Case packs, cutoffs and the real cost of a split order

Two questions come up in almost every first conversation with a new account: can you break case packs, and why does the cutoff matter. They are the same question asked from two directions, and the honest answer to both involves admitting that somebody is paying for something.

What a split case actually costs

Picking a full case is one movement: it comes off the pallet and goes on the shipment. Picking six units out of a twelve-pack is a different job. The case has to be opened, counted, the remainder re-taped and re-labelled with a new count, put back in a location that will now be picked from again, and the system has to be told all of it. The remainder then sits as an open case, which is where inventory drift starts.

Depending on the SKU, that is between four and ten times the handling of a full case. Nobody itemises it on an invoice, but it exists, and it is why some wholesalers simply refuse to do it.

Why we do it anyway

Because for most of what we sell, the alternative is worse for the buyer. A four-foot men's set needs about 45 SKUs. If every one of them had to be ordered as a full case, the opening order would be a pallet of stock that takes a small store nine months to sell, and the buyer would order five brands instead of fifty.

So we split case packs on almost the whole line card, and the pricelist marks the exceptions per SKU. There are two: aerosol body spray, because of how it is packed and labelled for transport, and blade refills, because the inner packs are factory-sealed and carry the security tagging.

When a split is worth it — and when it is not

• Worth it: a new SKU you are testing. Six units tells you whether it moves; a case tells you nothing faster and ties up the money.
• Worth it: the tail of a set — face care, beard, tools — where a case is a season's worth.
• Not worth it: your two volume shelves. If body wash and deodorant are turning, you are ordering full cases anyway and a split is just a slower way to run out.
• Not worth it: anything you re-order more often than monthly. Buy the case and set the facing to match it.

The cutoff is not a sales tactic

Our cutoff is 1:00 PM MT: an order confirmed before it leaves the same business day. That is not a device to hurry you. It is when the outbound trailer has to be built so the carrier pickup at the end of the afternoon is not a scramble, and so that anything short can be flagged to you and resolved while there is still time to substitute.

That last part is the point. A confirmation that goes out at noon can come back at 12:40 with a line changed. A confirmation that goes out at 4:00 PM becomes tomorrow's problem, and you find out about the short line on the packing slip. Our 2025 fill rate was 99.1%; the reason the missing 0.9% almost never surprises anyone is the cutoff.

If you want the case pack and inner pack count for a specific SKU before you order, ask the desk — that column is on the pricelist and we will read it out over the phone.