|
Dear Friend,
One of the most indelible memories I have of the cart
business came in my second season open during the
holidays.
That holiday season started out unseasonably warm.
All the way through Thanksgiving, and into December.
You hardly even needed a winter coat. In Minnesota,
that's pretty rare for December.
***
Because I was selling heat packs, folks seemed to want
to express their sympathy to me... for what they thought
must have been my poor sales due to the warm weather.
What they didn't know was that the main reason people
bought our heat packs wasn't to avoid the cold, but was
to provide comfort for their neck or back pain.
People have neck and back pain no matter what the
weather is outside.
And we were on track to break a holiday season record
for sales.
***
There was however, at least one cart in my mall that
was hard hit by the warm weather.
It was a cart selling polar fleece hoods that you could
manipulate in five different ways to beat the cold.
When the weather was cold, the hoods sold like hot
cakes.
When the weather was warm, they were hard to move.
**
And that holiday season, polar fleece hoods were not
selling well in the warm weather.
But Minnesota isn't known as a cold weather state for
nothin'.....
As if on cue, the weather turned. And turned bitter
cold.
All of sudden, sales of those polar fleece hoods caught fire. They were selling the hoods as fast as they could show them.
Then disaster struck.
***
I vividly remember walking by the polar fleece hood
cart one of the last few days before Christmas.
The mall was packed. We were doing record sales. The weather was bitter cold.
And the hood folks should have been doing banner sales.
Instead their owner was sitting on his stool. With a forlorn look on his face. And very little product on his
shelves.
***
His product supplier was based in the Northwest,
somewhere in the state of Washington.
And this cart operator had waited until the last possible moment to place his final inventory order. He was so busy, he didn't get to it sooner.
He had the UPS shipping schedule all figured out, and
his order scheduled to arrive the day he needed it.
Unfortunately his order never got shipped.
***
That holiday season, the day before his last order was supposed to be sent out, a massive snowstorm hit the Northwest.
Twenty-six inches of snow got dumped in the region
almost overnight... and the snow just kept coming.
Planes were grounded. Trucks were taken off the road.
Nothing came in or out of the Northwest those few days.
Although the mall was packed with ready buyers, he didn't have the product to sell.
And all his preparation for the for busiest part of the
season went for naught.
***
I tell this story because every year there are operators
who get to these last few days... and don't have product they need on hand to sell.
Not because of some freak snowstorm in the Northwest.
But simply because they didn't order enough product.
And what happens is they end up funneling a huge amount
of their potential profits to companies like Fed Ex and
UPS to rush out the product they need.
Don't let this happen to you.
***
Chances are this Monday is your last chance to place
an inventory order that will arrive before this upcoming
big weekend.
And make no mistake. This upcoming weekend is
going to be a HUGE sales weekend.
The three hundred dollar days of November are about to turn into four, five and six thousand dollar days in the next week... if... and this is a big if....
... IF... you have the product on hand to sell.
Of any days all year, these are the days you want to be FULLY stocked... so that you can fully MAXIMIZE your sales.
***
So here's a last minute suggestion:
Tonight or tomorrow morning... 'take stock' of you've got on hand... and what you think you'll need.
And if there's any chance you think you're going to need the product, get an order in, and on the way first thing Monday morning.
That way you're likely to have the product you need on hand. And you're likely keep your profits in your own pocket!
***
Best,
Brady Flower
P.S.
Want to learn the basics of starting your own
mall kiosk or cart business?
Register for my seven day mini e-course on "How to
Start a Mall Kiosk or Cart Business" here:
http://www.kioskexpert.com/xmasminicourse.htm
|
