Contemporary information and communication technologies (ICTs) are today, more than ever before, connecting organizations in new and novel ways and, as a direct consequence, allowing them to develop new and time-tested competencies for competing successfully in the ever turbulent business environment. ICTs make it possible for organizations to corroborate not only on designing and improving products and services, but also on configuring new sales and distribution conduits, and on effectively and efficiently replenishing those conduits to minimize costs and maintain high standards of customer service (Duchessi & Chengalur-Smith 121). As such, it can be argued that the emerging interconnectedness of modern organizations using various platforms and processes bears potential benefits to these organizations, particularly in aligning their supply chain to competitive success (Cetinkaya & Chung-Yee 217). One of the tools that is been used increasingly by organizations to achieve this interconnectedness in the supply chain is the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system, which, according to the core reading, is basically a backward replenishment tool that permits the vendor (supplier) to create and fulfill demand for commodities based on real-time front-line sales information (Farhoomand 5). It is the purpose of this paper to critically evaluate the potential benefits and pitfalls of having a unique supplier of VMI services from the retailer’s perspective. Owing to the scope of this paper, VMI will be described as “…a supply chain initiative where the supplier is authorized to manage inventories of agreed-upon stock-keeping units at retail locations” (Cetinkaya & Chung-Yee 217). A review of the literature demonstrates that this arrangement between the supplier and the retailer in regard to the provision of VMI services have multiple advantages and several disadvantages. For instance, in the case reading, it is expressly stated that this arrangement have two major advantages for the retailer – cost savings and efficiency gains (Farhoomand 5). In cost savings, not only does the retailer benefit in reduced inventory level but the stock-on hand is significantly minimized, releasing scarce capital for other important ventures (Duchessi & Chengalur-Smith 121; Farhoomand 5). In efficiency gains, the retailer is bound to intrinsically benefit from investing in a unique supplier of VMI services by virtue of being supplied by a sole supplier, hence gaining in reduced costs, harmonization of business arrangements, and capacity to avoid stock-out situations that are detrimental to the customers in the context of satisfaction and loyalty (Farhoomand 5; Cetinkaya & Chung-Yee 217). The supplier will enable the retailer in a supply chain to avoid stock-out situations owing to the fact that the VMI system is able to detect that the retailer has run of stock of a particular product category and immediately replenish rather than wait for the traditional purchasing orders or fill orders as they are placed (Farhoomand 6). The ripple effect of this kind of arrangement for the retailers is that not only will they keep their customers satisfied and loyal due to the continuous flow of products, hence winning over their loyal