not, we switch the product off from the site to walk-ins.
As a rule of thumb, we assume their Vliet and Logical 4-pack inventory is a little lower than it reflects, as they don’t stock seperate 24-pack units for those two SKUs and pick from the 4-packs to fulfill 24-pack orders. James touches base with the manager twice a week to ascertain what the number should be at.
Stocking for Third Party is a specific plan.
James will set the exact numbers, but the initial split is designed so that the amount kept off-list at Gowanus is accurate to the highest potential inventory levels at Greenpoint.
We will leave the items on the site until they completely sell out, and any sales that took Gowanus inventory into the negative will be fulfilled from the off-list inventory from the item was first set up.
The product can be taken off the site, and any potential residual inventory can be transitioned to walk-in sales.
Stage 4: Re-Balancing of Components and Bundles
Stage 4: Re-Balancing of Components and Bundles
We’ll treat the bundle products like having one product at two locations -- by balancing inventory as needed.
We’ll always have a single purchase Hoppy and Lager bundle on the site. To do so, we prioritize stocking the bundles over 4-packs, and use the inventory from the 4-packs to create more bundles, as necessary.
The priority of stocking different items on the site are:
Subscription Bundles
OTP Bundles
4-packs
24-packs
We continually re-balance back to the starting allocations as needed.
If we run out of 4-packs and need to create more bundles, we can borrow against unsold subscription bundles to create a small number of one-time purchase bundles (a max of 5 to borrow against) - but this is extremely contextual to the release schedules and overall inventory. Only James or Jared should be making those decisions.
If a SKU has run out of 4-packs, when we release a new SKU to replace its spot in the corresponding bundles, the remaining inventory from the bundles will get transferred back to 4-packs (ie, if there are 12x unsold OTPB Lager units at the time to change the components, we would release 24x 4-packs back into inventory of the two component SKUs)
Only after a unit has been exhausted from bundles and 24-packs, would we stock the backup 12 units that are off of inventory, and that would be a portion of the walk-in sales.
After we allocate inventory to these bundles, the rest of the cases will go to the component products to sell as 4-packs.
Stage 5: Suspend Sales of Cases
Stage 5: Suspend Sales of Cases
When we’re down to 90x 4-packs (15 cases) of inventory on Shopify, we remove 24-pack bundles from the website and reallocate the remaining inventory to the respective locations.
If there are 12x 24-pack bundles at 333/Gowanus and 2x 24-pack bundles at FAK/Greenpoint, we would reduce the inventory to 0 for both locations and increase the inventory by 72x 4-packs and 12x 4-packs, respectively by location.
Stage 6: Suspend Sales of 4-Packs / Component Units
Stage 6: Suspend Sales of 4-Packs / Component Units
We always have to have a mixed lager and IPA bundle available, so we may sometimes have to stop selling the components to ensure we have the bundles.
Stage 7: Walk-In Sales Only Until Sold Out
Stage 7: Walk-In Sales Only Until Sold Out
When the site is flipped, we won’t need to go to walk-in only as early because the inventory will align with what the customers see on the website and they’ll order only what’s available.
For Third Party, any residual off-list inventory tracked in Inventory Brain is reintroduced to Shopify at this time.
When the inventory of a product hits zero at both locations, it is removed from the website automatically. When less than 100 4-packs are in stock in total, we aim for a 3:1 split and shepherd inventory to Gowanus to make sure that Greenpoint runs out before Gowanus.
The following business day, James will measure inventory to see what remaining off-list inventory can be transitioned back to online sales.
The 48x units for each 4-pack and 24x units for each bottle SKU is the source for this additional inventory
If prudent, James will have the product transferred back to Greenpoint to have stocked at both locations and repeat the above process.
When both locations are in single digit territory, the last few 4pks and bottles will be sold to walk ups only.
The second product page is a duplicate of the original, but without an image. The only sales channel it will have is Point of Sale.
The title of the walk in page is the same as the previous but (Walk Ins) is added to the title. The copy for the page should read: “Do not turn this button on for any sales channels, it's for Walk In's on the POS only and to prevent dead links on the website.“
After the walk up page is set up, and the inventory for the original product page is down to zero at both locations, the sales channels chitted will be Online Shop, Buy Button, Thress Admin, Pinterest, so people can still access the site through SEO’s for third party. The tags marked “Point of Sale - View” and “Beer on Website” should be removed from the product page.
“THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY SOLD OUT. VISIT OUR BEER PAGE TO SEE WHAT STYLES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE.
