Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 464.
Talking about inventory.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 464.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Go there, take a look at our new courses that we have.
These are additional courses in business and daily English.
I think you may be interested in including our Introduction to the United States.
You can also download a learning guide for this episode, which will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called talking about inventory.
Inventory is what you sell what a company sells.
It can also mean a list of something in a particular place, including the things that a company sells.
Let's get started.
Okay, people, listen up.
This is your first day on the job in this warehouse, and you need to know what we do here.
This warehouse keeps all of the stock for the ten stores in this region.
We get merchandise from the supplier.
And it's our job to organize it and store it until it goes to the retail outlets.
One of the reasons our stores can offer such low prices is that they operate on the principles of economies of scale.
This means that we buy in bulk. and there's a lot to catalog and store.
We even have some stock on consignment, so it's all the more important that we're able to keep track of any merchandise that comes through here.
Any Questions Yeah.
Are we the end of the supply chain, or do we send merchandise to other warehouses?
We are it.
Merchandise comes to us from suppliers, and we distribute it to the stores.
Any other questions?
Does merchandise ever go missing?
It better not go missing under my watch.
That's why we do an inventory twice a year.
If anything is unaccounted for, I won't be a happy camper.
Okay, people, line up to get your assignments.
The Foreman is the person whose job.
It is to be in charge of other people at a construction project or perhaps in a factory where they make things.
The foreman is one of the bosses.
We also use the word foreman or foreperson to refer to someone who is the leader of a jury in a court where you have 12 people deciding whether someone is guilty or innocent.
One person is chosen as the foreman, the leader.
The foreman begins by saying, okay people, listen up.
The expression listen up is used to get people to stop speaking and to listen to what you are going to say.
It's a little informal.
It's not something you would say at a formal gathering, but this is an informal gathering, especially one where you have the boss talking to his employees.
A more polite way to say this would be, may I have your attention, please?
But he's the foreman, he's the boss, so he just says, listen up.
This is your first day on the job, your first day working here in this warehouse.
A warehouse W-A-R-E-H-O-U-S-E, one word is a large building where things are kept until they are moved somewhere else, usually to a store.
So if you buy a book from an online company like Amazoncom, they have warehouses throughout the United States where they keep the books before they send them to you.
A warehouse is not a store.
You can't go to a warehouse and buy something.
It's just a place where the company keeps its products before it sends them to you or sends them to a store for you to buy.
The foreman says you need to know what we do here.
This warehouse keeps all of the stock for the 10 stores in this region.
Stock here means the total number of products that are being kept until they are sold.
So it refers to the things that are inside the warehouse.
We get merchandise from the supplier and it's our job to organize it and store it until it gets to retail outlets.
They get the merchandise, the stock, the things they sell from the supplier.
A supplier is someone who supplies, who gives you things.
In this case, the supplier is someone, some company, that makes something that they sell to another company, and then the other company sells it to you.
It's their job in the warehouse to organize the merchandise and to store it.
To store meaning to keep or hold something in a safe place.
Store has a couple of different meanings in English however, so take a look at the learning guide for additional explanations of that term, as well as the expression listen up.
So the warehouse stores the stock until it goes to or is sent to the retail outlets.
A retail outlet, O-U-T-L-E-T, is a store where individual people can go and buy things.
This is the typical or average store.
One person can walk in and buy whatever they want.
That's called a retail outlet.
One of the reasons, he says, our stores can offer such low prices is that they operate on the principles, on the ideas of economies of scale.
The expression economies of scale is the idea that you can save money by doing something in a big way or by making many things at once.
You can buy things more cheaply if you buy a lot of them, and that will lower your price of production or manufacturing.
The foreman says that this means that we buy in bulk.
In bulk, B-U-L-K, means in very large quantities, buying many things at a time.
When I go to the store, I buy cereal, cold cereal, in bulk.
I buy a lot of it because it will last a long time. and I eat a lot of cereal.
Buying in bulk allows you to buy things more cheaply.
However, for the warehouse, it means that there's a lot to catalog and store.
The verb to catalog means to list everything in a group and divide it into different sections or categories.
To catalog means to provide a detailed description of something.
The foreman says, And the person who made it gets part of the money.
Usually, when a store sells something on consignment, it means that if they don't sell it, they give it back to the person who gave it to them to sell.
So they don't have to buy it themselves before they sell it to someone else.
If they don't sell it, they can usually give it back to that company or that person.
The foreman says it's all the more important, meaning it's even more important.
It's all the more important that we're able to keep track of, to be able to know, to have a good catalog of any merchandise that comes through here, that comes to this warehouse.
He then asks if there are any questions.
Carla says, yeah, are we the end of the supply chain?
The supply chain are the manufacturers, the transportation companies, the warehouses and the retail outlets that are involved in making storing, moving and selling a particular product.
So it's sort of like the beginning all the way to the end, when a product is first produced and then it is sent to a warehouse, and then from the warehouse it is sent to the store and in the store it is sold to the customer.
That process, that link between one step and the next is called the supply chain.
The foreman responds by saying, "...we are it."
Meaning, there are no other warehouses.
We are the end of the supply chain because we then send it to the store.
Merchandise, he says, comes from suppliers and we distribute it to the stores.
To distribute means to give things to other people or companies, especially when we're talking about selling things, selling products to stores, where the stores will sell them.
Carla then asks if merchandise ever goes missing.
The expression to go missing means to become lost, not to know where something is.
The foreman says, it better not go missing under my watch.
The expression under my watch or under his watch or her watch means while that person is responsible for something.
While that person is in charge of something.
The word watch here doesn't refer to something you put on your arm that tells you what time it is.
That's also called a watch.
This is a different meaning of the word watch.
It's a period of time when you are observing something.
It's a period of time when you are working, especially in the military.
The military has its day broken up into watches, which are periods of time when people are responsible for whatever job they are supposed to do.
So the foreman is saying nothing should be lost while I am in charge.
He says that's why we do an inventory twice a year.
The word inventory here means a list of everything in a particular place.
He says if anything is unaccounted for, I won't be a happy camper.
Something that is unaccounted for, is something that is missing, that you didn't expect, with no explanation, something that has been lost and there's no good reason or explanation why.
The foreman says if this happens, he won't be a happy camper.
A camper is somebody who goes camping, for example, into the woods, someone who likes to be outdoors and sleep outdoors.
But here the expression just means someone who is happy or pleased with some situation.
It's an informal expression that means I won't be happy.
I won't be a happy camper.
I won't be very pleased with that situation.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
Okay, people, listen up.
This is your first day on the job in this warehouse and you need to know what we do here.
This warehouse keeps all of the stock for the 10 stores in this region.
We get merchandise from the supplier and it's our job to organize it and store it until it goes to the retail outlets.
One of the reasons our stores can offer such low prices is that they operate on the principles of economies of scale.
This means that we buy in bulk and there's a lot to catalog and store.
We even have some stock on consignment, so it's all the more important that we're able to keep track of any merchandise that comes through here.
Any questions?
Yeah, are we the end of the supply chain or do we send merchandise to other warehouses?
We are it.
Merchandise comes to us from suppliers and we distribute it to the stores.
Any other questions?
Does merchandise ever go missing?
It better not go missing under my watch.
That's why we do an inventory twice a year.
If anything is unaccounted for, I won't be a happy camper.
Okay people, line up to get your assignments.
The script for this episode was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
