Corf's Journal: fill rate.

Inbound!
Small six-person call center, inside sales goons taking orders for bicycle parts. Heard from bike shop buyers across the country: "Sorry, I don't have part numbers." "Well, just send me one of every style, and we'll eat the 10% restock fee if we have to." "This is Adam at Hutchinson Tires; you guys need to get a PO in if you want product for 2005." "Sounds like a fill rate of under 50%, but then that's not your problem, it's mine." Sorry, buddy, but if the boss authorized spending more money on bread-and-butter $4/cost parts and less on funky European carbon fiber road frames that we'll have to closeout this time next year anyway, maybe we'd have stuff in stock. And price increases suck for everyone, it's not like we're making any more margin on the stuff... tell ya what, you elect a non-oil-grubbing world-conscious president next week, and we'll see what we can do about high gas prices and how much the dollar sucks against the euro. That way maybe the next three containers from Italy won't rape us, and I won't feel the need to move to frickin' Vancouver to keep myself sane.

obligatory rave to go along with the rant: central South Carolina in the fall is gorgeous. I spent Saturday walking along the river, with my out-of-town girlfriend who'd flown in for the weekend, and it was 70 degrees and wonderful. It makes up for the oppressive summers and the snow-free winters. All my friends back home in DC are pissed at the 50 degree damp weather, and I'm taking walks in the sun on my lunch break. rock.

obligatory tech item, because this is slashdot, after all: I need a new cell phone. I'd like to stick with Sprint, because they've done me well for the past three years. I don't give a damn about camera capability, I carry a little DSC-U30 with me for that. I could do without a color screen. Battery life is important. Also, I require a flip-style phone. Someone tell me what to buy, because I am not a phone geek, and cnet & sprintpcs.com are no help.