_______________________________________________”
Should be added to the copy of the original page of all sold out products.
For Threes products, James will run an audit to determine the correct number of inventory for walk-ins, typically 1-2 days after we take the beer off the site, to allow future orders to go out and to minimize any mistakes.
For Third party products, we can typically allow the product to fully sell out at both locations and a very small amount of walk-ins will be available for each location.
When we have fully 86d the product, we will remove the “Point of Sale - View” tag from the Walk In product and remove all sales channels.
General Inventory Guidelines
General Inventory Guidelines
We do NOT start selling beer until packaging is complete and James has inventory counts. We can still transfer up to FAK/Greenpoint but we don’t start selling it.
Further, we do not stock from the piles in the reefer and bring into 333 until Eli and James have finalized the counts. The only beer that can go out and away is the FAK/Greenpoint beer.
Greenpoint is set to its actual inventory. Gowanus is set to the remainder minus the 24x units in reserve.
We allocate to Greenpoint at least enough to last at least two days, but can be as much as we want, up to the balance we expect to sell at that location (80% Gowanus - 20% Greenpoint is current plan).
We continually update that allocation and send more as Greenpoint needs more or back to Gowanus if Greenpoint has too much.
Every time we transfer beer from one location to another, we create a Transfer in shopify that reallocates the inventory.
The amount of inventory for each respective item kept off-list is tracked on the Inventory Brain doc.
Bundles Guidelines
Bundles Guidelines
Products
We aim to have 7 bundles permanently available for sale:
Permanent
Logical Conclusion 24-can case
Vliet 24-can case
Mixed Logical Conclusion / Vliet 24-can case
Rotating based on inventory and calendar. It’s necessary to have 3x different SKU’s to have these bundles be live.
One Time Hoppy 24-can case
One Time Lager 24-can case
Subscription Hoppy 24-can case
Subscription Lager 24-can case
In addition to these 7 bundles, there are 24-can cases for each individual canned SKU that we have available in 4-packs, as long as the 4-pack inventory is over a certain threshold (20+ cases).
James will determine what goes in each bundle and the starting inventory based on how much of the component beer or beers we have and what else we have for sale at that time.
The current offerings for subscriptions are available on the white board near the packing stations in NSE.
Bundles Rebalancing Guidelines (FAQ)
Bundles Rebalancing Guidelines (FAQ)
We always intend to have the current amount in inventory on Shopify to be the amount to get us until the next product reallocation - Tuesday evening, as long as sales doesn’t necessitate an earlier reallocation.
We always intend to have the most amount of product versatility available - if we can reallocate to make 4-packs available, or reallocate to make one time purchase bundles (OTPB) available, we will do that.
That being said, the priority will always first and foremost having enough inventory to keep subscriptions in stock with all other product types being secondary.
The fulcrum that creates the most necessary rebalancing is the sales rate of the OTPB and Lager bundles. It’s the two items that require us to anticipate the balancing of 4-packs.
It’s best to update the number of 4-packs, 24-packs, OTPB and Subscription bundles on the Inventory Brain, to get a larger ballpark view of inventory across our different items. The items for Threes should be updated at the beginning of the business day to get a sense of ROS against the previous day to the sum total of cases available in Column C.
I’ve allocated 45x OTPB IPA units and 30x OTPB Lager units for the most recent calendar week, intending to last us at least 7 days.
By that measure, I want at least 6 units of OTPB IPA for each day remaining in the week, and 5 units of OTPB Lager for each remaining in the week.
For example, if today is Thursday and we have 30x OTPB IPA and 22x OTPB Lager units left, and 5 full business days ahead of us, including the busier weekend.
Given the current inventory level, I should plan on creating more units now, before the associated component 4-pack units get depleted to a level where I can’t make them anymore.
If the levels of inventory are healthily above that, we can leave them as is, but regularly monitor (checking 2-3x times a day)
At the very least, we should transfer 4-pack inventory away from these units to keep both locations stocked through the weekend, before we run out of 4-packs.
After the weekend, when we have a shorter interval until the reallocation period, we can borrow against the Subscription Bundle inventory if its inventory is in the 20s.
One of the benefits of the Subscription Bundle inventory not moving quickly is that it acts as an inventory safeguard and substantial backup in the instance that we quickly want to add OTPB items back into inventory for 333/Gowanus.
At a certain point, we will stock remaining inventory into bundles until those components are reallocated.
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