Getting Ready for Sidewalk Sale

For a few weeks now we have been getting ready for our Annual Sidewalk Sale.  We have checked in all the cubby holes to find the odds and ends of gift items which we have saved to put in the sale.  We have marked down some of the merchandise currently in the store, in part to make room for new merchandise, and in part because what merchandise is left is not moving out the door at full price.
Perhaps I have spoken about this before, but deciding to put items on sale is not an easy task.  It means admitting that for whatever reason those items are no longer popular at full price.  It might also mean that we made a mistake in selecting them in the first place and our customers are telling us, by not buying them, that we made a boo-boo.
But according to the lastest Retail Mavens which Jeff is listening to, the best times of the year for having a sale is after Christmas and in July.  Whooppee, we have always had our sidewalk sale in July, so we are surely on top of the situation.
Sometimes when we have a sale people think that we are going out of business.  I think I mentioned this once before in connection with the REALLY BIG SALE banner Jeff had made for the store.  I have heard from other retailers that they experience the same question. 
Just to set the record straight, beyond bad buying decisions and all the other reasons for marking down merchandise, us retailers have our eyes on the 4th quarter.  We need to make room in our store for all that merchandise which is on its way to 38th and Harvard.  We simply cannot find more room to keep the old and set out the new.
So unlike friendships, we really have to let the old stuff go and press onward (as Mary Engelbreit said in one of her drawings) toward the future.
Come join us in this journey.  Get excited, like we do and especially like Doris does, about what is coming.  Don't look back....as one of my latest mantras says:  "If you do what you always do, you'll get what you've always gotten and you'll be who you always were."
I've told you before....change is hard, but worth the effort.  See you on the Sidewalk!!