Importance

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Abstract

A comprehensive inventory and sales control system is particularly adapted for the segment of the furniture industry that involves special order items, such as sofas, love seats, upholstered chairs and the like. The system is adapted to provide instant communications between retail establishments and a manufacturer, and enables the order to be confirmed at the time of purchase. This includes a determination of the availability of the fabric and reserving the item style and fabric from the manufacturer's stock, thereby enabling the manufacturer to determine and the customer to know the anticipated delivery date for the item that has been purchased. The system also enables a point of sale establishment to maintain a set of fabric swatches or samples of the fabrics that are currently available, thereby minimizing the possibility that a customer would order an item and a fabric that is not currently available. Additionally, the system also has the capability of updating the inventory of available fabrics and a plurality of fabric swatches at each establishment, and a means for scanning bar coded labels that are attached to the swatches, wherein the scanning means has sound producing means that permits quick and easy control of the inventory of swatches.

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First Claim