The Pillar Surplus Moment

The Advantages of Surplus Items Buying surplus items can mean different things to different people. Some people are wary of purchasing such items because they believe that the items are no good. Others recognize them as a way to save a fairly significant amount of money. For the latter group of folks, there are great deals to be had. Often times they can find genuine parts without paying the higher costs through a regular retailer or dealer.  Surplus items can come from a variety of sources. These can come from companies closing down, businesses reducing slow selling stock or even from businesses that order excess only to be left with items that cannot be returned to the vendor that they purchased them from. Of course, these are only a few examples. Some companies will sell them to an auction company to relieve themselves of the stock, others send them to the landfill because they cannot find someone to take the items. Either one of these ways means lost profit for th...

Staying Competitive in Your Industry Consistently asking questions keeps a business on its toes and creates the drive for an answer. The question, “How can your business stay competitive?” leads to so many other questions like, “Who is your competition? What makes you different? Can you expand what you offer?” Establishing who your competition is, can provide guidance to figure out what makes your business different. It also helps one observe the repetitive behavior of competition to back-up your future strategic planning. Though, GREAT businesses are not predictable and are always analyzing the path ahead. Analyzing information already obtained is also a good way to know which way to approach when it comes to expansion in a business. When expanding, what you offer can separate you from your competition. Your business should be organic and ever-evolving. Break it down to your employees, are they good at what they do? When bringing in talented personnel, your busine...

The Power of Comparative Shopping In this era, customer loyalty means a lot less. When shopping, it’s normal for a customer to be uncertain about what they are exactly looking for; most people naturally comparative shop in order to define their actual goal of what they want and need to buy. Without even realizing it, consumer’s attention becomes selective and encodes congruent information of their goal, building certainty over time. Factors like price, quality, features, and sometimes service (like the speed of shipping and supportive assistance, if needed) go into consideration between different brands or locations when comparative shopping. Marketing the business’s sales, and/or the strength of the brand’s presence can also create a greater amount of attraction for the product being compared by consumers. Online shopping helps to put all these factors to compare at the touch of your hands. In fact, 59% of shoppers prefer e-tailing because of that convenience, outpacin...

The Value of Preventative Maintenance The primary goal of maintenance is to make sure things are operating at a satisfactory level to avoid failure. All technology needs some sort of maintenance at a point in time, whether it be your vehicle, tractor/machinery, heating and cooling systems, or even just a toaster. I have personally seen preventative maintenance not be prioritized at another place I’ve worked. When the program was not prioritized, our toaster broke down and later on short-circuited the rest of the equipment within the store.   After the toaster, it was the coffee brewer, then the water pumps, then the water heater, one breaking down after another. It felt like there was a new problem every day. Luckily, the store eventually went back to normal after 2-3 weeks and after multiple expenses... This situation brought on many inconveniences for us employees and a few guests. The Preventative Maintenance Program creates habits to help maintain a successful bus...

Optimizing Your Hydraulic Systems with Cartridge Valves Cartridge valves are one of the many hydraulic parts we have in stock that associate with the pressure, directional, and flow control valves that screw into captive fasteners to provide substantial energy savings. With advancing electronic controls and greater flexibility, they will become even more affordable with a design that allows customization for hydraulic circuits using a machined manifold block.   Using a cartridge valve in a hydraulic system eliminates the amount of piping, creating efficiency.  That efficiency allows the lightweight and compacted valve to accommodate simplified installation, reducing labor and costs. The whole system becomes, ”50% lighter when using the cartridge valve compared to using the smallest common-cavity valve,” (Gordon Dow, 2017). Though the load capacity of the machine relies on every pound of each hydraulic part installed, so lifts have to have an equivalence for safety. ...

After Reading “Eight Major Upcoming Industry Trends—And How to Prepare for Them” (Forbes, 2018) The other day I was looking for industry news that could educate me and create an interesting post for Blogger. I was led to the article written by Forbes about upcoming industry trends, reminding me that way we communicate is always evolving. All of the upcoming industry trends will strengthen the field of marketing (yay for me), advancing relationships with customers and sales increase. The “Eight Trends”, presented by Forbes’s Communication Council are: 1. Convergence of Brand and Performance Marketing* 2. Ads Used to Promote Industry Changes 3. Increased Focus on Experiential Marketing* 4. Using more Marketing and Sales Automation 5. Re-targeting and Programmatic Advertising 6. Content Marketing* of Industrial Brands 7.   Advocating for Diversity of Thought 8. Changes in Customer Data Collection and Use So, what does this mean for businesses? The changes...

