Black Bean Inventory Crisis — Amazon FBA & AWD (2025-10-22)

Overview

As of October 22, 2025, black beans (5 lb) — the #3 revenue product at approximately $13,000/month (~$433/day) — face a critical stockout risk at FBA. Two compounding failures are blocking replenishment: a missing inbound shipment and a broken AWD-to-FBA transfer path. Immediate escalation with Amazon Support is required.

The Two Root Causes

1. Missing FBA Shipment (864 Units)

• An 864-unit shipment was sent to the Amazon fulfillment center in New Stanton, PA, with a delivery date of October 1, 2025 (approximately 3 weeks prior to this call).
• The shipment status shows as delivered, but zero units have been received into FBA inventory.
• This is the primary blocker. If those units had been received normally, there would be no stockout.

Action required: Call Amazon Support to reconcile the Oct 1 shipment and force the 864 units into available FBA inventory.

2. AWD-to-FBA Transfer Failure (616 Units)

• 616 units of black beans are confirmed available in Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD).
• When attempting a manual "Move from AWD" transfer in Seller Central, the system returns no available cases — despite the AWD dashboard showing 616 units.
• An Amazon agent was already investigating the root cause of this system-level disconnect at the time of the call.

Action required: Continue escalation with Amazon on the AWD transfer failure; attempt to force a manual replenishment once the system issue is resolved.

Related Issue: Auto-Replenishment Error (Incorrect Data)

A secondary but related issue was flagged during the call:

• Amazon's auto-replenishment system incorrectly flagged 296 units of another product as having "high days of supply" — reporting 81 days of supply when actual velocity is approximately 600 units/month (~15 days of supply).
• This data error could suppress future automatic replenishment signals and disrupt stock management across other SKUs.
• Amazon agents were notified; they indicated the issue had been "fixed," but the erroneous data was still visible at the time of the call.

Revenue Impact

Every day the stockout persists represents approximately $433 in lost revenue, plus potential ranking degradation on the listing.

Key Decisions & Guidance

• Do not wait for Amazon's auto-resolution. Proactively call Amazon Support to reconcile the Oct 1 shipment.
• The expiration date alert visible in AWD is not a blocker for this product — units can still be shipped.
• Sales data in Sellerize showed $500 in black bean sales the day before the call, suggesting inventory had not fully zeroed out yet — but the window to act was narrow.

Action Items

• [ ] Gilbert — Call Amazon Support immediately regarding the Oct 1 shipment to New Stanton, PA; reconcile 864 units into FBA inventory.
• [ ] Gilbert — Continue escalation on the AWD-to-FBA transfer failure for black beans (616 units); attempt manual transfer once system issue is resolved.
• [ ] Mark — Monitor black bean inventory levels closely until replenishment is confirmed.

Related Notes

• ^[1] — Pattern of AWD transfer issues
• ^[2] — Client overview
• ^[3] — Source meeting notes
• ^[4] — Separate issue discussed in same call