Right now things are brutal. Everyone is looking for a bargain. Consumers are deathly afraid. Afraid of the looming health care costs. Of losing their jobs. Of this economy that really sucks. So they really don't want to spend.
When you have your own business you have to make all the decisions. Like if you want to have a sale. We gave up on Black Friday sales because people are all out doing electronics at Best Buy or something. But we want to throw up a sale this weekend. So we came up with the idea of Lee Lee's bucks.
You will get a voucher for your purchase based on how much you buy. 300-600 you get 15%. 600-1000 you get 20%. Over a thousand you get 25%. Now I know it sounds like a big base line but most people spend over 300 when they come to the shop. So they will get a nice coupon to use the next time they come. Both in store and on-line.
We are also doing an on-line Cyber Monday sale. This is 25% off on anything on the website. I have found that most of the people who purchased the last few years bought only one dress. So it will be on volume not the total sale.
People say they support small business but then they go to Costco or Walmart. The era of the small Mom and Pop store is over. It is all chains. In the last year ten Mom and Pops have gone out of business on Court St. We just found out that the local Card Store is going out after Christmas. They have been there 20 years but the landlord is getting a lot of dough to throw them out. It is pretty bad. Soon it will be all chain stores.
Small business Saturday will be even more of joke than it is now.
9 comments:
You know, Barry could run a dress shop better than you. He just doesn't sew.
There's a hardware store up the road from me...in the next town. They sell almost everything, and most of the people who work there really know about what they sell. One of the guys can build you about anything you need out of parts around the store. You know, you tell him what problem you've gotta solve and he'll build you up a Rube Goldberg device by running around the store and grabbing this and that.
I was talking to him the other day about it, and he said they had less stock than they used to because they can't get it. They don't need a pallet of something, they need a box of it. But no one wants to sell a box. And there used to be businesses that would buy the pallet then sell pieces to small businesses, but no one wants to do that anymore either.
Wal-Mart has really tightened up the supply chain.
But I think this rough time will pass as 3D printers and the like turn everything "artisanal" again.
Although I freely admit I'd rather buy books from Amazon than my local indie book store. Does that make me a bad person?
They're a bunch of liberal snobs. I bought a Peter Matthiessen book there once. The lady working the register looked at me and suggested it might be too dense a book for me but if I took it slow--I should be okay.
Of course, at the time I was balls deep in an advanced creative writing semester with Mr. Matthiessen...where I was spending about 8 hours a week with him...but hey, I look like Hamish, I must be stoopid rite?
Our local hardware store is doing really well. There IS no other place to buy these things for most people. Our little town is isolated by distance, terrain and by wicked winter weather so many people just suck it up and pay the higher prices rather than go traipsing into the next town or even down to Lowes or Home Depot. They have a great garden supply department and good selection of plants in the spring. They know their market and cater to it.
We have a business charge there and spend at least 15,000 annually. HOWEVER....we aren't stupid and need to watch OUR bottom line too. So when we can buy a Toto Toilet from Amazon Prime (free shipping) for half of what we would pay if we ordered one through the hardware store (they don't carry a supply it has to be special ordered, we are going to do it. Buy the half cost toilet, install it and sell to the client at full retail.....bing.....$250 profit on the toilet and labor to install.
We are on our way to Costco, WinCo and Wal Mart today. Our monthly or every other month big trip. Will take all day. Probably spend at least $300 at Costco alone. Unfortunately our local grocery store also caters to their clients and we can't get much more than just generic canned goods and really really crappy meat. I don't blame them. They have to be able to sell their inventory and people in this area are generally not going to buy gourmet or Whole Foods type of groceries. So, while we buy local during the month for perishable items we stock up on the other items that we can't get or that are priced out of this world locally. For example. Hubby likes to have vienna sausages as a snack in all of his trucks. Protein and a good snack if he is unable to get away from the job to eat regularly. They are .50 a can at WinCo (another discount grocery) and 1.90 at our local store. We buy 20 at a time. Do the math. Would we prefer to buy them locally? Sure. Can we afford to? Yes. BUT....we have to watch our bottom line in the business AND in our personal lives as well. I am a strict financial advisor :-)
"I love the middle class...to death."
--Barry "Angel of Death" Obama
I figured you were going for "Angel of Dearth", there, rp...
I try to support small business in my area, but that doesn't apply to bookstores.
For some reason every indie bookstore I've ever gone to is run by some liberal/leftwinger. Usually even if they have a history or classical fiction section its dwarfed by their huge left-wing politics/vegan cookbook/LBGT/feminist lit sections.
So I tend to shop on-line for books.
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