Philadelphia · Retail Strategy · Jazz Tempo
I read the shelf the way a trumpet reads a room — data as the discipline, instinct as the swing. Fifteen years moving units, negotiating vendors, and turning stockrooms into tempo.
My first film — the stockroom as a jazz improvisation. Four scenes, one rhythm: demand hits like a horn section, dead stock is the sour note, and the numbers always follow the people.
▶ Watch the filmScenes: The floor breathes · Rhythm like a horn section · Dead stock, the sour note · Numbers follow the people.
Watch: 4ort.mov/w/w5qKmLehXJbNmDNBpmT5yQ
Captions on. Turn it up — the score is Groove Parade on the house horn.
Rule of thumb: turn under 1.5 & days-over-60 = clear it. Carrying dead stock steals your oxygen and your margin. The data tells you when; the shelf tells you who.
The Swing-Timing Sheet — the four beats of the floor, read on paper the way a session musician reads a chart. Turn-rate as tempo, reorder timing as swing.
My calculator for the 2026 FIFA World Cup venues — a four-percent error-tolerance matrix I first built for my own vendor planning. Open source, engineering-grade.
Chess, not checkers: every SKU is a piece positioned for the next three moves. Turn rate is your tempo; margin is your key signature; the neighborhood is your audience. Run the numbers, then read the room.
The Eagles taught me discipline; the jazz taught me swing. Retail needs both.