Dead stock
Goods that have stopped selling and are unlikely to sell at their current price. The cash is spent, the shelf space is taken, and the value only falls.
Dead stock is inventory that no longer moves. Nothing dramatic happens on the day it dies — it simply stops appearing on sales reports while continuing to appear on your balance sheet.
How to define it for your shop
Pick a rule and stick to it: no sale in ninety days, or in one full season, or in twice your normal reorder cycle. The right number differs by trade — a pharmacy's slow line and a jeweller's slow line are not on the same clock. What matters is that the rule is written down, so the list is produced by the system and not by memory.
Why it is worse than it looks
The purchase price is only part of the cost. There is the space it occupies, the working capital it locks up, and the discount you will eventually take. Stock that has been immobile for a year rarely sells at full price later.
What to do about it
Act while it is slow, not once it is dead. Bundle it with fast movers, discount it in a defined window, return it to the supplier if the terms allow, or use it as a scheme give-away. Then ask why you bought that much — the reorder quantity is usually the real culprit.
How KillStock handles it
Immobile stock and inventory ageing are standard reports, so the slow lines surface as a list you can work through rather than as something you notice at stock take.
A common mistake
Holding out for full price on a line that has not moved in a year. The discount you refuse today is smaller than the one you will accept next year.