You are an apparel manufacturer, selling to major department stores in the United States. Each retailer makes different demands of you. One requires that you ship gar ments to each store rather than to one central warehouse and that each garment already be tagged and ready to hang on the retailer's store racks. Another requires you to adopt its electronic data interchange (EDI) system to implement continuous replenishment, meaning that you will have to ship frequent replacements for gar- ments that sell throughout the season. Your cost structure is increasing significantly as a result. What can you do to protect your profit marrins?