So it’s happened twice now and I wonder if someone knows how this works there. The other day I was looking for a kit that was OOS at Sprue Brothers, so I clicked notify me when it’s back in stock. I was thinking I’d hear about it in a month or 6 weeks. I bought something different elsewhere, and now, voila, I’m notified it’s in stock at SB. This happened to me a couple of months ago too. So it makes me wonder, does putting something on their “notify me” list, trigger them to do a restock from their supplier, seemingly a pretty local supplier?
Might be, I have similar experiences with other webshops.
Within 24h-48h the item is on stock again. Once I received a message that the item was on stock, but I was too busy to order so when I tried a couple of days later it was out of stock again.
Left another ‘notify me’ and within 24 hours it was in stock again.
Suspicious mind spinning:
I would be willing to guess that they check if they can get it from somewhere else with short delivery time and if they can they say that it is in stock, you order, they order from supplier and then ship it to you when it arrives.
A variant of the ‘Just In Time’ logistics used by industries.
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Well, I’d imagine that smart business thinking would at least suggest to them that a product that has multiple requests for “restock notifications” would potentially sell. One might think that they perhaps use those requests when they consider how many of something to actually re-order, especially for new releases that have sold out their initial stockage.
I also don’t think it’s a stretch to think that they for some older release that’s been out of stock, a request for “restock notification” might actually cue a re-order of that item when they might have otherwise skipped over it.
I’ve tagged their site before requesting notification of both very recent releases that they’ve sold out of and pretty old items that were not in stock. I’ve also received re-stock notifications from them that have prompted orders from me. So, their process does result in sales (at least to me).
I will say, though, that Sprue Bros don’t always catch the worm… I will often submit multiple requests for “restock notifications” for some new release with multiple vendors. Which ever one sends me the email first is often as not the one who makes the sale. Sometimes it’s Sprue Bros, other times it’s not.
Given this, I would further imagine that Sprue Bros does somehow qualify the actual numbers of requests for “restock notifications” when they calculate the total to order of the item in question. They certainly want to have stuff in stock to sell, but just sitting on a shelf in their warehouse doesn’t add to their profit.
They might also be waiting for a number of ‘notify’ requests to come in so they aren’t just ordering one copy of an item. Some distributors want you to order a minimum amount.
They recently completed a warehouse expansion so you may be feeling the growing pains as they flesh out their onhand stock. My luck with them has been outstanding, I know on their old website (they redid that just a few days or a week ago roughly) they made it a point to say that they don’t flood their listings with kits they cant readily obtain. I take that to mean if its listed they normally have it and move to OOS as soon as the last one is picked and boxed to send it out so it can change quickly on both side of the coin. Overall I wouldnt be too concerned as I think they are one of the more reputable and consistent US suppliers (unlike unfortuantely that last few months stretuch w Squadron before their demise).
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Agreed MontanaHunter! I have had great experiences with them.
Ive never had any kind of problem with them ! Always great place !
Always had good service with them. When I have used the notify me and ordered the part, its arrived within days.
My only complaint with them is they are on the other side of Missouri from where I live so I cant just go and pick up my stuff for that instant gratification 