Thoughts on Sorting in the Store

Why do this?

Thinking about why we sort things is an important first step towards a robust and relativley uniform system of sorting. The primary goal of such a system would be to allow a volunteer to be as productive as possible with a minimum amount of coordination. This would allow the store to more effectivley continue to serve its existing purpose of making money, while allowing the store to be a good place to make volunteers more familiar with the types of doodads that are out there. Visual systems are the most desirable from a production standpoint, but have limitations to be discussed.

Possible Categories

For this section, the categories are in order of the similarity of stuff in the container

Cat 0 - Absolute uniformity Everything in the box is absolutely the same as every other. In practice, this only happens when someone donates a lot of identical goods. This is not practical for this type of operation.

Cat 1- Highly/Completely Sorted (At least 2 identical characteristics, most other char. similar (ex: a 3' and 6' power cable). Things get to this point either through a combination of rote labor and process, or because a large lot of presorted goods is donated. These goods often become "legacy" sorted, which is to say, we continue to sort them because they are now. This type of sort happens in response to the item being commonly requested, or because of an over-zealous volunteer.

• Examples: Power cords, Figure 8, DVI/DVI, DVI/VGA, IDE, Floppy, VGA/VGA, Some USB cables, HDD, Mice, Keyboards, some adaptors

Cat 2 - Partially Sorted (At least one identical char., others similar or quite different (example USB to mini, USB to serial) This type of sort requires less labor in total. This is usually in response to things that people commonly want, but would be too time consuming at present to completely sort.

• Examples - Most usb cables, some SCSI devices, some adaptors

Cat 3 - Marginally Sorted (Less important or theme-based sorting, perhaps a few similar char.(ex: motherboard card risers)) Also called herding, this a slight sort for items that will never have an impact on the balance sheet. These types of sorts encourage knowledgable small-item customers to come to the store rather than goodwill (virtually unsorted).

• Examples - Most boxes of cables in the back on the red shelves. Stuff in the glass case. A/V.

Cat 4 - Barely/Completely Unsorted (Barest sort, or none at all, perhaps theme-based...the "dont care much" group) Crap thrown into a box. Stuff we don't much care about.

• Examples - Free Table, Buck box, some boxes of cables

Sortings Methods

• Sort by function
  • Pros - Helps teach volunteers what doodads do, helps customers get right doodad for purpose
  • Cons - Requires alot of knowlege of esoteric doodads and implementations
• Sort by connectors
  • Pros - Easy to teach, easy to learn, visual
  • Cons - Uses of doodads not apparent
• Sort by length/quantity (only some doodads)
  • Pros - Pretty easy to teach/learn, but must be paired with another type of sort, some doodads uses are bounded by this consideration
  • Cons - Time consuming additional sort, boring
• Sort by quality
  • Pros - Maximum $$, Enjoyable for geeks, Makes our stock seem nicer
  • Cons - Very hard to teach or triage, not visual
• Sort by remainder
  • Pros - Deals with a problem, Easy sort, requires volunteers to learn other sorts
  • Cons - Not helpful to customer or store folks, messy looking, limited uses
• Sort by Theme
  • For well-known themes this is a very easy sort, almost no training required (A/V)
  • For esoteric themes, this is a very hard sort
• Hybrid Sorts
  • Common Examples:
    • (Connector-->Function/Connector) USB presort is first sorted by having a USB A plug then by either 1) what the cable does (e.g., mgmt cable) or 2) another connector (e.g., usb to mini)
    • (Theme-->Connector/Function) Doodad presort followed by doodads organized by exact connection types or function.
    • Sort by quality requires presort by theme and function
    • Sort by length requires sort by connector

To Sort or Not to Sort

• We have:
  • 1) Computer stuff worth sorting
  • 2) Computer stuff that does not require sorting
  • 3) Computer stuff we dont care about
  • 4) Non-computer stuff worth sorting
  • 5) Non-computer stuff that does not require sorting
  • 6) Non-computer stuff that we dont care about
• "Worth sorting" means"
  • Useful by a significant number of volunteers
  • Useful by a almost anyone using a computer (e.g., power cords)
  • Valuable
  • Made more valuable by sort to a degree that warrants the labor
  • Note that the *least* valuable things often get a remainder sort