No Deal

If you thought I was going to talk about the American Freedom Caucus, you're wrong.  Instead, I'd like to touch on a certain customer base.  We have a lot of Indians, and Asians, and Middle Eastern, and a lot of Slovakian groups in Central Pa.  It is not unusual to see women in Burkas wandering our aisles.  For these people haggling is a part of the buying process; a high price is negotiated down to one that is acceptable.  We don't work that way.   We advertise our lowest prices to get people into the store, we entice them into buying with discounted prices.  With the customer base, however, usually the first question they ask is "what discounts are you offering today?"  Right now we are having a deal on free installation on carpet, so I point that out, and their response is always.  "No, what deals do you have on carpet?"  We don't do discounts on carpets.  They don't understand this.
Sometimes they find this frustrating.  Coming from cultures in which prices are always elevated, in which the individual buyer works to get the best deal possible our low prices short circuit their logic.  I had a customer last evening who just couldn't understand.  He kept repeating "there must be a lower price."  He said that a local, Mom & Pop carpet store had given him a total measurement 100 square feet less.  I pulled out the floor plans we created and said "we use lasers, we are very precise," and showed him his square footage.  He then said, "they are smaller, you are bigger, you should give a better discount," to which I said, "we will price match if you bring us a quote for the same type carpet."  He mulled this over for about 2 minutes, and then said "no deal," got up and walked away.

Some of my fellow associates find this frustrating.  I don't.  This is how it is.  I know some who have caved in order to get the sale, which sets a bad precedent.  We have a customer right now who's managed to get markdown after markdown and, in the end, we will lose money because one person said "okay."  I have had people threaten to take their business to our competitor and I've smiled and said, "go ahead;" rather they take the hit than us.

Either we will change or they will.  Somehow I don't think we will start adjusting our sale's plan to account for haggling, so I suspect, in the end, they will have to stop saying "no deal."

Rebate Hell

Well, I'm off today, most likely because they thought I needed to rest up for the Great Paint Sale which begins tomorrow and runs for 6 days.  Wait a minute, let me correct myself.  There is no paint sale.  There's a paint rebate.  And it's a good one.  You just need to take advantage of it.  I did over the Memorial Day Paint Rebate.
There are a lot of people out there who don't like rebates.  In fact, they hate them.  We know this because we started getting phone calls a week ago from customers inquiring about our upcoming sale.  When we inform them we're offering a rebate the response is always the same, a complaint about rebates.  The bottom line is these people want their money up front.  Well, they're not going to get it.
When people complain I let them know that if everybody processed their rebate form, rebates would disappear.  Nobody listens.  They don't understand.  The percentage of people who actually process their rebate forms is in the low 40's.  That's right.  This means that well over 50% of the people who buy a product with a rebate never take advantage.  Retailers love this.  Why facilitate a sale when you can sell the product at full price?  Duh.  They're going to make a lot more money with a rebate then they are with a sale.

There are a lot of interesting stats out there regarding rebates, and the people who process them.  Did you know that most of the people who file a rebate make more than $50K per year?  Wouldn't you think the opposite would be true?  And evidently there's this 'cracker jack' reasoning among certain groups out there, which I'm not even going to try and comprehend, that buying a product with a rebate is practically the same as buying a product which is on sale....  As I said, I'm not even going to try and understand that one.

And in today's world, if you have a computer, filling out a rebate is easy peasy.  I mean, you will need to type in your name and address, and your email address, and, in most cases just your receipt number (it's at the top of your cash register receipt).  That's it.  No UPC numbers, no quantities.  Takes maybe 5 minutes, if you're a slow typist.  Just think, if we could get the percentage of people who file rebates into the mid 80's, sales would probably return and rebates disappear.  Of course, we know that's never going to happen and we're going to be stuck in rebate hell forever.

