I don’t know if the story is true, but the premise is certainly possible. If I knew in advance that my cost of goods sold was going up by 10% on a certain date, I would certainly build inventory to keep my COGS lower than if I waited to purchase the inventory at a later date. Depending on your payment terms, you could certainly use your available cash flow to pay for the inventory at the expense of year end bonuses.This will happen, but I'm skeptical that it's happening now. Do companies not planning on giving out bonuses usually broadcast that fact a month and a half in advance?