Buying or Returning?
Traffic is Traffic
I snapped these photos of the Ala Moana Shopping Center parking lot at 2 PM today (12/26). This is one of the few times that I have seen more cars than on the 4th of July when masses park there to watch the fireworks. The fireworks today are in the stores with retailers offering ridiculous discounts to attract buyers and move out old merchandise.
Boxing Day
Then there are the customers returning or exchanging gifts. There’s so much of this going on in Canada that today is called “Boxing Day” where people box up the gifts they got and head to the malls. To my way of thinking it doesn’t matter whether they are bargain hunting, exchanging or just plain shopping, one thing is for sure; people do have mmoney and will spend it when motivated.
Cut-Cut-Cut Your Throat
Too many retailers are killing one another by playing the “discount game.” Oddly enough some of my most successful retail clients are those that do not discount at all. They maintain their credibility and profits at the same time. If all you want to do is rid yourself of old merchandise, donate it to the Goodwill. You are in business to make money, and to sell things at a loss just to get traffic doesn’t make any sense to me. If you are losing money on what you sell, you cannot make it up in volume.
December 27th, 2008 at 9:25 am
These stores that are discounting heavily really are making a bad situation worse. When you lower prices customers will expect it in the future. These stores need to accept the uncertainty of current events and show feelings of confidence to there customers. Customer service is the answer to maximize success. If they were more focused on how to sell this merchandise without discounting it these stores would win sales and profits.
They all need to practice the nine step system and sell, sell, sell.
December 27th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Why the hell should I pay full retail when the store next door is selling the same crap for half the price? If I cannot get a discount, I just walk away. The days of full retail are gone!
December 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Greetings everyone,
I find that there is something disingenuous about discounts that go too low - swings and roundabouts thinking means that profit margins were too high to start off with and I often pity those who were caught buying at these extra-inflated and often ‘usurious’ prices.
I have said this before in other forums, but my trust in a retailer that does this is cracked, much like a chassis, and everybody knows how iffy a cracked chassis is on a motor car. The profit motive can be disgusting when one considers all sorts of other related factors … low wages, overweening bonuses for management, shareholder avarice, empty manufacturer promises, squeeze on the ‘little man’, waste, skewed values and more.
Oh my, now I sound depressing. Don’t mean to, but I don’t want to be a Pollyanna either. Just want to say a say, helps me cope I think.
I say yeah to those companies who hold steady on prices, with fair mark-ups and mark-downs. They are in business to make a profit and so they should. I would be an ever loyal customer for them for sure.
I believe in some countries (Greece?), government has stepped in and capped certain products with certain percentages for profit margins allowed. If a seller/service provider goes above those stipulated, s/he loses the licence to trade. I think the idea has merit.
Cheers
Lestie
Johannesburg
January 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Hi Ron:
Boxing Day was a day for gift giving long before big retail and its orgins have nothing to do with returning gifts. Boxing Day was traditionally the day that people of the upper classes in Britain gave gifts or gift boxes to people who has served them well during the year, e.g. servants, postmen, etc.