Dr. Albert D. BatesAlbert D. Bates is founder and president of Profit Planning Group, a distribution consulting firm headquartered in Boulder, Colo. He is also a consultant to the National Wood Flooring Association and a regular speaker at NWFA Conventions.ManagementHow Blind-Item Pricing Can Improve Margins• Blind items are products that are not at all price-sensitive, and represent the only real opportunity for margin enhancement in the assortment.• Too many companies are applying the matrix-pricing approach as a rote process, with all slow-selling items treated as equal. In fact, they are very different.• Most businesses tend to overestimate the extent to which their product assortment is totally price-sensitive. Pure commodity items, which have almost no opportunity for adequate gross margins, are only a modest portion of sales for most businesses.• The extent to which a business can use matrix pricing to alleviate growing price pressures really depends upon how many of the company’s products are completely price-driven, how many are less price-sensitive and how many are not at all price-sensitive.• If a business is too committed to pure price-driven items or is engaged in a severe price battle on those items, matrix pricing can never offset the reductions.• Look for items that exhibit three or more of these characteristics: Slow-selling items, unusual or exclusive items, items that are bought only when needed, lowprice items that are not promoted actively, non-seasonal items, unbranded items and repair parts.December 31, 1999Previous PagePage 2 of 2Top StoriesDesignCraftsmanship Across the Globe: Introducing the Winners of the 2024 WFB Design AwardsHailing everywhere from Italy to Portugal to Cincinnati to Washington, D.C., to Brazil to Chicago (by way of Poland), the recipients of this year’s WFB Design Awards prove, through sweat and creativity, that true craftsmanship has no borders.Machines/ToolsMeet the Repairman Turning Edgers Into ArtworkContractingWhat’s Your Top Advice for When Things Get Slow?DesignWhite Oak vs. Red Oak: As Pressure Increases on White Oak, Red Oak Is a Versatile AlternativeSponsor ContentBona Traffic HD RAW® Damage Mitigation