Having watched the website for years, I'm under the impression that the existing items are generally set to auto-renew as 'In Production' if they sell out, so if it's not 'In Production' there's a reason for it usually.
They adjust what is in and out of 'In Production' regularly, presumably based on material availability, production capacity, and demand. You can see that as things sell out over the weekend but then disappear on Monday morning or recently with the NightWalk: the Side Effects sold out, showed briefly as 'In Production', then were removed. And we've all experienced the upload of items that cycle through and hit at different times when they do the major restocks and releases.
No idea if the new ERP/MRP (don't know what system they're doing) system they're implementing offers more options for that or not... I've noticed that it has affected how we can see the 'only a few left...' low quantity things. You can now try to add/increment many items to the cart (ie, more than the normal 5 used for most items previously) but it won't actually let you add that many if they're not available (for most things). By decreasing the quantity and trying to add to cart, I can now see exactly how many are theoretically left.
Sorry for the random digression and back to your actual comment...
My understanding is that they bulk buy the cord and then make up the smaller units. They cut those cords in house (Ben showed me the neat set up they have, when I visited last year) so maybe it's just not in the (presumably 12 week) schedule right now. I have no insider knowledge, but I'd assume it's a low priority item that they do in between the major item work flows. Or, because it's such a small item, it may have been manually turned off or something and they haven't noticed, so it's best to shoot a note over to Customer Service to see what they have as status.
As MaiaH and MikeV have said in their posts recently, the new system is taking a lot of their time to get everything set up and running and debugged. Having worked on several MRP/ERP transitions, I know it's a massive undertaking that consumes all available oxygen, so I'm rooting for them to get through it and come up for air soon.
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8-Pack Island Zipper Pulls
The eight pack of Island blue zipper pulls is showing as out of stock, but the cordage is still showing as available - is this a website error, or are they legitimately out of those color pulls in the 8-pack?
I'd think since there are other colors still available as an 8-pack, and the Island blue cord is still on hand, they would be able to make one, but I'm a little confused as to why they aren't even listed as an option anymore if they're simply out of stock.
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