Job Lot

Definition

Ocean State Job Lot, headquartered in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, is an American discount retailer with 131 stores discount stores operating in New England, New York and New Jersey. The chain takes its name from Rhode Island’s nickname, “The Ocean State”, and from “Job Lot”, which means a miscellaneous group of articles, especially when sold or bought together.Ocean State Job Lot opened for business in 1977 as a single store operation in North Kingstown, RI. The merchandise selection consists of a variety of manufacturer’s overruns, overstocks and packaging changes, as well as selected other products. The company continues growing their business in the Northeast.


Job Lot

What is ‘Job Lot’

A job lot is a futures contract with a commodities trading volume smaller than the levels required in regular contracts. These contracts, or lots, exist to add liquidity to futures exchanges by allowing “smaller” participants to enter the marketplace. A job lot can also be used to describe custom manufacturing orders that are batched together to increase efficiency and quality.

Explaining ‘Job Lot’

The general term “job lot” describes any situation in which a small amount of a material or product is produced at one time and sold as a single unit. In finance, any commodities futures contract in which the underlying commodity is denominated in a smaller amount than normal is considered a job lot. In the manufacturing sector, the production of a small batch of custom product is known as a job lot.

Job Lot in Commodities Trading

A commodity futures contract is an agreement between a buyer of goods and a producer of goods that outlines the delivery of a specific commodity on a future date at an agreed-upon price. A futures contract is considered a job lot when the agreement between the buyer and seller for the delivery of a commodity has a quantity below the normal limits for a commodity futures contract.

Job Lot in Manufacturing

All manufacturers try to standardize their products and their production capabilities. Bicycle manufactures, for example, may have machines that only produce two types of bike frames: male and female. This cuts down on production costs and increases production efficiency. However, there are occasions when a customer or group of customers require a custom order. These custom orders are called job lots.

Further Reading