1.   Apple promises it will have adequate inventory on iMacs on hand by Saturday so there will not be an instant shortage.

2.   Automakers have saved billions of dollars over the years by not having excess inventory.

3.   Because Dell builds each machine to order, it effectively has no inventory, and is thus buffered from the price wars that consumed its competition.

4.   A few stores still had inventory, but prized shelf space was being usurped, sometimes by Frito-Lay, sometimes by store brands or other small labels.

5.   But Amazon has no inventory.

6.   But at the center of the effort was an investigation of labs that had the ability to make anthrax or had an inventory of the Ames strain.

7.   But for now the declining prices favor Dell, because its competitors typically have inventories of machines that were built with higher-priced components.

8.   But some pharmacies still have unsold inventories.

9.   Dell, meanwhile, has no inventory of completed computers and turned in another impressive quarter.

10.   Dell sells PCs directly to customers, so it has no inventory of finished machines.