09:53 – We have two chemistry kits left in stock, and two orders for chemistry kits came in overnight. Fortunately, we have all the components needed to build another 14 quickly, so that’ll be the first priority today after we get outstanding orders shipped. Then I need to assemble another couple dozen biology kits and build another two or three dozen subassemblies for chemistry kits.
Postage rates go up today. I haven’t looked at them in detail, but it looks like our average shipping cost will increase by about 5%. I’ve taken a quick look at the 2014 price lists for our major vendors, and it looks like the components we use a lot of will increase by 3% to 6%, with an average around 4.5%. That excludes chemicals, most of which show significant price increases every year. I’ll have to do some detailed calcuations, but it looks like our 2014 kit prices will increase by an average of maybe 5%.
Barbara labeled about 800 bottles yesterday afternoon. She probably would have gone over 1,000 except that I ran out of labels for the bottles. But, using our patented AIT (almost-in-time) inventory management system, I have another 7,500 bottle labels due to arrive today. Not to mention empty bottles. We’re down to only a couple thousand in inventory, but I have several more cases due to arrive this week.