Excess parts

We had tens of thousands of parts on hand. We had grown so rapidly that we weren't watching the back room carefully enough. Part of our excessive inventory resulted from industry shortages. When they did become available, we'd buy all we could get our hands on, so there was a disproportionate number of parts in relation to system needs. Ultimately, we had to take a huge inventory write-down and that hurt us.
(Computer Shopper, August 1989)