Opened, Not Written Off: A Working System for Trade Counter Demo Stock
Photo: trade counter shelf with labelled demo products and tester boxes in a UK builders merchant, via marketing-howto.com
Every trade counter has one. Usually it is the drawer under the till, or the shelf above the kettle, or a grey Really Useful Box with no lid. Inside: a drill with no chuck key, two opened boxes of blades, a returned tube of sealant, three pairs of gloves that have been tried on, and a tester that somebody put down somewhere in 2024 and never found again.
None of it is rubbish, exactly. But none of it is stock either. It sits in a strange middle ground — too good to bin, too messy to sell, too forgotten to use. That is the problem. Not the items themselves, but the fact that nobody has decided what they are for.
At J&S Products we spend a lot of time talking to trade counters about what comes back and what sits still. The sample drawer is one of the most common culprits for quiet, invisible cost. The good news is that it does not need a big system to fix. It needs a label, a shelf, a date and a bit of nerve.
Start with an honest count
Empty the drawer onto the counter. All of it. Sort into three piles: genuinely sellable as new, usable as a demo or tester, and dead. Dead means missing parts, damaged, out of date, or simply so old that no supplier will take it back. Be ruthless. The "maybe" pile is where things go to live forever.
The dead pile gets a decision the same day: return to supplier if the window is still open, strip for spares if that makes sense, or write it off properly. A written-off item is cheaper than a drawer full of guilt. At least you know where you stand.
The three-label rule
For everything that survives, use a simple label with three bits of information: what it is, when it arrived, and what status it has. A cheap label printer is nice, but a marker pen and a roll of coloured dots works just as well.
Green dot: demo or tester, available to show customers. Amber dot: returned item awaiting a decision or a credit note. Red dot: spares or repair, not for sale. The date matters more than the colour. If an amber item has been amber for 60 days, it is not awaiting a decision any more. It is clutter.
Give it a home that is not a drawer
A drawer is where things go to be forgotten. Move the demo stock to a shelf or a lidded box near the counter, split by category — power tools, fixings, safety, adhesives, whatever suits your range. Keep a simple log on a clipboard or a shared spreadsheet: item, date in, status, who is using it. That is not bureaucracy; it is how you stop buying a fourth tester because nobody can find the first three.
Make it part of the sale
This is the bit that turns a tidy-up into a sales tool. The demo is not a secret. When a customer picks up a box and asks what it is like in the hand, you have an answer. When someone is unsure between two sizes, you can show them the difference with the returned item rather than a picture on a box.
There is a right way to do this. Be honest about why something came back. "This was returned because the customer bought the wrong thread — the item is fine, here is the one you need" builds more trust than a slick pitch. A tester that has clearly been used is not a mark against the product; it is proof that somebody else already put it through its paces.
Price it clearly, do not hide it
Demo and returned stock can be sold, but it needs a visible ticket: ex-demo, full warranty, and the reason. A clear discount with a clear label protects margin and stops the slow creep of mates' rates and quiet favours. If it is not worth selling at a clear price, it belongs in the dead pile. Simple as that.
The 60-day rule
Once a month, spend fifteen minutes on the demo shelf. Anything that has not been used, shown or sold in 60 days gets a decision: return it, sell it at a clear ex-demo price, strip it for spares, or bin it. The point is not to keep a perfect shelf. The point is to stop the shelf becoming a museum.
What it does for the counter
A managed demo shelf does three quiet jobs. It reduces duplicate ordering, because you can see what you already have open. It gives staff the confidence to demonstrate rather than guess. And it turns a hidden cost into a small, honest sales tool that customers actually appreciate.
The drawer is not the problem. The lack of a rule is. A label, a shelf, a date and a willingness to write things off properly — that is the whole system. It will not transform the business overnight, but it will stop a small pile of good stock from quietly going to waste behind the counter.