Meet the Pillar Surplus Team! Meg Spiece – Department Manager/Team Leader Company Experience: She was originally a Receptionist at Pillar Manufacturing starting in 2012. She then stepped up in May of 2015 as the Pillar Surplus Team Leader. Job Description: She helps us Burros solve most of the problems we encounter daily. Meg works with the Research and Inventory Specialists of Pillar Surplus identifying parts as well as handling customer calls and emails. When working with her, she strives to give the best customer service possible.  Fun Fact: Meg used to rescue reptiles a lot when she was younger. Sy Overmyer -- Research and Inventory Specialist Company Experience: He joined our company in September 2017. Job Description: He is responsible for ensuring that inventory records are accurate. Daily, he is organizing and researching information on the parts we have in stock and sell and prepares item listings for the products on our website. He also doe...

Hello Blogger Buds!  I wanted to let you guys know about some current events happening at Pillar Surplus. Without following our Facebook or being subscribed to our Newsletter, you may not have heard about our new category on the website.  Some items have been in our stock for way too long, so we’re taking 30% OFF on our parts under the new Clearance tab. Parts are always aging, so parts will always be added. Check in consistently to find things you may need at a discounted price at www.pillarsurplus.com. Pillar Surplus is also having a Quantity Sale.  I f you buy a larger quantity, receive a larger discount!   Buying 6-8 of one of the selected parts below to get 15% OFF your purchase, or buy 9-11 of them for 20% OFF.   Keep in mind, when making these large purchases, make sure you request combined shipping to save even more money. Feel Free to Follow our Facebook, to be kept in-sync with all the products that are selected for this sale, imag...

MY Firsthand Experience of Inventorying at Pillar Surplus   As mentioned before Inventorying has many steps and can become very time consuming. A few days ago, I slipped on my steel toe shoes for once and got to experience a different task at Pillar Surplus. What I experienced showed me the drive my co-workers have to have, to reach success, when inventorying. At first, I honestly thought it was going to be simpler than what my previous blog had said. It was the complete opposite after the first step. The first step was taking notes and making an observation on the brand, measurements and condition. Then we take our own pictures of the part to prove that nothing is being hidden from our customers that will be viewing them on the website. After that we write its new lot number on it or its packaging with a vibrant paint marker and assign it to a bin, to make it navigable when it is purchased. Then this was repeated a couple more times at once for different parts to be ...

What it’s like Working at Pillar Surplus “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out,” (R. Coiller). From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday through Friday, my fellow co-workers consistently have hard work running through their veins. The business’s friendly service and our nicely-priced quality parts keep Pillar Surplus on its toes. When offering a variety of items, there are many steps when it comes to inventory. Workers have to gather part numbers from each part, to be documented on research forms for future use. Then they need to be counted and then photographed. Next, more research is done to collect general information and average pricing, so they can list the part on the website, Craigslist and/or eBay. Inventorying can get really in-depth but brings convenience to the customer’s table. When taking these steps, information on the parts becomes transparent. Customers know exactly what they are buying and view the condition of the product before purchasi...

Remembering on Memorial Day James Garfield had once said, “If silence is ever golden, it must be beside the graves of fifteen-thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem the music of which can never be sung,” for a ceremony honor the 620,000 who have fallen in 1888 due to the Civil War. This ceremony was known as Decoration Day and is now well known as Memorial Day. Every Memorial Day we remember and respect all who have served our beloved country and hear the 24-note bugle call known as TAPS, with synchronized gunshots after a red, white, and blue parade. I wanted to acknowledge the numbers of the men and women who had served for our democracy to help people understand the reasoning more strongly about these services.    Military Members Lost: American Revolution: 4,435 dead War of 1812: 2,260 dead Civil War: 620,000 dead Spanish American War: 387 dead World War One: 116,708 dead World War Two: 407,316 d...

Why Do We Blog? The Benefits Whether you like blogging or not, its popularity still stands. Blogger is simple and efficient but technology itself isn’t so much.   When I did some research, blogging was said to be a great way to stay connected when so much continues to change. But there were lists and lists that came up of how many other great things a blog can do, at a low cost. Every two to three weeks, I try to write Blogger post consistently, but why? Finding this answer is something our fellow readers and myself might find interesting to know. Blogger is a more detailed interaction with people, compared to other social media. Pillar Surplus loves to engage and create relationships with our customers and this social media site along with our newly active Facebook is one way to start. We have written previously, relationships build trust and trust equals a newly founded customer confidence. Along with leads and long-term results, the Blogger traffic can easily ...