Uncelebrating the 4th

I read a number of blogs and this morning one blogger asked what people's plans were for the 4th of July.  I commented with the same comment I post every time a blogger asks this question on a holiday.  My response?  Working.  I'm in retail.  Years ago that meant having most holidays off, not any more.  American Capitalism has changed the way retail looks at holidays.  They are now a time to run SALES, the reasoning being that every American wants to run out and buy a new refrigerator on the 4th of July.  Wait, no, that's not true.  Being open on a holiday does not send a store's receipts through the roof.  On the contrary, while there may be shoppers during the morning hours tomorrow, they will begin to thin out as the afternoon approaches.  Unless your appliance breaks, you're probably not going to in the market to purchase one.  In fact, the customers you tend to see, at least in this area of the country, are foreigners who aren't used to celebrating Independence Day.

I have to admit that I always wonder about those who do venture in on a holiday.  Is this what they do for entertainment?  For fun?  Even if I didn't have plans, I can honestly admit I would never set foot in a Home Improvement Store on a holiday.  There are still better things to do.  I can think of a number of ways in which I can waste time and not one of them involves walking the aisles, pushing a shopping cart, and looking at drill bits and saws.  Unless you have a thing for fittings there is absolutely nothing of interest in our plumbing aisle.  And those fancy out door cushions for your patio furniture?  Surprise, the sale price isn't going to disappear over night.  I can't even begin to imagine what kind of boring life someone might have in shopping on a holiday is a highlight.  If you're bored and that's the best thing you can think of doing, you're not very creative.

This is where I'd like to be.  Of course I know this has to be either New Years or Bastille Day since France doesn't celebrate our Independence Day.  But then being in Paris is fun anytime.  Still, I know that tomorrow morning someone, will wake up with an urge to go out and buy a drill.  Am I the only one who thinks that shopping turns a holiday into an uncelebration?  And, if that's what you do to celebrate, maybe you should re-evaluate your priorities in life because there are so many other times when you can go shopping.  Don't make me work because you have nothing better to do. 

 

Black Friday - fade to gray

For those of you who don't know it, and few there are, next week is Thanksgiving, at least here in the US.  Traditionally everybody eats turkey and watches football.  Traditionally, the next day, being a Friday, and marking the first day of the holiday shopping season, became known as Black Friday.  This is the day when retailers moved from the red side of their balance sheets to the black side.  This is the day when sales galore brought out shoppers by the millions.  This is the day which a number of companies started giving their associates as the 2nd part of their Thanksgiving Holiday.  Sad to say, but every year Black Friday becomes a little more gray.  One financial analyst blamed this on the growing popularity of Cyber Monday, that day when Internet sales trump those of brick and mortar stores.   That may be a portion of the graying, but not a major one, not yet at least.  No, the biggest reason for the changes in shade from dark to light has more to do with American Greed.

First it was Walmart opening late Thanksgiving day, and then Sears / Kmart jumped on the bandwagon.  The rational being "shit, if they're going to make money, we might as well too," and "hell, why should they rake in all the dough!"  Screw the holiday, they all wanted to get a jump on the competition.  Every year more retailers jump on board simply because if those customers spend all of their money at Target, and Walmart, and Toys-R-Us, they're not going to have any left to spend in your store.  Or, if they do keep a little aside it's most likely going to be for stocking stuffer bullshit, that inferior nickel and dime crap retailers put out simply because it's a dirt cheap deal.  Thanks to Sears Brand Central, if you're a brick and mortar store which sells appliances you're a day late and a dollar short, either that or you take a big hit on those $2000 dollar refrigerator and stoves.

There are a lot of people out there who really hate this commercialization of Thanksgiving.  As someone who work in retail, let me tell you a secret.  If you're open, people will shop.  Every year I hear a lot of moaning groaning because the Christmas stuff is up right after Labor Day and every year I see customers walking out the door with their newly purchased Christmas crap.  If it's for sale, people will buy it.  For those who don't understand it, this is American Capitalism.  Remember, it's all about making money - holidays be damned.