Patent ID: 7475022

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of responding to a disruptive event that impacts demand into the indefinite future for a plurality of items at one or more locations, including: modeling with a data structure stored in computer readable memory one or more disruptive events that impact demand for a plurality of items at one or more selling locations, wherein the disruptive events, unlike transitory promotional events, have an impact on the demand into the indefinite future for the plurality of items that are represented in the data structure by a data tuple including at least a good identifier for a good, a selling location identifier for a selling location, a start date and no effective stop date, and at least a step function that represents an impact estimate of disruption to demand for the good at the selling location beginning at the start date; for the disruptive events, eliciting from a retail manager data to describe the disruptive events and populate the data tuple, including an estimate of the step functions representing the disruptive events; forecasting, using a computer, unit inventory and unit sales at a per-item, per-location level for a predetermined period using a computer using the step functions to take into account the disruptive events; and generating, from results of the forecasting using the data structure consistently across analytical tools, analytical reports that support retailing activities.