It isn't just the churn (the turnover) Gord. Having high churn is good because it increases the profit "per square foot" on your warehoused goods. But, that's not the only way to make a high profit.
Everyone has to pick their own strategy. WalMart made their name that way,not for hving low prices, but by having one of the first computerized cash register systems that sent a coimplete inventory and transaction list out every night--to ensure that the store could be restocked the very next morning, if need be.
Toyota broke Detroit's stocking paradigm (where the dealers carried heavy parts stock and competed on HAVING immediate stock) by encouraging the dealers to have near-zero stock, and using two US warehouses (east/west) instead, so that anything the dealer needed WOULD arrive by Fedex the next morning. Result? Everything took one day longer--but the mutli-million dollar parts inventory didn't need dealer
financing, either.
I knew one corporate owner (who fled Nazi Germany) who had built a successful import/distribution company in the US only to lose it in the late 80's. He had inventory that hadn't
sold in ten years, on shelves in a high-rent area, and because he KNEW that you made
money by selling for more than you paid...he refused to get rid of it (donate it, write it off, sell below cost) and instead kept his warehousing costs unfeasbly high, preventing his folks from importing and stocking the stuff that he COULD still make a profit on.
Inventory turn can be a killer. Six weeks from
Japan...probably means someone didn't ask "Do you want us to air freight that?" or more likely, that Japan's famous zero inventory (aka "Just in time" inventory) struck once again. Like my
muffler, being hand-built because no one wants to keep at least one piece in stock somewhere on the globe.
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