Dear Friend,
Just a quick note to say 'Happy Thanksgiving'.
And a quick peek at what's still yet to come.
***
For many folks, the day AFTER Thanksgiving
is known for leftovers, football, and shopping.
The day is also known as 'Black Friday'. It's the
day that retailers historically turn from red to black
on their balance sheets and start to show a profit.
In the past, Black Friday has been traditionally
known as one of the busiest shopping day of
the year.
***
When I started my first cart, I had never actually
been IN the mall on the day after Thanksgiving.
My only reference point for this busy shopping
day was what I had seen in the movies.
And the picture that I created was folks climbing
over each, pushing each other out of the way
to get to whatever product they wanted.
***
Of course, if you have been in the mall the day after
Thanksgiving, you know that's not REALLY how it
is.
In fact, I found that although it's been a busy day, it's
ACTUALLY been a very orderly day. No pushing or
shoving.
***
The other thing I found was that although the day
after Thanksgiving has traditionally been a STRONG
sales day for us, but not even close to the busiest.
Yesterday I looked up my sales numbers from past
seasons.
I found our busiest sales day to always be the LAST
weekday or Saturday before Dec. 24th.
And on average, 'Black Friday' has only been our
14TH busiest sales day of the season!
***
I bring this up because every season, I have a few
operators 'freak out' when their sales numbers for the
'Black Friday' don't meet with their expectations of
the day.
And their first reaction is to scale back projections, 'If
this is as good as it gets, I'm going to have to cut back.
Order less. And hire less.'
Don't do that.
'It's one of the busiest days in terms of traffic but not in
sales,' said Pam Rucker, spokeswoman for the National
Retail Federation.
***
If you and your staff bust your butt tomorrow, it WILL
be a BUSY sales day for you. Maybe your best so far.
Keep in mind though... it's really just a prelude. Your BEST sales days are ALL still yet to come.
***
Again, Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy your day off.
Talk to you soon!
Brady Flower
The Kiosk Expert |
