Understanding committed material
At one time we had a 10-day tagging policy and we always tried, in spite of limited yard space, to honor that. Many times those tags would even get re-dated until the order eventually left, or was possibly cancelled! This had the effect of tying up inventory that could have been sold while it was fresh and pretty, disappointing everyone. I can’t even tell you the number of times tags got switched or removed and material “stolen”, leading to near-fistfights in the yard.
When we changed to a 5-day tag policy along with adding storage space we were able to hold more material and keep everyone happy – until BOOM – economic recession. Companies were wiped out, people were laid off, and growers had to cut back production in order to stay afloat.
The recession eventually ended. Even though significant financial damage was accrued, new demand for material skyrocketed. In our line of work, plants take time to get to a saleable size. Our industry was just getting caught up when the COVID crisis hit. All those people staying home decided to fix up the place, leading to – yep – new shortages.
With record levels of demand for nearly everything many growers sold into the following season’s crops. The demand hasn’t slowed, and it is getting difficult to find new sources of plant material let alone trucks to get it here.
To fill orders for projects, we may find ourselves having to hold material longer than 5 days when, for instance, a ship date is set but a truck is not available. All committed material is marked with order and/or delivery date information. Under NO circumstances are contractors allowed to pull off those tags. We can’t monitor everything that happens here, but we are very good at knowing what material is “No Touchy!” Yes, you can always ask, orders do get cancelled and you might just get lucky.
It’s story time now:
Recently a contractor’s customer (I will refer to this person as CC) came in early to look around before their appointment time. As I’m working on preparing an order for another contractor, I notice the CC wandering around in our Japanese maple house. Something didn’t seem quite right, so I went in closer to investigate. As I enter the Japanese maple house, I see them removing tags from a tree I had triple-tagged for someone else and putting them on a different tree. So, I approach and say “Excuse me, CC, are you removing tags from that maple?”. The CC, LITERALLY with a tag in their hand tying it to the other maple, says, “No.”
No! You can’t make this stuff up.
CC is caught red-handed. I then say, “CC, that maple that you are removing the tags from, that I personally tagged, is leaving on Tuesday next week. Do NOT do that, and please put the tags back on it”. As I returned to the main shop, I alerted my coworkers to this CC and another sales representative went to engage them. They were politely asked to wait in their vehicle until their contractor arrived, and the rest of their visit was supervised. And trust me, any time we catch someone doing this, we remember. I repeat: WE REMEMBER.
So please, when visiting the nursery, respect material that has tags on it, and respect your fellow contractors who are just trying to get by same as you are. We do our best to look out for you but we can’t be everywhere, and you would not appreciate getting hit by the Karma Bus yourself one day.
