Sunday, February 2, 2014

January: The Sluggish Month

I have to tell you January is a sluggish month for retailers...at least retailers like Sweet Tooth.
We attempt to have our After Christmas sale; however no matter how careful and knowledgeable a retailer you are, there are always items left over after the holidays.
And if you put up your Clearance Sale banner you will always have some customers ask if you are going out of business.  Do those same people think that Dillard's is going out of business because the entire month of January is devoted to Dillard's sales?
Pretty soon though the Sale Corner begins to look a bit sad and even our staff and us owners get tired of watching it shrink slowly during the month.
We too are anxious to see new merchandise, something with different colors, exciting possiblities.  When the red, pink and white candy arrives, we are very excited.  And this year with new kinds of candy (check out the Duck Dynasty boxed hearts and the gorgeous Sweet Shop boxed truffles) our weary faces brighten up.  At last we have something new to talk to our customers about.
Little known fact:  if you aren't in retail, you might not know that January is Gift Market time and there are hundreds and hundreds of orders ahead of the ones you put in. The wait for new merchandise is understandable when you realize that it takes time for manufacturers to gather the orders, get them to the shipping department, boxed up, picked up by UPS or Fedex, loaded onto trucks, and finally arriving at our door.
21 years ago when we started in retail, most owners and managers went to the Gift Markets and most big manufacturers had a presence in showrooms at the Market. Now days less people make the trip to the Market, preferring to order online or wait for a catalogue or a sales rep to come to the store.  We prefer to actually touch, see and ask about the merchandise while we walk who knows how many miles down the corridors of the Gift Market.  A picture on a lap top or in a catalogue does nothing for us.
Thank goodness it is now February and we are coming out of the doldrums of January. We have donated the Christmas candy to the Homeless Shelter and Western Neighbors, replacing it with hearts and chocolates.  We are slowly packing away the left over merchandise for our annual Sidewalk Sale in July.  We are putting up new displays,with new gift and jewelry items. 
No matter how cold it gets, our hearts are warmed  by the opportunity to start over again in 2014.

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