[Jewelry making - Article 00554] - Re: [Orchid] Black Friday

[Doug Dreyfus]

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    My jewelry business is located in a mall, and you are correct
    Neil--the mall is absolutely PACKED with shoppers the entire weekend
    after Thanksgiving, but the majority of shoppers are only looking for
    items that are on sale at a deep discount. As a result, Black Friday
    was never a big deal for us--sure, business that weekend was better
    than normal, but considering the number of people in the mall, but we
    were never as busy as I felt we should have been. 

    Up until last year, I was the type of retailer who didn't "believe"
    in holding sales or offering deep discounts, thinking that it
    cheapened my product line & overall business. After all, I offer a
    good product at a fair price, so why should I discount them? Also, I
    was worried that I might "train" customers that if they held off
    buying something they liked, eventually I would put it on sale.
    (NOTE: Overall I think the retail industry has done exactly this, and
    personally I almost never buy something until it's on sale.) 

    However, last year I finally bought a jewelry inventory / POS
    program, read a few articles by David Geller & others, and finally
    began to realize how detrimental old / dead inventory is to a retail
    business. Sure, my showcases were FULL of jewelry, but half the stuff
    were old designs that for whatever reasons nobody wanted! I wasted
    time trying to to offer small discounts and holding "fake" sales of
    15 and 20% off until finally one day I said "Enough is enough". I
    cleared out two cases, filled it with stuff I'd accumulated over the
    years, and put everything in it 50% off. And guess what? Customers
    went NUTS! 

    As a result, I sold off a large majority of otherwise dead inventory
    and began 2006 much healthier. The showcases looked fresh & clean,
    downstock was organized & uncluttered, & personally I felt better
    when I was at work. 

    Besides the fact that we all like to save money, one reason I think
    sales are so successful during the holiday is this: most shoppers
    have at least a couple of people on their holiday shopping list
    (distant relatives, co-workers, neighbors, etc) that they feel
    "obligated" to give a present to. Since they are not particularly
    good friends with or close to these people, they don't really care
    what they end up buying, as long as they have to spend a lot of money
    on it. However, if they can buy something inexpensive that LOOKS like
    they spent a lot of money it, well, then all the better! I can't tell
    you the number of customers I helped last year who were looking for
    "Obligation" gifts who couldn't decide between a couple of items,
    and when I pointed out that Item A looked the most expensive, that's
    the one they bought! 

    Interestlingly, I guess my concern about training customers to
    expect a sale as come true--my employees tell me that several people
    have dropped by asking if I'm going to be holding a sale this year!
    Am I? Of course I am! I want to go into 2007 a lean, mean, selling
    machine!! 

Doug
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