Retail News

GNC Customs Plans Ahead to Handle Scheduling and Inventory Shortages

WORDS BY LAURA KEMMERER

Ask any retail store owner and you’ll likely hear about inventory problems, backlogged orders, and the search for additional talented personnel. Like many other leaders in the mobile electronics industry, Josh Mojica, general manager for GNC Customs in Goshen, Ind., has had to contend with these difficulties. According to Mojica, the business used to be called Golden Comfort—back when it was a jewelry store that sold furniture. The name was changed when the business expanded more into electronics. “As we grew the electronics department, we didn’t want it to be called Golden Comfort. We decided to work under the name GNC Customs,” Mojica said. “But my parents still have the

furniture department. Our building as a whole is about 9,000 square feet. Our garage bays are 2,000 of that. We have a small showroom, we have the furniture showroom, and we have a warehouse.” Mojica explained that at GNC Customs, it’s very much a family environment. Letting employees go is difficult, and turnover has stayed consistently low in the business’s history. Having a team which leadership can trust and rely upon is essential for managing a healthy schedule. Even with the best planning, a project can take longer than forecasted. For example, GNC Customs recently installed new headlight bulbs in a Mercedes. However, replacing the bulbs meant removing the tires and fender

liner. When the shop didn’t have the proper parts, adapters were needed. “I schedule light to plan for things like that. We’ll schedule eight to 10 cars and it’s hard. Life is unexpected,” Mojica said. “It’s one thing if someone just comes in for a dash kit, but when someone’s coming in for a consultation on a build, you can’t stop what you’re doing to spend an hour or an hour-and-a-half with someone.” “We’re trying to get consultations to appointment-only. We’ve contemplated going to appointment-only across the board, and we really should’ve made that move when we reopened after the first few months of COVID,” he explained. “We closed for two months. We didn’t switch,

and now I’m wishing we had because it would’ve been a great time to transition.” Treating the staff well, and maintaining a good work-life balance, is the main focus of scheduling. The shop is open five days a week, rather than the six it had been some years previously, and while there are some late nights, it doesn’t happen all the time. As for managing inventory with crunched supply chains, Mojica expressed gratitude for having the cash to stock up. “I’ll order things and sit on it because I know we’ll need it,” he said. And this is what it really comes down to: planning, planning, planning.

Stereo West Autotoys Expands Brand Consideration to Manage Shortages

Stereo West Autotoys, with two locations in Omaha, Neb., has addressed concerns with inventory shortages by broadening their consideration of lesser-known brands. Open for 48 years and a family-run business, Stereo West Autotoys is helmed by general manager David Hampson and his father, Brian Hampson, the business’s owner and creator of The 12v Dashboard, a 12-volt lookup tool recently unveiled at KnowledgeFest Indy. As the business gets into the swing of remote start season, they continue to provide tonneau covers, truck accessories, under-seat subwoofer boxes and side-steps, among other essentials. “Getting product right now is a huge challenge,” said David Hampson. “Backup cameras that are factory-integrated is a huge market right now. We’ve

never seen it grow as much as it has in the past couple of years, especially with backup cameras being a mandatory safety item on new vehicles. Every parent wants their kid with [an older car like a] ’98 Honda to have one, because their 2020 Escalade has one, so they want one on their kid’s car. I think the mandate is encouraging it.” Most of all, being able to secure head units continues to be one of the biggest problems. To remedy this issue, Stereo West has brought on some brands that the business doesn’t always carry but are still quality—like Jensen Mobile. “It’s hard to have the reputation of Kenwood or Pioneer as a head unit brand, so I think a lot of smaller brands get swept under the rug more than they should, and they’re really good head units. We love Jensen,” Hampson said.

Effective planning has helped the business to have at least some head units on the shelf at all times, but he emphasized that it’s still been an incredibly difficult challenge. “Our distributors have said they’re shocked at the amount of inventory we do have, and I think we’re good at keeping stock on the shelves, but when we do get low we’ll sell an integration piece instead of a head unit,” Hampson said. “Maybe they just want CarPlay, so we sell them a ZZ-2 piece instead of a head unit. That ends up being pretty profitable in itself anyway, sometimes more than a head unit.” The key here, like for so many other businesses dealing with the same inventory struggles, is planning ahead. “If you don’t have stock until the day of the job, you won’t have it,” he added.