Product numbers

Does anyone happen to know when the Church switched from using PB numbers (like PBMU0133) to using numeric SKUs (like 31243 000)? Or, does anyone have old Church distribution center catalogs in their clerk's office?

I don't know if it qualifies as "old" but I found one from somewhere around 2010-2012 last week. I almost tossed it, but decided it was not taking up space of anything else important and thought it might be useful to look through the pages. The new online store is dismal in my opinion.

OK. I'm assuming by 2010 everything was transitioned over to the numeric SKUs?

I'll check tomorrow and report back.

Our old catalog is from 2010 and it has numeric SKUs. I'll try to spend a little time in the Material Center today and see if anything older is squirreled away in a back corner.

sbradshaw wrote:Does anyone happen to know when the Church switched from using PB numbers (like PBMU0133) to using numeric SKUs (like 31243 000)?

In 1985 they were using the old system. In 2004 they were using the new system.

I have a document printed August 1991 on a form that used the old system. I have another document printed December 1991 on the same form that used the new system. I think they were making the change that year, or at least in the early 90s. If this particular form was changed in late 1991, there would have been a supply of older forms that would have taken a while to get used up during the transition. The form itself did not change, just the number on the form.

But my vote, unless I find something better, would be that the change was made around that time.

Awesome, thanks!

I'm guessing that the church changed to accommodate some new software. Since the distribution center is basically a store, and stores normally use SKUs, any standard software would have used SKUs. Early 1990's sounds about right given the evolution of computers in business.