DU-ers in Retail: What's the Report from the Field?

[rucky]

My wife has a shop. We're holding up, volume-wise, but the customers are buying less, returning more, expecting more and are cranky as hell. We're having to mark-down more and advertise more to bring people in, and getting slim margins. Several vendors are shorting us on special orders (taking our money, still), and ruining a few Christmases in the process (guess who gets to deal with the irate customer). Internet business is awful - even with discounts + free shipping promos.

What's it like in your neck of the woods?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Not quite a retailer,

as I work for a clinic, but I'm seeing people make appointments to see the doctor and then canceling them because they don't have the money to come in. This is after we say we'll accept payments (this is for our patients without insurance-and since we're a non-profit, we only request regular payments of small amounts). Those with insurance who are looking to be first time patients always ask about coverage first--and even when assured that we do file, they have been dropping appointments anyway. Now you'd expect people who are ill to be grouchy, but what we're also seeing is a lot of stress and even fear.

[rainbow4321]

2. My daughter works at a movie theater

And says it's been slow for a long time. Last time she talked about it, she said attendence is 50% of what it was last year, per her managers. So they raised the prices to $9.25 per ticket for Friday and Sat nights to "make up for" the drop in people buying tickets.
Throw in a concession drink and a box of candy or popcorn and for **one person** to go you are looking at almost 20 bucks for one night's outing.

Adult Evening $9.00
Adult Fri/Sat after 6pm $9.25
Child (1-11) /Senior (62+) $6.25
Adult Matinee before 6pm $7.25
First Matinee Showtime (7 days a week) $5.00
Seniors Day - All Day Monday $5.00
3D Attraction - Normal Ticket Price Plus Premium $2.00

[rucky]

3. Raising the price from ridiculous to outrageous oughta pack 'em in.

I understand the studios get most of the ticket prices, but wouldn't it make more sense to lower the ticket price, so more people come in, and make it up at the concession stand?

[knitter4democracy]

12. Man, that is serious highway robbery.

I only take the kids to CheapFlicks anymore. For under $20 bucks, I can get us tickets ($3 ea.), kids' snacks (they have a kid deal with popcorn and a drink), and a popcorn and a drink for myself.

[HopeFor2006]

4. Sales down on average ytd 25 to 30%

on edit: This is for hardline sales- home improvement, hardware, plumbing, home repair

[Odin2005]

5. My mom is the manager of a small-town bar.

Business is mixed. some regulars, specially older regulars, are coming less, less money to buy booze. Other regulars, mainly folks in their 30's and 40s, are coming more, probably drinking the pain away.

[RetailSlave]

6. One good, one not so good...

because of course in retail, you work 2 jobs; nobody will give you more than 30 hours a week because they don't want you to qualify for anything like benefits!

One of my stores is doing about the same volume as last year, because they've already taken a lot of markdowns, averaging about 30%, on the big-selling traditional items that people come to us for year after year. If we had held prices constant, I suspect we'd be down quite a lot.

The cheap clothing store, on the other hand, you could drive a bulldozer up and down the aisles and not hit anybody; the place is empty. Staff gets sent home early day after day to try to keep payroll down.

So don't ANYBODY complain about getting bad service in retail this holiday season; the few of us that are left in the stores to work are exhausted.

[justabob]

7. Friends in restaurant-world

tell me sales are off a bit, not too much, but that waiters are making crappy tips. Where they used to make 20-25% they are bringing in 10-15%. That hurts when you are only paid 2.13 an hour, and you have to tip out bar, bussers, and food runners. In catering, sales are down also but people are saving by not having their food delivered... 1 or 2 of 4 vans parked each day, so the drivers are suffering. Corporate/casual catering taking biggest hit (box lunches and whatnot) party food is still going strong (this restaurant services the more affluent zip codes)

[rvablue]

8. Kicking to the top. I'm not in retail. But I love reading these factual, on the ground reports.

Excellent idea and I hope more respond.

I find this real life information so helpful and interesting as well.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. .

:kick:

[HopeFor2006]

10. .

:kick:

[SoCalDem]

11. Michael's was a MAD-HOUSE!!

of course people were buying the 60% off Xmas stuff.. I bought sone christmas china cups with lids..but had to buy my own tissue paper to wrap them in:grr:

They started out at $8.99 each..and after all the markdowns, I paid $1.74 each..and I bought some wine shipping tubes (I use them for sending cookies.keeps them from breaking..$1.99 each..

[knitter4democracy]

13. Those fancy wine bottle tubes are great for spindles, too.

I get them to hold my drop spindles and fiber. You can get a nice spindle and about 4oz. of fiber in each. They're often cheaper at Tuesday Morning, though.