This episode features seasoned merchandise planner and cannabis retail buyer Alyson MacMullan on The Buyer's Blueprint webinar.

Alyson shares how she blends top-down category analysis, accurate run-rate forecasting, and practical spreadsheet workflows to make smarter, faster purchasing decisions.

This is a highly approachable, real-world conversation designed for buyers, operators, and anyone trying to untangle complex cannabis inventory problems. 

The agenda for discussion is:

1. How Alyson cut spend, reduced aged inventory, and increased gross profit using a mix of platform data and her own category-level workflows.
2. Why top-down merchandising beats SKU-level “bottom-up” buying, and how to apply it across categories.
3. How accurate run-rate forecasting changes everything (and why backing out out-of-stock days matters).
4. Practical tactics: downloading data, setting filters, building simple pivot tables, and using spreadsheets + software together for smarter purchasing.

Alyson is one of the best of the best, so you'll get a ton of great advice from this episode!

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